Breakers Resort Strategizes With NYU Tisch Students

NEW YORK— With the NYU International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference getting under way here this weekend, the industry is focused on networking and deal making. Yet the Conference’s sponsor, NYU’s Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism, and Sports Management, is known the rest of the year for programming that brings students and industry leaders together with productive, mutually-beneficial results. In one such program, students in a strategy class worked with The Breakers Resort in Palm Beach, FL, on developing ways the historic luxury property could elevate the experience for VIP guests. “One suggestion that was implemented entailed creating a personalized VIP service that would work in advance with these typically repeat guests to plan their stay and to ensure that everything on property was set once they arrived,” said faculty member Dr. Jukka Laitamaki. Students also learned about the importance of the group market to the resort and were asked their ideas about creating greater customer loyalty among meeting planners, a key constituency. As a result of student input, conference services managers at the 526-room resort have begun sending trip preparation packages to meeting planner VIPs a week before their scheduled arrival on property. Included in the kit are such useful items as energy bars and vitamin C packets as well as an iTunes gift card. The objective is to start The Breakers experience for these guests before they actually interface with the property, according to John Bradway, who’s director of innovation management at the resort and was the Tisch students’ primary contact. Given that the students were mostly representative of the Gen Y demographic group, the resort was especially interested in their input from an age perspective. One suggestion, Bradway noted, concerned teenage guests, whom students felt were underserved by resorts generally, especially compared to all the programming directed to younger children. Students, many of whom plan hospitality careers on site at hotels and resorts, suggested The Breakers create teen-only lounge areas and schedule teen-focused events during peak holiday periods. In addition to seriously considering implementing these ideas, The Breakers is in the process of building a teen My Space Web page to increase its appeal to this target group.