Hotel Maya

Developing a marketing plan for an eco hotel in the Philippines 

Hotel Maya (http://www.culionhotelmaya.com/) is a joint effort of Ateneo de Naga University and Loyola College of Culion. Their vision is to be the Philippines' Center for Eco-Tourism and a sustainable funder for the Loyola College school of the Culion Island, Palawan. Moreover, Hotel Maya's mission is to be a 'learning lab', a tourism laboratory for the College students and to be a project which can be ‘owned' by the Culion community.

For now, the organisation employs 8 people and involves 50 tourism student-apprentices. The hotel is a social enterprise that promotes the potentials of Culion Island through eco-tourism. Tourism activities in the island will provide additional employment opportunities, economic activities, and general growth and development for the society. As this island bears the heritage of a former leper colony, it is still pristine and undiscovered. This advantage has a negative impact as well, as the local population have difficulties making a living on surrounding, even more "forgotten" islands. 

Hotel Maya, with its tourism packages, poses the challenge of promoting and at the same time protecting the environmental sanctuaries of Culion Island, and being a tool for the sustainable growth and development of the communities.

The social impact of hotel Maya is:

• local employment and/or income generation
• community involvement
• transfer of knowledge and skills

Business case

What was the exact assignment/ business case request?

• Improve the existing business and develop a marketing plan

How did the assignment and the requested expertise match with the profile and expertise of the expert?

• Good. Intan works at KPN as a product-market manager in the Netherlands. She had quite some experience with writing business and marketing plans. She also worked in the Philippines before, during the SharePeople Group Programme in 2009.

Results

Analysis
How did the expert approach the assignment and analyze the business case?

• The first week has been used for data gathering:
• Benchmark with competitors, interviews, desk research en analysis of the management information of the hotel
• The second week has been used for workshops with the responsible staff of Hotel Maya, to determine the business plan
• Workshop regarding strategy: SWOT analysis, Mission, Vision, Objectives, Goals, Strategies, Measures
• Workshops regarding the operational plan: who, what, when, how much, etc

What were the major conclusions?

• o The rates of Hotel Maya are higher than competitors, while the service level is different.
  
  

Advice
Which recommendations did the expert have?

• The service of the hotel, tours and restaurant have to be improved. This way, competition can be faced, and the hotel can deliver even more than what is promised.
• Implement the marketing plan (see below)
  
  Which concrete results did the expert deliver (deliverables)?
• Strategic plan 2010-1013
• Operational marketing plan 2010
   

Impact on the partners
What changes have taken place for both the expert and the case owner (local entrepreneur) during the programme?

Professional and personal development of the expert:

• Living in a very basic way, with limited supply of electric, water en no internet access, made her improvise and reflect on daily life in the Netherlands.
• Professional and personal development of the case owner (local entrepreneur)?
• An expert from Europe with different view points made them think differently, reflect and opened fresh perspectives. Also: ‘The 2 weeks of day-to-day engagement with the expert, on- and off-work, helped in improving my soft-skills especially in working close with a new colleague with different working values'

Follow up
What will be the follow up of the programme on the short term?

• The general manager of Hotel Maya will implement the operational plan.
• The president will do evaluation of the plan
• An operational hotel management expert will be sent to Hotel Maya in November 2010.

This is a start of a two-year partnership between SharePeople and Hotel Maya.  Both organisations will keep in touch (a.o. via the SharePeople liaison, at least every 3 months), and with the experts as well. After this Programme, an official update on the status of the organisation takes place every 12 months. With this information, an new Programme is one of the possibilities to boost the organisation if needed. Participation in a yearly SharePeople Experience Week is also an option.