Samenvatting

GrandAlpes is a company founded by International Lodging Services, who is a tour operator specialised in chalets. GrandAlpes is responsible for the management in several chalets villages in France and Vallandry is their biggest chalet park with 50 chalets and a restaurant. About 500 people can stay in the park and the restaurant has space for 65 guests. This research report is designed to research how the sales of products and services can be increased by making the management of GrandAlpes more efficient. To research this, a market research and satisfaction study has been conducted.
The products that GrandAlpes relies on for profit are: ski passes, ski lessons and ski rental. The sales of ski passes and ski rental have been holding steady for the last 2 years. However, from the questionnaire results we can conclude that there is a possibility to increase the sales. Sales of ski lessons have experienced a dramatic decline in sales. Therefore, it is important to establish how the sales of ski passes, ski rental and ski lessons can be improved. In order to answer this, a satisfaction study was conducted.
An important asset to the company is 'le Dahu', which includes the restaurant and reception of GrandAlpes. Le Dahu used to be a very successful restaurant, but since GrandAlpes took over, the restaurant started failing. Also, the costs for renting 'le Dahu' are very high. Therefore it is important to establish how GrandAlpes can attract more guests to the restaurant. In order to do so a satisfaction study was conducted.
The structure of the organisation of GrandAlpes changes every year, due to the fact that ILS hires other employees to manage the park almost every season. As a result there are no clear guidelines and the organisation did not improve their management over the last years. It is important to investigate how the efficiency of the local management can be improved. In order to do so, previous seasons have been compared to each other and a new model for the organisation is proposed.
To increase the satisfaction of the guests it is important for GrandAlpes to change important procedures. For example, one source of irritation for guests is the waiting time before they can check in. A study is conducted to explore how the internal procedures can be improved.
After conducting these researches, it was possible to answer the main research topic, how the sales of products and services can be improved by making the management more efficient. From these researches it was possible to see which procedures or services need to be improved in the future. This study made it possible to recommend how to improve local management in Vallandry. The SWOT-analysis and the marketing mix are important tools which indicate the weaknesses and strengths and to formulate the recommendations.