Big interview His enthusiasm for helping both employees and
guests has not wavered over the years either. In Orr’s role at The Resident, he has even more opportunity to engage his employees across different generations to help guide them to their dream career within hospitality. “The good thing is we’ve given lots of people opportunities and in my current role it’s really great to have the chance to do more,” enthuses Orr. “I really hope that everyone feels they’re working in an environment that really gives them oxygen for their own careers in whichever way works for them.”
A place of residence It is safe to say that Orr is keenly aware of the legacy he has inherited at The Resident. The innovative brand of city centre hotels in London and Liverpool was in no way suffering when Orr took over. The city break- focused hotel had a strong business model to work from Orr explains, so his main focus from the very start was growing the brand significantly and ensuring the Resident brand related to the hotel guest. “Resident Hotels is a management company, which manages the Resident as one of its brands and also manages Cityroomz and Sleeperz, which are brands that the owners acquired middle of last year.” The hotel group, as Orr puts it, is a company that can develop, create brands, and also operate and manage those brands. One look at the hotels’ achievements over the past few years and Orr’s success is clear with The Resident Covent Garden ranked 2nd and 15th in the UK and Europe respectively by the Tripadvisor Travellers’ Choice Awards, and The Resident Kensington, The Resident Soho, The Resident Victoria and The Resident Liverpool all ranking in the top 10% of hotels worldwide. Orr’s role in the hotel brand was not without
difficulty, as all hotels have experienced over the past few years due to the pandemic. When the first whispers of the pandemic hit, however, Orr called on his experience of SARS in 2003: “My personal experience was being really quite scared about all that, so when in late January 2020 there were these reports, I kind of panicked early,” explains Orr. “It felt like an overreaction. I think a lot of people were kind of ‘what are you going on about?’ But the immediate reaction was obviously to really look after everybody and get everyone aligned. “We actually closed the hotels only three days before
it became legislated, but we were, I suppose, slightly ahead,” Orr continues. While an extremely challenging environment for all hotels, Orr’s leadership style and preparation spoke for itself, as 93% of The Resident employees were retained during the crisis. As we move further away from the shadow of the pandemic, moreover, the most fundamental thing for Orr and the brand is reputation. “That’s the one word that unifies all of the intent, behaviours and responses
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– for our business we want to be well regarded and keep on innovating and thinking about how to work in a better way that is more fulfilling for everybody.” A crucial thing for Orr, he puts the recovery of the brand out of the pandemic in large part due to its reputation as a small business. “Reputation is much more important than an awful lot of other things which will [be] commonly said... but I think reputation is the most important thing because that’s the bit that connects the guest and the team.”
Reacquainting guests with the world While the industry as a whole is “wrestling” with myriad issues, be it inflation, cost of borrowing or cost of living, the renewed traveller post-lockdown has been incredibly helpful for the industry, explains Orr. “The other consequence of the pandemic, in part, has been a reconnection of people’s relative importance of experience and actually travelling, seeing and witnessing in person, because we’ve seen how far we can get with technology.” The growth of tourism post- pandemic is an expression of freedom of travel, Orr
Above: With muted colours and exposed brickwork, The
Resident embraces the industrial nature of the UK’s capital.
Below: Entrance of The Resident Soho, surrounded by trendy jazz clubs and West End stages.
Opposite: David Orr, CEO of Resident Hotels.
Resident Hotel
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