Marketing Plan for a boutique hotel in Switzerland

As part of the MBA Marketing Management course, I created a marketing plan for a boutique hotel in Zurich, Switzerland. The exercise was far from being just a concept. Since I have lived almost 20 years in Switzerland, I know that there is a market out there for such niche hotels. Contact me if you want to take this further!

Metropolitan Village Hotel
The Metropolitan Village Hotel offers its lifestyle savvy guests on a budget a unique lounge experience while providing a suitable relaxation background for the clubbing die-hards.

Executive Summary
The Metropolitan Village Hotel (MVH) is a new lifestyle concept situated in the Niederdorf quarter in Zurich, in the heart of the city next to the main train station, the universities, the art museum, and the main theater. The hotel is in its planned phase. The Niederdorf is one of the main leisure centers of Zurich, sporting a range of pubs, restaurants, clubs, and fashion boutiques. The hotel is non-classified, relieving the design and daily operations of stringent rules imposed by the regulatory body. It features a small kitchen for breakfast, snacks, and finger food, yet extensive meals need to be consumed at third party establishments.

The target audience of the hotel is the young and contemporary lifestyle savvy, ranging from 16 to 28 years old. With prices of the hotel slightly above two star facilities in the region, household income of the targeted guest base figures in the mid to higher mid region.

In order to offer a contemporary, trendy and hip lifestyle environment, the hotel interior will be designed by upcoming artists and architects. It features a 24/7 chill-out lounge where our guests have the opportunity to meet before hitting the clubs and to relax after a long club night. Rooms focus on youth lifestyle gadgets, such as I-pod docking stations, electronic game consoles, and wireless internet facilities. These amenities also feature in the chill-out lounge in order to attract group activities and thus increase lounge/bar turnover. The bar strictly adheres to Swiss legislation on alcohol consumption.

Additional amenities of the hotel are a tanning room, sauna, and gym. Since the Niederdorf is pedestrian only, the hotel offers exclusive shuttle services to/from the main train station and airport. In addition, these transport facilities can also be booked to tour the city or as transport means to/from one of the leisure spots within the quarter. In order to distinguish the hotel from the competition, these means of transport comprise of exclusive stretched limos, horses and carriages, and tricycles.

The MVH derives its name from the metropolis Zurich, by far the largest town in Switzerland, and from the physical location, the Niederdorf, which translates into low village. It also reflects the fact that we do things differently, so is this the first youth lifestyle hotel in town. The hotel is a boutique hotel, not affiliated with any major chain. Yet, sister hotels in Zurich West, Geneva, and Basel are planned, upon which the concept will go public with an IPO. Current funding is received by private investors who also have made available a first year marketing budget of EURO 100,000.

Other stakeholders are the Swiss train company, restaurants, pubs, and clubs in the Niederdorf. These affiliates provide the MVH with additional guests inflows based on discounted offers when regularly visiting/using the affiliates’ facilities and vice versa. As an example, any youth holder of the Halbtax Abo of the Swiss train company SBB is eligible for a discounted room rate at our hotel. Promotional activities focus on gaming and youth cultural events as well as internet social media.

We expect an initial average room occupancy rate of around 60% (15% below industry average), which would generate around EURO 725,000 based on normal room rate. An increase of 8.25% in room occupancy rate would off-set the first year promotions budget.