WHAT WILL RELEVANCE LOOK LIKE AFTER COVID?

Hotels Magazine

By: Jeff Weinstein 

If – and it remains a big if – society is truly transforming the way it works, conducts business and plays, hoteliers must work very hard to reinvent their products to engage nomads, “bleisure” guests, multi-gen travelers and next-gen travelers who are increasingly living and working on their terms.

It won’t necessarily be easy because for the foreseeable future you are going to have to reinvent while reducing costs to manage labor and inflation challenges. Certainly, technology for back-of-the-house solutions and customer-facing opportunities will play a big role, but unless you have an open checkbook it will take time and a lot of money to implement these changes just to remain relevant and engaging. Yes, engagement is going to be the key.

At the same time, you might want to consider how to best react to news that 70,000-employee strong Salesforce is scaling back its office footprint and developing its own 75-acre, 140-room resort in Scotts Valley, California, that will serve as a training, meeting and events venue. It will also serve as a retreat with opportunities for yoga, hiking and other experiences. While the hotel space is being developed, it is still expected to host 10,000 employees this year.

Yes, 2022 might be a rebound year for the hotel world, but bigger picture you must consider news like Saleforce’s as well as the other consumer behavior shifts that have been accelerated due to the pandemic. Two such companies I am watching are Selina and Ennismore, both lifestyle players with a bit of an edge. See the links to the left to read features on each company recently presented on hotelsmag.com.

Selina is converting tired, underperforming hotels into something a little left of center in great global locations that increase revenue on average 2.4 times without having to reach into its pocket for much more than pre-opening costs.

Selina Founder Rafael Museri and his team created technology that he says identifies the best distressed opportunities in a given market. Then, they go directly to those landlords, negotiate leases and close deals without brokers. Even better for Selina, about 90% of the funding to convert properties comes from local real estate partners.

Selina also partners with local artisans, who embed a local cultural influence to create destinations that combine the comfort and style of a boutique hotel with coworking facilities and the social experiences of a retreat or festival. Museri says it drives significant increases in revenue aided by that local connection that drives 61% of F&B revenue and generates strong social media engagement.

Selina has 144 open or secured properties across five continents (90 of which are fully operating). In December 2021 alone, it opened six properties and six additional locations soft-launched in Australia, Brazil, Panama and more. This represents the highest-volume month of openings in the company’s history, at a pace of three per week.

The other lifestyle mover to watch is multi-branded Ennismore, with a pipeline of more than 157 properties under brands that include SLS, Mondrian, 25hours, Mama Shelter, The Hoxton and TRIBE, among others.

“Lifestyle ecosystem” is the word co-CEO Guarav Bhushan uses to describe the positioning of hotels in the Ennismore portfolio. Not unlike Selina, a combination of creative F&B, a hyper-locally infused environment and amenities such as co-work are what makes the lifestyle platform special.

Certainly, Selina and Ennismore are not the only examples of forward-thinking approaches as a lot of capital is moving into a number of alternative lodging platforms. But as traditional hoteliers come out of this pandemic and before they get too busy maintaining the status quo, perhaps it is time to think about long-term relevance and the way they engage with guests.