Employer Projects

Project Title
Improving touchpoints for Hyatt Regency

Programme
Diploma in Hotel Management (INTI Sabah)

An employer project with Hyatt Regency Kota Kinabalu saw six students from INTI’s Diploma in Hotel Management programme come together to develop solutions to enhance the hotel’s seven key touchpoints. Hyatt Regency is one of the more established hotels, located in the heart of Kota Kinabalu’s business, shopping and entertainment district and well-known for its five-star Sabahan hospitality. The nature of the project allowed students to think about the future of the hotel industry and how they could create a more memorable experience for visitors to the hotel. At the end of the four-month programme, the creative and highly-motivated students gained in-depth experience in project management skills, a key aspect in the hospitality industry.

The Project Brief
The employer, Hyatt Regency Kinabalu Associates tasked the six students from INTI Sabah to strategise the best methods to introduce improvements at seven customer touchpoints throughout the hotel. These improvements were important as they would help improve customer experience and increase the hotel’s reputation. Within a time span of four months, they were required to go through the hotel thoroughly, identify the key touchpoints and come up with various ways to improve on them. The project required students to do a lot of onsite research, analyse customer holiday needs as well as introduce new avenues to increase Hyatt Regency’s competitive advantage, as Kota Kinabalu is a major tourist destination and there are many international hotels present.

Exposure to Learning Environments
Throughout the project, the students analysed these key touchpoints as well as the overall hotel in order to obtain a better understanding of the hotel. To gain advantage clearer perspective, the students learnt the systems and facilities currently used and proposed better ones to be instituted. With inputs received from both the employer and even their lecturers, the students were able to introduce effective and efficient ideas that could help customers better experience the Hyatt Regency. The six students also learnt various components to help customers have a comfortable stay while at the same time, ensured that costs did not increase substantially. They also had to look into customer and industry expectations as well as future trends. The students also went the extra mile to emphasise the role of employees in realising this vision as they took time to highlight ideas that would help in increasing employee satisfaction.

A Holistic Learning Experience
The students gained industry-based skills that gave them a better appreciation for ther future work life and the wide range of careers offered within the hospitality industry. The ideas presented resulted in positive feedback from the employers, demonstrating that they had gained exposure to the hospitality industry. The employers were pleased with the detailed and concise solutions provided, with some of them to be implemented in the near future. The students were able to gain industry experience, working with a wide range of people, making positive connections that were crucial in the industry and showed resourcefulness in finding the right solutions.