Rosewood Hotels & Resorts operates 19 luxury hotels across 11 countries. Founded in 1979 by Caroline Rose Hunt, Rosewood aims to create residential-style luxury hotels offering personalized service. Each Rosewood property embraces the brand's "A Sense of Place" philosophy reflecting the local history, culture and character. While Rosewood properties have individual appeal, consolidating under a single brand could increase cross-property usage from the current 5% to 10-15% enjoyed by corporate hotel brands, growing revenue and loyalty. However, some concerns include weakening the individual identity of historic properties and losing employees and guests attached to independently branded hotels.

1. A CASE STUDY BY
DIPTAM ROY CHOUDHURY
(SRM UNIVERSITY , KATTANKULATHUR , CHENNAI)

2. Rosewood Hotels & Resorts is an international luxury hotel and resort company operating 19 properties
in 11 countries, owned by Hong Kong-based New World Development.
Who are they ?

3. Caroline Rose Hunt founded Rosewood in 1979, desiring to create residential-style luxury hotels that
would provide guests with attentive personalized services. A year later, Hunt converted the mansion
of Texas cotton magnate Sheppard King into Rosewood's first hotel, The Mansion on Turtle Creek,
located in the upscale Turtle Creek neighborhood.
History

4. A Sense of Place
Rosewood Hotels & Resorts manages 18 one-of-a-kind luxury properties in nine countries. Each
Rosewood hotel embraces the brand’s ‘A Sense of Place’ philosophy to reflect the individual location’s
history, culture and sensibilities.
Rosewood Hotels & Resorts introduced “A Sense of Place Journeys” which are designed to immerse
guests in the essence of some of the most desirable destinations in the world. These two-day
itineraries have been thoughtfully created to allow guests to explore classic landmarks, unearth hidden
discoveries and enjoy unique, private experiences. The journeys are guided by Rosewood’s A Sense of
Place philosophy that each property should be a reflection of its location’s history, geography and
culture.

5. Vision
Create luxurious, residential-style hotels that offer unparalleled
attention to detail and exceptional personalized service

6. Mission
“To be recognized and respected as the consummate
operator of ultra-luxury hotels in desirable destinations
throughout the world.”

7. Rosewood Management Goals
i) Increasing connection between Rosewood properties.
ii) Increasing cross properties usage from 5% to 10%.
iii)Create Rosewood Junkies.
iv)Building strong brand equity.

8. Competitors
Corporate Branded Hotels :-
• St Regis
• Regent
• Peninsula
• Raffles
• Four Seasons
• Ritz-Carlton
• Fairmont
• Park Hyatt
• Mandarin Oriental
Individually Branded Hotels:-
• Orient Express
• Rock Resort
• Rocco Forte
• Auberge Resorts Collection
• Dorchester Collection

9. Hospitality Trends
• Rosewood and its competitors are competiting to provide the best , award winning
unique experience.
• A majority of hotels have loyalty program.
• Many hotels emphasize the brand story , a history of hospitality for guests.
• Some of the common words hotels highlight on their website to describe the
company brand are luxury , experience , service , and award winning.

10. Risks
• Weakens historic brand value as one-of-a-kind properties.
• Loses differentiation in the history.
• Losing some current consumers who prefer individual properties.
• Losing employee trust (hotel managers with strong personally managed brands )
• Losing brand value of consistency.
• Loses non-intrusive qualities of branding.
• Costs : $1,000,000 per year marketing expenses.
• Costs : Require time , effort and money for perfect product / service performance
consistency.

11. Opportunities
• Campus brands are powerful status symbols , with more market share.
• Can increase customer experience through cross property data usage.
• Point of differentiation & competitive advantage in corporate brands.
• Growing trends in seeking more experienced hotels.
• Optional loyalty program increases repeat business.
• New customer acquisition .
• Current customers : increase cross property usage rate past 5% = revenue
increase and more loyal consumer.
• Earn back customers being lost to stronger hotel brands.
• As Rosewood expands, there is more opportunity in cross selling .

12. Average marketing cost per
guest
Average marketing cost per guest without branding : $130.00
Average marketing cost per guest with branding : $138.70
( $ 130 x 115,000 ) + 1,000,000
Avg marketing expense Total no of guests Branding expense
without branding
_____________________________________________________ = $138.70
115,000
Total no of guests

13. Total no of guests
With branding assumptions :
• Stay at same hotel twice within one year.
• Same property or different property.
• Even if one person doesn’t make it back for the stay ( i.e if John stays at hotel but Jane doesn’t ) can be
counted as a repeat guest.
5,750 x 2 = 11,500
Total no of multi- property stay As per the third point above Total no of multi- property stay
guests without branding guests with branding
With branding assumptions :
• Repeat guests have to come next year + adding new guests with branding
11,500 - 5,750 = 5,750 + 19,169 = 24,919
Total no of multi- property stay Total no of multi- property stay Difference in total no of Total no of repeat guests Total no of repeat guests
guests with branding guests without branding multi property stay guests without branding with branding

14. Guest perception
• Brand Rosewood means nothing.
• Guests have used various properties but couldn’t
realize that all were a part of same group.
• Even after staying at the property, guests don’t tend to
know the name Rosewood
• Rosewood as a brand doesn’t encourage to try
different properties

15. Current issues
After switching to automated data gathering through CRS, consolidated guest data revealed that : -
• 5% multi property return visit while corporate branded hotels enjoyed 10% -15% cross property usage
rate.
• Rosewood was at the low end of the scale and there were an opportunity for increasing cross-property
usage.

16. Probable solutions
• Through frequent-stay program.
• Corporate branding approach.

17. Issue with frequent-stay program
• This type of program had been successful only for large multi segment
operators with broad geographic distribution.
• Loyalty through these type of program was fostered by offerings such as—
flexible check in, check out time, personalized services, freedom to request
a specific room, capacity of employees to solve most unusual problem

18. Corporate branding advantages
• Collective experience
• Consistent service – in all aspects
• Encourage guests to use more than one property
• Better brand recognition
• High customer loyalty
• As per the survey, Individual brand or collection hotels had 5%
to 10% cross selling rates while corporate branded hotels
enjoyed 10% to 15% cross property usage rates

19. Issues in Corporate
Brand Promotion
• Internal resistance : Few Hotel Managers were inclined
to promote their own Hotel Rather than promoting the
Rosewood
• Some corporate guests didn’t want to be a part of
bigger Organization due to their emotional attachment
to a particular hotel.

20. Probable solutions
• Get internal teams confidence
• Show them a bigger picture
• Incentivize trade and ask them to push a
brand
• PR can do wonders
• Build a Rosewood membership plan
• Tie up with travel agencies/tour operators

21. Thank You

22. Disclaimer
Ppt made by Diptam Roy Choudhury of SRM University , Kattankulathur ,Chennai for a
marketing internship under Prof. Sameer Mathur (IIM Lucknow)