As owners become increasingly engaged in their hospitality investments, Jen Barnwell is in a position to offer advice. As President of Curator Hotel & Resort Collection—a collective of lifestyle hotels working together to compete with bigger players—she regularly interfaces with a diversity of management teams and property owners.
Savvy owners understand that the cost to acquire new audiences has become a tax. The ability to win new travelers becomes more expensive each year, and the industry must constantly reacquire travelers. But with the right approach, marketing can actually be an investment that reduces costs over time.
The following is a collection of essential knowledge Jen feels owners need to lean into changing roles, and effectively lead teams toward growth and improved profitability.
Contributors
Senior Creative Strategist, Flip.to
An owner's role as the connector of their team
One of the biggest challenges in hospitality is teams who become siloed within their business units. Lack of cross-team communication leads to a focus on costs, instead of a real-time look at the return on each investment. For instance, when a marketing initiative is particularly successful, the team should quickly invest more than what was budgeted to reap as much return as possible. But that requires leadership to connect the dots weekly instead of quarterly, and to highlight action items across teams for faster implementation. Being that connector will ultimately create a more resilient and more profitable management team.
Reframe the thinking around marketing and audience growth
Marketing has been traditionally seen as a cost center—a continual sunk cost spent on re-acquiring audience month after month. Jen and her team at Curator have shifted that thinking. Instead, they treat audience acquisition as an upfront investment that evolves into cost savings over time. The goal is to move away from renting an audience and toward owning it—increasing profitability and controlling your destiny.
Selling time and experiences over selling a room
Hospitality isn’t a commodity. It’s a people business, and people travel for experiences. Once a traveler has chosen your destination, they want to understand how they’ll fill their limited time. If you give more reasons to stay—centered around the experiences and the property’s local community—they’ll not only view you as a great host, but they’ll give you more of their precious time.
Never miss a renewal: A better way to track and manage vendor T+C's
The evolution of niches within the hospitality space and the vendors that compete for them have led to a mind-boggling number of terms and conditions hoteliers must keep tabs on. This is especially important for decision making around renewals, where small mistakes and poor timing can lead to greater costs. The team at Curator has created a tool to help management teams and owners stay aware of renewals and better time decision making.
The secret to a great guest experience: A happy and engaged hospitality team
Your hospitality team is as important as your guests. After all, they are your front lines, and their engagement (or lack thereof) will inevitably shape the guest experience. A happy team makes happy guests, so if you help your team better navigate challenges and provide needed solutions, they will be better able to serve your guests.
To brand or be independent: A question many owners face
At some point in your journey, you may face a fork in the road—to brand or compete as an independent. The former offers economies of scale and access to the types of teams independents find beyond reach. Though, remaining independent allows a greater degree of creativity and flexibility that brands can’t match. That’s where Curator—under Jen’s leadership—affords independent hotels economies of scale, vendor insight and access to information, yet affords properties the ability to retain the identity owners have toiled to build.
I want to thank Jen Barnwell of Curator Hotel & Resort Collection for giving us another great Thought Starter. If you liked this video, be sure to check out some of our other Thought Starters.