NATIONAL REPORT— How do boutique hotels, which typically compete among “big-box hotels,” get the message about their product out in a competitive environment? Managers on both the corporate and property levels are finding that the trick is getting their employees to buy into the “story” of the hotel itself. O. Jon Afredi, GM for the Crowne Plaza Atlanta-Buckhead, thinks nothing of piling his entire sales staff into a van and touring them around town to visit their competitive “style” set. It’s a practice he used as GM of the W Atlanta, and one which he used recently when joining the boutique-style Crowne Plaza. After each of these field trips, he said, his sales force enjoyed a better understanding of what was unique about its hotel, and was better able to go out and relay that difference to customers. “You have to believe in your product, and be proud of it,” said Afredi. “And you have to have a story to sell. If you have those three things, you can sell dirt for gold.” Another tip Afredi offered was for those in leadership positions to communicate their vision to their staff. “I work with every one of the 150 members of my team here [to communicate]what my vision and mission are. And I don’t make it difficult. I walk the talk with them, and they enjoy that factor.” The Kimpton Group, a company well ensconced in the boutique hotel industry, similarly gets involved with its properties at a grass roots level in order to drive home a vision. “We sit in the hotels and talk to the sales staff about who we are, and how we can play that to leverage our customers,” said Christine Lawson, Kimpton vp/hotel sales, who said that that strategy plays well in competing against branded properties. But while that effort takes involvement from corporate, when it comes to its boutique hotels developing a personality, or a “story,” Kimpton takes a different tact. In that arena, Kimpton prefers that its hotels develop their own identities by responding to their localized environments and by letting GMs and staff evolve the personality of the hotel as they start working together. “Each product as it grows takes on a life of its own. We inspire that,” she said, noting that there is no real science to the process. When the time comes for the sales force of each property to go out on the road to sell, they are encouraged to talk about what the hotel is all about, and to make sure they are selling the “caché” of the property, she said. This is especially important in San Francisco, she noted, where Kimpton sells not only against branded giants, but against other boutiques as well. To combat the downturn wrought by the terrorist attacks, Kimpton again went to a corporate strategy of rolling out promotions, but insisted that in using the program, each hotel communicate its own identity. “The only thing that comes from corporate is, ‘Don’t forget who we are,’” she said. In questioning whether boutiques or chains are better able to survive a downturn, Chip Conley, founder/CEO, Joie de Vivre Hospitality, noted “the chief advantages of the chain are customer familiarity with the brand and the ability to drive business to the hotel through the chain’s central reservations operation. In a down economy, these are powerful weapons compared to the independent hotel that may not have any larger organization helping them fill rooms.” The boutique hotel, however, can create an intense customer loyalty, especially since these properties can serve as “mirrors for their customers,” he said. “Boutiques are magnets for people’s aspirations as well as… a form of entertainment in today’s experience economy,” said Conley. Plus, boutique hotels can use their personality to gain attention by using their themes to launch events and packages, he said. One Joie de Vivre property, the Hotel Bijou, for example, created a “holiday film festival,” while another hotel, the Archbishops Mansion, located near the San Francisco Opera House, created an “Opera Lover’s”
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