Premium Resorts Limited maintains a five-star deluxe facility under the brand name Diamond Palms, with 150 rooms of various categories ranging from Standard to Presidential Suites, spanning 15 acres of land, and surround

CS Professional · Multidisciplinary Case Studies · PYQS · June 2023
Premium Resorts Limited maintains a five-star deluxe facility under the brand name Diamond Palms, with 150 rooms of various categories ranging from Standard to Presidential Suites, spanning 15 acres of land, and surrounded by lush vegetation on all sides. Tariffs vary based on the room category. In addition to a 24-hour coffee shop and specialty restaurants serving cuisine from various areas, such as Indian/Chinese/Italian cuisine, etc., the resort features 7 banqueting facilities ranging from a Board Room to halls that can accommodate 1,000 guests. In addition, the property features one of the large swimming pools, dining options in the open air adjacent to the pool area, facilities for various games, a well-laid badminton court, an excellent SPA offering wellness treatments, a health club, and a well-appointed bar selling premium spirits. The hotel has been operating for close to fifteen years, and its brand is well-known. Being located outside of the city, it is mostly a resort that caters to corporate clients that hold one- to three-day courses for their employees. As a result of its expansive size, the resort also a popular wedding location. These events provide a consistent source of revenue for the resort. In addition, outside catering is provided for important events, such as international cricket matches and trade shows. The resort is preferred for outdoor catering for exhibitions due to its proximity to the International Exhibition Centre, which is only three kilometres away. Additionally, the resort operates a membership loyalty programme with an outside firm. Members who enrol in the programme and pay a set price receive benefits and privileges. Marketing has been outsourced to an external organization that is responsible for bringing in business for rooms, banquets, and corporate events such as day trips or Sunday brunch, etc. for the entire property. Additionally, the agency is responsible for collecting consumer payments. The agency receives commission on sales based on monthly statements reviewed by Finance, the Front Office manager, and the Food & Beverage manager. The agency is not responsible for marketing the SPA; instead, business is generated through in-house visitors and word of mouth. The resort has also partnered with online travel sites to generate hotel bookings, primarily for leisure travellers. Despite all the above agreements, location and amenities, business has been dismal and consistently falls short of the budget. Being a sprawling resort property, maintenance and upkeep are challenging. In addition, age-related malfunctions of equipment result in substantial repair and maintenance expenses on a regular basis. Besides this, there are further issues that are High fixed costs that necessitate continual occupancy levels of 70% to achieve Breakeven. Dependence on outsourced marketing activities places the business at the mercy of the agency, which may have additional agreements with other companies. In addition, they frequently complaint about the poor maintenance which attributes to low business Resort. The loss of revenue and the selection of unsuitable members resulted from the selection of an incompetent agency to manage the Loyalty Program, which failed to appropriately market the initiative. Memberships were sold to anyone without verification of their background. Membership requirements included clearly specified advantages. This was disregarded the agency, which promised benefits beyond the ordinary. In addition, the Agency has not remitted the sum collected from Members and owed to the Resort, citing various issues. Simultaneously, they issued cards to Members and granted them access to the program's benefits. The agreement required the agency to provide weekly updates on the number of members enrolled and the amount collected, but they did not comply. This resulted in a loss for the resort, and members who paid the membership price were unable to utilise the advantages since the resort did not get its portion of the cost, resulting in negative publicity from potential members who were made to suffer through no fault of their own. It was discovered that the resort lacked a proper system to monitor the programme, including the number of members, the amount of money due and collected, and the monitoring of member-by-member benefit utilisation, which posed further issues. Frequent breakdowns disrupted service to customers. Due to a lack of business, much-needed expenditures on equipment, including replacement, were not made since management was unwilling to contribute further Rupees. In the hotel industry, it might be challenging to find trained personnel. This is especially true with vacation properties located away from the major metropolis. Despite the enormous potential to market the resort as a weekend escape, online agencies that were intended to generate more revenue did not bring in the anticipated amount of bookings. Resort had delegated the management of its website, including comments and/or inquiries, to an outside organisation. It is to the credit of this organisation that they did the best they could, but they did not fulfil their obligations in full. The agency's location in a distant city did not assist the situation. Realisations were delayed as a result of the marketing agency's inadequate collection follow up, resulting in cash flow concerns. This resulted in delayed payments to suppliers, who consequently increased the cost of supplies to offset their expenses. This resulted in an increase in procurement costs and frequent supply disruptions. The problem was exacerbated by the regular resignations of department heads who were tasked with overseeing operations. Added to this resort's responsibilities were legacy difficulties resulting from the property's previous owners. This strained the available resources. Certain ideas to cut costs and increase operating efficiency, such as the conversion of dieselfired boilers to LPG and the adoption of enhanced gas consumption techologies, were not implemented. This would have saved the property approximately ₹ 3 million per year. Additionally, the resort did not have the practise of generating a Profit & Loss Account by event. Thus, it was impossible to determine the profit or loss of a particular event in order to make an informed choice. Management accepted all of Marketing Agency's leads regardless of their feasibility. Staff unionisation was another unstable aspect. The resort obtained Duty Credit Scrip under the Serve from India Scheme in exchange for ₹ 7 million in free foreign exchange earned over a three-year period. Almost fifty percent of the unused scrip could not be utilised correctly by the resort. This may have saved the resort a significant duty sum and much-needed funds. Similarly, ensuring reasonable accommodation rates, banquet prices, and F & B costs is crucial for sustaining and growing revenue. Marketing is essential, because attempts to sell at any cost in order to fill a facility will fail. The management approaches you and demands a comprehensive report covering the following areas as well as recommendations for resolving the issues. (a) Various risks to which the resort is subject and their repercussions.

Answer & Explanation:

The Resort faces a wide range of potential dangers, each with potentially devastating results. In today's unpredictable environment, running a business comes with a number of inherent hazards. The only real difference is that the dangers faced by each industry are unique. In light of this, the dangers to which Premium Resorts is vulnerable are as follows: Financial hazards: All parts of money management are susceptible to financial hazards, including but not limited to: revenue management, accounts receivable and payable, financial asset and its management. Working capital management, risk assessment and management of third-party services, and so on and so forth. Things will only get worse if the risks aren't identified and adequate resources aren't allocated. It is clear from the case study data that poor accounts receivable administration is limiting the company's ability to run smoothly. Operational risks: Daily operations involve a certain amount of risk, such as the possibility that essential resources won't be available when they're needed, that key personnel will let you down, that crucial internal processes will be lacking, that external factors like economic uncertainty, political upheaval leading to lost business, sudden changes in tax rates, natural calamity, etc. will adversely affect your operations. Human Resources risks: Threat from Human Resources is one of the most important threats to any business. This is especially true at all stages of operation in the hospitality business, where finding trained and skilled workers is difficult. Because demand continues to surpass supply, hotels are frequently forced to hire trainees or contract them out. These workers are uninformed about the hotel business, and as a result they cannot provide the level of service necessary to keep customers happy. Since the focus of the sector is on providing a service, skilled workers are crucial. Strategic risk: When we talk about strategic risk, we're referring to the plan that needs to be made to cope with things like contingencies, new practices, competitive pricing, compliance regulations, contract management, governance problems, and so on. Compliance and Governance risks: Failure to comply with numerous regulations and Governance can result in substantial damage, including loss of reputation, making compliance management one of the most significant threats to any organisation.

Topics: Risk Management

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