“Those hotels that don’t invest in their asset, they are going to deliver a poor experience, and if a customer has a poor experience, they won’t stay there again”
to deliver a poor experience, and if a customer has a poor experience, they won’t stay there again. Our competitor set is those people who don’t invest in their properties.” Note that word “customer”. Dempsey insists: “It’s just semantics – I see them as guests when they are in our hotels, but when they are in the marketplace they are customers. Our task is go out and find new customers and turn them into guests. To me, all customers are potential guests.”
CORPORATE CONUNDRUM Famously, Premier Inn does not offer corporate discounts. “I don’t see the point,” says Dempsey. “We offer a quality product at a fair market price, and that’s what you pay.” However,
it has created its Business Account, which does offer various services – if not reduced prices – that are useful to the corporate market, such as giving the ability to set credit limits on individual cards to control spending, and providing up to six weeks’ interest-free credit. “That’s largely about management information [MI],” says Dempsey. “It’s what we use to sign up our bigger accounts. The demand is there – our occupancy has continued to grow and we need to offer our business customers really good MI, to look after them when they are in the hotel, and give them a good night’s sleep.” After a couple of hours being buffeted around the Westfield shopping hangar, that’s an almost irresistible offer... n
A former managing director of Forte Hotels UK and chief executive of the Compass Group’s Restaurant Associates, Patrick Dempsey joined Whitbread in September 2004 from Macdonald Hotels, where he held the post of chief executive. Initially named as managing director of Premier Inn, Dempsey became managing director of Whitbread Hotels & Restaurants when the subsidiary was formed in February 2008. In addition to Premier Inn, he is also responsible for the Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, Table Table and Taybarns restaurant brands.
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