A view from HOSPA

Jane Pendlebury, Chief Executive, HOSPA

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1. Jane, one way HOSPA is helping hotels to survive and reopen is through the official HOSPA Recovery Package, a platform which offers advice to hoteliers and hospitality businesses about maximising their recovery. Tell us more about this initiative and what’s to come?

The pandemic and its devastating effects on hospitality empowered the HOSPA team to do what we are best at. We supported individuals, sometimes just by listening but usually by imparting key snippets of information that we had gleaned through both official channels and anecdotal reports. We helped businesses make sense of the situation as best we could, we shared information and advice and where possible connected members with each other or with relevant professionals.

I often retell the story of answering the phone just as we were all beginning to understand the enormity of what the first shut down was likely to mean. The call was from one of our members who is a hotel commercial director in London. He talked through exactly what he had done to prepare to close the hotel and asked me if I thought he had forgotten anything. His list was comprehensive and, with his permission, we used his checklist as the starting point of an informal guide for all the subsequent calls HOSPA then received on the same topic. To become that hub of knowledge was rewarding for us internally and invaluable for our members.

That ‘accidental’ start set us on our path of imparting best practice throughout the pandemic. We shared positive news stories where hoteliers took in the homeless, housed NHS staff and military personnel, fed key workers as well as local residents. We shared news of innovation and inspiring ways income had been generated while continuing to delight future guests with promises of better days ahead.

2. The measures announced by the Chancellor in the Spring Budget earlier this month were eagerly awaited by the hospitality sector. How do you think these measures will tangibly impact the sector as we recover, and is there anything more that the Government should be doing in your opinion?

Over the year of the pandemic, the Government offered some good support to hospitality and at times seemed to truly understand the industry. However, the more recent developments seem to have ignored the diversity of hospitality. Watching the television news, one could be forgiven for thinking that hospitality is all about a packed pub in a student town where not all the visitors care about social distancing – particularly as the evening progresses! Compare that with a hotel or a restaurant, especially a fine dining one, where cleanliness and hygiene is a top priority and social distancing is strictly (and, quite frankly much more easily) adhered to.

A minister for hospitality would be incredibly useful in helping explain the far-reaching range of businesses within the sector. It was so hard for HOSPA members who invested significantly into making their premises COVID-19 safe only to be forbidden from operating in ways they had established were secure. The ‘Eat Out To Help Out’ scheme was utterly brilliant, but it saddens me to read some of the negative press that came about following the success of that programme.

Christmas was another hard blow to many venues who were hoping to accommodate or host family meals and I still stand by my words at the time – which were that families would be safer in a hotel restaurant than in someone’s private residence. Perishable stock had already been purchased in many instances, staff had been pulled back in and plans had been forging ahead, only to have Christmas activities abruptly stopped.

3. With staycation numbers expected to surge later this year as lockdown eases, how can hotels take full advantage of and prepare properly for this heightened demand?

Certainly the coastal and rural hotels are already anticipating a bumper summer! The demand is far exceeding supply and those who have their revenue management strategy finely tuned can be sure of a profitable season. The key for these destinations is to ensure they maximise the opportunity, to make sure they have length of stay controls to cover notoriously quieter Sunday evenings. Staff should be trained to upsell every conceivable experience to make the most of the extra funds that the majority of guests will have, given they have not invested in flights to reach their chosen destination and had little opportunity to indulge over the last year.

Once the guests are in-house then creating and maintaining loyalty has never been more important. While it may have been relatively easy to sell bedrooms this year, next year we can expect the desire to travel overseas to become a challenge for home-grown holidays. To ensure that guests want to return next year is a critical part of ongoing success.

It’s not the same for city centres though, which are not benefitting as much from the local demand. London and other cities have often heavily relied on international business travel. All is not lost however, as there will be visitors who want to take advantage of the quieter venues and fewer people on the streets. Attractions and experiences will be the key to success. Create some packages for guests to choose from; an inclusive visit to a restaurant or a local tourist venue might just be what encourages a booking into your property. It is imperative to have marketing teams working on the hotel’s public image and, likewise, revenue managers should be fully geared up to convert every enquiry. Websites must be up to date with opening dates and the availability of facilities. Shouting about cleaning procedures and flexible cancellation options are also crucial when encouraging guests to visit your hotel rather than the one next door.

4. During the pandemic, we’ve seen the development of new trends such as remote working. Many hoteliers are now taking the opportunity to harness these trends, for example by creating new technologies or repurposing hotel space. What are the best examples you’ve seen of this, and which key trends should hotels be capitalising on as we move out of lockdown?

Isn’t the entrepreneurial attitude of hoteliers brilliant?

Turning bedrooms into small meeting rooms is perfect, either for those who cannot easily work from home or for get-togethers for teams who no longer have the facility in their corporate office.

We held our annual conference at The Royal Lancaster Hotel in 2020 – they made it so easy for us to take the decision to proceed as they had installed a studio into one of their main conference spaces. We were able to broadcast our event across the world in a TV style broadcast which was a welcome break from Zoom calls and meetings on Teams!

Room service became the fastest growing and one of the most profitable hotel departments, partly through lack of options, but again visionary hoteliers were able to really take advantage of the demand and increase their offerings. And for those guests not in-house, the dining experience was extended to deliveries of complete meals or prepared food to finish off at home. The same with cocktails – a whole new industry emerged around offering the dining out experience in the comfort of our own homes. So many people were searching for alternatives to their now rather less eventful lives, living and working at home - hoteliers tried in earnest to bring the hotel dining experience into family life.

There has been much investment into new technologies to enable remote check-in and check-out, while QR codes have staged a comeback, partly because it is so easy to read a QR code with a smartphone’s camera but also allowing diners to view menus and even place orders and pay through an app. Suppliers of mobile keys (allowing the guest’s mobile phone to open hotel bedrooms door) have seen existing deals accelerate, with the rollouts becoming suddenly urgent.

A lot of new companies also popped up, offering some quick-wins for hoteliers finding their way during the pandemic. My advice remained the same throughout: keep thinking long-term – will this solution be of benefit in the future? If not, is it essential to operate effectively and efficiently right now? Any short-term needs met by new technology have to be cost-effective. The general lack of ready cash prevented most chancers from exploiting vulnerable hoteliers, and hoteliers benefited from some immediate solutions to immediate (new) issues.

Once we are clear of the pandemic, adoption of these new technologies will come down to choice. In time, the guest will choose whether they would prefer to select their wine from an app, or if they would appreciate the theatre of a leather-bound wine list presented by a highly knowledgeable sommelier keen to share their recommendations.

5. UK hotel, restaurant, leisure and entertainment businesses employ over 400,000 EU nationals, and the average five-star hotel in London is made up of staff from as many as 50 different countries. With this in mind, how will the post-Brexit deal impact industry staffing, and do you think apprenticeship schemes will become more prevalent?

The Brexit effect is a pain point that has not yet reached anywhere near its peak. Many hotels are opening with fewer staff but with demands on those staff to offer more. The pain will become more apparent as the path to normality progresses.

It’s not impossible to employ staff from the EU, but it’s a lot harder than it once was. The skills of our friends in the EU and their willingness to work in some of the less glamorous positions will be sorely missed.

Apprentice schemes may well see increases, but I think a lot of this comes back to perception of the industry. The image of working in hospitality has to improve. The recently launched hoteliers’ charter is designed to promote hospitality as a career rather than being seen simply as a holiday job.

Those of us who have found careers and enjoyed working within hospitality have a duty to spread the word to friends and family far and wide. It is an industry packed full of opportunity to quickly climb the career ladder. It is all about attitude, desire to succeed and a willingness to develop skills along the way.

6. Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) is arguably one of the key issues of our time, and will be on the agenda of many boards over the coming years. How can the hospitality industry lead the way in the ongoing efforts to promote ESG?

ESG is certainly a key issue for investors and has its roots in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSG). CSG – with fear of making a sweeping generalisation – has been important in hospitality for a long time, not least because the majority of hospitality employees are aged between 16 and 24. In years gone by, choosing a job was led by salary and long-term career goals, but now the employer displaying the right ethics is as important, if not more so than financial reward. There is a long way to go and something that will become increasingly front of mind with COP26 in the UK later this year. As that finishes, our annual conference commences, so we are leading with an environmental theme for the first time ever. Watch this space!

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