Strategic Planning Practices of Hotels in Kenya

This study broadens perspectives of strategic planning procedures in hotels by analyzing hotel managers’ perspectives on hotel strategy formulation and planning. The study was a descriptive quantitative study that targeted managers from various Kenyan hotels. 180 questionnaires were returned from a sample of 280 hotel managers who had attended management development programs at a hospitality school. The primary goal of the study was to analyze two aspects of the strategic planning process: strategy formulation and strategic planning. The findings revealed that hotels in Kenya have developed methods and are keen on scanning their external environments. However, with the product offerings being so comparable, competitive analysis played an important role in the context. Creating a unique or specialty offering was not a popular option for most hotels. Cost-cutting was the most favored strategic inclination to achieve desired results. The balanced scorecard was underutilized in the sector. While managers were involved in the strategic planning process, other lower cadre employees were not, they were provided with the targets for the hotels’ organizational goals to be achieved. The findings reveal that with similar products and services, the industry creates a hostile business climate with fierce rivalry and must invest in the most obvious alternative of cost reduction to survive. Alternative product innovation is not common in this industry for developing a differentiation approach that allows a property to control a market.

hotels, strategy formulation, strategic planning