Hyatt Hotels Marketing Strategies

The Hyatt Corporation was founded by Jay Pritzker in 1957. The first hotel purchased was located in Los Angeles, California. Hyatt is a management company that runs the operations of each hotel even though most of the Hyatt hotel properties are privately owned. They currently have two hundred sixteen hotels around the world and recently purchased one hundred forty three AmeriSuite hotels which were renovated and are being operated under their new name, Hyatt Place. Hyatt is known for specializing in luxury hotels that also provide meeting facilities and special services. The Hyatt Regency in Columbus Ohio was built in 1980. This hotel has six hundred and thirty one guest rooms, which makes it the largest hotel in the State, based on the number of rooms. The five service essentials that the Hyatt management company teaches to their employees are to greet every guest with a smile, use the guest's name at every opportunity, provide quick and efficient service, offer assistance and provide options, and thank the guest and invite them back (hyatt).

One of the most competitive industries today is hospitality. Hyatt marketers have to develop a marketing strategy that goes beyond the marketing strategies of their competitors to insure they have a unique advantage over the other companies. The first step in the development of their marketing strategy was the identification of the specific market segments they wanted to pursue. After establishing their target market segments, they conducted extensive research on the competing companies' marketing strategies and then evaluated them to make sure their product was above the competitions. It is very easy for a company to forget that their marketing strategy must be current; therefore part of their marketing plan includes the continual recycling of their research process and the evaluation of current data. From the research and the conclusions developed in analyzing the data, marketers determine the needs and wants of their specific market segments. The hotel will then be able to better develop ways to satisfy their customers' needs and wants and also begin developing ways to make their product superior to the competition. The service delivery, the moments of truth, at the hotel will ultimately determine the customer's satisfaction. A key marketing strategy is to make sure every guest leaves the hotel satisfied.

The Hyatt Regency in Columbus has three main market segments which include the convention traveler, business traveler, and the leisure traveler. The marketers have developed a marketing strategy for each of the markets they want to attract. In order to provide sufficient attention and ensure perfection for each of the market segments, the marketing and sales department is divided so each person deals with the same market type on a regular basis.

The convention traveler makes up the majority of the guests staying at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus. Many guests are attending a conference or convention that is being held in the Columbus Convention Center directly connected to the hotel. One way that Hyatt is able to maximize their revenue is by hosting a block of rooms for attendees to these conventions. These types of groups account for a significant amount of the hotel's annual revenue. The different groups attending are attracted to the Hyatt's packages because of the lower rates Hyatt is able to offer them as well as the convenience of having the Convention Center physically connected to the hotel. A group's members can get a discounted rate if the group blocks a minimum number of rooms. The more rooms they commit to filling, the larger the discount. Also, another great perk the group is able to experience by blocking out a certain number of rooms is making sure they get the specific room types they have requested, and frequently most of the group's members can be located in the same general area of the hotel. The sales department's staff is responsible for selling the packaged deals to the convention heads, or meeting planners. There are a number of effective ways Hyatt tries to market these packages to the groups. These include: offering special parking rates, special rates for catering functions or conference room rental, and sometimes providing benefits to the conventions coordinators. Some of the benefits Hyatt has offered in the past to coordinators to persuade them to choose Hyatt for their groups have been things like complimentary suites, vouchers for meals, and deals for future stays. The Hyatt Regency has many repeat groups who attend the same convention every year at the hotel.

The assurance of a smooth running convention is also an extremely important marketing strategy to those groups. Two conventions that Hyatt Regency in Columbus has hosted for 26 years (since the hotel first opened) are the Longerberger Bee and Ohio Tole Painters. These are both very large conventions that base their meetings at the Hyatt. These conventions are very popular for the hotel and the city itself, because of the large amount of revenue generated. By efficiently coordinating and hosting special activities, meetings, luncheons, and other smaller events in the evenings and during the day when the convention center has the group's larger activities occurring, the Hyatt's staff can make the convention coordinator's job much easier. By doing this in a well organized manner, the Hyatt can help the convention organizers insure that the attendees have a great experience. This marketing strategy results in the attendees coming back year after year, which results in the continued success of the convention. If the convention is successful and grows, this will guarantee the Hyatt business year after year. The result of a pleasant convention experience by someone staying at the Hyatt is also a positive marketing tool to attract these attendees back as leisure travelers.

The second target segment Hyatt tries to market is the business traveler. Net Jets is one of the main businesses the Hyatt Regency caters to, that bring in large amounts of revenue for the hotel. This group receives the most benefits of any group while staying at the Hyatt. Net Jets is a private contracted airline service, with whom the Hyatt has developed a very specific and targeted contractual business package. Their successful marketing package to Net Jets has included the assurance that every member of the group is guaranteed a room for the night. The fixed rate for a room is always $73 per night, which is approximately half of the ADR, average daily rate. This contract guarantees forty-three rooms per night, every day of the year. Because of this contracted expense by Net Jets, the rate is tax exempt for them. Such a low rate as compared to the ADR may sound like the Hyatt is losing

money, or not earning as much