Hotel Baroneii International is an international hospitality group that is present in more than 100 countries with 12 brands and 5000 plus properties. The group also has a strong loyalty membership network with more than 100 million members as part of its loyalty program—The Baroneii Stars.

You work in the digital department at Hotel Baroneii International. You are tasked with creating a digital transformation strategy for the below scenario and presenting your final plan to your peers. The deliverables of this capstone will prepare you for the future tasks and responsibilities of a digital transformation specialist. 

The Baroneii group is on a mission to improve its guest experience. It believes that knowing its guests and anticipating their needs is foundational to every other business element. The Hotel receives a reasonably good score on its guest experience with the following findings emerging from its recent research.

• 64 percent feel that the Hotel knows them and remembers their preferences and needs.
• 65 percent of the guests agree that they received a personalised and authentic service on its properties.
• 62 percent believe they are listened to and are treated with empathy.
• 66 percent feel they are empowered and in control of their experience.
• 57 percent believe that the Hotel goes beyond their expectations and creates moments of surprise and delight.

The above research indicates a good experience but not a great one, so Baroneii International wants to do more. It is facing competition from within the industry in addition to the expectations from its customers that keep rising high. Baroneii intends to enhance its entire guest experience journey right from booking to check out.

The Hotel is also focused on improving its front desk associates' experience. They are most often the first faces a guest will see when visiting the Hotel. The front desk associate, or receptionist, is also the first voice guests hear when calling for assistance. The front desk associates are not highly qualified in terms of their formal education but are well trained in the procedures to follow and in guest handling. But they often face several challenges outlined below.

• They are often found multi-tasking and prioritising and reprioritising between various tasks.
• Their work environment is a noisy and high-demand environment where the expectations from guests are very high.
• They have to be able to read the signs and body language and cater the right personalized experience to each guest.
• Speed and efficiency are of utmost importance to meet guest expectations.

The Baroneii believes a digital transformation initiative, through the use of emerging technologies, new business models and supply chain management, will improve the guest experience substantially and also improve the experience and efficiency of the front desk agents. 

As Baroneii's digital transformation strategist, please do the following in a presentation:

• Business Model Canvas to articulate Business objectives and market imperatives. Identify possible Information Asymmetries in the organisation and their possible solutions.
• Using a problem statement, articulate the problems that the Hotel chain needs to resolve.
• Find five business travellers and interview them. Find out their expectations and the problems in guest experience they face when they travel. Discuss what could be possible solutions for those. 
• Articulate the insights and the needs of the guests.
•  a persona that depicts the guests, their pain points and motivations.

 

 

 

 

As Baroneii's digital transformation strategist, please do the following in a presentation:

• What Business Model shifts are needed due to the digital transformation? What could be the strategy that the company could employ?
• What may be the process standardisation and data integration needed in the organisation? How should they implement the same?
• What sort of people and technological capabilities should a company develop to implement the above changes?
• What potential outcome can a company expect from enhanced people and technological capabilities (AI, Blockchain, Social Computing)?