solution

Prangsak. Cars pull in, drive around the parking areas, and then drive away. The Village Residence is a small 20-room, no-frills boutique hotel in the less scenic part of the major resort town called Phuket in Thailand. The owner, Mr. Prangsak, firmly believes that there is a need for his a style of low-cost family accommodation amid the luxury and beauty of the area. His rooms are large, family-style rooms (there is no television or free internet service, for example). Although there is plenty of room for future expansion, the grounds are fairly bare with a bit of landscaping, but mostly grass. Currently Mr. Prangsak does very little advertising in local district guides and the holiday papers, mainly because he really thinks word-of-mouth is the best form of advertising. The guests of Mr. Prangsak’s property are mostly local residents of Thailand who are more familiar with his hotel because of this word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and relatives. He has yet to explore on listing his property on the internet to accept reservations as he lacks any technical knowledge. He is a member of the local tourist committee, but too busy to go to meetings. However, he does receive the local statistics and knows the average stay in the area is 3.8 nights, and that local families and couples and increasingly overseas visitors are his potential customers. Mr. Prangsak can serve breakfast to the rooms, and provides tea and coffee-making facilities. There are now a lot of good restaurants and take-aways in the area. Mr. Prangsak’s prices are less than half of what similar hotels charge and only a fraction of what the big five-star properties are charging. And, really, he isn’t all that far away from the beach, shops and other attractions He’s not desperate yet, but he’s getting worried and disillusioned. He thought he would be overrun with guests, but that hasn’t happened. The problem is occupancy. He has some regulars who come every holiday period (and have been doing so for the four years he has owned the property). Overall, occupancy is about 50% year round and he knows from the local tourist office that the other properties average around 68% occupancy year round. New developments could mean trouble. This lack of occupancy can be quite frustrating for Mr. As the marketing consultant engaged by Mr. Prangsak, identify all the possible strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for him, and provide suggestions on how he can mitigate his difficencies while seizing on opportunities to improve