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Jinling Resort: A Pearl at the Baijia Lake
As a garden hotel providing the service for leisure and business travelers, Jinling Resort opened on January 22, 2001. By the end of the year, the revenue reached RMB12, 860,000 and the number of patrons totaled 20,940. In the first half of this year, its revenue was more than RMB10 million with the profit exceeding RMB1 million. Jinling Resort is now a pearl by the Baijia Lake in the new district of Jiangning. Its success will be inscribed in Jinling’s history. What is the secret of its success?
A New Hotel in the New Century
Jinling Resort came into birth along with the Nanjing’s booming economy and a new trend of urbanization. In 2000, in order to speed up development of Nanjing, the provincial government and the municipal government decided to incorporate Jiangning into the urban area as a new district. Jiangning used to be a county with inconvenient transportation, backward economy and little development potential. The Jinling people, however, were looking at the future. Based on a thorough feasibility study, Tang Wenjian, the General Manager of Jinling, together with the management team decided to build Jinling Resort near Baijia Lake in cooperation with Jiangning Economic and Technological Development Corporation. This luxury resort hotel, covering the area of 11.7 hectares, will further promote the Jinling brand, help win more market share for Jinling and create better investment environment in Jiangning.
In the 21st century, people are more concerned with the harmony between human and nature. Hotels are not only for economic and cultural exchanges but also for leisure and pleasure. Well-known overseas experts were invited to design the resort. Chadda Sienbieda Corporation, Ltd, which designed for Four Season Hotel in New York and Hilton Hotel in Japan, did the interior décor. The final design is beautiful: three modern buildings in the traditional Chinese garden style facing the picturesque Baijia Lake, green trees, magnolias, rocks, waterfall and spring enlivening the garden, and lotuses and carps in the emerald pond. This garden hotel immediately became an ideal choice for leisure and business guests upon its completion.
Time is everything. In order to outreach the market and to realize the goal of “gaining profits in the opening year”, based on their abundant hotel management experience of 18 years, the Jinling people worked out a unique plan and complete the resort within a short period of time. When the general construction was finished, only 80 days was left before the scheduled time for opening. Fang Li, the Chief Engineer, and Di Jia, the Development Director, set good examples for all the staff. They worked around the clock at the building site without any time to take a break or go back home. Bidding for more than 100 construction items were completed within only one month. In order to guarantee a smooth and speedy process, Mr. Di gave his car to other staff members when they were in urgent need. In order to guarantee the success of F&B business and room sales, the managing group went to the competitor hotels to do research and study of the market. Gradually, a detailed plan of opening and sales was finalized. Gu Chunxiu, the manager of the Front Office Department, had never been back home since she went to the building site. She was too devoted to care about her family and her little girl left alone at home. Averagely hotel employees need to take a 3-6 month training course to be competent in their positions. While in Jinling Resort, the experienced employees in Jinling Hotel came to work side by side with the new employees in the resort and set them into the gear.
Through the joint efforts, Jinling Resort opened on January 22, 2001. The complete construction of this 22,000-square-meter garden resort took less than one year, while the interior decoration took only 70 days. Before the completion of the construction, the sales had begun. The guestrooms and all the seats in the restaurants were reserved long before its grand opening. The Jinling people have created one wonder after another.
Unique Operation and Market Expansion
Good environment and facilities are necessary to the success of a hotel, but it takes greater efforts to win recognition from the guests. The management team of Jinling Resort decides to focus on the F&B service by taking advantage of the Jinling brand. At the same time, the Hotel will try to give more priority to developing the MICE market and make it a core product serving the international enterprises in Jiangning district and Nanjing at large.
In March this year, the “magical” Milutinovich came to Jinling Resort. In Eminent Court, the waitress served him a snack called “Happy Football”. The football coach was very happy. Not only him, every guest dining in Jinling Resort would get something unexpected. According to Sun Xuewu, the executive chef, people now want a change in their diet and are interested in the dishes with rural flavors. Jinling Resort begins to feature the special rural cuisine to cater to the need of city residents due to the location advantage of the resort. These new dishes soon became the favorites of the guests. In addition, chefs are sent to other places for exchange programs. Dozens of new dishes would be added to the menu each month, making the Jinling Resort a gourmet paradise. Lured by the delights, guests from Shanghai and Hangzhou come too. Many international travel agencies choose the Jinling Resort for their tourist group to the South Jiangsu.
MICE (meeting, incentive, conference and exhibition) plays a vital role in the business of Jinling Resort due to its location in Jiangning Economic and Technological Developing Zone, the largest in China. More than 900 investment projects from 21 different countries were attracted to Jiangning, including 15 of the top 500 enterprises in the world. In order to take advantage of its location and have a larger market share, the Jinling Resort promotes a special MICE package featuring “Perfect Meeting in Jinling Resort”, which includes gift service, photographing, performances etc. This package entices a great number of international for the conference and meetings. Some executives of a company stayed in the Jinling Hotel for a 4-month meeting last year because they did not have to worry anything here. When the 2002 Jinling Sports Day was held here, staff members from foreign enterprises like Fiat, Iveco, Ericsson, JDH, Air Products and Bell all took part in it and greatly enjoyed the party featuring “Health, Friendship and Nature”. According to the guest database, many guests have visited the Jinling Resort for more than 40 times, which is amazing for a new hotel.
The great achievements are because of its impeccable and guest-oriented service. In order to develop the MICE and tourism market in Nanjing, Shanghai and Hangzhou, Mr. Huang Zheng, Director of Sales & Marketing, and his colleagues went to visit the big cities in North China three times a year. They research the MICE market, clarify the sales target, work out the sales promotion plans and try to meet the demands of various guests. Sales managers commute between Jiangning District and the downtown everyday to make sales calls, often skipping meals. As a new hotel, the sales did not have much experience at the beginning. In order to be more competent within the shortest period, Mr. Huang holds a meeting at 6 every afternoon to exchange information and experiences no matter how tough and tiring a day they have had. The sales soon became very professional. They grasp at every possible business opportunity, put great emphasis on every piece of information and contact the guests as soon as they can. For VIP guests, Mr. Huang would always go together with them to make the sales call to show special cares to them.
Backbone of Jinling
The competition between modern enterprises can be boiled down to the competition among their staff members. The success of Jinling Resort is mainly because of its qualified and diligent staff.
Mr. Di Jia, the general manager of Jinling Resort, says that more than 10 years’ development has left the Jinling a rich heritage in the management system and it has provided a solid foundation for the high-quality management and service in the Jinling Resort. The advanced managing model of Jinling Hotel and the practice of Jinling Resort are combined, forming an effective management model to focus on “Specialized & Versatile Staff”. It means that in the Jinling Resort, an operator can also work in the center of house keeping, a banquet reservation clerk can take care of business center and an accounting staff is able to help guests check in. By doing this, Jinling Resort has sought a balance between sticking to the traditional first class service of a star hotel and saving cost on human resource, which has become a new topic for research in modern hospitality. No doubt, this practice greatly increases the intensity of job, yet no one flinches from it when they see the general manager sometimes serve the guests himself.
Jiangning locates in a remote area away from the downtown of the city, which takes over more than 30 minutes to get there by hotel shuttle bus and more than one and a half hours by bus. Everyday the staff has to leave home very early in the morning and get back very late at night. To them, home is like a hotel to stay overnight. It doesn’t matter much if this only lasts for one or two days. But it takes more devotion and understanding if it is a long period of time. Each time when Mr. Tang Wenjian, General Manager of Jinling Hotel, comes to the Jinling Resort, he would always ask and pick up some staff members in his own car when he goes back.
The new system greatly encourages and challenges the staff members. In order to reduce the cost, Jin Gang, the deputy manager, and other purchasing staff go to Baiyunting Grocery Market and Jinqiao Market themselves for good buys. They sometimes work as drivers and porters. Yet their hard work has lowered the costs by two thirds. The Accounting Department of a hotel usually has 20 to 30 staff members. But there are only 3 in the Jinling Resort and everything is kept in perfect order even though the computer is by no means perfect. Therefore, the Hotel enjoys a high efficiency and everything runs smoothly here.
At the Jinling Resort, many attractions were created by the staff. The 100-meter-corridor is the longest view corridor in Nanjing. If the view from the corridor is not enough, guests can get into a motor vessel to appreciate the view on the lake. In the backyard of the hotel, a fishing pond and a children’s land are added to the outdoor swimming pool and tennis court. “Your satisfaction set the standards of our service and we can do everything for you.” the staff says proudly.
Thanks to good jobs of the staff members, the reputation of Jinling Resort spreads quickly. Ms. Peng Peiyun, the Deputy Director of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress stayed in Jinling Resort when she was on an inspection tour to Jiangsu Province. Ma Yue, the room attendant, took great care of her during her stay. Ms. Peng likes to take a nap at noon, so Ma always made the bed in advance. She also noticed that Ms. Peng liked to watch a TV program before sleep. One day Ms. Peng left for work and could not come back to the property. Ma asked the engineering staff to videotape the TV series for that night. Ms. Peng Peiyun overjoyed when she got the tapes the next day. She highly appreciated Ma’s care and excellent service. You have provided the best service for me, your hotel is great, says Peng. Many hotels in Jiangning witnessed the success of Jinling Resort, and asked for help from Jinling Resort to improve housekeeping service.