Business Management

The Four Seasons brand is synonymous with superior customer experience and its strategy focuses on constantly fulfilling this expectation (Refer to Appendix 11 for the remainder of this section). Employees are empowered and committed to a high, consistent level of service. In order to do this, FSH has focused on creating an environment conducive to providing excellent service for each guest. The talented team of employees is a core competency that FSH possesses and manages extremely well. Testament to this is the rigorous selection procedures in its New York City hotel where 400 employees were hired from a pool of 30,000 applicants and 3,000 personal interviews. FSH is also committed to treating employees well, through ongoing training, recognition systems, and a predisposition towards internal promotions. As a result of this, FSH has a much lower employee turnover rate than any of its competitors.

The firm's weaknesses come from areas such as lack of consistency in value-added services, lack of a loyalty program, and the fact that a portion of its workforce is unionized. Each FSH hotel does not provide the same value-added amenities, thus guests who expect a certain service at all locations will be disappointed to find that FSH does not provide such consistency. Without a loyalty program, FSH loses out on building strengthened relationships with its guests. The recent strikes by the unionized workforce of the Hilton, Sheraton, and Delta in Toronto reveal the significance of maintaining conducive relationships with employees. As with any weakness however, this provides an opportunity for FSH to increase efficiencies in this respect