The Caterer interview
Artist’s impression of the new voco Zeal Exeter Science Park
We recently had the European board meeting for our owners’ association, where we come together to share best practice. We invited a guest speaker from one of the large invest- ment funds to share his view on the impor- tance of having a sustainable strategy for a hotel in order to drive the valuation of the asset or to go and raise capital in the future. Secondly, they’re fully aware that custom-
ers are demanding it; and thirdly, employees expect companies to be at the forefront of this.
Will guests visiting voco Zeal Exeter Science Park notice operational differences to other hotels under the voco brand? We have had sustainability at the heart of deci- sions about voco from its inception. So, for example, the bedding package for voco is built around recycled materials, so the duvets are made from recycled plastic bottles. We have bulk amenities across the brand,
and we have always been focused on locally sourced menus to make sure we minimise the carbon footprint of the menu. Customers should expect to see something that feels like it belongs in the voco brand, but certainly is right at the forefront of it. And we will com- municate that – we will make a point of talking about what’s unique and different.
We’ve seen a strong return to corporate travel – how important are sustainability credentials in this area? It is absolutely critical, particularly in Europe. Larger corporate clients are asking us a lot more questions now than they did a year ago, and cer- tainly five years ago, about the measures that hotels are taking to meet sustainability targets. Every large company in the world is likely
to have their own targets and those that are responsible for booking travel in a large com-
18 | The Caterer | 24 November 2023
“When you work at IHG, when you stay at an IHG hotel, we want everyone to feel welcome and heard and cared for”
pany will have to ask those questions and will have to make decisions that are in the best pur- suit of their own goals, and it’s important that hotels can articulate what they do.
Is there an appetite among owners to invest heavily in improving the sustainability of their portfolios? We have looked first and foremost at the initia- tives that we know have a really strong return on investment and a payback period of one to three years. We’re also talking to owners about looking beyond the return on investment and educating them on what we’re hearing from corporate clients. If there’s not a path for this, there’s likely to be a negative impact with cus- tomers actually not visiting the hotel. The con- versations we’re having are very productive and we’ve seen many owner groups planning how they’re going to implement these initiatives. We are mindful that we have only just come through a very difficult trading period, and while we’ve had some incredibly strong trading off the back of that, from an owner’s perspec- tive, we need to be thoughtful about the pace at which they can invest for the future. That is why we’re working on bespoke plans for each hotel.
Crowne Plaza Marseille
You’ve recently launched conversion brand Gar- ner. Is the business viewing conversions more favourably than new builds? One of the key trends is fewer signings of new build hotels and more signings of con- versions. The mix stands at about 50:50 in Europe, whereas we used to be far more focused on new build hotels – that’s very much driven by the current economic environment. The lending environment shows far more appetite for conversions, where an independent hotel can join a large group like IHG Hotels & Resorts and get all the benefits of the enterprise and loyalty programmes and so forth.
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