Franchise Development of Park Plaza Hotels & Resorts, Park Plaza Dublin Hotel

Franchise Development

The brand is part of Carlson Hospitality Worldwide whose other operations include Regent Hotels & Resorts^®, Radisson Hotels & Resorts^®, Country Inns & Suites By Carlson^®, Park Inn^® hotels, Regent Seven Seas Cruises^®, T.G.I. Friday's^®, Pick Up Stix and Provisions - a worldwide procurement company.

Park Plaza Hotels & Resorts, part of Carlson Hotels Worldwide, has enjoyed tremendous growth in its market segment since becoming part of Carlson in July 2000. The acquisition called for Carlson, a global leader in hospitality, to grow the Park Plaza brand through a focused franchise development and acquisition program with strong emphasis on aggressive development, enhanced brand definition and alignment, and improved quality.

"When we acquired the management rights to the Park Plaza brand, we set in motion a research process about competitive sets, guest services, amenities and average rates, to clarify our brand positioning," said Nancy Johnson, Executive Vice President - Brand Leader. "Our goal was to gather the necessary information to maximize the value of our brand, create a competitive advantage and distinguish Park Plaza Hotels & Resorts from other Carlson hotel brands (Radisson Hotels & Resorts, Country Inns & Suites By Carlson, Park Inn hotels and Regent Hotels & Resorts) in the minds of guests and investors."

The research resulted in the following positioning for the brand:
Park Plaza Hotels & Resorts are positioned in the mid-scale to upscale segment of the full-service category. These hotels are generally 125 rooms or larger and in downtown, suburban and airport commercial locations. With restaurants, meeting rooms, catering, suite and recreational facilities, the hotels serve the travel needs of business guests, meeting attendees and weekend leisure guests.

New positioning creates structure for CRM strategy
The positioning research helped Park Plaza Hotels & Resorts create a clear understanding of Park Plaza brand positioning, allowing the company to work in tandem with its sister brands to fully optimize the business-building tools and resources of Carlson Hospitality Worldwide. These resources include, but are not limited to, engagement participation in the company's customer relationship management (CRM) strategy; access to Curtis-C, the company's award winning global reservation system; membership in the patented Look To Book program, the industry's most recognized travel agent reward program; participation in Park Rewards, the guest loyalty program; and access to the $800 million purchasing power of Provisions, Carlson's global procurement division.

With corporate alignment in order and development goals being achieved, Park Plaza Hotels & Resorts are focused on engaging all members of the Park Plaza family: employees, owners and management companies. The company has three key successes designed to move the company forward:

1) To increase the brand's share of room nights for business travelers. The business travel market represents the largest opportunity for room night growth. Park Plaza is reaching out to this valued market segment with the introduction of a Worldwide Hospitality Program, promoting the brand to 328,000 Look To Book travel agents, increasing Park Rewards membership numbers and building relationships with key travel consortia.

2) To build a globally recognized brand. The company is increasing its brand awareness through a variety of consumer promotions, starting at the hotel level and continuing on to include national and global campaigns.

3) To create brand consistency and a sense of pride within the employees, hotels and their local communities by ensuring that Park Plaza Hotels & Resorts employees are engaged in their work and understand the importance of delivering the brand promise to each guest they serve. At the core of this initiative is the Park Pride employees development and recognition program. The program, which stands for Personal, Responsibility, Integrity and Dedication to Excellence, is a tool to motivate and engage employees in their work, as well as empower them to deliver the best customer service possible.

Park Plaza Hotels & Resorts place great importance on assisting individual hotels to achieve financial success. As a result, members of the Franchise Services Team are dedicated to providing the hotels access and insight into the brand's marketing programs, tools and resources. The team provides advice and expertise on implementing local and regional sales tactics as well as methods for improving the overall quality of the hotel.

To measure hotel quality, the team conducts annually Quality Performance Reviews (QPR) to determine the manner in which guests are being served, as well as the level of product quality.

Park Plaza Hotels & Resorts works closely with global partners to build the brand internationally. Carlson Hotels Asia Pacific has the rights to expand the Park Plaza brand in the South Pacific and Asia. Park Plaza Hotels Europe owns, operates and franchises Park Plaza hotels in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Sarovar Park Plaza Hotels operates the extensive network of Park Plaza hotels across India.

The communications made through this web page should not be construed as an offer to sell a Park Plaza® hotel franchise in, nor are the communications directed by or on behalf of Park Hospitality LLC to the residents of, any jurisdiction that requires registration of a franchise prior to offering and selling the franchise in that jurisdiction. No Park Plaza® hotel franchises will be sold to any resident of such jurisdiction until the offering has duly registered and declared effective by such jurisdiction and the required Uniform Franchise Offering Circular, if any, has been delivered to the prospective franchisee before the sale in compliance with applicable law. Nothing in this disclaimer should be construed as a waiver of any applicable exemption provisions which may be available to Park Hospitality LLC.