Assessing Supply Chain Management in the Context of Iran’s Five Star Hotel : The Case of Tehran Azadi Hotel

Abstract: The end result and goal of any commercial service provider is to present quality service, satisfy customers in the most efficient and effective manner and in return sustain and gain profit. In order to do so, companies need to manage the entire chain of their supplies, from the upstream suppliers to the downstream end customers. The concepts may have begun from the manufacturing industry but it swiftly expanded into service and lodging industries. Hotels, as service providing business enterprises must have proper management over their supply chains in order to have satisfied guests, repeat business and profit. There is not much research available on the concept of hotels’ supply chain management and almost none in the case of developing countries such as Iran.
The purpose of this research is to provide a more comprehensive outlook and understanding of hotel’s SCM by showing the relationships between the three components of the supply chain (upstream, internal and downstream) of five-star hotel in Iran. It strives to find the relationship between hotel’s upstream supply chain component (suppliers) with internal operations of a hotel and downstream supply chain component (customers) and in overall the whole supply chain management system of the hotel. The research takes a qualitative approach, case study strategy and interview data collection methods.