We just lately had the pleasure of chatting with Judi Blakeburn, Chief Industrial Officer at One other Place and Watergate Bay, who shared the advantages and transformative results of a guest-centric philosophy that extends far past conventional RevPAR metrics.
Learn on to find Blakeburn’s journey in fostering a ‘That is our visitor. Every thing we do should hook up with them‘ ethos and the way this strategy has not solely revolutionised the visitor expertise however has additionally grow to be the driving pressure behind a extra holistic and resilient income era technique, one which prioritises Income Per Out there Visitor (RevPAG) and cultivates significant, long-lasting visitor relationships.
How has your guest-centric philosophy of ‘That is our visitor. Every thing we do should hook up with them’ helped to rework your visitor’s expertise and your strategy to income era?
Judi: Properly, I’ve come to that philosophy, not by way of a strategic income administration strategy, however due to who we’re as a enterprise. I’ve all the time labored inside hospitality, mainly since I went to school, and I joined Watergate Bay Lodge in 2003, having been with Rick Stein prior. I arrived at a time in Cornwall when there was an actual renaissance in journey to the county and I believe it’s honest to say, a reimagining of Cornwall as a vacation spot. I used to be lucky sufficient to come back and work with Will and Henry Ashworth at Watergate Bay, as they have been working to develop a way of life model; most likely the primary way of life resort for Cornwall on the time.
Again then, we might by no means have referred to as ourselves one, however we have been akin to a resort. We have been crafting visitor experiences, we weren’t merely a resort. We wished nice locations for individuals to eat and drink, to make sure they might get out on the seashore and regardless of the climate, they might expertise all the things our vacation spot needed to supply. We have been endeavouring to create actually memorable experiences that may deliver our visitors again, time and time once more. We have been additionally attempting to develop the season for Cornwall, past merely April to October and took the choice to open the resort, and all our companies, one year a yr.
On the finish of 2005 it was all concerning the visitor expertise and inspiring individuals to remain longer and do extra. However with that strategy, we needed to take into account whether or not or not it was working. I had inherited a disparate set of software program, a tech stack that was fully siloed, making it very exhausting for us to know whether or not a visitor who got here to remain for 3 nights was merely staying of their room or partaking with the significant experiences we have been creating for them that in flip, was securing our secondary spend.
Our property administration system supplier at the moment came around me. I had a bit of paper, and I drew a circle, and I stated, “That’s my visitor. Every thing has to attach again to them”. I drew traces outwards and defined they needed to be on the coronary heart of all the things. I can’t have seven profiles for one visitor, I would like a single profile. His response was that it wasn’t potential. And you realize, on the time, we have been a small resort. We didn’t have a giant finances however I knew greater companies have been doing it already.
We would have liked to have the ability to e book rooms, promote surf classes and coverings and ensure that our restaurant availability was seen to our visitors, all of the issues that you’d simply count on in the present day as customary. With the workforce, I reviewed many methods to discover a viable answer for our enterprise, notably as we have been starting to consider opening one other resort, and wished to discover a answer that met our imaginative and prescient. We actually shopped round taking a look at the most effective in school options… what would possibly we have the ability to knit collectively?
Lastly, we purchased a Canadian answer referred to as ResortSuite, a whole resort system. That gave us what we wished; a single visitor view. They offered us with our property administration system, our F&B software program, our spa, reward card and our exercise system.
A few years in the past Agilysys acquired ResortSuite and we are actually transferring to a extra fashionable, cloud-based, tackle that built-in strategy. This strategy has actually helped us as we’ve grown, we now have three websites, plus a brand new aparthotel simply opened in Cornwall. So, 4 websites that every one require common, ongoing, deep dive knowledge evaluation and insights.
In some ways, our focus has all the time been extra a couple of RevPAG (Income Per Out there Visitor) mannequin than the extra conventional RevPAR (Income Per Out there Room), as a result of we’re a multi-facetted hospitality enterprise.
As a comparatively smaller, unbiased group, has it been more difficult to undertake the tech that the bigger teams take with no consideration?
Judi: As an unbiased or a small group, you may have massive aspirations about what you need to obtain and stay fairly agile. We’re lucky, now we have a variety of experience in-house. Together with our personal IT workforce.
Usually hoteliers discover it difficult to maneuver methods; as a result of it’s so disruptive to enterprise operations. However that single system that totally integrates is important for us, as a result of we don’t have the useful resource to sew collectively many disparate methods to attain the identical final result.
That call, what answer do you select, is commonly pushed by the dimensions of your small business and what you may obtain. Having an in-house tech workforce who can implement change for us may be very highly effective. I’ve simply come off a name with 4 people who find themselves at the moment driving that change for us. They’re doing an ‘multi functional go’ system change this month for one in all our resorts. However what we’re doing on the others, is taking a extra modular strategy. We’re implementing issues in a phased solution to attempt to guarantee seamlessness for the operations workforce.
Personally, I need to acknowledge that I’ve all the time liked tech. I’m the one that will ‘press the button’ to search out out what it does, and I welcome change. However not everyone seems to be like that. You need to just remember to’re sharing data usually together with your groups. You’re taking individuals on the journey with you, and that change is a well-managed, well-understood course of.
As all of us attempt to extend ADR’s, do you assume there’s maybe a threat that visitors e book shorter stays and subsequently have much less time to spend on property?
Judi: We finances for ancillary income to be 40% of general income, and I solely see that rising as we proceed to develop our visitor expertise. Nonetheless, it’s been exhausting within the final 18 months, to attain the identical ranges of occupancy, the identical room charges, as we have been prior. Persons are extra value-driven, ready for that final minute deal, whichever finish of the market you’re working in.
There’s a actual stability to be struck between driving up room charges and sustaining secondary spend, and we’re targeted on making certain that our occupancy numbers are there by way of persevering with to craft wealthy visitor experiences that give visitors causes to remain longer and are available again once more.
Because the trade strikes past a room-centric to a relationship-centric mannequin, how has your group tailored to construct stronger, extra significant visitor connections?
Judi: Properly, I used to be at an occasion earlier this yr the place I heard Chris Greenwood communicate. He’s from the Moffat Centre for Journey and Tourism Enterprise Growth, primarily based on the Glasgow Caledonian College and their analysis was actually fascinating. Chris talked concerning the resilience of the traveller and their want for expertise, for one thing extra significant and the way that’s closely ingrained inside loyalty too.
So, our give attention to RevPAG is definitely being pushed by the traveller and why they’re travelling within the first place. Why are individuals coming to go to us? As a result of we’re creating moments for them of their lives which are significant and highly effective. And as hoteliers, that’s our job. I really consider that’s so necessary. We’re coming right into a time the place our manufacturers and the market course are completely as one.
One other of the tendencies recognized for this yr has been ‘quiet tourism’. And we’re completely positioned to ship quiet tourism experiences too.
With One other Place, we purchased a rustic home resort which had quarter of a mile of Lake frontage on Ullswater and 18 acres of Lake District Nationwide Park. It was a whole reward to our model. We set about increasing the variety of rooms it had and purchased the pub behind the resort. We’ve got 4 eating places, so loads of mild and shade by way of the place you may eat and drink. Superb eating, all day bar restaurant, a glass home with a wooden fired pizza, and a conventional pub simply moments up the hill. All centred on driving up size of keep and giving individuals alternative.
My focus once we first arrived was to search out unbelievable companions to ship actions for us. I’ve one of many world’s finest open water swimmers, delivering daytime swimming, night time swimming and full moon swimming. You possibly can kayak on the lake. You possibly can rise up paddle board. This yr, you’ll have the ability to be taught to wing foil. You possibly can merely hand around in our lovely grounds. We’ve got an Ofsted registered childcare facility so that you deliver your kids they usually can have the most effective vacation too.
We crafted an entire sequence of walks. Whenever you arrive on the resort, we’ll provide you with maps that we’ve had made to assist individuals get out on the fells. We’ve got a partnership with Land Rover Discovery with two vehicles on website, which you’ll take freed from cost for a day at a time, so you may get out and discover and expertise all the things round you.
Whenever you add all that up, that’s an terrible lot of reserving. Much more than merely a room. It’s actually meant that we’ve grow to be a vacation spot, not only a resort.
How has this strategy helped you navigate the challenges of the present market?
Judi: All of it helps to counterbalance the headwinds we’re going through. We’re seeing individuals e book later, need higher offers and keep for a shorter size of time. Every thing we’re doing is pushing again the opposite manner. Why would you solely keep for one or two nights? There’s a lot to do. And hey, when you’re staying, you might want to e book a swim, and you might want to e book one other eating expertise, and you might want to e book a remedy, and your kids have to go to youngsters’ zone and so forth.
This strategy actually isn’t manageable except you have got an built-in system. Our entrance of home workforce wants a single display in entrance of them and have the ability to say, ‘, let me simply try this for you now’. They will’t be always swapping methods; it must be seamless.
Lastly, wanting forward, what rising tendencies or applied sciences are you most enthusiastic about, and the way do you propose to benefit from them to proceed elevating your visitor expertise?
Judi: Curiously, one in all our traders, just lately requested me the same query, what do I believe AI goes to do for us and for hospitality generally?
For the time being, my focus is round Generative Engine Optimisation or GEO. The AI brokers are all utilizing data sources, so it comes down as to if your content material is discoverable. And is it the suitable content material for his or her searches?
Additionally, what do we have to learn about AI journey assistants and the way they’re going to assist potential visitors and our current visitors in making and reserving their journey plans? Are they going to get in our manner? Are they going to be offering extra and completely different alternatives for current visitors? Are we going to seem of their itineraries for potential visitors?
I discover all of it fascinating and I believe it’s necessary for all hoteliers to tell themselves, to attend webinars and upskill.
Again to in the present day, I believe we’d all nonetheless say that whereas we’re getting near a single visitor profile, the leveraging of that knowledge and utilizing it to personalise the visitor expertise is one thing we proceed to be taught and experiment with. There’s nonetheless a journey to go on. It needs to be a kind of key questions we ask ourselves every day – how can we use the expertise to proceed to ship memorable visitor experiences?
—
Picture credit score: Michael Lazenby, Journey, Hospitality and Industrial Photographer and Filmmaker