Informational Interview with Mr. Hasan Wanli

For my informational interview assignment, I interviewed Mr. Hasan Wanli, resident manager of Crowne Plaza Kuwait. Mainly we discussed the marketing strategies that hotels use to stand out between their competitors. Since Crowne Plaza is a branch of InterContinental Hotels Group, a major player in the industry, Mr. Wanli was able to provide me with some really insightful details about the various strategies used.

Hotels have been struck hard by the recession as they are the one of the most vulnerable industries to consumer taste. There is much competition and it is seen mostly as a luxury. Because of consumers wanting cheaper hotels to accommodate their travels that have also been cut back, major brands have had to restructure and reshape their operation system to meet these new demands. One of these changes took the form of outsourcing. To lower their internal costs in order to lower the cost on the consumer sections of the management that are not vital to the everyday operation of the company, such as advertising, have been outsourced to expert companies that do this job very efficiently.

Another aspect Mr. Wanli pointed me towards was the extreme importance of segmentation in the industry. Hotels have to specifically target their consumer so that they can give them the exact experience they want. They start of with business versus leasure, then high income, middle or low, then they will choose the location that these customers want, after that they will take into consideration what these customers look for (trendy, relaxing, green, etc.), they might even add a theme that helps them stand out. If the customer is not clearly defined the outcome of this chain could be catastrophic. If a hotel that is for low income customers is built in an exotic Caribbean island, they will probably have more costs than they will have revenue.

All in all the interview was a successful one as I was able to learn a lot from him and his first-hand experience in the field.