Hotel Owner Hotel Owner August 2017 digital | страница 3

EDITOR’S LETTER Millennial fever CONTRIBUTORS AUBREY CALDERWOOD Aubrey is the joint managing director of Gately Capitus. He has over 25 years’ experience in advising companies and individuals on the use of tax-based incentives for commercial property investment and development. The word ‘millennial’ is used about 15 times per person per day in the business world of 2017. For the uninitiated (though you must be hiding under a rock not to have heard it), it refers to a person reaching adulthood in the early 21st Century. They are tech-savvy, mobile, restless and go through life with an enormous sense of entitlement. Well, that’s DEBORAH HEATHER the much-mooted reading of the generation before them anyway. Deborah is the director of Quality in Tourism - the accommodation assessment scheme for M-Assessment Services. Deborah manages a team of more than 40 accommodation assessors, who each grade some 300 properties a year Businesses of all types now devote enormous energy to ‘engaging’ with the idiosyncrasies of this population group, leaning on social media, apps and streaming services to try and get their message in front of the young and screen-obsessed. But in a rare moment of what I thought was excellent clarity, it has been suggested this month that hospitality brands should not overdo it on the technology front. There is no need to make PETER HANCOCK your hotel a spaceship replete with voice-activated room service, Peter has been the chief executive of Pride of Britain Hotels - a collection of never more than 50 luxury and independent properties - since 2000. He previously managed hotels and restaurants in Sussex and Hampshire, having started out as a waiter automated check-in and programmatic marketing on the in-room TV screens. Marketing firm CAB Studios ran a survey that found 60% of guests “still prefer having a conversation with someone on the reception desk when you arrive”. It may sound like a small thing, but this says something fundamental about the experience of staying in a hotel and what it is supposed to mean. An interaction with a human being is actually an essential component of what it is to ANGIE PETKOVIC Angie started as our resident marketing advice columnist and has now built a substantial following for her straight-talking answers to the common questions about executing a professional marketing strategy provide hospitality – done well, it is the human touch that makes the stay special. Compare two identical hotels both beautifully appointed and well equipped, and then show me the one that has warm, friendly, proactive staff who anticipate their guests’ needs constantly. Then I’ll show you which of the two hotels is performing best on RevPAR and occupancy. Technology is good – it is making our lives easier, it is entertaining us, and today the smartphone really is an extension of the self for many people. But a smile and an offer to carry the luggage makes for a much more memorable hotel stay than hotel room that unlocks ON THE COVER Breadsall Priory Marriott. Page 31 | AUGUST 2017 £5.95 because you ask it to. I hope you enjoy the issue. WWW.HOTELOWNER.CO.UK H O U S E K E E P I N G | R E N O VAT I O N | F O O D & B E V E R A G E | S P A | P R O P E R T Y | E D U C AT I O N hotelowner for the independent hotelier who means business ISSN 2049-7709 HotelOwner BEDROOM DESIGN Focusing on the most important room of the hotel, we look at the interiors, designs and suppliers of various properties @HotelOwnerMag BREXIT OR TERRORISM? ONE-ROOM HOTEL Searcys holds a roundtable discussing the effects of both on the industry and seeing which has a bigger impact FRONT OF HOUSE A look at Marriott’s oldest hotel, Breadsall Priory p29 The owners of The Napoleon speak about opening London’s first ever one-room property AN INSPECTOR CALLS p46 PETER HANCOCK How to put your hotel on the map August 2017 Make guests more loyal to your hotel p16 www.hotelowner.co.uk Michael Northcott Editor, Hotel Owner [email protected] www.hotelowner.co.uk 3