Feature: Hotel Groups in the UK


➔LOYAL CITIZENS Loyalty programmes come into their own when times are hard and in the past two to three years cardholders have redeemed their points against stays, flights and upgrades to make life more comfortable. But they are expensive to run. “There is a cost attached to maintaining


the infrastructure, providing the service and outbidding competitors, and that will continue to prohibit smaller chains from doing anything of great value,” says BSI’s Trevor Elswood. “Smaller companies are working on understanding what the buyer or traveller wants and delivering value to the guest at the hotel.” The scale of the larger chains’ membership corroborates Elswood’s argument (figures are for worldwide membership): IHG’s Priority Club Rewards has 58 million members; Hilton’s HHonors has 27 million plus; Choice Privileges arrived in Europe in 2008 and recently surpassed 12 million members worldwide; and Rezidor launched Club Carlson in March, with a new Concièrge élite tier and improved redemption opportunities for the 6.3 million members of the Goldpoints Plus it replaces. Rezidor and Carlson aim to increase membership to ten million by 2013. An extension to the programme adds benefits specific to SMEs.


THE GRAND DESIGN Given a choice, most of us operating outside the corporate rod of iron would rather stay somewhere with a bit of personality and, in recent years, the big boys have introduced their own brand of boutique-style individuality. At the upper end of the market, there is Rezidor’s Missoni and Marriott’s Autograph and Edition. IHG gave birth to Indigo in Paddington in 2009 – properties in London’s Tower Hill and Glasgow followed, with another six to open over the next two years. “Hotel chains’ design-led brands have the quality stamp of the well known parent brand, so although they offer more individual and boutique options, trust is maintained,” says HRS’s Sandra Deregoski. Hampton by Hilton aims to reflect local culture,


so the Liverpool John Lennon Airport hotel includes a Beatles Welcome Wall, for example. And Clarion Collection is scheduled to arrive in the UK. “Clarion Collection is a brand extension


of the four-star Clarion brand and the hotels are boutique, unique or historic, design-led and with local character,” says Brian Garvan. But low presence of these properties in the UK still makes them a dubious option for buyers. “It is about location and cost,” says head of UK and hotels programme for PricewaterhouseCoopers, Sam van Leeuwen. “We use hotels near the office and look for best value. Because of the volumes we have, if we use smaller hotels spread all over the place, we cannot get the volumes into them, so we tend to steer away from them.”


“Hotel chains’ design-led brands have the quality stamp of the parent brand, so although they offer more boutique options, trust is maintained”


All Seasons


have seen a bit of an increase in its use but that tends to be with FIT group operators. “Around eight years ago,


there was a perception that if you got direct connect, you got a better price, but that is not the case: hotels


are now consistent throughout the booking channels,” says Bowler. Although Premier Inn largely distributes direct


DISTRIBUTION The debate about the thorny issue of distribution continues. “We had a huge issue with direct connect with Hertz because the self-booking tool was by-passing the GDS with some of the processes and check points that were built into Sabre,” says Serco’s Margaret Birse. “So we have now appointed the process back


to Sabre. And we are not going to get savings from direct connect – we want all the information in one place,” she explains. The main problem with direct connect is the


Crowne Plaza


cost surrounding it. “There has to be work done at either end of the system to ensure the right security and it takes a good few weeks’ or months’ work to get the systems to talk to each other,” says director of global hotel relations for HRG, Margaret Bowler. “Groups that don’t work with GDS generally use direct connect and we


to customers, in recognition of some customers’ need for an intermediary, Premier Inn developed direct connect, now Premier Connect, which accounts for three per cent of reservations. “In recent years, we have further added to this distribution by making our hotel inventory available on Amadeus GDS, says marketing director Gerard Tempest. “We have maintained our distribution model by passing on the costs to customers when they choose this channel.” In addition, Premier Inn launched a business website in February 2011, a mobile app and a mobile website designed for access from all mobile platforms. “Our aim is to make Premier Inn as easy to book as possible, via any channel,” he says. Channel partner relationships are no longer


black and white and a full hotel is not the holy grail if the cost of selling rooms wipes out the profit. However, direct connectivity to hotel inventory does allow hoteliers to react to market conditions at the touch of a button – and control at their fingertips is bound to appeal to any room revenue manager.


➔ 18 I THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE


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