VTV - A webinar series from Vendella.

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VTV WEBINAR SERIES 2020

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Kia Ora Aotearoa! You are about to be immersed in the transcripts of our 2020 webinar series we know as VTV. As Covid-19 made its way to our shores in late February, we knew we had to do something to help those in the accommodation and tourism industries. So many people we knew were hurting, both financially and emotionally, and there was no way we were going to sit on our hands. UNIQUE TIMES CALL FOR UNIQUE SOLUTIONS In early lockdown during a team brainstorming session via Zoom, it was highlighted that a lot of clients wanted advice and ideas on how to survive our new environment. It was suggested we start our own interview series to deliver the opinions of well-rounded industry personalities to the wider hospitality sector. TALK ABOUT A LEARNING CURVE With absolutely no experience in interviewing or running webinars, we launched our first session and what a blast it was! So many great Kiwis were keen to offer their help and advice which saw the following 10 weeks fly by. With 195 registrants, 10 webinars, 232 minutes of conversation, 30,541 words, 1100 YouTube views (and counting!), the numbers spoke for themselves. MEMENTO OR ADVICE? Yes, this edition is based around the Covid pandemic but it contains many great ideas about business in general. Keep it as a memento, use it as light reading or delve into it for great business advice, the choice is yours. Keep strong, stay hungry. Luke.

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Index While this is a transcription of the webinar series, the videos are available to watch via the Vendella YouTube channel. Please find the QR Code on the back cover of this book to give you access to the full series. Grab a coffee and enjoy the ability to watch and read along!

TV ERIES 2020

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LES MORGAN - SUDIMA HOTELS

4

SALLY ATTFIELD - TIA

10

STEPHEN HAMILTON - HORWATH HTL

16

BRAD BURNETT - SKYCITY

24

RYAN SANDERS - HAKA TOURISM

32

NICK BLAKE - WHANGAREI TOP 10

42

SHARON MCGUIRE - ASURE

50

LINDSAY WALKER - POSHTEL

60

SARAH & TANIA - HOTEL MAGAZINE

70

THE GRAND FINALE

80

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30 APRIL | VTV WEBINAR SERIES

Les Morgan

Chief Operating Officer of Sudima Hotels & Hind Management The Group has an annual turnover in excess of $60m and employs over 500 people. Sudima Hotels currently is undergoing a significant expansion. The company is contracted to have in excess of 1,600 rooms under management by 2021. Les is a previous winner of the Westpac ‘Excellence in Leadership’. In 2018, he was awarded the ‘Senior Hotel Executive of the year’ and the recipient of TIA’s, ‘Industry Champion’.

Luke: Les, what do you see changing or becoming

at is just keeping an eye on new technology. I mean, I

new trends in the industry in the near future?

know none of us are in a position to afford anything at the moment but it’s something that probably needs

Les: Well that new technology will certainly shoot

to have more of your personal attention. I guess if

forward. I guess if you’re an accommodation provider,

you’ve been a person like me who’s somewhat at a

no matter from what sector of the accommodation

distance with that IT because I have a team of people

industry, that’s probably where you should be looking

around me, probably you can spend this time really

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES getting up to speed with that sort of stuff.

opportunity that Airbnb presents is more of that personal service. It always comes back to

I guess there’ll be a trend in that regard. And maybe

experiences. If you can offer a great experience no

our guests will have different expectations too.

matter what type of accommodation you provide,

We’ve really got to be driven by them. That’s

whether it’s a motor camp or a motel or an Airbnb, if

something we could probably all do a bit better is be

you’re doing that well I think there will always be a

better listeners, in terms of our guests, and

place for you.

potentially that’s the opportunity, really. I think previously we’ve been guilty of sort of imposing

I think what potentially might change though, Luke,

service standards and ideas on guests, what we think

especially in the short term, is that no matter where

is best. Maybe now it’s a good chance to reset that.

you stay as a guest, you’re going to want to see a certain standard of health and safety. Even if you’re a

Luke: From a supplier’s perspective there’ll be new

smaller operator you’re really going to have to give

opportunities or new concepts in the market for that

thought to how you’re going to accommodate people

whole contact list, stays, and that type of thing so it’s

safely. Probably more importantly, how you’re going

probably a good time to keep an eye out for new

to demonstrate that in advance. It might be a

developments in that space, do you think?

question of updating your imagery on your website, updating your information, because people are going

Les: Yeah, absolutely. I know Vendella leads the

to want that, now it’s going to be probably their first

industry with that sort of innovation so I think, yeah,

priority;

more regular updates from you guys is certainly welcomed and I guess from our point of view

"What’s the health and safety like in that accommodation facility?"

we’ve got to make sure that we attend more conferences and events to keep up to speed. Luke: Just jumping sideways to Airbnb for a moment, obviously that’s quite a personalised stay and the whole pitch of that Airbnb space was not that clean, corporate, feel, it was more of a homestay. What’s your thoughts with that’s going to happen to that? From a guest’s perspective? Les: That will be interesting. Obviously, Airbnb is under real pressure like us as well, and I feel for those people because they have mortgages and investments which is really difficult. I mean I hope they wouldn’t change, there’s a place for Airbnb. Maybe because things will be contactless and there’ll

Luke: Definitely. Just on that point, we’ve had that

be more technology in hotels, potentially that

similar discussion with Marty and myself, because we

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES service the whole country we’re chomping at the bit

problem. Probably the lesson we’re going to have to

to get out there again, we’ve got all these customers

hopefully learn from the GFC is that there was no

that we’re talking to and we want to see them, but

investment post-GFC in tourism infrastructure for

our first thought is if we’re going to stay somewhere,

obvious reasons, for financial reasons, but there

how safe is it to stay. What’s their standards? What’s

was no big-picture thinking from the Government

their cleaning schedules? All that kind of stuff.

around that. Then all of a sudden not only did we get

Which is a thing we never thought of before but

back to previous levels, we burst through that and

because we all go out for a week and then come back

then we couldn’t cope. We had so many people we

to a week with our families, we don’t want to bring in

couldn’t cope. I don’t think for a moment we had

something from some other part of the country. It’s

over-tourism, that word is wrongly used. We

definitely high on the agenda for us when we go to

certainly had choke points, no question, but those

travel now. How do you think, as far as if we go back

choke points were largely because we just didn’t

to the GFC, 2008, do you think that built some

foresee this growth. I guess what we’ve got to do

resilience or some preparedness for this type of thing

now on this occasion is somehow put our heads

to happen? Or do you think we may have been

together and anticipate that because in four-or five-

floating on a bit of a high for a while and maybe got a

years’ time hopefully things will be back to where

little bit slack or ‘enjoying the ride’?

they are. But we also know that through any recovery the upside is even greater, so I don’t know,

Les: I can only speak for ourselves, the answer to

potentially welcoming five million visitors a year now

that was absolutely not. I mean the lessons of the

or were, that could easily be ten million within the

GFC were still fresh in our minds. But imagine if you

space of two or three years. Obviously we need to be

were a person maybe new to the industry or you’re a

careful with that but it would be great, wouldn’t it, to

younger person and you hadn’t experienced that in a

be in a position where we could welcome them

work sense and maybe you didn’t get all the lessons,

safely, securely, and do so without harming the

but certainly from my point of view we were very

environment unnecessarily and having all the

conscious of keeping costs down and keeping our

infrastructure in place. That would be great.

structures to a minimum. Especially in our case because we’re expanding quickly. What we were anxious to do is not bring our costs up unnecessarily. We certainly had those lessons in mind. The GFC is probably a good benchmark because it was a long recovery but we were helped with a couple of major events; the Rugby World Cup really helped because that brought us all back to a really good level of business, but more importantly it forced the country to undergo infrastructure at a quick pace to be prepared. So that somewhat helped the recovery. But of course, this is a whole different level of a

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES That’s probably the lesson from the GFC, I think, is to

your recovery in terms of your plans and maybe

try and prepare ourselves for that recovery. I know

unfortunately with staffing levels, maybe with capital

that seems a long way off and it is a long way off.

investment too, just to be conservative until you can genuinely see some recovery. I think that’s probably

Luke: You’ve got to plan for it because those type of

an important lesson, just be cautious.

plans take a long time to put in place too.

However, to answer your question more succinctly, I

Les: Yeah, I think so, yes.

think domestic tourism is going to be very poor in the

Luke: It’s now we need to think about it. What’s your thoughts on the bounce-back period?

next 12 to 18 months. But there’s one big ‘if’. If we can have a free and open border with Australia then that’s a game changer for our tourism. But let’s break that down, without that open border and people still facing the 14-day managed isolation stay, then I see

"Australians typically spend about 2.7 billion dollars in New Zealand."

things being very poor. Domestic tourism mainly takes place during the school holidays so what do tourism providers and accommodation providers do for the other nine months of the year? It’s not feasible, for instance, in our case to have a hotel in Rotorua closed for three or four months and then open for two weeks. It just doesn’t work. That being said, if we can achieve this Australian solution – and this is enormous. Australians typically spend about two-point-seven billion dollars in New Zealand on a per annum basis. Australians around the world on tourism spend something like fifty-

Les: I’m reasonably pessimistic and largely I – I

seven billion dollars. If they’re unable to travel to

attended a webinar a couple of weeks ago and I

other destinations and New Zealand is kind of their

listened to a gentleman who operated a tourism

only option, it could be enormous for us, it could

business post-the Christchurch earthquakes and he

actually be better than it was. I know those are all

said something really important; and that’s that he

‘ifs’ and ‘maybes’, that’s the tourism sector and I

was too optimistic in the recovery from a commercial

count that domestic tourism as including Australians

point of view. Because tourist people tend to be, we

in that scenario. But without that Australian solution I

tend to be optimistic, accommodation providers,

just think things are going to be really, really

we’re entrepreneurial in spirit, we always see the

challenging. You have to remember that with that

upside. And the danger with that is you hold costs or

border closed for potentially 12 to 18 months then it

build things anticipating the recovery and it just

just really shuts everything off for us.

takes longer than you think. I think it’s better to be somewhat pessimistic and just be cautious with

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The other thing, there are a lot of people – and a lot

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES of people listening today – who have suffered

of how to move forward?

financial hardship and I know in my own family’s situation we’re suffering a financial, not ‘hardship’, I

Les: I think we’ve got to talk to each other. I’m

should point out, but we’ve certainly taken a

thankful that you’ve started this webinar series, I

significant loss of income. We’re not in a position

think it’s great. As an industry we’ve got to do more,

now to consider a holiday, and even if we were, I

more of that. The fact is we’ve been through a really,

don’t know that we would because we want to be

really difficult four or five weeks and I know we seem

conservative because we don’t know what the future

to be getting on top of the health situation, but the

holds. I think that’s the other thing is that people

biggest crisis is the economic one that’s ahead of us

may be a bit cautious. I know eight percent of the

and that’s not easy. It’s not easy personally to think

economy is doing okay so let’s hope that that eight

about the future because of all the challenges it’s got.

percent need a good break and want to go out

But the one thing I think we can do is rely on each

and do things.

other and encourage each other. That’s really important. And as people with small businesses and

Luke: I read the other day in the Accom magazine

big businesses, we’re all in similar situations, we’re

someone was posting saying there’s going to be this

under stress, one thing we can do is talk to each

massive influx of people once they get out of their

other, support each other, maybe share ideas. That

lockdown they’re going to be tearing around the

would be my key piece of advice.

country, and you wonder, in lockdown you probably had the time to think about ‘wouldn’t it be great to go to Queenstown or the likes’, Queenstown’s quite close to where I live so it’s quite attractive, and there won’t be so many people there so all of a sudden you’ll be able to experience it in a different light. But, when you stop and think about it, when we’re out of lockdown we’re pretty keen to get back to work pretty quick, so those ideas of a lovely family trip away quickly start to evaporate when you think of how it’s actually going to work. We’ve been in reduced capacity in the workplace for the last four to

"I guess that leads to the question around pricing."

five weeks so we need to make up that ground first before we think about going away. As you say, it’s

Luke: That’s brilliant. We are in this industry, we’re

probably mindful for any people online today to bear

an industry of people and we’re quite, when we travel

that in mind, that any talk around huge numbers after

around people are very personable, so it’s one

this of Kiwis travelling may not eventuate.

strength that we do have in this industry where we can actually get along together really good, people

We’re coming close to our 15 minutes, I’m just

are willing to talk, people are willing to help out

mindful of everybody’s time. What one piece of

where they can. As you say, a good time to make the

advice would you give to the callers on the line today

most of that, some industries wouldn’t be so

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES forthcoming I imagine with that kind of conversation.

Les: I guess the fundamentals don’t change, if I’m after a cheaper option they’ve always been available.

We’ve got a question coming through: Would you be

But if I wanted to be in a quality environment you

offering corporate deals within your company to

have to be prepared to pay for that.

launch back into it? Luke: That’s great. Well, we’ve done 20 minutes Les Les: Yeah, I guess that leads to the question around

and so I really appreciate your time, appreciate you

pricing and how that’s going to be in the future. I

coming on, and likewise for all those that have joined

mean we will obviously try and have the lowest price

us. We are going to run these every Thursday at

we can and offer the best value, but we’ve always

10am. We’ve got some other panellists lined up,

tried to do that. Especially in a hotel there are fixed

industry experts, so make sure to join us next week

costs and so the price can’t go below a certain level. It just costs a lot to own a hotel, pay the mortgage,

But again, Les, thank you very much for your time,

let alone maintain it. The truth is that the operating

appreciate it, and you set a very high standard in this

cashflows from hotels are generally pretty thin, what

country for accommodation, you’ve done a great job

owners do is they use that cash to either pay their

there at Sudima, so keep it up and we’ll chat again.

principle or their interest back on their loans. Our businesses are reasonably marginal. Certainly in the

Les: Thanks Luke. If anyone’s got questions that they

last couple of years when business was pretty good

think I can answer I’m happy to do that, if people

we’ve seen profits improve but you have to remember

want to email me or call me I’m happy to talk things

we came off about ten years of a pretty lean period

through if you think I can add some value, great. I

so I don’t think our prices have been too

don’t know that I can, and I’m uncomfortable to be

extraordinary, I think they’ve been fair. Certainly now

called an ‘expert’ but I’m grateful for your time.

though we’ll probably look, so how do we deliver a better price, it might be a question of maybe

Luke: We’ve always found you very willing to help,so

sacrificing some services, maybe that’s how hotels

any callers on the chat today, as Les says, he’s a

will adapt, maybe there’s not restaurant or bars,

wealth of knowledge – well, you didn’t say that

maybe it’s all purely room service. The other thing

yourself but I’ll say that on your behalf, Les. Brilliant,

we haven’t touched on is I see us maybe contracting

thank you very much. See you again soon. Thanks

out a lot of services in the future within the hotel.

everybody.

We will need to be attractive in terms of pricing but we’ll also need to be adding really good value.

Les: Great, thank you.

Luke: And that links back nicely to what you started

Luke: Bye.

off this session with was around it’s the guest

experience and if the guests aren’t asking for a restaurant and bar but they prefer a cheaper stay, that’s being in touch with the guests isn’t it, and finding out what’s most valuable to them.

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7 MAY | VTV WEBINAR SERIES

Sally Attfield

Hotel Sector Manager at Tourism Industry Aotearoa Having worked in the logistics industry in both NZ and offshore in senior roles for 20 years, Sally was tempted back to NZ to work on Rugby World Cup 2011. Joining TIA in March 2014 provided Sally with the opportunity to develop the hotel relationships she made during the RWC. Sally spends lots of time meeting with hotel sector members, updating them on TIA initiatives and finding out what TIA can do to support them. In 2020, Sally was elected President of Skål NZ, a global organisation of travel and tourism professionals. Sally: I think what’s going to be important for

story, that you let people know, because as I say, we

operators as well is this is going to be about

are going to need to build trust and confidence that

conveying, building trust and confidence so that

we can look after people. And so the heightened

operators are providing a safe environment for the

cleaning, all those sorts of things, and particularly

people to actually come into, and we still want to

perhaps more regular cleaning around those public

convey that feeling of hospitality. So, it’s important

spaces is certainly going to need to continue for the

as operators, I think, that you’re actually telling that

foreseeable future.

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES I'm sure many operators have obviously taken this

Continued engagements and partnerships within your

opportunity to continue and maintain the

own communities and that is going to be critical. I

relationships that they have and there’s perhaps been

mean, one good thing that could come out of this is

the opportunity to pick up the phone and talk to

that we could see that a lot more local Mayors have

people one-on-one rather than often we all get lots

become more aware of the vitality that tourism and

of emails. And it is going to be important that we

hospitality actually brings to their local community.

remember the existing customers and our suppliers, I

There could be some good opportunities to actually

mean they’re all critical as well for our continued

engage and draw on that. And again, combined with

survival. There are those things to do.

that, regrettably with a number of businesses that have gone into hibernation and closures, it is

I guess I would say also don’t be silly about pricing.

going to be important to be across what businesses

There are going to be a lot of people that aren’t

and what attractions and what is available actually in

going to be able to afford to travel so dropping prices

your region now. But that’s part of the messaging too,

isn’t necessarily going to encourage them to come

is moving away from ‘book now’ to about

either. I think probably in terms of each segment

encouraging people particularly in the leisure market

returning, the way that will occur is obviously going

to dream about that future break and actually think

to be relative to the lifting of the restrictions for their

about that. But again, I think above all it’s being

own businesses and also their ability to spend as

transparent, it’s being compassionate, and we all

well. There are probably opportunities here to look

need to work collaboratively here because the

at segments and maybe invent segments that

recovery is going to take all of us and it’s going to

perhaps weren’t part of your traditional business and

take planning and it’s going to take action. It is about

it will be thinking about why should those people

us all working together and there isn’t going to be

actually come to you and how do you then

one single solution.

communicate that to people. Luke: It’s very true what you say, I don’t think there’s

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any denying that the scene is going to look quite different to what it did two or three months ago. No one’s denying that. So, it’s adapting to that and our approach to our industry as a provider, an accommodation provider, may look quite different so we have to be open to what that might look like. Our guest split could be quite different, those events and that that you talked about. I’m not a professional in this space so I’m not giving any advice but we do talk to a lot of clients and that’s just the feedback that we’re getting. It’s good. Australia? What’s the situation there? Sally: Australia. Obviously – and I’m sure everyone

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES on this will have seen – there’s more and more talk

Luke: It’s a hard one but at the same time it gives us

about that trans-Tasman bubble. Obviously, the

such a brilliant opportunity to get out and, and

Governments are talking and there is a strong desire

actually visit this country that we’re so blessed to live

on both sides of the Tasman to get that up and

in. People from all around the world come to see our

running. After all, virtually about one-point-five

country and so often Kiwis are so keen to go

million of our international visitors to New Zealand

elsewhere, which I suppose is natural, right, you

are from Australia and while a lot of those will be

always want to go somewhere else, but we’re so

visiting friends and family, they still, when they come

blessed to live in this beautiful country. If we’ve got

here they eat out, they do things, and I think that’s

a little bit of downtime or our workload isn’t quite so

part of the story as well, isn’t it. Because by people

demanding as what it should be, it’s such a brilliant

travelling in whatever sense that is actually people

time to get out and see it ourselves.

are then spending money and that is creating jobs or enabling people to stay in jobs. Therefore by

Sally: It is interesting, Luke, because you allude to

travelling you’re actually doing something good for

that issue of, I think anywhere in the world people

the respective community.

view spend on domestic travel quite differently from the way they do on international. There are many

Luke: And we did touch on it earlier before this call, the sub-bubble with Tasmania. Sally: Yes, Winston seems very keen on that. I was supposed to be going to Tasmania for Easter for ten days so I’d be quite happy to see them up and running. Luke: That’s good. I mean, the ski season’s right in

Kiwis that were intending to do overseas trips this

front of us which obviously brings a lot of

year so, as you’ve alluded to, we have a beautiful

Australians. So timing’s going to be critical here.

country, how do we get them, for those that are still

What’s your thoughts around that?

able to, to take that trip in New Zealand? Tourism New Zealand have been tasked with that domestic

Sally: Yeah. I don’t know. I think there are some

tourism piece and we’ll look at what sort of messages

saying that realistically it may not be until the

are coming out from them in the coming days and

September/October holidays before we get

weeks because that will be obviously critical to that

something happening there. I think we, yeah, these

recovery.

decisions are, at the moment, in the hands of others but obviously as TIA we’re continuing to lobby for the

Luke: Yeah, it is, yeah. I mean it’s probably a side

importance for that. I know perhaps in Queenstown

note but my family and I, I’ve got three little children

at the moment they’re probably seeing the ski season

as I said before, and we drove from Hastings down to

as being very much a local one.

Timaru over a couple of days, but those things like on the ferry and stopping off at different things. The

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES kids remember it, they’ve got photos and they always

extension, so any announcement, as we understand,

talk about their time on the boat and that kind of

is likely to be in next week’s Budget. I guess the

stuff. It’s all those little memories that you actually

messages coming out from Government have been

take forward with you into your adulthood that you

perhaps about more targeted support rather than just

love and it shows that country that we live in.

a general extension to that 12-week wage subsidy. We’ve also been lobbying for reduced Government fees as well, whether it be DoC, Department of

"We’re laidback, we’re relaxed, but we’re still caring and professional."

Conservation, Aviation, Maritime, all those sorts of fees, and we know from operators as well that the rent relief is also, relief from those fixed costs has actually been a key issue and there possibly hasn’t been as much, particularly in the rent relief space, as we would have liked to have seen. We know some landlords have been great and others less so. I think next week’s Budget we will see, and our sense is as well that there will start to be a series of announcements as well. There will be some things in next week’s Budget and then continued announcements over time. Luke: You touched on it but there’s another question

Sally: And often those memories are not just about

come through: Any news on Government support for

things, they’re about the people and the experiences and the great service and the hospitality and Kiwis as Kiwis. We’re laidback, we’re relaxed, but we’re still

those with commercial leases? I mean, obviously that’s, people in rented properties that’s one thing that’s not changing. Any thoughts there?

caring and professional and we’re proud of our country and it’s continuing to be so and to provide

Sally: No, there probably hasn’t been enough specific

that to our guests wherever they’re from.

movement on that one [inaudible] aware whether it’s rent or equipment lease, obviously for some

Luke: That’s very right. We have got a few questions

attractions as well they have had big tie-ups in

coming in, have you got a moment to touch on some

equipment that there still hasn’t been the level of

of these?

support or relief that we’ve perhaps seen offered in other countries around the world.

Sally: Yes

Luke: Yeah, sure. That’s good. There’s another one –

Luke: Do TIA expect the Government to extend the

we’ll wrap it up soon – around, we’ve probably

Wage Subsidy?

alluded to it a bit, South Korea, Taiwan, some of those countries that their numbers are shown to be

Sally: We’ve certainly been pushing for clarity on that

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES really low, extending our bubble to them? I suppose

of those. We had seen Queenstown talking about a

Australia’s the first one to get in the bag then we can

bed tax, that’s gone away for the moment but there’s

look further afield.

no doubt those conversations around local Government funding for some of the tourism

Sally: Yeah. And other markets are obviously going to

infrastructure are still relevant. We had seen a

be dependent on that air capacity and those links.

growth in short-term accommodation operators and

Prior to this we obviously had a significant number of

there’s opportunities here for, again, everyone

airlines flying into New Zealand and a lot of those

working together to fix some of those things. The

obviously aren’t currently, so any extension of long-

sustainability message is still going to be important,

haul is completely dependent on that air capacity.

not just environmental but economic sustainability.

But it is a good point that there are other markets out

And again, that community engagement as well.

there and I imagine that will be, the flow on will be based on those other countries also having this virus

Luke: It’s interesting you touch on that because that’s

under control. Because again, what we can’t have is

often been a pet bug bear of mine is people talk

even when borders do start to open up is you can’t

about sustainability in a sense of purely

have people having to isolate or quarantine for 14

environmental, whereas sustainability is economics, if

days at either end because suddenly there’s a month

you haven’t got it you can’t do the other half.

and that’s not practical. Sally: Absolutely. We’re all, regrettably, experiencing Luke: Talking about airlines, I don’t think anyone

that at the moment.

would want Greg’s job at Air New Zealand at the moment. If you want a rough start to a job.

Luke: Exactly, yeah. That’s great, Sally, I really appreciate your time. We’ve done a few minutes

Sally: Yeah, and even Dame Therese Walsh coming in

over, and really appreciate everyone coming on, a

as Chair as well. You know, in other organisations

good number on today. We will be back Thursday

out there, New Zealand Rugby have laid off 50% of

next week, 10am, with a new guest speaker but at

their staff, Mark Robertson is the new CE there, has

this point in time, thank you, Sally, really appreciate

walked into that. It’s challenging times across the

your time.

entire economy, yep. It’s vague, there’s not going to be one single solution that’s going to wave the magic

Sally: Thank you.

wand and fix this, it will take some time.

Luke: That’s very true. Sally: We will get back, we know that. It will look different and this is an opportunity, some of the challenges that the industry was perhaps having out there, this is an opportunity to perhaps address some

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7 MAY | VTV WEBINAR SERIES

Stephen Hamilton Director at Horwath HTL

Stephen jointly established the specialist tourism and leisure consulting practice, Horwath HTL in 2002. With 30 years consulting experience in the NZ tourism industry, Stephen has also undertaken engagements in Australia, Fiji and the Cook Islands. Stephen assists lenders, investors, funding sponsors, and developers in both the public and private sectors, with the ability to ascertain what financial and market analysis will be of most benefit. Stephen’s service lines include market demand analysis, financial feasibility analysis, market research, economic impact analysis and strategy development. Luke: Hello everybody. Welcome to our third VTV.

which is part of a global network of consulting firms.

With us today is Stephen Hamilton. Introducing

We specialise in the hotels and hospitality industry in

Stephen. Stephen, thanks for your time. Can you

particular, but also in the wider tourism and leisure

give us a brief outline of who you are and what you

sector. In New Zealand our business is probably

do?

around about forty percent to do with hotels and sixty percent to do with the rest of the tourism

Stephen: Okay, sure. I’m director of Horwath HTL

industry, and probably two thirds private sector to -

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES three quarters private sector work and about one

Stephen: Well, yes, this was jointly with HTL and TIA

quarter for Local Government, not so much Central

and Horwath HTL has undertaken a number of these

Government but Local Government, and that’s to do

surveys around the world over the past few weeks,

with their involvement in facilities, conference

the closest one to us here in New Zealand was

centres, theatres, entertainment, sport and

undertaken in Australia, and we’re going to be

entertainment centres and things like that.

working on one with Fiji in the coming week. Here's just some headline information from the survey, it is

Luke: A lot of the work you do is in consulting and

hotel specific but some other accommodation

that space?

providers might find it interesting by comparison. Luke and Alberta will be able to share a copy of the

Stephen: That’s right, yep. We do consulting work,

report that is attached to this with you later on today.

we do a lot of forecasting but we don’t provide valuation services and we don’t do brokerage. In that

"40% were completely closed, 20% were completely operational."

sense we are pretty well more purely a consultancy company. Luke: Sure, brilliant. Stephen’s just be sharing with me some of their latest research that you’ve been doing the past week, which thankfully he’s willing to share with us today. Stephen: Sure. Luke, I thought just briefly just share a little bit of information from the hotel sentiment survey that we undertook last week and was published on Monday this week and was, I note, referred to by Chris Roberts from TIA – we did this jointly with TIA – in his submissions to the Pandemic

Firstly, we asked what was the status of the hotels at

Response Committee at Parliament this week and I

the time that we undertook the survey last week and

understand that the Minister of Tourism also referred

40% were completely closed, 20% were completely

to this research in Parliament, or to that committee.

operational, and the other 40% were either doing

I’ll just share a few bits of information from it and

quarantine work for the Government or were only

then have some discussion, perhaps, after that. I’m

partly operating. However, quite a few were

just going to attempt to screenshare here and we’ll

expecting to close over the next few months, and

take it from there.

there’s still some discussion about hotels needing to make decisions about potentially closing down over

Luke: Sounds good. You were saying that this

winter, mothballing, effectively, to try and minimise

information hasn’t really been put out by any other

cash burn. Some 13% expecting to be closed into

bodies or anything, this is purely exclusive to

next year as well, and we’ve seen some media reports

yourselves?

to do with that.

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES In terms of impact on employment, only 8% of

In terms of expectations of recovery between

employees had been let go as of about last week but

domestic and international market segments,

with another 48% expected to be let go in coming

hoteliers were expecting corporate domestic demand

weeks. I think whatever is in the Budget this

to be the fastest to recover, followed closely by

afternoon will probably have quite a big impact on

domestic leisure market, less so to do with meetings

this. A lot of advocacy from the Tourism industry to

and conferences. I see that the convention industry

Government to continue with the Wage Support

is making quite strong submissions to Government to

Scheme. That potentially might mitigate some of this

try and relax and allow for some part of the business

expected employment loss. This is employment

events sector to come back to life in Level 2. We’re

across fulltime, part time, and casual employees.

not so sure about the domestic corporate market with everybody having got used to, over the past seven

Luke: Just on that point there, Stephen, like you say,

weeks, to working from home and using technology,

48% likely to be let go, what’s the total number of

there might be perceived to be a little bit less need

staff in that sector?

for domestic corporate travel and therefore it might be a little bit slower to come back than domestic

Stephen: In the major hotels, which are the TIA

leisure. This also might reflect that domestic leisure

member hotels, the total employment is around

may be pivoted not so much towards hotel demand

about 12,000 and there’s an estimate of non-TIA

but motel and Airbnb and other forms of private and

hotels total employment is probably in the range of

commercial accommodation, and of course visiting

15- to 20,000. But that includes part time and casual

friends and family, staying in private accommodation

employment, so I’ve got a bit of information later on

even though they’re travelling round the country and

in terms of how the job losses might be across

spending on visitor activities and attractions, perhaps

fulltime and part time employment. But it’s a big

supporting some wineries, etcetera, not necessarily

number. Not as big as in the whole of the Tourism

filling the hotel rooms in the minds of some of the

industry of course, and then in other accommodation

hoteliers. That sentiment will be affecting the

sectors there’ll be a lot of working proprietors, for

decisions about whether to mothball some hotel

example in the motel industry as well.

rooms, or partially close wings of hotels.

In terms of the outlook over a two year period, we asked what proportion of the hotels believed that their business would have returned to 2019 levels within 24 months. Interestingly, 73% believe that in two years’ time they’ll still be not trading at the level of 2019. 50% of respondents believe that the Covid will still be impacting on the hotels’ operating performance in one- to two years’ time, 38% believe it will still be impacting on them in two- to five years’ time. Our view is that that is a pretty realistic view.

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES You can see that in the international bars there at the

support, cashflow, and trying to minimise cash-burn.

bottom of the chart, international corporate and leisure slower to come back and the slowest will be

That’s the survey results at the moment there, Luke,

international meetings and conferences.

and happy to answer any questions.

In terms of what measures have hotels taken or will

Luke: That’s good, brilliant. For anyone that’s just

be soon taking to reduce the financial impact of

joined since we started, Stephen’s going to kindly

Covid, pretty well everybody’s, of course, applied for

share that with us and we’ll be sending out those

the Government Wage Subsidy which is what you

slides to all attendees and those registered, we’ve got

would expect. Followed by significantly cutting into

about 120. That’s valuable information for

operating cost reductions and reducing head count.

everybody.

You can see that almost 80% of hotels have been or are going to be reducing the part time head count but

A couple of questions that have come through.

only very slightly fewer, 75% of hotels expecting also

What’s your opinion on the fact that people are

to be reducing fulltime head count. That’s slightly

making noises about discounting pricing to increase

concerning because clearly fulltime employment in

demand?

the hotel industry is something that we’ve been working, really striving really hard to build up over

Stephen: Sure, it’s a very good question. If

the past five-to ten years to try and create

demand is low and if occupancies are going to be

sustainable fulltime employment in the hotel

lower than they would have otherwise been, it

industry and career paths for Kiwis. So, for 75% of

doesn’t necessarily make complete sense to take a hit

hotels to be considering cutting fulltime staff is quite

in both occupancy and rate. Having said that, of

a significant concern for the industry.

course, it’s unrealistic for me as a consultant to sit here and pontificate and say that nobody should

Also reducing salaries and wages and asking people

reduce their prices. I think there’s a question of how

or requiring people to take their leave entitlements.

we achieve that and in the short term it will be great

Less in terms of seeking rent reductions but that

to stimulate domestic travel, it will be great to have

probably reflects the fact that most hotels are not on

some offers to encourage people and entice them to

a lease basis but are on a management contract basis.

travel and to support accommodation providers. There has been some sensitivity about high hotel

Finally, we asked people to tell us what were the key

prices in some locations over the past few years and

things on their mind in terms of the support

Queenstown, of course, is a destination that comes to

measures that they would need to prevent having to

mind quite significantly when it comes to prices and

permanently close, and/or sell the hotel.

perhaps sometimes perceived lack of value for money

Interestingly, nobody was planning to permanently

when you consider some of the hotel stock there. I

close or sell their hotel, which is good news. But you

think there will, of course, be some slippage in the

can see that wage support and Government and

ADR, the average daily rate achieved in hotels, but

business relief were the key words that came through

simply slashing prices, if it doesn’t generate that

in the responses. A lot of concern about financial

much incremental demand is worsening the problem.

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES I think it’s probably reasonable to expect to see

Luke: This will be a test of how good your knowledge

perhaps a 10- to 15% reduction in average achieved

is there, Stephen.

room rates in New Zealand or vary market by market. Those that are better exposed to the domestic

Stephen: Sure, forecasting. There’s a huge number

market may not be as badly affected. But there is

of domestic overnight trips that occur in New Zealand

only so far that pricing will stimulate incremental

every year. Ten times more domestic trips than there

demand so reducing prices by 50%, for example,

are international visitor arrivals into New Zealand.

doesn’t really make any sense.

Then on top of the overnight visits, of course, there’s a huge amount of domestic day trip visits around the country and particularly for business, all of which

"There are ten times more domestic trips than there are international visitor arrivals into New Zealand."

generate visitor expenditure for different parts of the Tourism industry. In addition to that, of course, we have the three-point-one million domestic outbound trips to the rest of the world last year, which is a huge number. Our domestic outbound travel has increased pretty well at the same rate, if not slightly faster, than the rate of inbound travel into New Zealand over the past decade. That’s not going to be happening over the next, probably, year with the exception of, hopefully, Australia later in this year. One question will be: All of that domestic visitor expenditure that was spent overseas, what proportion of that could we capture to the benefit of the New Zealand industry here over the next 12 months? I’m hopeful about that, that we could actually see an increase in the total number a domestic visitor might spend in New Zealand. That will hugely support tourism businesses but it won’t completely replace lost international demand.

Luke: Sure. You’ve touched on, in those points you

Then a key question is: How quickly does this trans-

made there, quite a bit about domestic travel. There

Tasman bubble get going and who’s going to be the

will be a lot of callers from all round the country, what’s your thoughts on how much we’re going to see

net winner on trips across the Tasman? I’m very

of domestic increase? Obviously today is day one.

positive about the impact that Tourism New Zealand

Stephen: Day one, yeah. It’s great to sit here on the

campaign. They’re one of the best destination

will be able to have in a domestic marketing marketing, country marketing organisations in the

morning of day one and speculate about this.

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES world, they’re constantly winning international

most difficult to make money and in this sort of

awards for the quality of their promotion of New

period of time it would be absolutely the easiest to

Zealand. But we’ve never seen any of that marketing

lose a lot of money on food and beverage. The other

in New Zealand since pretty well the day the Tourism

thing that I would be doing is I would be looking to

Board, as it was then, was formed. There’s a huge

effectively close down floors in the hotel. If I’ve got,

amount of expertise in there, there’s some amazing

say, eight levels in my hotel or whatever the number

material, and they’re very, very good at connecting

is, could I operate on just levels one and two and

reasons for travel and tugging on the heartstrings

effectively mothball inventory for a period of six

and the emotions to encourage people to travel. I

months or a year until business levels come back.

think that once we see some of that hitting our TV screens, in particular, it will definitely motivate people to travel and discover or rediscover parts of New Zealand that perhaps they’ve put off visiting for years. Luke: Being a consultant to the industry, if you owned a hotel or a property now, what would be an action that you’d be taking? Something quite tangible. Bear in mind on this call we’ve got Airbnb, BnB, backpackers, motels, hotels, resorts, lodges, a

Luke: Thanks for the research that you’ve done too,

huge variety.

that you’ve provided. It takes a lot of time to do that kind of research so we really appreciate that.

Stephen: I think the interesting thing for the hotels is that by and large they are much, much larger

Stephen: Can I just say thank you also to you, Luke,

properties than a lot of the smaller, independent

and to Vendella, for this initiative which I think is

other forms of accommodation so we do have some

great, to connect people and to share insights, I’d like

possibility of changing our operating model in a

to thank you and Vendella you for your support.

hotel. If I was a hotel owner I would be looking hard at my food and beverage operation and whether or

Luke: It’s our pleasure. Did someone tell you to say

not I could streamline and simplify the food and

that?

beverage offering, in particular if I was expecting low or only moderate levels of occupancy. I’d be possibly

Stephen: Not at all. I assure you that was not a paid

considering perhaps even providing effectively a

advertorial. It’s a genuine comment, we really

‘breakfast only’ food and beverage offering for a

appreciate it.

period of time, for, say, three months until we got more confident about what is the level of business

Luke: Brilliant, cool, thank you very much. Thanks

that we’re going to be able to achieve. Food and

everybody, appreciate your time.

beverages in the hotels is often the area where it’s

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21 MAY | VTV WEBINAR SERIES

Brad Burnett Group General Manager of SkyCity Hotels

Brad Burnett is the Group General Manager of SkyCity Hotels, managing a casino, two (soon to be three) large Hotels. 28 restaurants and bars, a 700 seat theatre and a car park with 3000 spaces. With over 20 years in the industry starting out as a porter at City Life Hotel Brad has worked his way up in the industry ladder both here in New Zealand and overseas. He now has a wealth of knowledge and experience we get to benefit from. Luke: Good morning all. 10.01am, we’re live with

Kia ora everybody. My name’s Brad Burnett, I’m the

VTV and today we have Brad with us. Brad, thanks

SkyCity Hotels Group general manager for hotels and

for coming on, thanks for giving us your time. Give us

Sky Tower. With that my responsibility is for The

some context around who you are and what you’re

Grand by SkyCity, SkyCity Hotel, obviously we’ve got

doing.

one waiting over the road to open in Horizon – probably not much use today, to be honest, but we’re

Brad: Yeah, no worries, Luke. Thanks for having me.

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hopeful we’ll get that back in the next 12- to 18

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES months. We’ll have three hotels here in Auckland, in

Luke: Great history there. You’ve got a bit on your

time, and obviously we’ve got a development in

plate there, Brad.

Adelaide as well with a luxury hotel, it will be 120 rooms, part of an expansion program which is tacked

Brad: Yeah.

onto our existing casino and food and beverage operation, which is planned to open in December.

[laughs]

My background is I’ve been in the hotel industry for

Luke: Sometimes we don’t envy everybody’s job at

20 years and was just chatting to Luke about how

the moment.

tough this last period has been to watch it really haemorrhaging. I started off as a porter at City Life

Brad: Yeah, SkyCity’s a dynamic business and one of

Hotel 20 years ago and really worked my way

the reasons I really enjoy it is because of that. I’m

through the ranks both here in New Zealand and

lucky because I get exposure to all sorts of things

overseas, and I’ve been in my current role for about

that you might not otherwise get in a typical hotel

eight years this September.

environment, obviously, casinos and tourism attractions, lots of restaurants and bars, and of course our hotels as well. It’s good fun but it’s busy.

"We opened with nothing on the books last Thursday, nothing, we didn’t have one booking for May."

Although we could be busier at the moment. Luke: Exactly. For everyone that’s on, we thought we’d run slightly different in the sense that today are all questions from other people. In our past sessions we’ve been collecting a lot of questions so we thought we’d ask Brad some of the questions that have been coming through. The first one was: What’s your take on the pulse of the industry at the moment, and how do you see us moving forward in the coming weeks? Brad: I talk to a lot of industry colleagues every day and every week and I’ve been really impressed with the resilience shown. There’s been a lot of knockbacks, whether it’s the perceived Budget announcement last week and the lack of funding towards the sector, whether it’s just the obvious market downturn which we’ve experienced through Covid, there’s been a lot of great collaboration and a lot of pain but through it all I’ve seen lots of leadership and lots of resilience shown by the

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES industry overall as a tourism sector and it’s really,

Luke: What you said about the ‘no bookings’, I mean

we’re hurting but I’m getting a sense of some green

that’s incredible. How many rooms have you got

shoots out there and some action. Whilst it’s tough

across your property there?

today – and what I mean by that is I think we’re holding about 15- to 20% across two hotels mid-

Brad: We’ve got 625 and we opened part of our

week, but what we are seeing is a lot of demand in

precinct last Thursday and we went live for sale – so

weekends and people are wanting to come out in

in other words, obviously we’re restricted by how

weekends, so we’ll probably fill our hotels this

many people we can have on our gaming floor and in

weekend or be close to it, and next weekend. We

our restaurants and things, so it’s not a full opening –

opened with nothing on the books last Thursday,

but, yeah, we had zero bookings in our system last

nothing, we didn’t have one booking for May. We’ve

Tuesday morning. We got the announcement we

had to scrap to get that, to get to where we’ve got to,

could open on Thursday, we opened our channels up

but we’re hanging onto those little grass shoots and

and we did go hard in terms of a rate to drive a

if I think about some of the work that regional

‘welcome back’ special, but frankly, we needed to get

tourism operators are doing, my social feeds are

some runs on the board and some volume I was

jammed with ‘Get down to Southern Lakes District’ or

really pleased to see how that was taken up by

Waikato and hopefully [unintelligible] will be doing

mainly locals, Aucklanders wanting to get out of their

the same thing for Auckland soon.

houses, some domestic who drive to, domestic people that just wanted to go for drive and come to Auckland for the weekend, and obviously we have a lot of regular casino people that stay in our hotels as well, which is good. Luke: I’ve experienced your service and rooms there firsthand myself. Linda, your housekeeper there, always takes great care so a shout out to you guys... Brad: She’s a legend, yeah. Luke: …for anyone that’s looking to stay in Auckland, SkyCity’s a good place. In your view, how long will it

We’re hanging onto that. We know Tourism New

take for accommodation to get back to – I was going

Zealand are doing a lot. I would say the pulse is, to

to say ‘normal’ but – some kind of, something that

get back to the question, is it’s been difficult but

looked like normal prior?

there is an optimistic long-term view that we will be back and actually we should be back in better shape,

Brad: I’m really happy to share our forecasts. We’re

in terms of the businesses that get through should be

not back to a normal operating number for two or

in better shape to move forward in terms of efficiency

three years, I’d say two and a half to three years, to

and things.

be open about it. But what is ‘normal’ now? We

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES think that this year, the second half of this year, I’m

Luke: And you touched on earlier about your pricing

talking financial year so Christmas through to the

plan to get some runs on the board. What’s your

middle of next year, this time next year, we see as

thoughts around that in view of it becoming a price

actually we feel okay about that. The reason we feel

war and a race to the bottom?

okay about it is because we’re connected to Americas Cup, we’re connected to ASB Tennis, and talking to

Brad: Again, just to be really open with the group, I

those guys who are delivering those events there’s a

copped a bit of tongue and cheek banter for our

huge amount of optimism that they’ll get those off

pricing when we opened and we had a short sharp

the ground in one shape or another, and being

window special where, again, we just had to get

connected to ATEED as well here in Auckland about

people in and we wanted a rate that was really

their plans to drive people the city. I think ‘normal’ is

compelling to get people out of their homes and to

a way off. Until we get our borders open we’re going

come and experience some relaxation and some fun

to have to, it’s going to be a challenge but we’re

and games. But that’s certainly not a long term

focused on, obviously we’ve resized our business and

strategy for us and the sale finished on Sunday and it

we’re continuing to go through that from an

was a need period without undermining any business

operational point of view and I think the trans

because we had none. But discounting doesn’t drive

Tasman bubble is the obvious opportunity that we’re

loyalty and there’s a real cost to acquire that

all waiting for that could actually drive some decent

business. For us, again, with nothing it was a cost

sort of volume into our sector. Hopefully, that’s kind

that we were willing to take for last week but we’re

of later this year. I think we’re a couple of years away

back to our normal, I’d say low-season pricing as of

from what we were pre-Covid.

this week and pickup’s still been reasonably solid. So, discounting, pricing is all about what people are

"Discounting, pricing is all about what people are prepared to pay for your product."

prepared to pay for your product and I think discounting will do a lot more hurt for, particularly the hotel sector in the cities, or across the country actually, longer term than holding firm and not going to spend huge amounts of acquisition or commission costs on trying to drive those discounts. Because you don’t get loyalty and I would say the focus should be on value, what value-add experiences. So, how can you enhance your customer experience and give them more in that component instead of just dropping rates. Luke: That’s good, that’s good. As I say, there’s a lot of people on this call from different sectors and that’s solid advice for everyone to take note of. Brad: Yeah, you’re undoing a lot of the hard work

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES that you’ve done over a long period of time, probably,

that visibility for people to see that we were really a

and I think short, sharp windows of deals – we all do

clean and safe environment to be in. That was

them, I did it last week – and if it’s for the right

probably one of the biggest things we did, really

reason without undermining any other piece of

ramping up that public areas piece.

business or segment that you’ve got or that you’ve worked hard to secure, it’s okay. That’s the position

Luke: On that point, you say you’re almost full for

we’re in last week but it’s not a sustainable option for

the weekend, are you noticing any change in guest

us, it’s going to hurt your margins and hurt lots of

behaviour? As in what they expect when they come

things.

to your properties there? In relation to that cleaning and the social distancing and that?

Luke: Another question came in last week: Information about best practice of housekeeping

Brad: Well, it was interesting. I think given the

during this time. What’s your thoughts around

environment we’ve all been in our own communities,

there? What have you got in place?

going to the supermarket, we’re all kind of trained now to be socially distanced. I had a bit of anxiety going into the weekend because we could see it was a bit of a spike in arrivals. In our lobbies we’ve got markings on the floor and things like that and we’ve got sanitiser stations and all the rest of it, and there was a balance for me of wanting to make that stuff available but also make people feel like they’re in a five-star environment and they can relax; they’re here to have a good time and not to be told what to do every step. But what we saw was we did have queues but people were quite well trained in it, there was a

Brad: We were doing a lot pre-lockdown. Our

logical approach and people behaved as they should,

housekeeping team – and we had Chinese aircrew

generally. It just seems to be part of today’s anxiety

staying with us so we got onto this quite early,

or psyche of the right thing to do, wash your hands,

January, February, when China first, the Wuhan issue

sanitise your hands, stand two metres away, and

took off. With Chinese aircrew, of course, we had to

obviously we’re disinfecting room keys and all that

have these protocols in place, the gloves in room,

kind of thing, Eftpos machines and all the stuff that

social distancing, all those things were in play early.

we should all be doing regularly. And again, as long

We’re lucky we’ve got a great Health and Safety team

as people see that and the balance is without

who almost lead the charge from a hospitality

throwing it in people’s faces so when they’re in our

perspective across the country and a lot of those

environments they have a good time and relax, they

protocols were in place early so we’ve simply come

should be able to feel like they can do that.

back to those when we’ve been back in business. One of the biggest things we did though was that

Luke: It’s such a weird thing because this industry is

public areas cleaning and having that perception or

so people orientated – I’ve said this on previous

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES sessions as well but – and even in here we have some

different ways through wage subsidies and things,

clients come in and your first reaction is to go and

and that’s the sort of angle that we’ve always pushed

shake their hand or stuff like that and you both stand

is that there’s other levers to use here, Mr Council,

there kind of awkward, you know.

instead of trying to pillage the golden goose. Thankfully we got rate relief, I think we’re all grateful

Brad: Yeah, what do you do, exactly.

for that, but it’s got to be more than just the next 12 months and that’s the message that the Hotel Owners

Luke: Everyone knows, everyone’s in the same boat.

Association are pushing with Council that ‘Hey, you

Another question: How are you finding working

thought we were hurting, we said we were hurting

with Councils to get relief for rates – and I don’t

last year when you put this on us, and you know that

know if this is a part that you have anything to do

we are seriously hurting now so there has to be

with?

another funding option and model made available.’ And again, Government have come to the party to support Tourism New Zealand and actually ATEEDs

"I would say find out what your unique selling point is and drive that home."

have been given some money as well to promote Auckland and things. That’s probably the model moving forward. Luke: We got a question from Hannah McAlpine: Advice for new hotels? On the background for Hannah I think she has just started a property in the last eight months, so an interesting time for her I suppose. But for those people who are just trying to start or start afresh, what’s your thoughts there? Brad: I would say find out what your unique selling point is and drive that home. USPs and brand pillars are such integral parts of the experience now and what people are wanting. I would say invest, invest wisely in sales, in good sales and marketing know

Brad: That’s a, I could speak all day about that. One

how because you can reach a far greater pool of

of the first things we tried to do was lobby the hotel

potential customers far easier and more efficiently if

owners to get in there, the Hotel Owners Association,

you have the right skillsets. Go out and try and find

NZHOA, to go and lobby Council for instant relief for

some base business from somewhere, anyone, any

this year. They did that but clearly we need a – this

corporate neighbour that’s around, get some bums in

is repeating the propaganda, really – that we need a

beds every day of the week and it might be five

more sustainable option moving forward.

rooms a day or whatever, but that base business is

Interestingly enough, through this Covid crisis we

important. Then it’s just customer experience, right,

have had support from Government in lots of

give people a great time to make them want to come

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES back again. Those are fundamentals for all of us, but

there in the shop window with them. And the same

certainly I’d say the top one is that ‘What do you

goes for Tourism New Zealand and any domestic

stand for?’ ‘What does your property stand for?’

campaign that they’re doing. RTO, get in there, knock

‘What’s your unique selling point?’ For us here it’s

the door down with them, Tourism New Zealand,

about we’re not just hotels, we’re an entertainment

make sure you’re front and centre with anything

experience. When our sales people talk they don’t

they’re doing for your region. And then more locally,

talk about the hotels, actually, that’s the last thing

partner up with anyone who’s around you that can

they mention, it’s about the Sky Tower, the signature

offer a great experience that’s an additional to what

chefs, the casino, all these other things we have

you currently have that might stand out from the

round us, oh, and by the way we’ve also got great

crowd.

hotels but that’s not what’s important here, it’s about the overall entertainment package. That’s our USP

Luke: That’s great. One question I had personally,

because our competitors can compete with our hotel

you mentioned Horizons across the road. What’s your

product but not necessarily with those other things.

plan there?

Luke: Which brings home the ‘unique’ part of that USP isn’t it, it’s got to be something that stands you out from everybody else, right? Brad: Yep. Luke: Otherwise it’s not a unique. That’s good. In closing, Brad, we’ve done 15 minutes and answered quite a few questions, what would be your advice to all those hotel, motel, backpacker, holiday parks,

Brad: That’s five-star, three hundred rooms, tacked

what would be a piece of advice that you’d share to

on to the NZICC and obviously we’ve, we had the fire

everyone at this point in time?

at the convention centre in October which is really unfortunate and that was our first crisis for the year,

Brad: I’ve probably touched on a little bit of it but

and then obviously Covid. We are delayed in that,

the value-add piece is big. What else can you add on

obviously, and when I started here eight years ago I

to the experience that you’re offering today to stand

think we were going to be due to open about 18

out from the crowd. Piggyback off any RTO

months ago. Here we are today and I can’t even tell

campaign. The message to my team is whatever

you when we can both of those assets back to open.

ATEED are out there doing, whatever campaign they

The hotel is probably – and again, we don’t need it

go to market with, we have to have the Sky Tower

today, to be honest – but probably 12- to 18 months

included in it, or we have to have our hotels included

away I would have thought, at the earliest. It’s

in it, no question. Using those bigger stakeholders

almost ready but actually all the services are

that are out there with perhaps bigger budgets than

connected in the NZICC carpark, which is a mess at

we’ve got to market the region, make sure you’re in

the moment, so the convention centre is currently

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES being cleaned up and a lot of the work stuff that was

much for your time. We’ll be back here next

damaged, there’s a demolition job going on and it

Thursday with another guest speaker. If anyone’s got

will essentially be rebuilt, all the areas that need to

any names that they want to hear from, feel free to

be rebuilt. We’re a couple of years away from that

let our team know here. But once again, Brad, thank

and we’ll get there. When we get it we’ll be great,

you very much, you’re a champion.

but, yeah, that’s been a heck of a ride that one. Brad: Yeah, thanks everyone. Keep smiling, we’ll get Luke: You’ve had it rough. When that event

there, we’ll get through this together. Have a great

happened everyone thought of you guys. But good to

day.

see you’re still smiling through it. Luke: Great, thanks Brad. Brad: Just to give some people some comfort though, we had some amazing stuff on the books for the

Brad: Cheers, guys. See ya.

convention centre, and I’m talking two-, three

thousand delegate conventions from offshore. I know it sounds silly now, today, to talk about that but the amount of enquiry we had for that convention centre and confirmed bookings, and it was off-season stuff, this is June, July, August, these big multi-day conventions were coming to town. Talking to the sales team who are looking after that, those enquiries are still coming, 23, 24, 25, 26, we are getting these big pharmaceutical multi-days who want to come to New Zealand for their conference in July. Which is music to our ears. So again, I know it’s pretty tough today but longer term, that convention centre will do lots of great things for all of us. That remains. It’s just not when we thought it was going to happen. Luke: There’s a lot of things you can’t do much about and this is one of them. Great. Well, appreciate everybody coming on, especially you, Brad, thanks for your time and thanks for being open with a lot of that information, it helps us a lot. Brad: No worries. Luke: Everyone that’s been on today, thank you very

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28 MAY | VTV WEBINAR SERIES

Ryan Sanders Founder of Haka Tourism Group

Ryan is the founder of Haka Tourism Group which encompasses brands across the guided adventure, snow and MTB industries, hostels, hotels and educational travel market. In 2019, HTG was named the fastest growing tourism business in the Deloittes Fast 50 and #21 overall across all industries. The purpose of the Haka Tourism Group is to foster deeper connections between our manuhiri, our land and our culture through exceptional travel experiences. Ryan is Hugely passionate about the New Zealand tourism industry and ensuring he provides his guests a world-class experience. Luke: Welcome everybody. Another VTV and this

Ryan: A bit about myself? Ryan, I started Haka

week we have Ryan Sanders from Haka Tours, which

Tourism Group in 2007 and essentially Haka Tourism

is going to be exciting. Ryan, thanks for coming on

Group is a series of niche touring brands vertically

board today, glad you’ve given up some time to chat

integrated with accommodation. Essentially we’ve

to us. Tell everyone a little bit about yourself and

got three touring brands; Haka Tours which runs a

what angle you’re coming from.

small group adventure and snow tours of New

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES Zealand, NZ Snow Tours which is more of a high-end

average customer is 32, time poor professional, solo

snow touring brand, and a company called ANZ

traveller, and our core markets? It’s purely an

Nature Tours which provides guided tours in German

international market that we target, well, we used to

language to essentially baby-boomers. With the

target, Australia, Canada, US, UK, Germany.

accommodation we’ve got six Haka Lodges across New Zealand which are essentially high-end hostels

Then the second tier of customer that we look after

and we opened our first two Haka Hotels in Auckland

is, with these new products, these new guided

nearing on two years ago. Those hotels are minimum

touring products called Haka Plus, and they’re

service, small design-led boutique hotels.

essentially active people in their late 40s, 50s, and 60s, generally travelling as couples or in two groups

Luke: Nice, brilliant. You cover quite a wide area of

of friends, and that’s what we’re vertically integrating

the industry.

with our Haka Hotel brand. Those people, the same, they come from Australia, US, mainly UK.

Ryan: Yeah, we’ve essentially got three core businesses within Haka Tourism Group. One is our touring brands, second is our accommodation, and actually third, which I forgot to mention before, our fastest growing brand is educational tours. Quite a wide breadth of what we cover. Essentially it comes down to our business strategy which is this vertical integration of a bunch of tourist units. We’ll trade off one another and really capture different parts of the market. Luke: Nice, brilliant. Just to give some context, who’s your main client? Who’s your main person that would come on those?

Luke: Nice. We can thank you for all our loyal supporters around the world that know probably

Ryan: We’ve got two types of clients which we

more about our country than what we do, right?

actively target. First of all, if we think about our pricing strategy because that’s really important first

Ryan: Yeah. We don’t spend pretty much anything

and then define what your target market is. For

domestically, well, pre-Covid we didn’t, it was all

Haka Tours and our Lodges, we like to call our pricing

offshore. But yeah, we’ve definitely got a domestic

strategy ‘high-end of the low-end’. Essentially high-

marketing campaign going now.

end budget. For our category though, our hostels with the Haka Lodges and with the guided tours,

Luke: First question, from your perspective give us a

Haka Tours, we’d be the most expensive in the

bit of a pulse of the industry. How are you finding it?

category, so the high-end of the budget. Our

What’s your thoughts?

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES Ryan: There’s no other words to say it, it’s probably

things. It’s part of our DNA, being resourceful. I think

the most challenging time I’ve ever been in. I’m 13

everything that’s happened with this global pandemic

years into my entrepreneurial journey. But even

in terms of brand New Zealand, I think it’s set us in a

speaking to people that have been in the industry a

really good light. I honestly do feel we’re going to be

lot, lot longer, you’d struggle to find a time that was

even more so a country of choice to visit too, after

tougher than what we’re facing right now. It’s

this pandemic. It might take a year or two for those

incredibly tough. I speak a lot about, for me, it being

long-haul destinations to open up but I think from a

an emotionally challenging time. I am, like all of you

brand New Zealand point of view we’re in such a

really invested in what we do and this is

strong position and that’s something to be very

heartbreaking to see a lot of the work that we’ve put

thankful for.

in diminish so, so quickly with the pandemic. But there is reason to be hopeful and I think there’s a lot

Luke: That’s good. What’s your thoughts and ideas,

of news which we can pin hopes on and, yeah, just

predictions on when we’ll see some light at the end

start pulling ourselves out of this pandemic and

of the tunnel as far as people coming?

looking to a brighter future. There is enough good news out there that I’m feeling optimistic.

Ryan: Facts is that we’ve got new information coming at us every day, every week, every month. Yesterday there was a bunch of news articles that

"There’s always a way to get out of things. It’s part of our DNA, being resourceful."

came out around pushing for the trans-Tasman bubble to open up in July for the school holidays, which would be absolutely amazing for us. If that does go ahead, we do run snow tours over winter so that would have a huge impact for us. Also with our educational brand we have a lot of Australian schools that we bring over during the school holidays, so if that does open up in July, not just for us but I think for the wider tourism industry, that would be a huge, huge wins. We were pinning our hopes on September so if that can be brought a month forward that’s going to have a huge, huge benefit to us. As we know, running businesses and working in businesses, every week, every day that we can open earlier has huge impacts into the bottom line, so if July, as per

Luke: Nice, yeah. Kiwis are quite a resourceful bunch of people, right, we haven’t been here before but similar circumstances in different ways.

the news that was released last night, if that did go ahead that would be absolutely huge. We do have a lot of European partners, so much more long-haul partners. They’re hoping that they can

Ryan: Yeah, there’s always a way to get out of

start travelling in the early part of next year.

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES Whether that will come to fruition I’m unsure but

through an international partner which are targeted

from a Haka Tourism Group perspective we’re

at the domestic market. And our educational side,

planning at this stage for a lot of our German and

working strongly with a lot of domestic schools and

European travel partners to be travelling in January

really pivoting our product for them. Obviously on

2021. Once again, things are changing pretty

the accommodation side, Lodges and Hotels, making

quickly. It comes down to air connectivity and these

sure that we’ve got a compelling proposition for the

‘green passports’ that have been labelled over in

domestic market. I think we’d always like to add

Europe, whether we adopt a similar approach with

value before we immediately start discounting. I’d

areas of Europe or further afield that have got Covid

like people to take that on board and think about

under control, who knows.

ways that they can offer increased value and add additional services, as opposed to always just

First of all, if July could happen and that South Pacific

defaulting to discounting straight away. Ultimately, I

bubble, I’d have some much better sleeping at night I

do think there does need to be some discounting but

tell you.

if you can marry that up with a bit of value-add that would be great too.

Luke: Like us all, yeah. You mentioned obviously your client base comes from offshore, what are you doing to try and capture more clients at the moment? Obviously, our only option is local market, right? Ryan: Yep, definitely. Luke: What’s your approach there? Ryan: I talked before about the three verticals that we’ve got in our business; tours, accommodation, and

Luke: It’s a lot better long-term strategy, isn’t it, than

educational. It’s creating new bespoke product for a

discount.

domestic market. But also partnering up with other international partners who might have a strong

Ryan: Definitely.

presence in New Zealand that we can utilise their sales channel. On the touring side it’s creating a

Luke: It’s pretty short term. How are you finding the

whole bunch of two night to six night packages

accommodation sector? You’ve got properties in

targeted to the domestic market, and maybe stuff

Queenstown right through to Coromandel, Auckland.

that they wouldn’t be able to so easily research and plan themselves, utilising our deep local knowledge.

Ryan: We’ve got eight properties across New

We’ve developed eight products which we’re selling

Zealand. We’ve gone for a mixed approach. We’ve

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES definitely hibernated some of our regional properties

their client base was around 70% of international

that we know, well, straight off the bat we just knew

guests. Obviously that’s evaporated. What would be

they were going to be quite quiet. For example, Bay

your recommendation of how they can transfer

of Islands and Taupo, we did hibernate straight

through to domestic?

away. We are looking to reopen those in October but the latest would be 1st of November but if this South Pacific bubble opens up, trans-Tasman bubble, we’ll definitely open earlier. We’ve got four sites in Auckland and that’s quite a lot of sites to have in one city, particularly in a time like this, so we’ve partnered up with some Local Government bodies and our property on K-Road, Haka Lodge K-Road, we have partnered up with a homeless shelter and subcontracted that out for six months. We’re offering a managed service with that property, and just looking at innovative ways where we can work with special interest groups. I think for us, we have entered into quite long-term arrangements with a lot of the developers that we partnered up with, the property owners. We don’t own any of those eight properties, we have

"Can you partner up with an activity operator to really provide some ‘stay and play’ packages."

previously but we’ve sold some back, so we’re working with them to create a really clear picture – because these people have got mortgages to pay as

Ryan: We’re in a very similar situation, we would

well – a really clear picture of how the next year

have about 90% of our market would always

would work out and some of the activity that we’re

previously have been international, only 10%

doing to help drive revenue. For us it’s all about

domestic. We definitely feel your pain and know

over-communicating with our landlords at this stage,

where you’re coming from. For us, ultimately it

letting them know everything that we’re doing to

comes down to a lot of partnerships. Have a think

give them faith that we’re looking at all angles.

about who you could partner with in the local market that also has the same challenges as you, or

Luke: Good, good. I’ve got a question from a guest

potentially they do have a domestic campaign

on today: What’s the best way to make a change from

already. I talked before about adding value, can you

our usual clients of international guests to domestic

partner up with a car hire company or an activity

guests? We have sort of touched on this already but

operator to really provide some ‘stay and play’

asking what’s the best way to make that change? I

packages where you’re combining your

think they were based in the Coromandel area and

accommodation experience with some local activities

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES and have it, once again, at a good price point. Not

so just make sure that all of your imagery, all of your

discounting a huge amount but enough for it to be an

video, all of your copy, how your property is

attractive proposition and packaging up a number of

presented on the OTAs is world class.

products. I think together, our strength is really combined as an industry and I think the more people

Luke: I say it for myself, what you’re saying there

you can partner with locally to create a compelling

about making sure it’s up to scratch and working with

proposition for the domestic tourists to come and

those journalists as well, as a company and my family

visit you, I think is really, really powerful. First of all,

and myself, we travel a lot around the country but

look at partnerships and co-working with other

every time you go on an Air New Zealand flight and

people, ultimately that’s what we always do. Get in

read the Kia Ora magazine they’ve always got that

touch with travel reporters or travel journalists,

article in there about a destination within New

they’re always looking for fresh, new content, so if

Zealand and every time you learn something new

you do have something that you want to let the

about it. Some of these places we’ve been to time

domestic market know about, leverage the potential

and time again but that local knowledge, it

of free PR. It can be quite difficult and you can spend

supersedes anything that anyone else knows.

a lot of time on it, but you can have some huge wins. There’s a lot of travel journalists out there at the

Ryan: Definitely.

moment looking to write compelling stories about your region which maybe isn’t high in the agenda of

Luke: It’s telling those stories, isn’t it.

the domestic tourism market. Ryan: What is obvious for you is not always From our point of view, it does come down to

obvious to other people. Don’t underestimate the

partnerships and PR, those are the two things that we

local knowledge that you’ve got in your region.

focus on. And you’ve got to make sure that you’ve got everything in line in terms of how you’re listed on

Luke: I like what, I think it was THL – which is Maui

the OTAs, there’s no way you’re getting away from it

Campers and that – they’ve got their vans going out at some good rates at the moment and we’ve had a few guys here in the office try and book those for a family getaway just to travel in their own region.Totally different experience, right, travelling round in a big campervan, quite a different experience. You can see it stimulating quite a bit of interest just in the office, so it can be done. Ryan: Definitely. I think they’ve sold out already, haven’t they, for the next week or two. Luke: Truly?

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES Ryan: Yeah, I heard that in the news last night, so

Whether that needs Government intervention I would

yeah, they’ve had a lot of interest.

say no. If it was me coming up with the plan straight off the bat that wage subsidy would have been for

Luke: Which, on a webinar about accommodation is

businesses that have had probably a 60% or up

not what everyone wants to hear. But it’s good for

impact on revenue for the same period last year and

the local economy as well, those people travelling

targeting people that really needed it. Also go for a

through different provincial towns and that, it’s a

longer wage subsidy straight off the bat. Overall, I

good thing. Although they might not be staying in

think there’s been great communication, helped

our beds, right. We try and steer away from politics,

brand New Zealand in terms of how we responded

but what’s your thoughts on the Government’s

to this pandemic, but I do think from a tourism point

support and that kind of thing at the moment?

of view, yeah, a bit gutted.

Ryan: Through the lens of tourism, I’ve got to say it’s

Luke: We’re getting those vibes through a lot,

underwhelming, definitely. I probably could use

everyone’s thinking quite similar things. What new

some stronger words. Okay, we are gutted. We were

trends do you think will emerge in this industry?

hoping for a bigger support package, definitely, over the four hundred million. When you look at the value

Ryan: I think the new trends that will emerge, I think

that the tourism industry brings to New Zealand, from

ultimately for the next 12 to 18 months people are

a proportionate value it just didn’t really feel like

going to travel in their own bubble or smaller

enough. Secondly, our General Manager Eve Lauren,

groups. From a wider tourism perspective, I think

she’s been very vocal at a range of different media

people are quite reluctant to go on the traditional

interviews and she’s also presented to the Pandemic

group tours as 50 people on a bus. This is always a

Response Committee around some of the things that

trend but I think it will exaggerate, the fact you’ve

we would have liked to have seen. We were pushing

got multi-generational families travelling together,

really, really hard for a form of rent support, that was

solo travellers, people travelling in couples or small

very much top of our agenda. I know from our point

groups, I definitely think that will increase. I do think

of view our fixed liabilities every month in terms of

people initially will have less disposable income so

those eight properties is about $350,000 per month

they will probably have less trips and probably spend

and we were hoping for some support in terms of

a bit more time planning and making the right

commercial rent relief. It was good getting an eight

decisions around what experiences or what people to

week subsidy extension but ultimately, in terms of

book with moving forward, because if you’re

planning and taking a longer view to how we want to

travelling less you want to make sure that you’ve

manage our businesses out of that pandemic, it

nailed your pre-trip planning. It’s important to have

probably does feel a little bit light. I do think that

all of the information about your products and

the 30% drop in revenue which businesses had to

services really clear through all of your marketing

commit to for the first 12-week subsidy was far too

material. Obviously, people travel closer to home

light. From my point of view, a 30% drop’s just a

initially. If this trans-Tasman opens up, I think there’ll

really bad month.

be a lot of Asia pack and more localised travel before

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES long-haul kicks in. I do think, as we’ve seen with the

stress that enough. Be open with your information,

GFC, particular market segments will activate first.

open with your data, open with your trends, sharing

Have a look at the different market segments that

of knowledge, now’s the time to make sure that we’re

you target and have a good think about which ones

all putting our best foot forward to make sure that we

you think will activate first. From my point of view,

all win.

with Haka Tourism Group, for us the ones that have activated first have been more of that higher end

Luke: It’s the old saying, isn’t it, the squeaky wheel

youth market; people 25 to 35, and also the baby

gets oiled. There’s plenty of oil coming out of the

boomers and people with a bit more discretional

Government at the moment so it’s about making sure

income. Ultimately the trends are closer to home

it’s coming the way of these accommodation

first before long-haul activates and smaller groups,

providers. You’re doing it rough so we’re thinking of

for sure.

you guys. Great brand with Haka, I was thinking, some of those people that you’re talking about, the

Luke: That’s great. We’ve been 20 minutes Ryan, I

homeless shelter that you’ve got there, that’d be one

really appreciate your time. Do you have any final

of the best shelters around I think.

words that you want to pass through to our group today? We’ve got about 150 registrants on these

Ryan: It would be. When that property was rated the

calls. There’s so many people that are interested and

world’s fourth best hostel in 2019. They are getting a

it’s good to see everyone that’s coming together to

good stay. We’re happy to help out wherever possible.

try and help this industry, it’s good. Luke: Well, thanks everybody. Have a good week. Ryan: I would just say our strength combined is our

Sing out to myself or Ryan if we can help with any

biggest asset. As I said before at the start of the call,

further points on these things that we’ve covered.

I do think if we can hold on for the next year or two, I

Love to hear from you. Thanks all. Thanks Ryan.

think you’re going to see much better times. I think

New Zealand Inc has had a huge shot of adrenaline and I think it’s going to pay its dues moving forward. I would say be vocal, talk about what you need from a support point of view. I do think the Government’s hearing our call so partner up with your local industry, whether it’s the Hotel Association or TIA or your regional tourism body, whoever it is, but be quite vocal about what you feel you need as an independent business to help you survive. We need to be getting all of that feedback and pushing it through the channels and make sure our voice is heard. Now is the time to partner up and work together with different people in your industry, I can’t

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04 JUNE | VTV WEBINAR SERIES

Nick Blake

Owner & Operator at Whangarei Top 10 Holiday Park & Motels Nick has been in the Top 10 Holiday Park industry for 7 years. Having survived the challenges of the Christchurch earthquakes and going on to manage a holiday park in one of the most difficult areas of New Zealand, Nick is a great inspiration. Full of positivity, passion and innovation - Nick now owns and operates his own park in Whangarei and is making a good go of it too.

Luke: Welcome everybody, another session of VTV.

Nick: Kia ora everyone, and thanks for tuning

Welcome aboard for our sixth session, I think it is.

in. Thanks to Vendella for putting these sessions on.

Special guest here today Nick Blake from the far

I think in this economic climate any information

north. Nick, thanks for joining us today. You’ve had

hopefully helps and shared information helps more,

to take a slice out of your busy day to give us a small

so thank you guys.

insight as to who you are and what gets you out of bed in the morning.

Luke: Our pleasure.

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES owners’. I had a job and didn't really know where

"I found myself, at 35, staying at a mate’s house, basically no job and nowhere to live."

this was going where this was going. We met the owners, got on well with them, and ended up moving to Fox Glacier about two weeks later to take on a role as Assistant Managers there, and within three months we ended up managing the Top Ten there in Fox Glacier. After the three months the owners basically gave us free reign. I can say after working in Fox Glacier for two weeks we knew that this was what we wanted to do and we were always going to push to hopefully one day own our own park. After about three and a half years of being in Fox Glacier I actually rang the owners of Whangarei Top Ten and said to them, ‘I don’t have much money, I’ve

Nick: Just a little bit about me and how we got

seen your ad for your business on Trade Me, and can

involved in the accommodation industry. We’ve been

we come to some sort of arrangement?’ I did about

in the holiday park industry with Top Ten for seven

nine months of due diligence working with the old

years, so we’re still quite young in the industry.

owners of Whangarei Top Ten and July 2016 we

We actually found our way into the holiday park sector after the Christchurch earthquakes. We had no insurance and were living in Lyttleton at the time.

moved to Whangarei and took over the Top Ten up there. Excuse me, there might be a little bit of noise behind, its customers coming and going, we’re still

Our house, which we were renting, basically fell

working away.

down around us so we had nowhere to live, the clothes on our back, and we were like ‘What do we do now?’ We hopped in the car the day after the

Looking back at it, my wife and I are probably slightly mad. We gave ourselves about ten days to move

earthquakes with our two-year-old son in tow and

from Fox Glacier to Whangarei with a seven-year-old

drove to Nelson. I found myself, at 35, staying at a

and a three-month-old, to hire staff and basically

mate’s house, basically no job and nowhere to live.

take over the business. Yeah, I talk about earthquakes and where we’ve been because it sort of

We stayed in Nelson for about two years, I managed

coincides with what’s been going on with Covid-19

to get a job within two days and we basically just started again. I won’t go too much into that, but after about two years of being in Nelson my wife actually

especially small businesses throughout New Zealand, and large ones. I know a lot of people are lost but I

applied for a job as cleaners at Fox Glacier Top Ten,

suppose for us you build a resilience going through

without my knowledge, and one Saturday afternoon

certain things and, yeah, we’ve sort of thought

she said, ‘We’re going out to Motueka to meet the

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and how it’s negatively impacted a lot of businesses,

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES nothing can really get as bad as we had in the

always try and be out there in the public eye at least

earthquakes.

a few times a year.

Adapting in Covid-19, when we took over Whangarei Top Ten we actually got rid of all long-term people, we didn’t want long-termers on site, we wanted to cater for holiday makers, we wanted to cater for New Zealand tourists and try and stay away from that. Before the lockdown we rang MSD, Ministry of Social Development, called the Police, spoke to companies that were close by us like Golden Bay Cement, Fonterra, and we said, ‘If you need accommodation, please give us a call’. We’re now coming into winter as well, it’s our quiet time, we’ve taken on a few Ministry of Social Development people, we’ve taken on a few more long-termers just get us through this financially difficult time, and we’re finding it’s working quite well. I wouldn’t say it’s living the dream that we thought it would be, but it’s definitely

Yeah, talking about that community thing as well,

still quite good. I think New Zealanders are number

one of the first things we did when we moved to

8 wire people and I think we’ve just got to adapt. We

Whangarei is we’re a small holiday park, we don’t

don’t know how long this Covid-19 thing’s going to

have a swimming pool on site but we’ve got the

go on for, we don’t know what the Government’s

aquatic centre down the road so I approached them

going to do, and if it will come back. I think anyone

and we’ve been dealing with them ever since. They

in the tourism sector, it’s suffering a lot and it’s just

give all our guests free access to their spas, sauna,

trying to find ways that you can make money in your

pool, everything, and we’ve found we pay a little bit

community.

of money per customer that goes in, not a lot, but it’s a win-win; they get numbers through the door and

A big thing we learnt living in Fox Glacier is there’s a

we give our customer a better experience while

population of 280 in Fox Glacier. If you’re not

they’re staying with us. We’ve found with small

involved in the community you miss out a lot. Even

groups we’ve gone from having about two small

going from Fox Glacier of 280 to Whangarei with

[unintelligible] groups to one or two a month before

90,000 people, we’ve always made sure we’ve

this Covid-19 kicked in because they like the use of

networked well, we’ve joined the Chamber of

the aquatic centre.

Commerce, we’ve entered ourselves in business awards, and we’ve tried to get ourselves out there

Luke: It’s interesting you say that because we had

locally. We sponsor a couple of voluntary business

Brad Burnett from SkyCity on last week, or the week

locally and give them donations every year, and we

before last, and he was saying that it’s the complete

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES package that they offer that actually gets people in

Nick: I actually it’s, yeah, there’s an opportunity to

the door. Sometimes the bed that they stay in is

win here. I think to win you first need to accept how

actually a spin-off rather than what they come for.

to lose and growing up I wasn’t a very good loser at

But yeah, it sounds like you’ve had a pretty eventful

all and still sometimes struggle with it. But I’m

journey through the last seven years. You must be a

willing to lose, to take the risk and lose if necessary.

bit of a tiger for punishment.

When I say I struggle with it, that’s why there’s still no Monopoly in our house, me and my wife are not

Nick: I don’t look at it as punishment, it’s sort of just

good at losing.

growing. I look at courier drivers now, when I was in Nelson I was a courier driver for a year and I have to

Luke: It’s probably that desire to win that’s actually

say that’s the worst thing I’ve ever done in my life. If

driven you to succeed like you have. That’s great.

you’re ever thinking about becoming a courier driver

We have some questions here Nick, which we thought

out there, don’t do it. I was averaging 98 hours a

we’d just quickly run past you. I’ll just quickly cap on

week working for about a year, so anything after that

Queen’s Birthday weekend, a lot of travellers around,

just seemed easy. Yeah. I look at New Zealand and

then as well just the day to day bookings, how are

it’s still a land of opportunity. I’m in the mindset of

you looking moving forward?

don’t be afraid to take calculated risks because as much as this Covid-19’s effected people negatively,

Nick: Queen’s Birthday, yeah, we definitely got a few

there is going to be opportunities for people to do

bookings. We’re substantially down, April we were

well out of it as well.

something like 97% down from last year, May we were about 58% down from last year. But we’re

Luke: Definitely.

looking forward. We had a busy Queen’s Birthday and we are definitely still getting a few customers through. Where Fox Glacier to Whangarei is so

"I’m in the mindset of don’t be afraid to take calculated risks."

different, there’s so many different reasons why things work in different areas and not in others and we’re sitting in a city of about around 100,000. We’ve got a lot of industry here, we get a lot of people coming and staying that might be builders or people from Auckland coming up here to do work so we’re lucky in that respect. But I’m also currently working with the Ministry of Social Development and Police, we’ve currently let out four rooms to Ministry of Social Development just to get us through this hard and quiet time. That wasn’t what we wanted to do when we initially took over the business, obviously, but the adaption thing again, just adapt to what you need to.

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES Luke: That’s good. What are you doing to attract

is ‘Don’t drop your pricing down, it’s just shooting

people in? You’ve obviously got some domestic

yourself in the foot, really’.

market there, have you changed anything to try and attract more of the domestic market?

Nick: Right. I saw a comment, a friend shared a thing on Facebook, somebody saying ‘Support local industry’, and that they’re not going to because it’s so expensive to do this. I went back at them and said we’ve got a small population as country’s go, not everyone works and pays taxes, we’ve got a big infrastructure to look after and keep up, people want living wages, they want to have higher salary brackets – that has to come from somewhere and it costs a lot of money to run a business and these people don’t realise this. I’ve said to them if you

Nick: We don’t spend a lot on advertising. We’re

don’t like it move to China. You’ll get things cheaper,

lucky to have Auckland on our doorstep. We try and

everything will be cheaper, and it will be better. But

answer as many things on Facebook and on social

you’ll only get paid two dollars an hour in whatever

media as possible. We also try and sell Northland, it’s

you’re doing.

not just us, it’s Northland. If we can get people up to Northland some of them might stop in here, some of

Luke: It’s an interesting point. A question I had for

them might go somewhere else, it’s just working

you was: OTAs, do you think they’ve become a bigger

together with our community and getting people up

friend or a bigger foe?

here. Another big thing I wanted to touch on is I know there’s a lot of people – and I’ve actually been

Nick: Oh, that is a hard question. With what’s

arguing on Facebook with some people – saying

happening at the moment I think we’ve still got a

everything’s so expensive in New Zealand. I say to

good 18 months to see what exactly is going to

people don’t lower your prices too much, you’ve got a

happen economically. Let’s hope friend, I always try

great product, if you were doing well before Covid-19

to look at it positive, glass half full rather than half

you’ve got a great product, you’re obviously doing it

empty. I’m hoping friend rather than foe, yeah, it's

right, just keep it where it is. Maybe do your autumn

so hard to say, so hard to judge. You’re seeing a lot

or spring promos type stuff, but just keep things

of small businesses go under and you’re going to see

[unintelligible]. Because you’ll then find yourself

a lot more go under in the next 18 months and you’ve

doing more work for less which will, in the end,

got the elections coming up so that’s going to be

effect, I think it effects people negatively.

used as a bit of a political manoeuvring as well. I don’t really want to say to much in there, actually.

Luke: Definitely, yep. That’s interesting you say

I’ve no idea. My guess is as good as yours.

that. For anyone who’s been on these six sessions now they’ll find that comment come through. Every

Luke: With the elections coming up you might get

session the general overarching comment on pricing

your highway up there, but we won’t talk—.

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES Nick: Yeah, they’ve started on the rail so that will

people are expecting things to be a lot cheaper or

point towards the Auckland wharf, hopefully, shifting

they’ll say, ‘There’s a freedom campsite down the

up here. The Hundertwasser building’s coming under

road, we’ll just go down there’. I mean, we just let

construction well and – excuse me one sec.

them go, we say, ‘Okay, it’s up to you guys, that’s absolutely fine’. There is, unfortunately, a lot of

(NICK SERVES A GUEST)

people looking for a deal and thinking they’re going to get a better deal than before Covid-19 – and they

Luke: For everyone that’s on, Nick’s managing it

will probably slightly, but we don’t undercut

himself and if anyone’s worked in a Holiday Park

ourselves too much. It’s not all, a lot of New

before you’ll totally understand Nick’s pressure that

Zealanders are driving it forward and most of them

he’s in there. But he’s got guests there, which is

are really trying to help the economy as well.

good, and he’s managing it with his wife so if he shoots off every now and again—.

Luke: That’s really good. I really appreciate your time, Nick, we’ve been 20 minutes, we’ve taken a

Nick: Sorry, I’m back.

slice out of your day and you’ve obviously got a bit on. Really appreciate it. Nick, thanks a million mate,

Luke: You’ve given us a real taste of a day in the life

keep putting in the yards there.

of a business owner in accommodation, Nick, it’s great.

Nick: Thanks Luke. Thanks for having me. It’s awesome that you guys do this and people can tune

Nick: We’re only a small park, we’re only a small

in. You guys will also be suffering so this is a great

team, and we have had to let go a couple of the team

thing for people to watch and maybe learn a few

and they know that they’ll be able to come back

things, so yeah, thank you Vendella and you guys for

when things pick up a bit. But me and my wife now,

doing this for us.

we do three days a week with just us two so, yeah.

But we love it. Luke: No, no, cool. Are you noticing any changes in behaviour of guests and what their expectations are or request are? That type of thing.

Nick: Yeah, for instance THL doing their campervans at a cheaper rate, sometimes when people come in here and they might pay $48 or whatever it is for a powered site for two people and they’ll be like, ‘But it’s only cost us $50 to hire our campervan for the night’, sort of thing. There is definitely a bit of

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11 JUNE | VTV WEBINAR SERIES

Sharon McGuire

Business Development & Quality Manager At ASURE Accommodation Group Experienced Director skilled in nonprofit and tourism organizations. Held Senior Executive roles with a demonstrated history of working in the Tourism, Commerce and Education sectors. Skilled in Strategic and Business Planning, Relationship & Stakeholder Management, Service Excellence, and a strong sales professional. Graduated from Otago Polytechnic with a Bachelor of Applied Management (Strategic Management) and places great emphasis on professional development with the NZ Institute of Directors. Luke: Good morning all, welcome to our seventh, I

McGuire, I’m the business development and quality

think it is, VTV. This morning we have Sharon with

manager for the ASURE Accommodation Group. My

us. Sharon McGuire introduce yourself to us.

background has been over 15 years in tourism, managing three properties, two in Nelson and one in

Sharon: Morena, Luke, thank you very much and

Hamner Springs, both for Heritage and also Accor

welcome everyone to this fantastic opportunity that

Hotels. I also managed a major tourism attraction in

Vendella is providing all of us. My name’s Sharon

Hamner Springs, Hamner Springs Thermal Reserve,

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES and previous to that was in the transport and

properties so that’s been really interesting too in

commerce area as well as education. I had a good

terms of private ownership, managed properties,

broad cross section. I also contract to BNZ as their

collaboration around marketing, sourcing staff in

Chairperson for the Top of the South, being Nelson,

regions, doing startup businesses, yeah, good times

Marlborough, and Tasman. That’s my background,

and tough times that you’ve got to go through. I

left school at 15 and ‘learnt on the street’, so to

think the resilience through Hamner Springs and a

speak. Got my degree at 50 so you never stop

receivership of that hotel and working through that

learning and that’s what’s fantastic about the

with Receivers and then find new buyers and

industries that I’ve worked in is that they’re all people

continuing to work through that provides a resilience

based, all service based, and it’s all about

to your nature to get you through things like Covid,

collaboration and working together. That’s me and

actually. Amazing what things challenge you to

very much enjoying ASURE Accommodation Group

ensure that in the tough times you can tough it

and our 40 members that we have throughout New

through.

Zealand. Thanks for having me. Luke: Sharon, what’s your personal view on the state Luke: That’s great, appreciate that, Sharon. As you

of our industry at the moment?

say, you’ve got a very wide and diverse background so a good viewpoint on what you can bring to us. Just

Sharon: I’m actually cautiously optimistic. I think for

quickly, how long have you been working with the

accommodation providers it’s a question of

accommodation industry?

weathering the storm, keeping the costs, stripping back where we can, but particularly in the motel /

Sharon: In total with the three major hotels I did just over ten years and obviously with ASURE Accommodation just in the last year. I do all the quality inspections of properties and the business development work for them. Luke: Ten years, that takes you back to just after the GFC, I suppose? Sharon: Yes, certainly pre-opened and opened the Heritage Hamner Springs. Sadly it’s been permanently closed through this Covid situation so that’s really tough to see and for the village of Hamner Springs it’s a bit of a blow, but you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do in these times. With both

bed and breakfast area we’ve got an opportunity here

Rutherford Hotel Nelson and also the Monaco which

to stay the course. We need to ensure that we’re in

is the Grand Mercure, they’ve been privately owned

touch with our databases and our clients that are

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WEEK 7 | VTV WEBINAR SERIES can’t do at the moment is take our foot off the brake,

"We need to ensure that we’re in touch with our databases."

so to speak, around costs and labour and the needing to investigate the commercial rent dispute situation that’s being addressed by the Government, and really be on top of our costs and our occupancy and our average rates every day and making sure that we keep things to a minimum while increasing a revenue base. Luke: That’s good. Just on that point, we’ve seen, obviously, a big influx over the Queen’s Birthday weekend and a bit of flow on from that. Do you think – and I don’t want to be the instigator of bad news – but do you think that it may be a bit of a bubble that

regular through the domestic and business

we’re in at the moment? Or do you think that’s going

travellers. The leisure travellers with the regional

to continue on? Those numbers of bookings?

tourism organisations of the area, really important to be in amongst their campaigns obviously led by

Sharon: I think there’s two parts to that question. I

Tourism New Zealand’s new, New Zealand, come and

still don’t think people – I should rephase that.

explore it’. For hotels it’s really challenging.

Generally, I don’t believe people have fully

Certainly, the major hotels are having to make some

appreciated there’s still another wave to come and

tough decisions and I really feel for them. The

that will be when that eight-week subsidy rolls out

border’s closed, a lot of them would have been

and then the 12-week ends and some will or won’t

relying on the international group market as well

qualify for the 40% revenue situation. But we’re not

from overseas and we just have to weather that storm.

out of the woods by any means. What I would say is

But for the whole of the industry, particularly with

to get out to have a bit of a short break because it

that Queen’s Birthday probably did kick start people was a long weekend and timely. The bookings are

the strategic asset fund that the Government have

starting to come through steady. We heard from Brad

put in place, we’ve seen that announced with Whale Watch yesterday, that’s critical for Kaikoura and there will be other areas such as Kaikoura that will need

bookings on the Thursday prior and then was fully booked. A lot of people are opening up with nothing

that support. Yeah, I’m cautiously optimistic. Once

and then finding walk-ins and short-term bookings

the trans-Tasman bubble and the South Pacific come

within 24 hours being put in place.

on board that gives the two way movement around the area, but also it was pleasing to see the Japan

I think going to Level 1 we’re going to see more of

flight announced with Air New Zealand once a week for the business travellers. Once those things start to happen it will slowly gather momentum. What we

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on an earlier webinar, didn’t we, around he had no

4 0 8 2

our business travellers reconnecting out there in the regions with their client bases, so it’s really important

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES if you’ve got the email addresses or the corporate

demographic that we need to encourage into motels.

travel agents to be reconnecting with them, saying,

If we look at our traditional bases, putting aside

‘Hey, we’re open, this is what we’ve been doing while

business, they’re people that are not restricted by

we’ve been in shutdown’, particularly around hygiene,

typical workdays, they’re retirees, they’ve got more

sanitising, contactless check-in, any of those tools

freedom to go around. This is a great opportunity

that you may now have and what you’re doing to

for motels and accommodation providers to be

ensure that they will meet the health and safety

looking at the domestic market of New Zealand and

standard that may be required from either the

the platforms that may be needed to connect with

corporate agent or the corporate itself. Reconnection

those new motel or accommodation dwellers. Are we

is really important and I think it’s more than just an

portraying ourselves enough on social media? If

email, it’s actually picking up the phone and having

we’re wanting women over 45, we should be all over

that conversation with them, welcoming them back

Facebook. If we’re wanting to get our corporate

and seeing how their own situation is. There’s

travellers, we should be all over LinkedIn. If we’re

nothing better than to have empathy between two

wanting to connect with companies and people of

people to bond that relationship.

your age group, we should be looking at what causes you get up for. Those things like sustainability,

Luke: Yep, that’s good. From our part, our team are

charitable causes, how do we link into that? That’s,

hitting the road again and you’ll probably see behind

to me, the new look of motels.

me the office is pretty empty, we’ve got six or seven salespeople. There’s that type of thing that people are just starting to, businesses are like, ‘Hey, we don’t actually have to sit at home anymore, we can actually go out’. That should increase a few bookings. What do you think the new future will look like and how will it differ from hotels to motels? Sharon: Okay. The new future is upon us. For me it’s very much saying we have a good traditional base within motels around retirees or people that like selfcontained facilities, might have family so it’s more

As far as hotels are concerned, they definitely have a

cost effective for them to come into self-contained

place and will have a place for domestic, those who

facilities, locations, perhaps more space within the

are wanting a spoilt break away, who have been in

motels on ground levels particularly when you’ve got

lockdown in a region and want to go to the hub of

families and children, those types of thing. There’s a

that region, i.e. in the outer part of Auckland but want

good opportunity to look at who is our next, I call

to go into Central Auckland and have a bit of a great

them ‘motel dwellers’. Who will be our next wave of

weekend. Certainly, those are going to be where you

guests? As I said to you earlier offline, it’s your

need to turn your search engine optimisation and

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES search engine marketing around to the domestic

regional tourism organisation to pick up the assets

market away from the international, potentially.

that they’ve got around videos and campaigns and

Then looking at your Google remarketing around key

free listings and getting on to that to get the visibility

words and you might have to change those sets as

out in the market.

well. I do think that there will be a great place for both motels and hotels within the domestic market

Luke: It’s interesting you mention video in there

because each will be offering different things,

because it’s probably one thing that a lot of my

different price points, different facilities, and it’s jut a

demographic, if you like, consume, a lot of video

question of working out where your space is in that.

content. Sitting there and reading text is – I was going to say ‘old school' which I still enjoy reading but I would far rather consume video content. Which

"Look at your regional tourism organisations to pick up the assets that they’ve got around - videos & campaigns."

is always really interesting, as soon as you go onto someone’s accommodation page, if there’s a video you always watch it. Sharon: It’s like having the 360-degree view of your rooms, rather than just some photos. You can have both, but it’s all about affordability and I understand that. For me at the moment, that’s where I’m hunting video all the time from regional tourism organisations, going onto Tourism New Zealand’s site, looking at all the collateral you can actually take down for free so it costs you nothing. Sharing and liking the local RTOs like Central Otago’s page or South or whoever it is and making sure that you’ve got that connection with them so that you get the likes and so on and so forth. I think too, Luke, can I just say, I’ve thought of people that are on this webinar, is feel the fear and do it anyway. I mean I’m 60, I have come through from working from 15 to 60 and I’ve come from mainframe computer to now working on a portable device

As an independent motel or accommodation provider, that could be a little bit more challenging and I

actually just giving it a go. You can’t do anything wrong, there’s always control, alt, delete, isn’t there.

would really encourage them to be looking at their

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surface. You never stop learning and it’s about

[laughs] Just be brave is what I would say to the

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES people on the call, be brave, give it a go, go and find your 22-year-old neighbour or grandson or someone from Polytech or your niece and get them to show you how to do it, it’s not hard. It’s just being brave. Luke: I like what you say there because we shoot a lot of video here. For us, when we first thought we’re going to do a lot of video we thought it was going to be horrendously expensive because video is typically quite expensive. I put out a message on Neighbourly and a 15-year-old high school student applied and he does incredible video, does all the editing after school, and he charges

Sharon: Kiwis, by nature – and you might be a little

us $18 an hour. Our videos roughly cost us around

bit younger for this type – but we talk about ‘number

$200. We’ve used professional companies and for a

8 wire’; we like to do things ourselves, we like to go

two-minute video anywhere between three to six

exploring, and I think that’s where motels play a vital

grand, and this guy’s two hundred bucks and they’re

role. We are self-contained, people can chill out in

brilliant. He’s just a 15-year-old school student. If

them and spread out and don’t feel like they’ve got to

we can do that, anyone on this call can do that.

be immaculate to go down to the reception or

There’ll be someone there.

whatever in some of the more rated hotels, if you like. I think for motels this is a great opportunity

Sharon: We’ve talked about regional tourism

with the domestic traveller and the kiwis to really

organisations, go and talk to your local Polytech and

connect with who you are. Anyone who is the owner

local Institute of Technology. In their Arts and

or manager or the persons that are the front people

Graphic IT area they have got some superb students,

of the business, but importantly too the people that

both young and mature, and they have to do an

are doing the cleaning and presentation of the rooms,

applied part of their learning so this is an ideal

tell your story about who you are, that you are Kiwi,

opportunity for them to get something for their

that you are Kiwi owned, you may be of different

portfolio and to benefit the business and make that

ethnicity but you’re still Kiwi. Therefore, the ability

local connection. Yeah, there’s lots of opportunity

to welcome people and say ‘Kia ora’ and be part of

out there and as Alberta said, we all do it on our

this fantastic country called Aotearoa is really

phone so invest in a good phone and you can do it

important. That’s where the domestic Kiwi will really

yourself.

respond well to that.

Luke: Exactly, yeah. Cool, well, we strayed quite

The other thing is there’s a real swell of wanting to

well from our topic then, but that’s fine. How do you

support these businesses through winter. What you

see the expectations of domestic travellers different

would spend in summer, we’re all looking to say

from that of an international guest?

instead of hunkering down in winter we want to go

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES wants to go there. I never knew it was there, and it’s

"Where would you want to position yourself to get that domestic market?"

some world attraction that people come from far and wide to go to. One thing I’ve picked up is potentially now we’re targeting Kiwis we probably actually need to find those little gems. Because if you go to Hamner Springs you’re going to go to the springs or the pools, but there’s probably so much more that people don’t know about. Sharon: I think this is where on your own platform, but also working with your RTO, find those gems that are almost undiscovered. Kiwis, by nature, we like to get outdoors, we like walks, we like cycleways, horse, and we also like exploring. We want, with family, somewhere where the kids can walk and be safe, etcetera. In Nelson it might be the Brook

somewhere. Who’s going to tell us where to go. How do you get that message out into the market? If

Waimārama Sanctuary, as you say you found something down in Wanaka, Lake Dunstan have just had their cycleway extended around Cromwell and

you’re in Taupo you’ve got ten town cities within

the Heritage Trail area. Those are the things rather

three and a half hour’s driving distance. Where

than the typical things that we hear about. We know

would you get the bulk of those people coming

that there is bungy jumping, we know that there is

from? Is it Auckland or is it Tauranga? Where would

jetboating, we know that we can go black cave water

you want to position yourself to get that domestic

rafting. What are the things in your area that you

market? Pick one or two and go for it and really

really enjoy doing and how do you want to tell that

bombard the messages out there through the social

story? This is also the time on your website just to

media platforms but also your previous database. I

make sure that we haven’t just got historical things.

can’t stress enough how databases are really critical,

You might have had a Hobbiton up there, for

it’s time to be working on them.

instance, and that’s great, we still want to see that supported, but what else could you do in that area of

Luke: Do you think being domestic travellers, I know

Hamilton or Matamata. There are heaps of things to

for myself when I travel, if we’re going to go to

do like the Gardens of the World in Hamilton, it’s just

Queenstown or Wanaka you’ve basically got a few

a fantastic place to go to. The tea plantation in

attractions that you’re going to tick off and you

Hamilton, again, something that people perhaps don’t

think that you’ve ‘done’ that region. Whereas I just

even know is there. How do we put that forward to

found last week or the week before that there’s a

our Kiwi people and how do we encourage the

waterfall abseiling thing in Wanaka and they’ve had

regional tours organisations to be telling that story as

to employ more guides because the domestic market

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well? Very much find the story, tell the story, show

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES people who you are.

Luke: That’s a great rounding statement, coming from someone who has a great wealth of knowledge,

Luke: That’s cool. A question for you: What’s one

good history, and fingers in hospitality,

thing that you’ve changed since 20th March? Which

accommodation, banks, good rounding statement

was the week before lockdown.

there Sharon, appreciate it. It’s about time to wrap up. Any closing comments from you, Sharon?

Sharon: Contactless check-in. There’s nothing like a bit of pressure to accelerate thoughts and

Sharon: I would just certainly encourage people to

technology. We now have the ability to have

think about their own individual situation and

contactless check-in and that’s a huge step forward

whether they could actually work collaboratively.

both for the security and safety of our guests coming

Become part of a wider group, not pushing ASURE

but also of our people in our front office and team

particularly but, you know, there is that visibility

throughout. Then we’ve noticed particularly people

factor that is really going to be needed and it is

have been asking around – and this will be

harder when you’re independent to get the visibility

interesting for Vendella – they’re wanting to make

because your traditional bookings may not be there. I

sure that we may not have bedspreads but triple

think it’s really key that you think about how could I

sheeting because of hygiene factor. Things like with

work collaboratively with one or more or a different

the contactless check-in that means when we’re

way of positioning my business to get that cut

doing RFPs for the corporate agents, etc, they’re

through in the market because whilst we want to

asking about health and safety protocols and that is

support our hotels, we also know that they are also

one of them that’s coming through. That would be

hunting for business. Hotels and motels have got

the biggest single thing we’ve done. But importantly,

this, I guess this ‘marriage’ that sometimes can be a

it’s been about our people. Reaching out, using our

little bit rubbing, if you like, so we want to make sure

own intranet facility, making sure our members know

rates are quite key. But yeah, the visibility factor I

exactly the latest information, where to find it, how

think is the key thing at the moment that all

to support them, talk to them about their business,

properties need to be thinking about and how do I

talk about cashflow, just really being interactive, not

get the best bang for my buck to get that visibility.

just sitting there receiving the issues they may be facing. Front-footing it, that is the key thing. I think

Luke: That’s great. Well, that gives us a lot to think

that will be what businesses need to do right

about. But to you, Sharon, thank you very much,

throughout this period and into next year, front-foot

really appreciate your time, appreciate your insights.

everything. Be upfront with your bank, be upfront

We’ve taken a slice out of your day, but hopefully

with your guests, with your tenants, be brave, look for

we’ve provided some value to all our listeners. Thank

opportunity, work collaboratively, and then sort

you, Sharon, really appreciate it.

through all of those things and find out the one key

thing that you can do to make change. For us, contactless check-in was very helpful, very helpful.

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18 JUNE | VTV WEBINAR SERIES

Lindsay Walker CEO and Founder at Make my Name Count

Lindsay has one of the most wide and varied careers, hands down which includes (but is not limited to!) General Manager of a House Of Travel branch, CEO of Waitaki Tourism, CEO of Make my Name Count (Non Profit Orphanage in Uganda), General Manager of Posh Tel. Throughout his experience, Lindsay has seen many different angles of Tourism and Accommodation so his words of wisdom are tried and tested.

Luke: Welcome everybody to our next VTV webinar

here. My background really is in retail travel,

series. I forget what it is, must be our eighth one

although it has also included airline operations, it has

now. Today we have Lindsay Walker with us.

also included coach line operation with Greyhound

Lindsay’s got a very wide and varied background so

America and Australia, it’s also included hotels and

tell us a little bit about yourself, Lindsay, and where

motor lodges, it’s also included CEO of Tourism

you are coming from.

Waitaki which gives a broader base as well. This year was my 50th year in business and it’s been really

Lindsay: Thank you Luke. It is a real pleasure to be

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interesting to see the widespread of things that have

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES been happening over a long period of time.

year and a half. It’s very, very big, very popular in Oamaru.

Luke: Brilliant. You worked in a House of Travel, is that right?

Luke: For the audience today, one thing that was really attractive or one that we thought would be really good to get Lindsay on, is Lindsay’s obviously

"It’s about going out and doing the oldfashioned marketing."

worked in the industry for such a long period of time and across so many different parts of it. From actually managing motels and hotels but then working basically for an OTA, or starting an OTA of The House of Travel, probably a bit of an older way of doing it now, but then as well being in Oamaru which has a huge attraction there with steampunk and the Victorian era and punches well above its weight for a small rural town. We thought that Lindsay would be able to share some tips or views that might be able to help us in some other regions around the country as well. Before we start, Lindsay tell us what your view is of the industry at the moment? What’s your take on it at the moment?

Lindsay: Yes, I did. I founded the one in Oamaru which, sadly, today or the other day has closed down,

Lindsay: Obviously it’s had a huge, profound effect

which is rather sad for me. But yes, I went from

on many, many people. It has basically closed the

Invercargill to London, I was trained in London and

outside world to us and we are now having to look

then came back to Oamaru, of all places, and set up

introspectively. But it’s also a great opportunity

an operation. Went to Greyhound in Auckland and

because I think the thing is we are looking for points

then came back to Oamaru, so Oamaru has a big

of differences and the point of difference is not just

pulling factor for me.

basically going onto a website like Booking.com and expecting Booking.com to fill all your rooms for you.

Luke: A bit of steampunk there, is it?

It’s about going out and doing the old-fashioned marketing. Getting people to come into your hotel or

Lindsay: Yeah, it was amazing. When my wife,

motel or whatever operation you have and offering a

Elaine, and I were general managers of Poshtel,

point of difference which really is not just a better

which is a brand new hotel here, and everybody was

price than the opposition down the road, it’s got to be

encouraged to wear ‘steampunk themed garb’, you

added value, what I would call added value to attract

could call it, clothes and some of the characters

repeat business. Repeat business is going to be the

looked fantastic. We had a lady from Weta

really important thing that people are going to have

Workshops who came down with 12 different

to do. Add uniqueness. Just something very off

complete costumes that she had made over about a

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES the top of my head, I remember quite a few years ago

come back again? Will they tell their friends? It’s

KLM, the Dutch airline, had a special deal and the

very much doing the extra yards and not doing it

deal was if you bought their ticket to Amsterdam

because you’ve got to it because if it is a forced thing

you’d get a free bicycle. We had a 75-year-old lady

that you are trying to do, it doesn’t work. If you’re

come into my office and said, ‘I want to go to

doing it because you’re genuinely interested in

Amsterdam, I want to win the bike’. I said, ‘Are you

people and want them to come back and want them

intending biking anywhere?’ She said, ‘No, I’m going

to come and stay, or want them to come back for your

to bring the bike home for my grandson.’ Now, lots

coffee or whatever. Doing things which are

and lots of people remember that promotion because

something completely different. I was amazed at

it was quite unique at the time, going overseas and

lockdown to see some of these innovative ideas with

getting a bike and cycling around Holland and

sporting events in your backyard. I would never have

bringing it back. Those sorts of things may not work

thought of some of these myself. The same would

today but in saying that if you have got a point of

apply in business. You’ve got to think of something

difference, adding a ‘wow’ factor to your operation,

right outside the square and do something different.

that is going to be the important thing. Luke: That is interesting that you say that because the old thing of sending someone a follow up, ‘Hey, it’s a year since you have stayed here,’ or six months, or whatever it might be. To plant a forest, you plant seeds and it takes years for it to come back but the best day to plant a tree is today. Sure it is not going to be there for 20 years, but you can only start today. That is a good takeaway point for anyone listening today is to follow up on your local database and if you haven’t got a database, you really need to start one. We have a CRM (Customer Relations Manager) site that we use here and it is free but it’s got a Luke: You touched on earlier before we started this

wealth of knowledge in there for us. You have run

around service excellence. Would that join on with

something like that yourself, obviously?

what you are saying there? Lindsay: Just say that again, sorry, I lost you there. Lindsay: Very much so, Luke. I think follow up with clients is very, very important. If people come to you,

Luke: Sorry, you have run something like that

if you have a hotel or motel or even a coffee shop,

yourself? Like a CRM or a database?

and people come in and you get to know these people, get to know where they are from, get to know

Lindsay: Yes, very much so. You have really got to

their address preferably or email address, or phone

keep the database up to date as well. It is very

number and follow up. Why they came, will they

important that you keep in contact with people and

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES that database will change, of course. People die, people move on, you’ve really got to be able to work it. If somebody has died and you ring them up and say, ‘Can I speak to John,’ and sadly John died 12 months ago, you could probably find there will be people who would appreciate you calling anyway and if you explain the circumstances and say, ‘I’m really interested in the wellbeing of John and hope to see him back again,’ and of course it leads to all sorts of opportunities as well. Luke: It is interesting that you say that and if someone has passed away or someone has unfortunate circumstances that they cannot come back, even send them a note in the post. You would be one of the few people that would ever do that but

comes, everything shuts down and of course the

they’ll remember that for the rest of their days as

tourists go away and all the rest of it. This is going to

well.

make it very interesting because in the future these people are going to be critical in a small town to

Lindsay: Yes.

be able to keep the attractions open. Oamaru’s blue penguin colony is a set example, that you are

Luke: What are your thoughts on the importance of

going to have to find ways of keeping that place open

events and attractions in the area, and that type of

because it is a worldwide attraction. It is going to

thing?

attract New Zealanders now and their pricing is going to be the same. I had a conversation the other day

Lindsay: They are really important. We, of course,

and I said, ‘Why don’t you, for example, drop the price

down here in Oamaru have got a very small

of your premium seats down to your regular price and

population. It is probably very unique to Timaru as

put everybody in the front row because your numbers

well because you’re really reliant on special events.

are going to be a lot less.’ That’s something that

We have the steampunk, we had the jazz festival –

whether they take that up or not, but it is small

both were cancelled. We have Oamaru on Fire which

things like that. It doesn’t mean dropping the price

we don’t burn Oamaru down but we have really

necessarily but adding something of value to your

interesting pyrotechnics going in the harbour with

attractions.

video mapping and things on buildings and all that sort of thing. All of those were cancelled sadly.

Queenstown? I don’t really feel sorry for Queenstown – I’m sorry if any of you people are from Queenstown

The other thing too in our historic area, the people

– but Queenstown are the double take because they

there are very small operators. They’re there for

do have the winter season as well as the summer

probably four months of the year and once winter

season and they do very well in both. Other places in

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES New Zealand, and in fact all around the world,

that type of thing, but it does take everyone to make

probably will not have the same double take

a small town work, right?

situation. It is important to maximise through events and having your retail offices or all your different

Lindsay: Yes.

offices open. Luke: What are your thoughts around the way we can attract business through our websites, that type of

"If you have a website you’ve got to be able to have it updated all the time and that’s really important."

thing? Lindsay: The most important thing, Luke, is to have it really up to date and make it innovative. People want to see what you’re offering and they need to have almost like a story. You need to tell them a story about it. The story might be a little bit about the history of Oamaru but also the history of your particular building as well and your operation. They come on the expectation of seeing something, and seeing something different, and I think that is where it is really important to have your website attractive. If it hasn’t been touched for six months or modified in six months, I think you will probably find it needs to be done, just small modifications. I am appalled that some of the websites you go onto and they say, ‘In 2018 and 2019 this is what we are going to do’. That sort of thing. You really need to be looking

One thing that we are finding before we left Poshtel

ahead and saying, ‘In 2021, this is what is happening’.

was a number of coffee shops open on a Sunday

And update the photographs. It’s no use having the

morning. People come on a Saturday night, we get

same photographs. If you have a website you’ve got

full up right to the top of 20-odd rooms or whatever

to be able to have it updated all the time and that’s

numbers, and first thing in the morning, they say,

really important.

‘Where do you go for coffee?’ ‘I’m sorry such-andsuch is closed and they’re closed and they are not

Luke: That’s good. I like what you say there and if

operating anymore,’ and so forth. It is important that

anyone on the call today – this is not a punt for us –

these people stay open.

but if anyone on the call today has any questions around that, get in touch with Alberta here. She is

Luke: You cannot give the full experience if

running daily sessions with helping people with this

peopleare closed and it is hard when you have got

type of thing and some of it is not hard. Well, most of

overheads for being open for those coffee shops and

it is not hard and she is targeting her training

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES sessions around people who do not necessarily find it

like a fish ‘n’ chips shop owner that would be taking

naturally easy in this space and people find really

orders, like so much fish and so many chips and so

good value in that, so get in touch with her.

many hotdogs and all the rest. You need to be looking at selling knowledge and selling experience

I went onto a website the other day and there were

and this is probably in the future, it’s so easy to go

photos on there that looked probably like 2005 of the

onto Airbnb or Booking.com but it doesn’t necessarily

region, which doesn’t do a whole lot of good to drive

tell you the whole truth and the whole story. There’s

you to the property. The other thing that I look for as

lots of information that you need and the only way of

a traveller when I go onto a website is photos of the

getting that information is to be able to rely on the

hosts. It is a really nice thing knowing who you are

people who have been there, done it and that

going to be met by. Obviously it applies to smaller

information is up to date.

properties but couple of thoughts there for anyone who hasn’t got that. You started and ran the House

Luke: That is the part that we play, right? We own

of Travel there, what are your thoughts around travel

the property, we know our local region so we can tell

agents and driving business back through your own

that story, is that what you are thinking?

website? Lindsay: It has changed remarkably. I have been blessed to have gone to, I think, 117 countries in the world so I am widely travelled even though I am domiciled here in Oamaru. I said when I retired or when I sold my business of House of Travel in Oamaru in 1997 actually, quite a while ago, that I was becoming a dinosaur. There are young people coming from institutes and university and they were basically very technically advanced as far as reservations and computerisation and all the rest of it. I had the experience and knowledge, I could tell you lots and lots of feelings about countries and

Lindsay: Yeah, very much so. There’s a lot of history

places and all the rest of it. I had a 17 year long

and if you go into your local library or even go and

travel program on Radio New Zealand and that was

Google and actually find out some of the fascinations

the longest running program, I think, apart from a

of some of the things that have happened in the

gardening program somewhere, I don’t know where it

1860s or 1890s and some is really, really interesting.

was, but people wanted to hear, they wanted to be

People are fascinated by that because when they

told stories, they wanted the knowledge, they wanted

come to you, particularly in small towns, they want to

to hear all about these wonderful things. I retired at

see what the difference is. I know down here in the

that point or I basically sold the business at that

old days we were perceived as being a toilet and a

point because I felt I was a dinosaur. I said I never

pie stop, and basically go to Dunedin or go to

want to be a travel agent if all I was doing was being

Christchurch. Then all of a sudden, my modus

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES operandi when I was Tourism CEO here was to get

Lindsay: Well, it wasn’t only me punching but I think

them to stay a night, and then to get them to stay

you’ve got – and this is where it is really good to

two nights, and then to get them to stay three

have a team, have a team of people who are all

nights. And then taking business off Queenstown so

pulling towards the same goal. If you are in a

they go to Queenstown as a secondary thing but

business by yourself sometimes you feel really lonely

come to the coast which is unique for Queenstown

and say, ‘Oh, my gosh, I’ve got a little retail

because they cannot go to the coast from

operation’, or ‘I’ve got a coffee shop’, or ‘I’ve got a

Queenstown. And see penguins and see all these

small business’, or whatever, it’s to be able interact

other things as well. So you actually wove a picture

and everybody that comes and actually stays in your

to be able to do this.

town is going to be able to do something. I remember a little time ago we had Korean Airlines flying into New Zealand and they go down to Ashburton on the way to Tekapo and then through to Twizel and that railway station was converted. Now, they did a roaring trade, although it was owned by Koreans at the time, but when Korean Airlines cancelled that service, the whole industry collapsed. That whole railway station was eventually demolished. What that tells me is that it was so dependent on one market, and this is where what we

Luke: You did a good job at that. It annoys me a

are going through now is a one market, a New

little bit because we are based in Timaru, which is

Zealand market, but will expand. I often compare it

80km up the road, and I talk to the tourists in town

to, if you have a tray of eggs and you put it above

here and say, ‘Whereabouts are you staying tonight,’

your head and you drop it from above your head, not

or, ‘Whereabouts are going to?’ ‘Oh, no, we’re just

hopefully on you but drop it on the ground, you will

stopping here, we’re going south down to Oamaru

get a giant omelette. That’s all you’ll get, a big, huge

and looking at the steampunk and the buildings

scrambled egg. It’s not good for anything else. What

and the penguins and that.’ That’s frustrating

you’ve got to do is take those eggs away from the

because Timaru is about three times your size but

main source, so if you drop the eggs, at least you are

you’ve got more pulling power than us.

going to have something left over. When you have a business, look at all the worst case scenarios. Look at

[laughter]

what happens if you have lose a segment of your market, it might be a commercial base, it could be

Luke: That’s why we got Lindsay on today, right,

your repeat clients, it could be a number of things.

because Lindsay’s actually achieved pulling people to

It could be workers who come for a reason or it could

a smaller town, punching well above their weight. It

be tourists who come, whatever. What you’ve really

is great, it is really good to see.

got to be able to do is to have a number of eggs outside the main basket, and that is sadly what has

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES happened in this market is when the borders

a top line product but the thing is we shouldn’t be

haveclosed we have a majority of our segmentation

reeling people in because at the end of the day what

of our New Zealand tourism market has gone and

happens if that market changes? And it has done.

now we have got to rebuild it. Luke: That is very insightful. We are coming up to Luke: It is sad and our numbers have dropped away.

twenty-two minutes past ten, Lindsay, have you got

But also, as an opportunist approach it also gives us a

any closing comments that you would like to share

brilliant opportunity to try something totally new. I

with our audience?

remember someone telling me once years ago when we first started managing this company, ‘Try

Lindsay: I think it is really important to understand

something daily that you are distinctly uncomfortable

that we’ve still got our infrastructure. It’s a bit like

with’. It’s all about not staying in your comfort zone.

dropping a bomb – if you drop a bomb on something

Maybe it’s ‘I’ve never targeted a certain type of

you’ll have nothing left. This particular situation we

demographic’ but try it, there’s nothing to lose at this

have gone through is that we have everything intact.

point in time, right?

I think what we have to do is to support each other and it’s really good, I think New Zealanders are very good at doing that, and I think as business people

"You can command top prices if it’s a top line product."

we’ve got to respond by doing something that is a wee bit different and from that it has a flow-on effect to other businesses as well. And team up with people. It might be that you team up with a shop down the road or a business down the road and do promotions. We have a great propensity to be able to do creative things in New Zealand and I think we have got the infrastructure, particularly in the South Island, to be able to do things differently. Many years ago we had an MP, he was actually a teacher at Southland Boys’ where I used to go and he said that what we should do is we should cede from the North Island and become a republic, so the

Lindsay: Absolutely. New Zealand has never been a mass market and it was becoming a mass market. We can’t compete with Germany and France and Italy and those big countries but it was getting that way. I’ve

sense. We’ve got our own power, we can grow our own vegetables. It might be if things take off in the North Island we might have to become the Republic

always perceived New Zealand to be a niche market,

of the South Island. If you are listening from the

we should be looking at high end people, not a snob

other island I think you should move south and that

thing but basically making it really top end, top quality, top prices. You can command top prices if it’s

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6 0 1 2

would be a great thing as well.

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES Luke: That’s very interesting. We actually came from

you for our association over the time that we have

Auckland ourselves. We’re actually proud of the

been in hotel industry and I wish you all the very best

journey, yeah. We moved down here in ’92, so not

and your staff all the very best too.

born but bred in the South Island. Luke: I really appreciate your feedback, it’s the team Lindsay: Residence, almost a citizen. How does that

behind me which make it all happen, so I will pass on

sound?

your comments to them. We’ve got some comments coming in from Sally here as well about the similar

Luke: Yeah, pretty much.

type of thing. It is the team here that make it special but I will pass it on but really appreciate it. Thanks to

[laughter]

everybody out there. We’ll touch base next week, Thursday ten o’clock, another guess speaker. Thanks

Luke: That’s really good, Lindsay, appreciate your

Lindsay, wish you all the very best. See everybody

thoughts. Lindsay comes from such a wide

again, bye for now.

background so to share those thoughts from your

take of the industry on how we can get it back to where it should be is very insightful. I appreciate your time, appreciate everyone that has been on today. It looks like Alberta has had a lot of correspondence with the training sessions on social media and that type of thing, so, yeah, do touch base there if there is anything that we can do there. Lindsay, to yourself, thank you very much. I wish you all the best for the months in front of you. If you’ve got too many people en route, just send them north a bit. We’d like to help them out. I mean as far as tourists. Lindsay: You never retire, somebody said the only way you retire is when you work for a tyre company and I am not going to work for a tyre company. I would say this, that I’m very willing to help anybody with any thoughts or any ideas. But I’d also like to say Vendella how very fine company you actually have there, Luke, and your staff. We’ve loved dealing with you, you’re one of, by far, the best companies that I can think of as far as service goes, as far as personal service and friendliness goes, and I thank

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25 JUNE | VTV WEBINAR SERIES

Review Publishing

Sarah Mitchell & Tania Walters Group Editorial Directors at Review Publishing Hotel Magazine produces comprehensive editorial content from experienced journalists creating product and personnel news, industry opinion and developments, technology data and an extensive news coverage of the New Zealand industry. The publication is not targeted at the tourism market but at key information on the hotel industry, its developments, applicable products and internal operations as well as regular marketing briefs, company profiles and management information. Luke: Welcome everybody to our ninth VTV, on the

yourself and tell us what perspective you’re bringing

25th. Today we have Tania Walters and Sarah

to our webinar today.

Mitchell from the Hotel Magazine. Welcome to VTV. Tania: Well, we obviously own and run Hotel Sarah: Thanks for having us.

Magazine. It’s a family based publishing company, 96-years-old – not that we’ve been in the hotel or

Luke: No worries at all, our pleasure. Just introduce

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reporting on the hotel industry for that long, we’ve

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES been in the hotel sector side of things for about six or

resource. A lot of people think they can only buy an

seven years now. We’ve always been in the food and

ad off us and everything’s about charging and it’s

beverage side of the business though. Our

not. It’s about give us a call and ask us if you need

perspective on what’s happening now? Yeah. It’s a

something or if you want to be connected with

difficult time and it’s challenging not only for

somebody else. Obviously, we have an extensive

hoteliers and moteliers, it’s also for us. We publish

network of hoteliers and moteliers as well as

a bi-monthly magazine, more than welcome to take

suppliers. If you need something it’s really just a case

any questions or information that anyone needs. But

of, it’s a connection point, that’s all we are. We’re a

ideally, yes, we’re really a hotel magazine that talks

conduit for doing business.

B2B. Luke: Cool, great. That’s the reason why we got Tania and Sarah on today was they bring a marketing

"I always think that a sense of community is vital within an industry."

perspective to VTV. It’s probably something that we haven’t had in previous sessions was a real focus on marketing. We’re going to cover off some questions today around how things – well, we all know how things were – how things are going to look, and how we can best react from a marketing perspective to the new environment we find ourselves in. First question: From an accommodation provider, what would you say about what they should be doing today in view of the new normal, if you like? Tania: I think we have to accept that it’s not so much just a new normal, a complete recalibration of your business. You have to reassess your assets, that’s

Luke: Brilliant. From your perspective, Sarah?

both your team, your fixed assets, where your money is going to be coming from, what the market is

Sarah: Our magazine is specifically for businesses in

looking like, it’s a complete recalibration. It’s not a

the accommodation industry and sector. We like to

stopgap until it goes back to how it was because how

connect suppliers with accommodation providers and

it was may not come back for many, many years, and

accommodation providers with suppliers that can

it might not come back in that format at all. It’s a

help them do better business. That’s us in a nutshell.

recalibration of your business. Take stock. Who are the team members that you have, because the people

Tania: It’s trying to make sure that there’s a community. I always think that a sense of community is vital within an industry and outside of that as far as the actual guests are concerned. Trying to make sure that there’s a voice, that people have a place and a

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are the most vital element. But also looking beyond your business to the businesses in your community and collaborations. For accommodation providers at the moment we have to give the New Zealand community a reason to move around the country and

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES it’s not just moving to the more well-known places. We have to be looking at – as I mentioned to you before – places like Ragland, Waikato, where are people going to go and how do we get there? Because if someone was a foreign tourist coming here and they were going to Queenstown, they’d have a look at Christchurch, they might come to Auckland or they might fly out. We actually need New Zealanders to explore New Zealand but not just the places that they’re familiar with. Not just the hole in the rock in the Bay of Islands, not just Queenstown, we need them moving through the country, and I think the key to that is a collaboration.

Sarah: It goes far beyond just ‘I need to clean more, I

It might be you join up with wineries and you provide

need to sanitise more, and I need to enforce physical

your guests with that as an experience.

distancing’ and all this other thing. It can be looking

Fundamentally the guest experience has to be

inwardly and around your own town, region, and

broader than just the hotel, and I don’t think that

being aware of who else is in business around you

price should be something that is the governing

instead of just feeling isolated, like you’re alone in

factor. Adding value makes a successful business.

this. Because I guarantee everybody in New Zealand

Cutting price will just drag out the agony but it

in business is feeling the same. How do I get

doesn’t solve the problem.

customers? How do I get more customers? How do I recover from this? Sometimes working with other

In the magazine we’ve been featuring a lot of artists,

people, bouncing ideas and things like that really

local artists, so making sure that you’ve got local art

help. And it’s motivating and inspiring that you can

on your walls, maybe there is a glass blower in your

get through this and as a country we can get through

area that your guests can go and visit. Making those

this together.

guest experiences that are a little bit different. There might be a food manufacturer who makes straws,

Luke: It’s interesting because anyone who’s been on

pasta, whatever, you might be able to organise with

this webinar since the start, just about every guest

them that they could have dinner using the

that we’ve had has spoken about the need to partner

ingredients while talking to the person who actually

up with other people, creating that broader

makes that pasta or that chutney or that wine.

experience. I was just thinking back, Airbnb, going

Making those guest experiences and making your

back a little while, was the greatest disruptive in this

point of difference. Perhaps if you’re an independent

industry, well this is a disruptor on size ten, from

joining up with some other independents to make the

Airbnb.

trail of going from one city to another, or one place to another, as a journey. If someone took a week’s

Tania: Can I just say that for us, Airbnb, the way that

holiday where are they going to go?

Airbnb would recover is different because that has a

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES far more sanitation side and trust that to us, I think if

we’re talking about partnering up and finding more

we can just eliminate from this discussion and saying

experience, for some people that would be a feeling

that we’re talking about Airbnb, because Airbnb is…

that’s totally well outside of day to day business. What would you say to those type people?

Sarah: It’s something different.

"If you are marketing to businesses you need to be in business magazines, you need to be talking to businesses."

Tania: …it’s almost like a different thing. Just to clarify, we are talking about hoteliers, moteliers, holiday parks, bed and breakfast, we’re not talking about Airbnb. Luke: It is quite a different thing, yeah, and we’ve covered some parts of that on previous sessions too. It’s quite a, as you say, totally agree. Tania: Airbnb’s problem is primarily sanitation andtrust. More than anything else. For the rest of the industry, the main part of the accommodation sector, it is really about collaboration. It’s about sanitation and trust as well, but you can’t just say ‘My hotel is clean’, or ‘My motel is clean’. You have to be seen to be clean. You have to be seen to be having practices there that guests can see somebody cleaning. It’s not enough to say, ‘I've deep cleaned the place’, guests have to really be seeing that that is the case. Sarah: Proactive.

Tania: I think if we divide them into two. If we look

Tania: Yeah. I’m not reducing the value of that, but

at the provider for the corporate customer in the past,

primarily what we’re talking about is beyond

that corporate customer, there are still corporate

sanitation.

customers within business in New Zealand so you need to be talking to business. That’s where your

Luke: Yeah. Just jumping back to the experiences in

marketing comes in. If you are marketing to

that, what would you say to someone who their main

businesses you need to be in business magazines, you

guest has typically been corporate stay and all of a

need to be talking to businesses. You need to be

sudden they’ve found themselves cast into a lot where their corporate customers have reduced? Then

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able to provide workshops, you need to be able to look at what they are actually searching for and look

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES and find that. If they want conference rooms, if they want to be able to take out the entire place. A lot of conferences will not go offshore for a very long time so there are—. Sarah: It does open it up in New Zealand. Tania: It really does. Sarah: Leveraging more towards the loyalty side of things can be a key role in recovery for hotels and motels. to be together. It’s the one thing we found the most Tania: Defining what market you’re going to go

difficult working from home was the lack of the

after. They’ll probably do both because they won’t be

ability to be able to turn to someone and say, ‘Hey,

certain where their market’s going to come from at

what do you think’ without a Zoom meeting and

the moment. But there is still going to be a corporate

scheduling something. Certain industries work well,

customer, it’s just going to be a New Zealand

IT is probably one of them that work well remotely,

corporate customer. Businesses in New Zealand also

but creative, no, they don’t.

want to help. I’ve had so many people reach out to us, businesses want to help. They’ll say, ‘But you

Sarah: And hospitality.

need to ask’. That’s the one thing that I’ve found difficult is actually lowering my pride enough to say,

Tania: Hospitality don’t. Hospitality by its very name

‘I actually need help’. Contacting businesses and

means to share. I think determining what your asset

saying – if you did the Fonterra, for example, and you

is, what your offering is going to be, and what those

said, ‘This is our hotel chain’, or ‘This is our

offerings can be and they might not fit into one

independents, we’d be interested in hosting your

square box. You might have a circle over here, a box

company. When are you thinking of having a

over there, and a triangle. It might be that there are

workshop or bringing your people together?’ At the

three things that you can bring, that you can provide

moment no one wants to bring their people together

for corporate guests and workshops, that you could

because everyone’s frightened of what that means.

provide for a collaboration with a winery, for

But that will pass.

example, or a sculpture trail, or something along those lines that you can draw guests in. It might be a

Sarah: Team building will be a thing again.

murder mystery, you might suddenly become the place where people come to share. Because that’s

Tania: It will be a thing again. We don’t operate very

the one thing that we are all feeling a little lax of,

well in isolation and certainly creative businesses

which is why everyone wanted to get out to a bar or a

don’t operate well in isolation. Creative teams have

restaurant, because you wanted company. Humans

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES don’t operate in isolation.

There’s a big fear when you’re in business to actually go, ‘You know what, I’m going to put my hand up and

Luke: No, we don’t do it all that well. We are quite

say I don’t know what I’m doing, I don’t know how to

social creatures.

deal with this’.

Tania: No, we don’t, we just don’t.

"Can I be a local place for our locals to go to."

Luke: You were speaking to that corporate, people who have had that corporate customer and I think at this point in time it may be distinctly uncomfortable for someone who’s mainly had that corporate customer to do some of these things that you’re suggesting, but we can’t fail, right. If you’re going into unchartered—. Sarah: You can only try, you can only try.

Sarah: These collaborations also aren’t just for Tania: We have to step out of our skin and try

guests, they can be for people that live in the region

things. I think there’s a calculated risk and I think

and you can attract locals to an event that you’re

that’s where you talk to someone like us or a

hosting or to support you in that way. You don’t

marketing company that you use. You need to

always have to think I’ve got an out of town guest, it

bounce these ideas around. What you’re comfortable

can be can I be a local place for our locals to go to.

with, what your team is comfortable with because

Like Tuesday night trivia type thing, the old school ‘I

you can’t just have the MD or the general manager

go to the pub on Tuesdays for trivia’ could be ‘I go to

and the team behind them is not on board with it.

the local hotel’.

Everybody in that team has to say, ‘This is what my Tania: The local hotel, they put a dinner on.

friends would like to do’. Because we all know somebody else, it’s two degrees of separation, really,

Sarah: There’s entertainment or whatever.

and utilise those contacts, use those collaborations. You might belong to the local Chamber, you might belong to a business association, you might belong to

Tania: You might have a local jazz singer, you could

a tennis club, an archery, whatever, what can you

have anything.

bring utilising the contacts that you have. Most people don’t understand that they actually have a

Sarah: You’re really bringing the community together

huge wealth of networking. They look at it as ‘This is

as well as welcoming in other communities, I guess,

my after-hours networking people and these are my

people from around New Zealand.

business networking people’. The fact is now those lines are completely blurred and we’re just utilising

Tania: I also think that that will actually, when we do

everybody we know and asking, talking about it.

open the border enough that we have international

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES guests, they love those experiences. The chef comes out and shows them how to make dumplings, there is that. I remember probably 30 years ago going to the chateau and the chef came out and we were snowed in and they showed us how to make crepe suzette. I have never forgotten how to make crepe suzette from there, but we were trapped in a hotel and they didn’t know what to do with us, it was basically no skiing, and what do you do with all these people? We had a medieval night, it was fun, it was a huge amount of fun and I have very fond memories of that. Luke: And you say that’s 30 years ago? Tania: Yeah. Luke: That’s obviously stuck in your memory, right,

"Putting your hand up for help, I think as business people we don’t like doing it."

and that was—.

they have now, upskill their people as well. This is a

Tania: Very much so. I’ve done Airbnb experiences

stepped out of the crowd and become – we’ve got it

great opportunity to upskill and the people that have in here where people who were hired to do one job

as well where you’ve gone off and visited a home.

have suddenly found themselves doing something

Well this hotel, motel, the holiday park, they are someone’s home for that duration. What you’re trying to make them see is you don’t just have to come to

else entirely and it’s the same within the accommodation sector. Many years ago we did a promotion where we were actually working with a

Rotorua to see the bubbling mud that you may have

company and they had 20,000-odd staff, what do you

seen when you were a kid and maybe a couple of

do with that many people if you decide to do

trips after that, what else is there? Why would I

something that’s a team building, that can pull them

come? I don’t want to do the necessarily ‘tourist’

all together. We did a ‘Stars in Your Eyes’ and

things because I think I’ve done that. What else can I

honestly, I thought it was going to be a disaster, I

do? I can come down, I can take the kids that have

thought oh no, people who can’t sing, it’s going to be

never seen the bubbling mud because I took them to

horrific. It was the most fun and it just brought the

Australia instead, I can show them that, but for me I

entire company together. They realised that there

can learn this, I can learn a new skill, I can look at artworks, I can see the local artisanal people.

were people with talent within their environment and

Obviously for us, the companies that we’ve been

Sometimes out of this kind of disaster you actually

they wanted to keep it going year after year. get the little gold nuggets that make your business

helping have been ones where we have been looking

charming.

for their long-term as a plan, take the asset, what

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES Luke: I like what you say there. We may have a

not long ago, do you keep the team, how long is this

hidden talent or a hidden connection within our own

going to go on for, I could make the wrong decision

team, as in for a motel your cleaning staff may know

right now. I decided to keep the team. Now that

someone or know a certain skill or something. And I

comes with it a rather large financial burden. I make

like what you were saying earlier about putting your

no secret of the fact that I took the wage subsidy.

hand up for help, I think as business people we don’t

What is interesting that I put my people on 80% pay,

like doing it but we’ve talked to so many moteliers,

80% of the time. We had a 20% reduction in hours

hoteliers, accommodation providers, and then we

and a 20% reduction in pay. I emailed them the other

cross over into the aged-care industry as well. Aged-

day because I actually wasn’t well and I wasn’t at

care at the moment is, there’s no downturn in aged-

work – I didn’t have anything like a cold – and I

care, right, everybody’s still just as old as they were.

emailed them to say, ‘How are you feeling now that we’ve had this? Do you feel that I’m being fair?’ I

Tania: We also have an aged-care magazine,

have been overwhelmed by the response from

obviously, but I was getting old and the kids thought,

people, absolutely overwhelmed and it was like ‘Do

you know what, we really need to get into that sector

you need us to take more of a cut? We can do one

so that we learn about it.

less day. What do you think we should be doing

Luke: One thing I’m finding is talking to all these people is everybody is a lot more comfortable talking to other people about the challenges we’re having. If anyone that’s listening today is having that, they call it ‘FOGO’, the fear of going out or fear of reaching out, it should actually be more of the ‘FOMO’, the fear of missing out because other people are reaching out. Tania: Reaching out to someone else, I went through, obviously, a few recessions. The last one it took me ten years to get out of and I had just got out of it at the end of last year and thought , you know, I’ve done

We’re here, we’ve got our hand up and we’re here to

it. I had like one good month and then 95% of our

help.’ I hadn’t really thought that our team was like

business on the 26th of March stopped completely.

that. I mean I thought some of them were because

Just completely. Everyone cancelled their ads.

they’re related, but the other, do I really have these

Everyone stopped. I had the decision then, do I keep

people on board? And yes, I do have these people on

my team? Or do I let half of them go and keep half of

board. Then they started coming out with ‘Well, I can

them back? What do I do? I had three days to make

do this, I could add to this’.

that decision and I think a lot of companies were in that position. You had staff that may have joined you

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Sarah: I think even asking your own team, it’s a good

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES time to, yeah, reflect and—.

have always ignored him, I just get my groceries at the supermarket and just really did ignore him.

Tania: Because as the boss you try and say, ‘Okay,

During lockdown he went out of his way to stay open

we’re going to get through this, we’re going to get

late, to make sure that he had all the extra things

through this’. But quite frankly, I am the swan, I was

that you couldn’t get, he started selling bread. Now it

sitting quite calm looking on the surface but my feet

was good for his business, I don’t detract from that,

were going hell for leather underneath. When I

but he made such a community of his store a lot of

reached out to other business owners and said, ‘Hey,

our community now have said to support him, to keep

we need help’, I have actually been astounded by

going, we will now buy from him, we will make a

companies who’ve said, ‘Look, this is what we would

special trip because he actually made us aware of

normally spend with you in a year, we’ll give it to you

what he needed.

right now’. Luke: It’s humbling, isn’t it. Tania: We’re a 96-year-old business, you always don’t want to be the one family member that ruins it.Sarah: That’s me, by the way. Tania: For me to ask for help was huge, for me to actually say – and one of my staff said to me, who’s been with me for about 25 years, said to me, ‘It’s not begging’. I said, ‘I feel as if I’m begging’. Luke: That’s a brilliant point and I think it’s a good Sarah: I think it’s important to note that you’re not,

take away from today, we’re coming up to twenty-

you’re just—.

seven minutes past ten.

Tania: You have to just be honest and say without

Sarah: Sorry.

your support we can’t keep doing this. I think that inside a community where a hotel or motels are

Luke: No, no, it’s fine.

based or a holiday park is based, you need to look around you and say to the rest of the community, ‘I

Tania: We told you that we had the ability to talk.

do need your support, I do need you to come on Fridays and eat in our restaurant, I do need you to

Luke: So, to actually ask for that assistance from

perhaps spend your next child’s birthday in our

other people around you, for anyone in this industry,

establishment, I do need the community’s help’.

the help’s, I think Kiwis as well and other communities within the country are so willing to

The interesting one for me was a local greengrocer, I

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help.

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES Tania: Yeah, they are.

consultant service, I found that out about thirty-five minutes ago. So, to anyone on the call, they do

Luke: It’s sort of hard wired in, yeah.

actually provide a consulting service and are willing to help you market your facility, your

Tania: As a final from us, if anyone does need help or

accommodation, and so they’ll have that discussion

someone to talk to…

with you so reach out to them. Where can they find your details?

Sarah: We’re here to help. Tania: On our website. Tania: …we’re here. You don’t have to think ‘Oh, I’m going to have to pay for this’ because we haven’t, the

Sarah: hotelmagazine.co.nz. We’re not very good at

charge is not there.

pushing ourselves. We promote other people, not ourselves.

Sarah: We’re here for the community. Tania: That is a very typical Kiwi thing though, is Tania: We’re here for our community which is our

not to actually put your hand up but please—.

different sectors that we work in, we’ve been here to help. I got an email yesterday from a client saying,

Luke: There goes Alberta, Alberta’s just put it in the

‘I’m sorry, I don’t have any budget but can you help

chat there, so. This video obviously goes live to our

me?’ That’s okay. We can do that. We can help, we

YouTube channel so it will be in the description there

are there.

as well. But thank you ladies, really appreciate your time, really appreciate your perspective.

Luke: You took the words from my mouth. Sarah: Sorry if we talked too much. Tania: If somebody has money though, I also need that.

Luke: No, that’s absolutely fine, it saves me, you know. Really appreciate it. Thanks everybody,

[laughter]

thanks for joining. This time next week we’ll be here again. See you again.

Tania: But if somebody just needs someone to talk to or to thrash out a plan, we didn’t build this business

Tania: Thank you, bye.

on the basis of making money every day, we built the

business on the basis of making money for tomorrow. And that is really what we’re about. Luke: Yep. For the crowd listening today, I never realised when we reached out to Sarah and Tania, I never realised that they actually provided a

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02 JULY | VTV WEBINAR SERIES

The Grand Finale

Alberta Brodie Marketing Manager & Luke Brodie GM at Vendella Vendella was founded in 2008 during the GFC by Luke & his Father. Now 12 years later, it is a company of 20 staff, over 10,000 clients and 4 sub-brands (Guest, Care, Supply & Home). Specialising in sustainable beds and bedding solutions for beds away from home extending into furniture, kitchenware, cleaning, electrical and bathroom. Alberta joined the company in 2018 and is now the Marketing Manager.

Luke: Hello everybody and welcome to our tenth and

function, she has compiled all the videos, she has

our final VTV. I'd like to introduce Alberta here,

been speaking to the guests, arranging the guests,

Alberta has been the one who’s done everything

and all that kind of stuff. A lot of the success of VTV

behind the scenes on these sessions. Every session

goes to Alberta, it’s her we’ve got to thank. It’s our

you obviously see me and you see the other guest but

last one, we’ve done ten, well, this is our tenth. It’s

behind the scenes has been Alberta, she’s the one

been very, very interesting, it’s been very insightful.

that’s been sending all the emails, working the chat

We’ve seen everyone from hotels, motels, holiday

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES parks, magazine editors – anyone I’ve missed?

know, each video’s probably 20 minutes long so it will be a good thick book for you to read. And like

Alberta: Horwath that was—.

what Alberta says there, a lot of it is Covid orientated but then some of them are really just good standard

Luke: Yep, the consulting firm. TIA. I don’t know if

business practice so you’ll be able to read that over

any of you have, if you’ve missed any go onto our

the coming months. As well it’ll be a little memento

YouTube channel and they’re all in there. There’s

from this time as well, that Covid book in the

some really good stuff in there too. Stephen

cupboard. Which may be interesting for future

Hamilton from Horwath, he actually gave us a deck of

generations as well.

slides and we’ll be able to share those slides with you if that’s of any interest to you.

I thought we could just cover off real quickly, we’re obviously no experts, we deal with a lot of properties

We’ve got some giveaways. Today we thought it

throughout the whole country, but I thought we’d just

would be good to give something back as well.

quickly touch on some of the points that we took

Alberta, you tell us what we’re giving away with the

away from the session. What’s something that you

catalogue.

thought, Alberta?

Alberta: We are currently running ‘Generosity July’ and because you guys have been attending for ten sessions now, we want to give back to you as a thanks for your support throughout this time. We are going to be printing specifically for all of you guys who have registered, all 180 registrants, we are going to be printing the VTV series in a book catalogue and sending them to all you guys. Obviously, the videos will be available and it will be available in a digital series but you guys are going to have a nice printed book with every single one of these series printed in it for future reference. All of this information that we have been given is not only specific to Covid, we can use it at any time when we are perhaps struggling a little. I think it’s going to be a really good source for us all and we want to be able to give that to you as remembrance of this time and something to look back on as well. Luke: That’s great. We’re going to transcribe all the

"When something unique comes along you’ve got to meet it with something unique."

videos into text and print it in a catalogue. I don’t

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES Alberta: Something that I really thought about, and

workers, whether you’re associated to some industry

was thinking about it last night actually, Covid was

in your area, and those people tend to be faring a

something that struck us out of the box, we didn’t

little bit better because they’ve got some people that

expect it to be coming. And really the only way for

they can always rely on.

us as a business, was to meet it in the middle and to be out of the box. VTV was something we never

Alberta: We were talking about it earlier this morning

thought we would be doing, it’s not something that

weren’t we, in terms of some of the holiday parks.

we’re good at, it’s not something that we thought we

The holiday parks, some of them seem to be doing

would be doing during 2020 but here we are. We’ve

really well just because of the wide offering of

done so many out of the box things that we wouldn’t

accommodation they provide, from your apartment

feel comfortable doing usually but it seems to have

kind of thing right through to bunk beds backpacking

worked.

type of thing, and it seems to be really working for some of them. My thought too was international

Luke: I like that. When something unique comes

visitors, they’re a one-time stay so building that

along you’ve got to meet it with something unique

loyalty with domestic visitors is quite important

yourself. As they say, if you always do what you’ve

during this time as well so that in times like this

always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always

when we have no international travel, those domestic

got. That’s a bit of a tongue twister that one. Yeah,

visitors have that loyalty to our properties.

like VTV, we’re not comfortable in front of video and we’re not comfortable presenting to a whole bunch of

Luke: Yeah, that’s good. That was one of my main

people but we had to do something different and VTV

takeaways. When you look at your property and

was one of those things.

when you look at it moving forward, see if you can get some diversification with your type of guest so

Probably another thing that resonated for me going

you’re not so bound to one guest type. Did you have

through the last ten episodes was around, as a

another takeaway?

business owner around spreading your risk and we’ve learnt that as well. We’ve got 22 or 23 staff here and

Alberta: One thing that definitely was a common

the first weight that you feel as a business owner is

thread throughout all of the series really was the

that you need to care for everybody. But when we’re

need to use your community and what you’ve got. As

focused so heavily on the tourism industry it is

New Zealanders we’re perhaps not comfortable

obviously a concern. I noticed that speaking to a

reaching out, like the last people we had, the

number of accommodation providers, a lot tend to

magazine editors, they said we’re perhaps not

focus on one type of guest and then you get some

comfortable reaching out for help but during this

that have a real diverse range of guests, it could be

time it’s so important to be connecting with our

tourists, it could be corporates, it could be some that

community. Shoutout to Sally Ching, I’m not sure

have a real diverse range of guests, it could be

whether she’s on here but she’s done a fantastic job

tourists, it could be corporates, it could be some

at this. I notice she’s done some LinkedIn posts

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES recently, she’s connected with the train that goes

in and totally embraced this whole thing of thinking

from Christchurch to Greymouth and she’s offering

outside the box and using the community and all this

the stay package with the train trip, etcetera. It’s

wonderful stuff.

really attractive and I know it definitely created a buzz in our office here of people wanting to do that

She's been a real inspiration to Alberta and I and

train and really started talking about it.

she’s been contacting us a lot, working out how she can do more for this industry and how she can help

Luke: Do you know Sally’s property name?

guests and what she can learn from social media and that. It was so cool to see someone just trying stuff,

Alberta: Yes, 306 on Riccarton, she’s an ASURE

nothing to lose, and as Alberta said, she’s partnered

property and that train ride’s going for $99 at the

up with TranzAlpine because TranzAlpine are doing

moment.

$75 tickets to the West Coast, which is phenomenal. She’s saying that if you’re going to go on the West

Luke: $75. $75, yeah. Sally’s been quite an

Coast train, come and stay with us the night prior.

inspiration to us. I never knew Sally before this VTV came along. What was her property name? 306—?

Alberta: There we go, she said, ‘You’re never too old to learn’. Thanks Sally.

Alberta: 306 Riccarton. I'll see if she’s with us today. I can’t tell, give us a shoutout on the chat if you’re

Shoutout to Mike as well, Riverstone Motel, Mike

here, Sally.

Dougan – I think I’ve said it right, hopefully – he’s also just mentioned here his takeaway was to ask a

Luke: Sally is, I think she joined ASURE or joined the

school kid to do some video, he’s getting that lined

industry in January or February, so totally new to the

up now. Great work Mike, and shoutout to Mike –

industry. She is – I hope you don’t mind me saying

and I forget his wife’s name right now – but they

this Sally – she’s probably slightly older, as in not a

have also been very proactive and getting into

20-year-old if you know what I mean. She has come

LinkedIn as well. Well done Mike there, all the best with Riverstone Motel. Luke: Yeah, that’s cool, Mike. That was one of our takeaways a few sessions ago; get a school kid to take videos of you and your property. That’s what we do here, it’s just a win for us. My last takeaway was around speaking to your guests as to why they stay with you. Maybe when they’re checking in, maybe when they’re checking out, a quick question, ‘Of all the properties in this area why did you choose to stay with us?’ What I thought was they maybe staying with you for a reason that you don’t actually know,

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES there may be something new in the area or maybe

Luke: As part of our grand finale we would like to

something’s happened in the area that’s bringing an

give everybody an extra gift – thanks Sally. Thanks

influx of people, be it small or large, and your

Mike. We want to give everybody a $50 account

property’s actually answering a need that you’re not

credit, so we’ll load it against your account here,

aware of. Say you have a – I don’t want to dig myself

which is free for you to use at any point. Fifty dollars

a hole here – say you’ve got a property in Hamilton.

is not a massive amount but it is, we do have quite a

There could be a new building just being built down

few people attend the sessions so we want to give

the road or some new industry or something that

you just a little gift to say thank you, thank you for

requires a lot of workers or it may be a corporate

coming along for the journey and hopeful that’s of

function or something and you’re not aware that it’s

some benefit to you. Maybe you can shout yourself

actually happening. You get a few people come and

something special. That was a little thank you from

if you ask them and if you identify why they’re

us.

staying with you then all of a sudden you can go to your social media or your website page and say, ‘Hey,

Ongoing, we do still have our Daily Social Sesh – a

this is happening here, we fill a unique spot for these

tongue twister. Alberta, do you want to explain to

reasons so come and stay with us’. So many times –

everybody what our Daily Social Sesh is?

and I know it’s a negative for ourselves – our clients buy from us and so many times when we ask them

Alberta: Yeah, sure. At the moment I am running a

‘Why do you buy from us’ it’s like ‘Well, because you

closed Facebook group, a private Facebook group on

do X, Y, and Z’. We’re like: we never knew that. Then

our Facebook page called ‘the Daily Social Sesh’ and I

we can go and tell the rest of our clients ‘These

know lots of you are already joined to this and thanks

people buy from us for these reasons, maybe you

for joining. Pretty much what this is, is for people

should buy from us as well’. Interact with your

who aren’t confident with social media and we are

guests. Some of you are probably already doing it

running through three platforms of LinkedIn,

and it’s really, really good, but be free to interact

Facebook, and Instagram and just running through

andask them ‘Why did you choose us? Out of all the

literally the bare basics of it. I am no great tech

properties around us, why did you particularly choose us?’ That was one of my takeaways. Any other takeaways from you, Alberta? Alberta: No, I didn’t. But for this next part can I please get everybody who is on here to chuck their name in the chat because obviously we can’t see who is on here and we do need to know who’s on here. If everyone can just pop their names in the chat and the property that they’re coming from, that would be great because you’ll want this.

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VENDELLA | VTV WEBINAR SERIES head, I don’t really know social media in that great

That just about wraps us up today. We want to give

depth myself, but this is just literally the core basics

you guys a huge thank you, it’s been very humbling to

of the platforms to help you get setup and started

see you guys come along for the ride, the interaction

because for us social media has been a bit of a game

has been brilliant, something that far exceeded what

changer throughout this time. We have already

we thought. We thought we might get just a few

completed off LinkedIn, if you join the Daily Social

people every week but we’ve had about 180 people

Sesh today you will be able to learn all about

registered for this so it’s very humbling.

LinkedIn, all of the videos are there and ready to roll. They’re just literally ten-minute videos, learn as you

Alberta: And some phenomenal feedback from some

go just when you’re ready to. That’s what that is.

of the attendees so thanks everybody, it’s really much appreciated.

Luke: It’s been really good. As Alberta says, we are not experts so from that perspective, when you come

Luke: Yep. It’s all Alberta’s handywork so kudos to

on board with this it’s not stuff that’s way over your

her. Sorry you had to put up with me for the last ten

head, it’s simple people talking to simple people, if

weeks. But I’ve enjoyed it as much as anyone. Thank

you know what I mean. We don’t talk tech stuff, it’s

you to everybody on the call, we are still here for you

just straight up English. But that’s been really good

if you need us. Do sing out if there’s something more

and I have heard some feedback from some of the

that we can add, some more value that we can add to

people that are on that group, that they really enjoy

you. If there’s something that we have that you guys

it and really enjoy how basic it is. Alberta does a

want or want to learn about just let us know.

video of herself working on the platform and then shares it to the Facebook group. Get in touch with

Alberta: Here we go, here’s a question for you Luke:

Alberta, her email address is very simple,

Can I use my account credit to buy chocolate?

alberta@vendella.co.nz. That is still going, we love doing that. The other thing, for any of you with a

Luke: We give away chocolate for free so I don’t

sweet-tooth on the call today, every order that is

know, can you buy something for free?

going out of the company at the moment – and has been since the start of lockdown – we’re doing

Alberta: There’s lots of comments coming in here

double the amount of Whittakers in every order. I do

and I can’t tell who you all are because obviously

think we are the cause of a number of fights at

you’re all Alberta but thank you so much. I can see

different properties, people fighting over the

Bob Pringle here, thank you very much for attending

chocolate, so hopefully getting double the amount

Bob, you’ve been consistent as well. Thanks

might – I don’t know if that helps! But yeah, the

everyone, much appreciated.

little Whittakers bars we send double the amount so if you are going to use your $50 account credit expect

Luke: A lot of comments coming in. Thanks guys,

twice the amount of chocolate. And, once again, that

appreciate it. Mā te wā, see you again in the near

VTV booklet is another one giveaway that we’re

future. Hopefully in better circumstances.

giving away at the moment.

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