STAYING IN HOTELS WHAT I LEARNED FROM

BY MARTIN KUBLER,

put for a bit and the only daily journey being from my house to the beach and back.

Traveling, whether for business or pleasure, isn’t just about moving from A to B and on to C for us hospitality folks, though, isn’t it? It’s also always a chance to see “how the other half lives”, what the competition is up to, and what’s new in hotels around the world.

Having just stayed in several hotels of different types in vastly different locations, here’s a little summary and story time of my personal observations. We’ll start with soap bars.

It forces you to shift into a slower gear and offer a chance to recharge.

I’ll be spending the summer in our house by the sea in Spain – not noticeable cooler than Dubai in July or August, but more laid back.

I just finished an intensive travel period with gigs in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Berlin, Munich, and Lisbon, so I’m looking forward to staying

Yes, soap bars. Odd things. I mean, it’s 2023, people are judging hotels by how Instagram-able they are, we’ve just been through a major pandemic, cost pressure is a thing and yet, soap bar are also still a thing. Perhaps it’s because I’m old, but I can’t help, but judge the quality of a hotel by the soap bars. It’s ridiculous, totally unsustainable, and shouldn’t be done anymore, but here I was walking into a place in the Algarve not having read up on the hotel beforehand at all. The car drops me off outside the hotel and first impressions are that it’s not the most modern of places, but service is good in an understated kind of way that you only get from top-end places. Duly noted. I enter my room and the bathroom to freshen up after the journey only to discover the most ridiculous oversized piece of hand soap by the sink. We’re talking half a kilo of soap wrapped in a very fancy wrapper. That’s a lot of soap for just washing your hands. To be blunt, it’s a ridiculous amount of soap. Nobody needs this much soap for three days, but I couldn’t help to be impressed. First impressions count, soap bars help to subsequently solidify them. Did I use it? No. Did I take it with me? You bet (if only to show the wife).

Next stop was one of the European capitals over what was a very busy public holiday weekend. I changed hotels lastminute trading a fairly high cost, internationally flagged and central location for a cheaper, independent and out of the centre location and I’m glad I did. I ended up staying in what was probably the cleverest hotel building and room I had stayed in for a long time. Check-in was automated and it actually worked, the room was good size and, get this, the toilet paper had a design printed on it that matched the wallpaper. Please do not accuse me of being swayed by bathroom-centric points, but the place was on the same level as an Ibis or Premier Inn, yet it screamed “personality” rather than “box”. Someone thought about every little detail here. Sure, it wasn’t half a kilo of soap by the sink, but if you’re checking into a place and you see that the toilet paper matches the wallpaper design you know that you’re in good hands and that you have nothing to worry about. Sure enough, this was the case here.

Same city, second stay, if you can call it a stay, because I only had about 8 hours between flights. I wanted to book a snooze cube at the airport, but they were all fully booked, so I did what we’d all do, sat in an airport café, opened booking.com and booked the cheapest place nearest to the airport. It was about 35 EUR. A quick 10 minutes Uber ride later and I’m there, but nobody else is. I mean, there’s no reception and no people. I call the number in my booking confirmation and a friendly voice on the other end of the line tells me I’ve been assigned room no. 3 and the door is open with the key in the look inside and could I please leave it like that when I leave. Okay. Automated check-in without technology. I found room no. 3. It was wild. I mean, it looked like a prison cell decorated by someone of psychedelic drugs. It had a ets on the wall near the bed. In about 2 meters height. There was a fridge in the bathroom, too, though – needless to say – no soap bar the size of an expensive steak. Guess what, though? It was quiet. The bed was comfortable. The Wifi was to connect to and worked. There was a vending machine for coffee and beer in the hallway. There were also, which I luckily only discovered when it was light the next morning, a bunch of skeleton statues with scythes on the roof of the building. Think Skeletor or violent Nordic hell beasts. Not sure, I’d have picked this place if I had seen these when I checked in.

Expensive soaps, skeletons, or toilet paper designs – there’s a lesson here for hoteliers. Nobody remembers “aver-

Building a hospitality brand can be a complex business. From matching capacity with demand to ensuring growth doesn’t come at the cost of quality, there are various factors that require careful consideration during this journey.

Nevertheless, with the right strategy, it is possible to scale operations without jeopardising the elements that led to your initial success.

Here are five priorities that should remain top of mind throughout the expansion process…

Understand your market

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You’re unlikely to succeed in establishing your niche unless you have a solid frame of reference, so researching your competition is equally important. Rather than trying to do everything, gauge what is currently being offered in the market and what is missing, and work out how to fill those gaps.