Judi Blakeburn is the Chief Commercial Officer of Another Place and Watergate Bay. She shared with us the benefits of a guest-centric approach that goes beyond traditional RevPAR metrics.
Read on to discover Blakeburn’s journey in fostering a ‘It is our pleasure to welcome you. All we do must be connected to them‘ ethos and how this approach has not only revolutionised the guest experience but has also become the driving force behind a more holistic and resilient revenue generation strategy, one that prioritises Revenue Per Available Guest (RevPAG) and cultivates meaningful, long-lasting guest relationships.
How has your guest-centric philosophy of ‘This is our guest. What has your ‘Everything must connect to them” philosophy done to improve your guest’s experiences and how you generate revenue?
Judi: I have come to this philosophy not because we use a revenue management strategy, but rather, it is who we are. Since I graduated from university, I have worked in hospitality. I joined Watergate Bay Hotel, after working with Rick Stein, in 2003. Cornwall was experiencing a real renaissance and a new vision for the destination. I was lucky enough to work with Will Ashworth and Henry Ashworth. Watergate BayThey were developing a lifestyle brand, probably the first lifestyle hotels for Cornwall.
Then, we wouldn’t have called it a hotel, but our resort-like environment was similar. We weren’t just a hotel, but a place to create experiences for our guests. We wanted people to be able to enjoy great restaurants and bars, as well as the beach. We wanted to create experiences that were truly memorable and would make our guests return again and again. In order to extend Cornwall’s season beyond just April to Octember, we opened the hotel as well as all our other businesses 365-days-a-year.
In 2005, the focus was on the guest’s experience and how to encourage them to stay longer or do more. We had to evaluate whether this approach was effective. I had to deal with a siloed tech stack, an array of disparate software. This made it difficult for me to know whether or not a guest staying for three days was just in the room, or if they were engaging in meaningful experiences that we created.
At that time, our property management system provider came to see me. I took a piece paper and drew circles, then said “That is my guest”. All things must be related to them. I drew outwards to explain that they must be the center of everything. I don’t want to have seven profiles, but I do need one. His answer was that it was impossible. You know, back then, we had a small business. We didn’t really have much money, but I knew that bigger companies were already doing this.
Our guests needed to know that we could book rooms, provide surf lessons and treatments, and that our restaurants were open. These are all things that people expect as standard today. I worked with the team to review many systems in order to find an effective solution for our company, especially as we began to consider opening another hotel and needed a solution to meet our vision. We really shopped around looking at the best in class solutions… what might we be able to knit together?
We finally bought a Canadian resort system called ResortSuite. This gave us the single view of our guests that we were looking for. They provided us with our property management system, our F&B software, our spa, gift card and our activity system.
Two years ago Agilysys The integrated approach is now more modern and cloud-based. This has been a great approach for us to grow. We now have three locations, plus a brand new aparthotel in Cornwall. Four sites, all of which require ongoing and regular data analysis.
Our focus has been on RevPAG (Revenues Per Available Guest) rather than more traditional RevPAR models (Revenues Per Available Room), as we are a hospitality company with many facets.
Has it been harder to adopt technology that larger groups are used to?
Judi: As an individual or small group you can still have high aspirations and be quite flexible. We are lucky to have many experts in-house. We have our own IT department.
Hoteliers often find it difficult to change systems, because they disrupt their business operations. We need a single, fully integrated system because we do not have the resources to combine multiple disparate systems in order to achieve the desired result.
This decision is driven by your business size and what it can accomplish. It is powerful to have an internal tech team that can implement changes for us. Just got off the phone with four people that are driving this change for us. They’re doing an ‘all in one go’ system change this month for one of our hotels. What we do at the rest of our hotels is a more modular strategy. We are implementing things gradually to ensure that the operations team is not left out.
Personally, I love technology. I’m the person who will ‘press the button’ to find out what it does, and I welcome change. Some people are like this, but not all. It’s important to share information with your team regularly. You are taking your team on a journey, and the change is well-managed and well-understood.
Are you concerned that, as we work to increase ADRs, guests may book shorter stay and have less time on the property if they do?
Judi: We have budgeted for ancillary revenues to account for 40% of our overall revenue. I can only see this growing as we improve the guest experience. In the last 18-months, we have struggled to maintain the same occupancy rates and room rates as before. The market is more price-conscious, and people are waiting for the last minute deals, regardless of where you operate.
It is important to strike a balance between increasing room rates and maintaining secondary spending. We strive to maintain our occupancy levels by continuing to create rich guest experiences which encourage guests to stay longer or return again.
How has your group adapted as the industry shifts from a room-centric model to one that is relationship-centric?
Judi: Chris Greenwood was speaking at an event that I attended in the past. He’s from the Moffat Centre for Travel and Tourism Business DevelopmentThe research of the Glasgow Caledonian University was fascinating. Chris spoke of the resilience and desire for travel, to have an experience and something more meaningful. This is also deeply engrained in loyalty.
Our focus at RevPAG is driven by the traveller, and the reason they are traveling in the first instance. Why do people come to us? Because we create meaningful and powerful moments for them. This is what we do as hoteliers. This is so important, I believe. Our brands and market direction will be one.
Another of the trends identified for this year has been ‘quiet tourism’. We’re also perfectly placed to offer quiet tourism experiences.
The following are some alternatives to the word “Advantage” Another PlaceWe bought a country hotel with a quarter-mile of lake frontage on Ullswater, and 18 acres in the Lake District National Park. This was a gift for our brand. We expanded the number rooms and purchased the pub behind it. Four restaurants offer a variety of dining and drinking options. A fine dining restaurant with an all-day menu, a bar that serves food throughout the day, a wooden fired pizza in a glass house, and even a traditional pub are just a few minutes uphill. All aimed at increasing the length of stay by giving guests a choice.
I was looking for great partners to provide activities when we first arrived. I’ve got one of the world’s best open water swimming instructors who can deliver daytime swimming, full moon swimming and night swimming. You can kayak in the lake. You can paddleboard. You’ll learn how to foil this year. You can just relax in our beautiful grounds. You can bring your kids and we will provide them with the best possible holiday.
We created a number of different walks. You’ll receive maps to help you explore the fells when you check in. Land Rover Discovery offers two cars that are available for you to use free of charge.
Add all of that up and you’ll find that it is a lot of booking. It’s much more than just a hotel room. We’ve really become more than just a hotel.
How has this helped you to navigate the current market challenges?
Judi: All this helps us to balance the headwinds that we are facing. People are booking later, wanting better deals and staying for shorter periods of time. We’re pushing the opposite direction with everything we do. Why stay only one or two nights at a time? There’s so many things to do. You can book everything you want.
This approach isn’t possible unless you use an integrated system. Our front of house team needs a single screen in front of them and be able to say, ‘, let me just do that for you now’. They cannot constantly switch systems. It must be seamless.
What are your most exciting emerging technologies or trends? How will you use them to elevate the guest experience in the future?
Judi: A recent question from one of our investors was similar: what will AI do for hospitality and us in particular?
My focus at the moment is on Generative Engine Optimisation GEO. All AI agents use information sources. It all comes down to discovering your content. Are they searching for the right content?
What do we need know about AI assistants for travel and how they will help our guests, both existing and potential, to plan and book their trips? Will they get in the way? Will they offer more and better opportunities to existing guests? Will we be included in their itinerary for potential guests to see?
I find this all fascinating. I believe it is important that all hoteliers educate themselves, attend webinars, and upgrade their skills.
We continue to experiment and learn about how to leverage this data to personalize the guest experience. It’s a long journey ahead. It should be one of those key questions we ask ourselves daily – how can we use the technology to continue to deliver memorable guest experiences?
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Image credit Michael LazenbyTravel, Hospitality, and Commercial Photographer
