AccomNews, NZ, Summer 2020

AccomNews The essential industry guide

Issue 47 | Summer 2020 | NZD $16.50 incl GST | accomnews.co.nz

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Inside our Summer Issue Front Desk Editor’s Note: When we’re in the trenches…

Industry

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EDITOR Kate Jackson, editor@accomnews.co.nz

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ADVERTISING Tim Svenson, t.svenson@accomnews.co.nz Dee Dawson, d.dawson@accomnews.co.nz SERVICE Gavin Bill, service@accomnews.co.nz CONTRIBUTORS Alexandra Kiorgaard, Amy Robens, Brendon Granger, Fergus Brown, Frederic Gonzalo, Hannah Hambleton, Joe Ellingham, John O’Loghlen, Julie White, Rayma Jenkins, Richie Cheng, Sally Attfield, Steven Matthew, Tambourine and Vee Kessner.

KEY Commercially funded supplier profile or supplier case study Supplier information or content Suppliers share their views in one-off, topical pieces General editorial. Case studies and features may cite or quote suppliers, please be aware that we have a strict ‘no commercial content’ guideline for all magazine editorial, so this is not part of any commercially funded advertorial but may be included as relevant opinion. Happy reading!

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AccomNews - Summer 2020

TIA Report: Laying the bed tax to rest

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Hospitality NZ Report: Sustainability – it’s simply sound business sense

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HPNZ Report: The year in review

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NZHOA Report: Hotel owners’ concerns supported

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B&B Association NZ Report: Belonging...

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Management Engaging with Chinese travellers through Alipay

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How to take control of your inventory

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What’s Hot Profiles

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Ramada Queenstown Central: Transformation in the heart of Queenstown 16 Novotel Christchurch Airport: Sky completes perfect Novotel Christchurch package

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The St James Premium Accommodation, Hamner Springs: Let’s stay longer say The St James guests!

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The Rees Hotel, Luxury Apartments & Lakeside Residences: Luxury Queenstown accom – local and authentic

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Housekeeping

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Sucker punch: The power of a knockout vaccum

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Why accom is frothing over laundry upgrades 26 Bed bugs: Your most unwelcome guests

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Human Resources New scholarships supporting “bright futures” 31

Energy & Resources Think power and future proof your business

STAFF WRITER Mandy Clarke PRODUCTION Richard McGill, production@accomnews.co.nz

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Property

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Prepare your property for sale and maximise value

36

Why boutique listings are rare

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Refurbishment Societal trends affecting hotel design

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Technology The new wifi standard expected by guests

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2020 Vision: What the future holds for hospitality TVs

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Want to boost your hotel’s operational efficiency? Wifi is the answer

23 FRONT DESK

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Marketing The pop-up wars: Why personalisation matters 46 Reputation is everything

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The hidden cost of working with influencers

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Safety & Security Don’t stumble over floor safety

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www.accomnews.co.nz

The fact that Aussies and Kiwis have each other’s backs has been very apparent in a tumultuous year for accom.

While we scrap like family (my son always saves the toughest tackles for his favourite cousin), we have supported and understood each other through extraordinary circumstances.

What happens on one side of the ditch has a particular resonance for those on the other, and I know Australians felt the pain of our nation when Whakaari erupted and so many lives were lost and damaged. Many of the visiting victims were Aussies, but the response from across the pond was not ‘what did you do to avoid this?’ but ‘what can we do to help?’ The same was true when an Australianraised white supremacist murdered 51 worshippers across two Christchurch mosques in March. There was a

Kate Jackson, Editor, AccomNews editor@accomnews.co.nz

sense not only of solidarity and sadness in Australia, but horror about the origins of the shooter and senator Fraser Anning’s despicable follow-up blaming the act on Muslim immigration. In Aotearoa, no-one voiced their disgust at Australia - we knew our cousins were already feeling the pain.

The sight of Kiwi firefighters giving up their holidays and clean air to defend Australians against the recent bushfires was another sign of that relationship.

And Jacinta Ardern’s trip

Down Under may have been planned for some months, but her ability to know what to do to make things better was greatly appreciated by a nation struggling to show the world its tourism industry is open for business. Yes, Australia always manages to produce someone happy to make a moronic comment, and in this case it was broadcaster Steve Price.

But the nation was grateful as New Zealand once again put its back to the wheel to help.

The juggernaut of New Zealand tourism has slowed to an idle, latest figures show. While it’s unnerving when the nation’s biggest export industry hits the brakes, it does allow us to pause and take a breath. After all, we know - and the rest of the world knows - that New Zealand is an exceptional place to visit. Things will not stay quiet for long, and we should take advantage of slowed growth to get prepared for a big 2021 by finding workable solutions to two of

our big tourism challenges, staffing and infrastructure.

Employers, trainers and industry bodies are working hard on the first, trying to shore up a skilled workforce of Kiwis and migrants and promote hospitality as an attractive career option to lessthan-convinced millennials.

How to pay for the second has been one of the most divisive issues of the year.

Queenstown Lakes District Council won the initial battle in gaining public support for a nightly visitor charge, but accom struck back with the Productivity Commission’s changed recommendation for the government to scrap the idea. The industry remains upbeat about the prospect of winning the bed tax war, and as tourism growth languishes, there may be a window to secure that victory and establish ways for strapped councils to sustainably fund visitor needs - without exploiting accom. ■

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FRONT DESK

AccomNews - Summer 2020

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EDITOR'S NOTE

When we’re in the trenches…

TIA REPORT

Laying the bed tax to rest 2019 was a challenging year. With a definite slowdown after several years of stellar growth, we were lucky hotel occupancies held up reasonably well – but we did start to see a softening in rates, particularly in Auckland.

As predicted, recruitment challenges have continued into the busy season. We’ve seen significant declines from our traditional markets like the UK, Germany, France, the USA and Canada. Those young people are not coming in the same numbers, and a dramatic change doesn’t seem to be on the horizon.

Perhaps a stronger local workforce will be the solution. After all, the industry did receive some excellent news last year, with the allocation of just over $5 million out of the new International Visitor Levy to work on a nationwide tourism workforce programme.

The need to get more New Zealanders into tourism and hospitality jobs is a crucial one.

It would be great to kick off next summer with a strong Kiwi workforce ready to conquer the accommodation sector.

Bed taxes would miss the majority of travellers and add costs to a small set of operators already struggling with increased business and compliance costs, at a time when tourism is slowing.

Sally Attfield, Hotel Sector Manager, Tourism Industry Aotearoa

TIA took up this fight on behalf of the accommodation sector and the wider tourism industry.

We are delighted the Productivity Commission is now recommending councils should use the existing tools available to them.

Bed taxes would miss the majority of travellers and add costs to a small set of operators already struggling with increased business and compliance costs, at a time when tourism is slowing.

The Productivity Commission report said councils already have a wide range of funding

options available to them and need to make better use of these, including user pays, rates and debt funding. The commission says there is also a role for central government funding support, which could be targeted more efficiently to ensure councils can plan and prepare for tourism.

TIA agreed with all eight of the tourism findings and the four tourism recommendations outlined in the report. TIA also agreed wholeheartedly with the Productivity Commission’s conclusion on tourism, which

More good news from the tail end of the year: The Productivity Commission dropped its support for local bed taxes, accepting TIA’s position that international visitors are already more than paying their way.

The commission’s report into local government funding and financing was tabled in parliament in mid-December.

In its draft report issued in July, the Productivity Commission had recommended the introduction of accommodation levies - or bed taxes - to fund tourism-related infrastructure at a local government level.

TIA strongly pushed back on this recommendation, and actively engaged with the commission’s staff to broaden their understanding of how the visitor economy works.

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states: ‘Better use of existing tools and central government funding should be enough to address tourism funding. Given the small scale of the funding gap, introducing new tools would incur significant implementation, administration and enforcement costs and is unlikely to result in a net benefit to councils.’

The report also notes that tourism is the only industry that is ‘double-taxed’ by the GST system - incurring 15 percent GST while the imports funded from its foreign-currency earnings also incur 15 percent GST. This observation supports TIA’s position that central government should consider distributing funds equivalent to a portion of the GST taken from international visitors to local government.

The latest Stats NZ figures show that international visitors spend $17.2 billion a year in Aotearoa, $1.8 billion of this going directly to the government in the form of GST.

BED TAX INDUSTRY

As the Productivity Commission quite correctly points out, international tourists more than pay their way.

We’re looking forward to working with the relevant agencies to progress the work and recommendations of the Productivity Commission.

So despite the challenges our sector continues to face, I remain optimistic for the year ahead. The workforce and accommodation levy solutions just go to show we’re a sector with a strong voice that is capable of making itself heard - loud and clear. www.accomnews.co.nz

- it’s simply sound business sense It’s widely accepted these days that incorporating sustainability practices into our workplaces in Aotearoa is integral to running a successful business.

There’s no doubt that for accommodation providers, coming up to speed with sustainability practices has been challenging. The costs of providing all the comforts of home, on a much larger scale, are both financially and environmentally significant, especially for SMEs. For the most part, the industry here has risen to the sustainability challenge with our trademark Kiwi innovatory zeal and solid progress has been made, particularly in the betterresourced sector of the industry.

In terms of providing services and benefits to paying guests, a lot of products have traditionally been delivered, usually well plastic-wrapped, or in the case of amenities - shampoos and lotions, etc - presented in single use plastic containers.

Considering these products now through the lens of sustainability, they appear as ‘gifts with purchase’ or ‘perks for booking with us’. Pondering

single use plastic straws and reducing overall single use plastics by 30 percent.

Legislation in some countries has stopped accommodation providers from supplying throw away plastic products such as combs and razors, and in California, single-use travel-sized plastic amenity bottles have been banned.

Julie White, Chief Operating Officer, Hospitality New Zealand

how operators could present the same products with improved, sustainable packaging had the industry tested for a while, before innovative suppliers got up to speed, responded to demand, and through their innovations, helped to deliver the same fantastic services and products in new, biodegradable and more sustainable ways.

Banning single use plastic bags, straws, bottles and other products has taken off around the world and opting to go ‘green’ is no longer a choice but a requirement, as the global community steadily moves towards a plastic-free sustainable landscape.

An initiative from Hospitality NZ launched in 2018 was hugely successful, with 80 percent of our members banning

One innovative local supplier to watch is Hospitality NZ affiliate HealthPak, the developers of paper-based packaging Ecostick. This packaging weighs 95 percent less than plastic packaging and decomposes in landfills in approximately ten years, compared to the staggering 1000 years it takes for plastics to decompose.

As accommodation operators, it’s important to take your customers along with you on your sustainability journey; to gently shift the very human mindset from the ‘what’s in it for me’ response to ‘I’m happy to support the environment’.

To guests, even small changes can be perceived as an inconvenience, or that the operator is reneging on its service promise to its guests, even if these changes do benefit the environment.

One South Island business

has more than succeeded in persuading its guests to join their sustainability initiative with enthusiasm. It’s the five-star luxury boutique St James Hanmer Springs, the two-times winner of the Best Motel category in Hospitality NZ’s Awards for Excellence.

Also currently TripAdvisor’s top local property, St James’ winning initiative is ‘save a service - plant a tree’. When guests say no to a service, St James donates $10 to the Conservation Trust which then plants trees in the nearby forest and everybody wins.

Helping our members work smarter this year is a priority and technology holds the key to more sustainable, viable business models. If you haven’t already, perhaps now is the time to check out the benefits of automated intelligence and digital assistants, as well as collecting and using data for better business performance.

Hospitality NZ continues to focus on sustainability initiatives that offer win-win results for the environment and all accommodation operators and we’re fortunate to have affiliates such as HealthPak on Hospitality NZ’s sustainability advisory forum; one of many NZ trailblazing companies that are leading the way to ensure brighter futures for us all.

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INDUSTRY

AccomNews - Summer 2020

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HOSPITALITY NZ REPORT

Sustainability

HPNZ REPORT

The year in review 2019 year has been a good one for the holiday park sector with over 8.4 million guest nights in the year ended September at a growth rate of 2.4 percent.

This growth rate is double that of commercial accommodation measured in the commercial accommodation survey. It was particularly pleasing to see our growth rate for the low season continue to exceed that of the peak season.

We are however only operating at an occupancy level of just over 20 percent and so we have considerable capacity to continue our growth, especially outside of our peak month of January. We like to say that we have a one-month peak and 11 months of opportunity!

We had a well-attended conference & trade exhibition at Te Papa in July this year and a highlight was our awards

a number of parks spending well over $1 million on new communal kitchens, dining rooms, bathrooms and accommodation.

This is a clear sign that parks recognise the need to invest in upgrading our product to better meet and exceed visitor needs.

Fergus Brown, Chief Executive, Holiday Parks New Zealand

evening. Pohara Beach TOP 10 Holiday Park won the Spirit of Hospitality award and Carol and Barry Kirkland of Taupo DeBretts were recognised with the Outstanding Service to the Holiday Park Sector award. Einnee Facey of Russell TOP 10 Holiday Park was awarded the 2019 Holiday Parks Emerging Star award for holiday park professionals under the age of 35.

We had a large number of entries in our park upgrade award with

We completed our Visitor Behaviour & Expenditure research early in the year and it revealed that visitors who stay at New Zealand holiday parks during their travels are spending large across the country with close to $1.2 billion annually attributed to domestic and international visitors who spend their nights at holiday parks.

It was disappointing to see the commercial accommodation survey cancelled during the year as this was our key performance monitor, measuring guest nights, length of stay and occupancy for all the regions and local authority areas throughout New Zealand. MBIE are now well advanced in contracting a supplier of an alternative to the accommodation survey

and we are looking forward to working with the new supplier to ensure that we get high quality data which will provide us with insights into the wider accommodation sector.

Our members have taken the sustainability message to heart and we now have 150 parks signed up to the Tourism Sustainability Commitment.

We have continued our partnership with Predator Free New Zealand Trust, with many parks introducing initiatives themselves and encouraging their guests to get on board with the Predator Free project.

We were pleased to complete a joint project with Tourism Holdings where we installed 52 EV chargers in 23 holiday parks as part of EECA’s Low Emission Vehicle Contestable Fund. We have had a new project approved by EECA and we will be installing another 60 chargers in 30 parks this summer. This is a further example of our parks’ recognition of the importance of sustainability in our sector.

NZHOA REPORT

Hotel owners’ concerns supported Hotel owners have long maintained that tourism benefits a wide range of the economy and community, and because of this targeted rates and bed taxes on accommodation owners is both one-sided and disproportionate.

In Auckland, commercial accommodation providers receive less than nine per cent of total visitor spend, and only a quarter (26 percent) of visitor nights are spent in commercial accommodation.

The New Zealand Hotel Owners Association (NZHOA), formed to be the peak industry body

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concerns in its final report.

NZHOA’s foundation members include the Scenic Hotels Group, CP Group, Event Hospitality and Millennium & Copthorne Hotels New Zealand, which represent a significant percentage of the total hotel rooms owned and operated in New Zealand.

Amy Robens, Executive Director, New Zealand Hotel Owners Association

and a single united voice for hotel owners nationwide, is delighted that the recent New Zealand Productivity Commission inquiry into local government funding and financing has reflected many of the hotel industry’s

In its report, the Productivity Commission acknowledges that central government tourism funding is justified and necessary if councils are to meet growth infrastructure costs and recommends government should cofund these pressures.

We believe that pressures on infrastructure throughout New Zealand due to increased

INDUSTRY

tourism and population growth - including Queenstown - is a national issue and as such should be addressed by central government.

Hotel owners, as individuals and companies, invest hundreds of millions of dollars of their own money to support tourism throughout New Zealand.

The accommodation sector alone employs more than 40,000 people, and hotels provide around 14.5 million bed nights a year, 40 percent of them for international guests.

While NZHOA is not against the tourism industry paying its fair share of the cost of growth infrastructure, we simply argue the industry is already doing www.accomnews.co.nz

Local government funding has also been of concern with the targeted rate in Auckland and now the proposed bed tax in Queenstown unsettling our members. We fully support the approach taken by TIA – and now the Productivity Commission – that central government makes an annual calculation equivalent to 20 percent of the GST already collected from international visitors and distributes these funds via a trust to local government to address local tourism-related needs, with the allocation determined by the measured level of visitor impact on each territorial local authority.

This is a fair approach rather than targeting any one sector.

Freedom camping has continued to be an issue of major concern for our members and many communities around New Zealand. It was good to be invited to join the Minister’s responsible camping working group and take part in addressing many of the issues and encouraging responsible camping.

We felt that some of the work undertaken in 2018/2019 summer went beyond managing free camping and ended up promoting it. With more time to plan for the 2019/2020 season we have already seen a

that given it faces a tax burden far greater than other foreign exchange earning industry.

The Productivity Commission also confirms that there is no massive funding shortfall when it comes to addressing the visitor sector’s impact, with international tourists already more than paying their fair share by contributing $1.8 billion per annum in GST alone.

Not only are targeted rates and bed taxes on accommodation providers disproportionate, but they are also not an effective and efficient way of raising growth infrastructure funding.

It’s heartening that the commission supports better use of existing tools and central government funds, believing they should be enough to address tourism funding.

NZHOA strongly supports this view. Funding and financing www.accomnews.co.nz

much more inclusive approach where holiday parks and DOC campsites are seen as being part of the responsible camping product. There is still a lot of work to be done, especially around managing the selfcontainment standard and assisting local authorities in developing bylaws which will reflect a national approach to the Freedom Camping Act. As we head towards the peak summer season we are concerned with issues around people and skills. With a drop in the number of visitors travelling on working holiday visas it is increasingly difficult to find staff to fill the gaps over summer. We have worked with others in the industry on providing feedback to Immigration New Zealand on the changes to employer assisted temporary work visas. In many of our popular visitor destinations there is very low unemployment and a real shortage of Kiwis looking for work. Most of our members will address this staff shortage by increasing the hours that they work themselves. It is great to see the government contributing $5.2 million towards people and skills projects through the Go with Tourism project. This will address some of our long-term issues in getting more Kiwis into the tourism

system. However, we will still need to supplement these with other international workers.

In writing this it would be remiss of me not to mention the two major tragedies that occurred this year. The terrorist act in Christchurch sent shockwaves throughout the world. New Zealand was judged on our response to this and we should be proud of this. The eruption of Whakaari/White Island was a shocking reminder of the power of nature. Our thoughts have been with families and loved ones of those affected by both tragedies. One of our members lost a brother on Whakaari/White Island and so this is even more significant to our holiday park whanau.

It was a great honour and very humbling to be announced the

Ensuring that as a country we are serviced by modern and competitive infrastructure is a NZ Inc problem which needs NZ Inc solutions. growth infrastructure should not fall so heavily on local councils or commercial accommodation providers. Rather it should be the responsibility of central government.

Some of the government’s record $7.5 billion budget surplus should be applied to addressing the country’s infrastructure deficit, which includes growth and visitor

related infrastructure. Treasury is undertaking significant work into infrastructure funding and financing looking at new and alternative mechanisms and models to fund infrastructure.

This is the solution rather than individual councils looking at uncoordinated ways to increase the tax burden on already heavily taxed businesses.

The commission’s report INDUSTRY

winner of the Marsh Tourism Industry Champion award at the New Zealand Tourism Awards. I was in great company with Lisa Lee of China Travel Service and John Barrett of Kapiti Island Nature Tours fellow finalists.

We are now heading into summer and the feedback that we are getting from our members is that forward bookings are looking very good.

We hope that the weather plays its part in allowing Kiwis and international visitors to enjoy a great summer holiday.

Thanks to all of you in the wider industry for your support and friendship over 2019 and we look forward to working with you all in the new decade – roll on 2020.

Kia Kaha.

also highlights that the significant implementation, administration and enforcement costs required to introduce bed taxes may not even produce a net benefit.

For hotel owners to continue to make further substantial capital investment into New Zealand we need certainty, and it’s gratifying that the Productivity Commission has found the government should be more fairly and systematically distributing existing funding to councils.

Ensuring that as a country we are serviced by modern and competitive infrastructure is a NZ Inc problem which needs NZ Inc solutions. We’re looking forward to working with industry and central and local government to progress the Commission’s recommendations.

AccomNews - Summer 2020

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B&B ASSOCIATION NZ REPORT

Belonging...

To belong is part of the human condition.

Humans need to feel that they are a member of a community, that they have a relationship with others. It is the third need in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, physiological and safety needs preceding it.

So why, if belonging is so primeval, do associations struggle to attract and maintain relationships with members?

It is well known that many of the established groups in New Zealand have diminished membership numbers and struggle to survive. Many are formed to provide social good in the community, many to provide social connections and collaboration and many are professional organisations to improve and guarantee the standards of the industry they represent.

At a recent conference our secretary attended, diminishing membership was raised as an issue affecting associations and some interesting insights were forthcoming.

An aging membership is oft cited as a reason. The younger generation are seen as not being able or willing to commit to belonging however it seems that the younger generations see

Conferences and regular meetings are a vital aspect of many associations and the enjoyment from these formal and informal occasions enforces the joy and satisfaction humans get from ‘belonging’.

Rayma Jenkins, President, B&B Association NZ

membership of associations in a different way. They like to join for the social networking, for the educational opportunities and for the benefits offered but at a very minimal cost preferring to pay for what they use rather than an upfront inclusive fee.

Associations however do need reliable funds to be able to operate effectively. Working for the interests of the members takes time and unless we are to depend upon the altruism of the leaders, staff are needed and with them the associated costs of an office and means of communication.

So how to fund associations for the new age?

Advertising and sponsorships: If membership fees are to be minimal, advertising and sponsorships are suggested to supplement the income of associations. To attract this

kind of income, sponsors and advertisers need to see that they will get a return. The match between the association and the business has to have benefit to both parties. The product the sponsors and advertisers offer needs to be a requirement of the association membership and the number of potential clients needs to be significant to interest these businesses. So how to attract those potential clients or members of Associations?

What makes it attractive to belong?

Benefits: For the members, benefits must be meaningful and for many that means increasing the bottom line financially. In the B&B accommodation sector that often means, “Will that bring me bookings?” The popularity of the OTAs is therefore understandable, especially Airbnb where you can list for free, you do not need a website and you do not even require Eftpos facilities. The OTAs such as booking.com similarly, because their huge advertising reach brings the bookings and there is no charge unless they do. Associations cannot compete in this space and therefore need to arrange financial benefits that are available to its members through discounts and privileges.

Education: If you operate in the accommodation industry there are requirements you need to fulfil, local body legislation, insurance, tax and GST and health and safety to name a few. And then there are all the ways you can advertise, manage your bookings and even what are the best cleaning products?

The conversations and need for

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AccomNews - Summer 2020

INDUSTRY

information of accommodation providers, especially those small owner-operator hosts, are disparate and often only valued by those in the sector.

Collegiality: Conferences and regular meetings are a vital aspect of many associations and the enjoyment from these formal and informal occasions enforces the joy and satisfaction humans get from ‘belonging’.

Legislation: Having to belong to an association to meet legislative requirements is being suggested as another way to attract members. At the recent Mayoral Forum a registration of peer-topeer properties was suggested, and it has also been suggested by the Productivity Commission that whole home lets be charged at least a portion of commercial rates.

So this scenario may be something in the foreseeable future.

Advocacy: Working together for a common goal is a huge motivator.

A united voice is essential to ensure interests are recognised and promoted at all levels of local government and within the tourism industry. The issue of bed tax has been the motivation for the newly formed NZ Hotel Owners Association and the call to action on this issue has seen a wide response from accommodation providers and led by TIA have influenced the Productivity Commission’s recommendations to government. Associations need members to ensure they represent the majority and therefore influence the decision makers.

So what are you waiting for? Join like-minded people to share the many benefits of belonging. www.accomnews.co.nz

Engaging with Chinese travellers through Alipay

By John O’Loghlen, Director, Alipay Australia and New Zealand

and coupons to attract Chinese customers. The 2017 Nielsen report found that discounts and special offers were the leading factor affecting Chinese travellers’ purchase decisions, ahead of product quality, price or location. Accommodation providers can tap into this by offering promotions through the app to visitors before, during and after their stay.

One of the most effective customer engagement tools at the hospitality industry’s disposal is making your guests feel like they’re at home.

For the more than 413,000 Chinese visitors who come to New Zealand each year, and inject more than $1.7 billion into the economy, this doesn’t require an extravagant or expensive gesture - just a simple update to your Point of Sale software.

A study conducted by Nielsen in December 2017 found that 99 percent of Chinese travellers have the Alipay app installed on their mobile phone. For New Zealand’s second largest and most valuable tourism market, an app which started off as a simple digital payment method has become a lifestyle platform and a part of their everyday lives. In China, app users can hail a taxi, book a hotel, buy movie tickets, pay utility bills or make appointments with doctors directly from within the app. For local accommodation providers, it presents an opportunity to provide some home comforts to a vital segment of their customer base.

Alipay is the world’s leading mobile payment platform and is used by more than 1.2 billion people worldwide with its e-wallet partners. It is operated by Ant Financial, a related company of Alibaba Group, the largest online and mobile commerce company in the world by gross merchandise volume.

because they are far cheaper for merchants to print out and display, as opposed to investing in costly new digital point of sale hardware. The consumer scans either a physical printed QR code or a digital QR code on a payment terminal with their mobile phone to perform the transaction.

In New Zealand, Alipay is only available to consumers with a Chinese domiciled bank account, which means it is primarily targeted at people visiting from China, in addition to Chinese students and expats.

Thousands of businesses in New Zealand now offer Alipay to these Chinese consumers, including major hospitality companies like AccorHotels.

What’s involved in the set up?

Alipay is partnered with most major payment terminal providers, including BNZ,

Smartypay, PayPlus, Windcave, Latipay, Attractpay, ePayments, and Dynamic Payments.

Subsequently, getting set up with Alipay is simple, and usually only requires a software update from your existing payment partner to make the QR code payment method available through your existing terminal hardware.

Alipay can also help you set up a physical, printed QR code to display at your point of sale.

Other features Alipay provides a suite of marketing tools through its discovery platform which allow Kiwi businesses to promote their products and services to Chinese visitors within the Alipay app, which Nielsen found is installed on the mobile devices of 99 percent of Chinese travellers.

Through the discovery platform, businesses can also offer deals

Alipay also recently launched a digital tourism initiative for leading tourist destinations around New Zealand – the Auckland, Christchurch and Queenstown City Cards. The City Cards are digital city guides for Chinese visitors which provide special geotargeted promotions at hotspots around the cities, all within the Alipay app. The program may be expanded into other tourist destinations around New Zealand in the near future.

Finally, the platform helps New Zealand businesses make the most of peak travel periods for Chinese visitors, such as Lunar New Year and Golden Week, allowing local operators to remain competitive against other international markets in attracting visitors.

How does it work?

Unlike the payment options we’re used to in New Zealand, it is based on QR codes square-shaped barcodes which have become highly popular in China and other markets across Asia. This is partly www.accomnews.co.nz

As Alipay does not cater to a domestic audience in New Zealand, its local focus is entirely on how it can strengthen the relationship between local businesses, and Chinese visitors and residents. To help Alipay do this and to help New Zealand businesses access the benefits of Alipay’s powerful marketing engine, the app has partnered with the South programme, sponsored by Christchurch Airport. South allows merchants to create their own Alipay marketing content, including special offers and promotions which are pushed to targeted Alipay customers. The South programme is free of charge to New Zealand businesses, including free translation of marketing content from English to Mandarin, and now has over 4,500 businesses participating.

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Making a difference with sustainability What makes a truly green amenity?

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a truly green amenity and anyone who says otherwise has not really thought through the issue properly.

My advice is that if someone claims they have an environmentally friendly product then be wary as this is misguided advice or greenwashing as a marketing tool to sell their products. No product or amenity is good for the environment and therefore the goal should be to try and reduce its impact on the environment as much as possible.

For different amenities this will sometimes mean different attributes, and we use a whole range of measures to try and reduce our product’s footprint.

Some of these are directly related to the packaging and contents, some are related to the programs we have like ‘back to base’ soap recycling where we have recycled over 70,000kg of unused soap from going to landfill, and some are in the organisations we partner with, like Forest & Bird, whereby our products contribute towards helping protect New Zealand’s flora and fauna.

At the end of the day, it about genuinely wanting to make a difference as opposed to just trying to sell a product.

What are the latest innovations from manufacturers?

This year we have launched a world first in ecostick. This is the first and only paper-based offering that eliminates the need for plastic bottles and tubes of shampoo.

Not only is it NZ Designed and made, at only five percent the amount of packaging compared to a bottle or tube this is a revolutionary product in the market that has never been done before. Being paper based and degradable in landfill ecostick has the potential to reduce hundreds of thousands of single use bottles and tubes currently being thrown in the rubbish.

We are also in the middle of trials and will be launching in 2020 our V2 ecostick being certified as compostable and made from paper and sugarcane.

The demand for ecostick since launch has been incredible in both NZ and Australia as hotels and motels want an amenity option that offers the same value to their guests, but without the plastic bottle.

We have just launched a new range of dry amenities, shower caps, razor packs etc packaged in a material called Rockstock, it’s made from 80 percent calcium carbonate in the form of rock quarry waste.

It’s also important to give guests the opportunity to do their part and our Goodie Bag does just that.

Placed out on the final room service, the Goodie Bag encourages guests to take home their partially used guest amenities, finish using them at home and then recycle them.

What questions should accom providers be asking of their current or would-be suppliers?

They should be asking for evidence of the claims that many suppliers make. Time and time again we come up against products which claim to be biodegradable, recyclable or any number of other environmental claims that are simply not true.

Do your research on the claims being made, because if in the future they are proven to be false then this is going to impact negatively on those using them.

A classic example is with many suppliers claiming their plastic bottles are biodegradable and a great environmental option, but

strong evidence is coming out that the manner in which they breakdown is actually causing more issues to the environment than good. It’s up to hotels and motels to do their own due diligence and not rely on what they are being told as fact or gospel.

Being more environmentally focused generally costs more and takes more effort, if it doesn’t, then there should be warning bells.

Are customers discerning about their amenities’ green footprint and does this trans-late across demographics?

In the last 12 months we have seen a very rapid demand from customers to join our programs like ‘back to base’ and also start looking at options like ecostick, whereas prior to this these options were not at the forefront of their minds. I think with issues like the plastic bag ban in NZ, consumers are now starting to think more about what they use and consume even when staying in a hotel or motel.

The packaging is tree free and waterproof. We have removed as much plastic as possible from the contents, recycled timber shafts on the cotton buds, timber comb and a bamboo toothbrush all reduce the amount of plastic going into hotel rooms.

In fact, by replacing the plastic shafts on our cotton buds with timber, we eliminated just shy of 1,000,000 single use plastic items from hotel rooms last year.

The Ecostick range from Healthpak

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MANAGEMENT

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MANAGEMENT

AccomNews - Summer 2020

13

How to take control of your inventory

By Joe Ellingham, Founder, Revenue Team

What are the differences between travel agents and B2B wholesalers and what are some key tips and tricks on managing the inventory you contract to third parties?

Have you ever asked yourself: •

•

•

Why do we provide B2B wholesalers a guaranteed inventory allocation which only tends to be used in busier months?

Have we filled too early and feel we could have achieved higher yields through higher ADR channels like direct or online travel agents (OTAs)?

Do travel agents still only book through B2B wholesaler allocations or do they use through channels too?

If so, you are asking the right questions and a few tweaks to your third-party inventory strategy can have a very positive impact on your property’s performance and consequently profit.

Travel Agent An individual who works in a bricks and mortar travel agency, often located in the high street or the local mall. A recent trend now has many working from home.

Travel agents make a living from commission received for booking travel on behalf of their clients (flights, hotels, transfers, activities, etc).

Branded travel agencies often work

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with specific B2B wholesalers.

An example of this is a travel agent working in a Flight Centre branded shop that is incentivised to book travel through The Infinity Group, the B2B wholesale arm of Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd. Travel agents are an important booking channel and do a great job at promoting travel and ultimately demand for your hotel.

B2B wholesalers B2B wholesalers do not sell travel to the general public.

Their main function is to contract net rates and inventory allocations from suppliers. This includes rooms in hotels, seats on airlines, and other tourist attractions.

Net rates and availability are used to create packages, or the building of bespoke itineraries for travel agent’s clients.

B2B wholesalers have a booking system or booking portal which is used by travel agents to book their clients travel.

To supplement the hotels that they have direct contracts with, B2B wholesalers often pull rates and availability from other B2B wholesalers like HotelBeds/GTA, and also from Expedia via Expedia Affiliate Network (EAN), or Travel Agent Affiliate Program (TAAP).

As we have all experienced, the last 15 years have seen big shift in the way travel is booked, namely travellers booking their own travel and hotels online. A trend, accelerated by millennials and younger generations, as detailed in this report by Adara Travel Intelligence. For hotels, this trend has manifested itself in the meteoric rise in bookings through

OTAs, and reduced bookings via B2B wholesalers. This change in consumer booking habits has contributed to the closures of a number of B2B wholesalers including Creative Holidays in 2015, Venture Holidays (2018), Si Holidays (2018), and in the UK based SuperBreak (Aug 2019), and Thomas Cook (Sep 2019) formerly one of the UK’s largest wholesalers and tour operators.

While the closure of wholesalers is something to be aware of, wholesale is good business when included in a well-balanced distribution strategy, especially for resorts and leisure destinations.

Wholesale contracting strategy The ultimate goal for hotels is increasing the revenue per available room (RevPar). This is achieved through a delicate balance of room occupancy and average daily rate (ADR). For hotels where wholesale is a major part of their business mix this means finding the sweet spot between wholesale and higher yielding direct and OTA business.

Contracted inventory allocations: Traditionally, B2B wholesalers have contracted a set nightly allocation of rooms every night from hotels to provide guaranteed availability at the hotel during the booking of a client stay by a travel agent. This allows bookings to be confirmed without the need to call and check availability at each individual hotel when they want to confirm a booking.

This made sense in a world where travel agents didn’t have access

MANAGEMENT

to live hotel rates and availability.

As explained in last week’s article [name with link to article], this is seldom the case and it is time we re-think the way we work with our B2B wholesale partners.

What can I do? Here are some options…

100 percent dynamic net rates and availability - no more static rates!

However, if you feel you have to provide static rates to some partners prioritise the following: •

100 percent free sell inventory – no contracted allocation to wholesalers.

•

Seasonal allotments - provide allocations to wholesalers but only in your quieter periods

•

Limit allotments for high demand room categories - don’t lose control of your most popular inventory!

Remember, wholesale is good business when well-managed, especially for resorts and leisure destinations. For city properties, the preferred strategy is 100 percent dynamic rates.

These wholesale inventory strategies will play a part in your property’s revenue management strategy, however they must also be paired with an effective pricing strategy. One without the other is like a car without an engine; you might be able to slowly push it around the track, but you will never win the race.

Joe Ellingham is founder of the Auckland-based Revenue Team, which offers revenue management consulting services for independent hotels, resorts, and tourism operators

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INTRODUCING ECOSTICKS The James Cook Hotel Grand Chancellor eliminated 90,000 single use plastic tubes from their business by changing their guest amenities from tubes to Ecosticks, the New Zealand designed and manufactured world first paper-based packaging solution. Ecosticks are designed to breakdown in landfill, no complicated sorting or special treatment needed, you simply throw them in your general waste and they will then break down in landfill. Not only do Ecosticks use 95% less packaging than a tube or bottle, every one used is www.onelessbottle.co.nz .

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Ramada Queenstown Central

Transformation in the heart of Queenstown

By Mandy Clarke, Industry Reporter

Describing the design, Damien said: “The inspiration was to create a clear base, middle and top to the building form. The base two levels, which include schist and rectangular-shaped windows framed with plaster, draw reference from local historic buildings and help to reflect key design values of the area. While the top-level draws inspiration from the surrounding lake.”

It was an exciting moment when the new Ramada Queenstown Central hotel was recently unveiled, the building’s design managing to further accentuate the beauty of this alpine paradise.

The key central location of the property and the complexities that came with designing around the tree made this development quite a challenge.

Nevertheless, Damien says the project “has been like a dream come true, constructed in just over 12 months, and completely sold out prior to completion”.

This unique property pays homage to the growth and strength of the huge Wellingtonia tree that commands the site. The tree is a distinctive Queenstown landmark that the developers and designers have revered.

Elevated, Ramada Queenstown Central presents spectacular views of Lake Wakatipu and The Remarkables mountain range and is yet another impressive accommodation offering from Safari Group.

The boutique hotel contains 131 guest rooms, two residential penthouses, and an independent restaurant that is integrated with the ground floor lobby, and it sits

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General Managers Greg Ewen and Pauline Ewen

perfectly within the natural alpine environment. Damien Taylor, a director with developers the Safari Group of companies, confirmed

that the building had to be designed around the impressive Wellingtonia tree and its complex root system.

PROFILES

Greg Ewen is the very proud general manager of Ramada Queenstown Central, and he told us guests and staff love the hotel but for different reasons.

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One look conveys just how special this penthouse is - simply stunning!

He said: “Guest feedback confirms that a combination of prime location along with comfortable rooms, spectacular views and fantastic in-room features ensures this property stands out. For those who seek the ultimate Queenstown luxury and position, we also offer Penthouse 416, arguably the best room available in Queenstown right now. One look conveys just how special this penthouse is - simply stunning!

“On the other hand, staff enjoy coming to work because of the praise and positive feedback from guests who are over-the-moon with their hotel experience. After all, happy guests make for happy staff! Our very busy team also really appreciate the significant investment in systems and technology within this property and the housekeeping team are especially happy that their request for more storage was listened to.”

Greg also takes immense pride in the fact that his wife, Pauline Ewen, jointly shares the position of GM with him. He explained: “Together we have opened both Ramada Remarkables Park and now Ramada Queenstown Central.

There is a huge sense of achievement from working as a couple in the role of GM of Ramada’s flagship property in New Zealand

He added: “A really functional property with plenty of usable space has been developed, one that many other hotel operators would be envious of.”

and he has worked in a variety of world class hotels from Auckland to Melbourne and Seattle.

GM Greg is inspired by a need to create an exceptional team who will deliver a service to guests that is “second to none”.

His career began 34 years ago,

He stated: “I trained in a five-star environment which helped me understand that, irrespective of the property’s star rating, you can always deliver five-star service.

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My mantra for all new staff is that you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. So, for our guests entering Ramada Queenstown Central the priority is for us to create a memorable sense of arrival that sets the tone for the rest of their stay.”

PROFILES

“As general managers, we were brought in a couple of months prior to the opening date with an extensive ‘to-do’ list, one that naturally comes with opening a hotel and making it a successful operation. I believe it takes a special team to deal with the types of pressures that come with that, but there is also a huge sense of achievement from working as a couple in the role of GM of Ramada’s flagship property in New Zealand.”

As for Greg’s favourite feature of Ramada Queenstown Central?

“Of course, it is the magnificent Wellingtonia tree that stands tall at the front our hotel, also known as a Sequoiadendron Giganteum or Redwood tree, one of the largest individual trees in the world,” he said.

“I don’t know of another hotel anywhere in the world that has been built in such harmony alongside a tree of such magnificent stature.”

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Novotel Christchurch Airport Hotel

SKY completes perfect

Novotel Christchurch package

By Mandy Clarke, Industry Reporter

Novotel Christchurch Airport Hotel recently welcomed the first guests to Accor’s $80 million new 4.5-star, cuttingedge architect-designed property. It is a stunning hotel that is built to provide ultimate guest comfort and convenience in this ever-evolving city.

With a location next to the terminal of New Zealand’s second largest airport and only 15 minutes from the centre of Christchurch, it exceeds the expectations of both business and pleasure visitors to the city. Moreover, the Novotel Christchurch Airport Hotel is perfect for transitioning airport passengers.

Oak panelling. The top floor features floor-to-ceiling glass that fully exposes stunning views over the airport precinct and Alpine landscape beyond.

Spanning six floors, the stylish hotel features 200 guestrooms, all designed with ergonomic comfort in mind and featuring high-end finishes, including marble, copper tiling and extensive American

The Exchange bar and Food Exchange restaurant are also located on the top floor and offer views to the Southern Alps.

Multiple lounge areas and a well-equipped gym further ensure

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that guests have all the tools necessary to make to make the most of their Christchurch stay.

Accor is a leader in the industry and considered an airport hotel specialist. The brand claims to understand the specific needs of transiting guests and promises that the Novotel’s multi-service offering will allow guests the freedom to

PROFILES

thoroughly enjoy their stay.

For typical hotel guests (especially those in transit) an exceptionally comfortable guest room will always be top priority. Therefore, it’s a given that Novotel Christchurch Airport Hotel presents elegant rooms all designed to meet the variable wants and needs of their valued guests. www.accomnews.co.nz

Spanning six floors, the stylish hotel features 200 guestrooms, all designed with ergonomic comfort in mind and featuring high-end finishes

He explained the reasons for choosing SKY’s free-to-guest & Chromecast system: “Guest satisfaction is our priority and we realised that the offering of standard channels just was not enough for our customers. We looked at an array of options and we decided that this SKY system was the perfect choice for us.”

Olivier Lacoua is the general manager at Novotel Christchurch Airport, and he told us: “The team

Olivier is confident that guests will be impressed by this entertainment package.

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We look forward to working alongside them to bring their discerning guests the best in TV entertainment.

Call us today on 0800 759 333 or visit skybusiness.co.nz to find out how SKY Business can work for your property.

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ION•I AT

The SKY package at Novotel Christchurch Airport Hotel includes 12 SKY channels via a digital headend, with 82 new movie titles via a free-to-guest video on demand (VOD) service.

In addition, this hotel is the first to have a Chromecast solution for every in-room television.

The SKY Business crew extend best wishes to Olivier and his team at Novotel Christchurch Airport.

ACCO Y•

believes that travel should be easy and convenient whether it’s for business or leisure or for transitioning airport guests. So, we aim to provide connectivity, quality, comfort, and great service because meeting guests’ expectations and providing them with the best experience possible is a priority for Accor.”

DUSTR N

Along with many high-end in-room amenities, guests also discover a multimedia hub provided to satisfy their media and technology demands, alongside an innovative SKY entertainment package. This SKY package was carefully chosen because it aims to quench guest’s viewing thirst and appease their in-room entertainment desires.

2019 MEMBER

PROFILES

AccomNews - Summer 2020

19

The St James Premium Accommodation, Hanmer Springs

Let’s stay longer,

say The St James guests!

Rae and Paul Baigent

By Mandy Clarke, Industry Reporter

Paul and Rae Baigent are the proud owner/ operators of the “Best Motel in New Zealand”.

The St James Premium Accommodation, Hanmer Springs gained this title for the second year running in the 2019 Hospitality New Zealand Awards for Excellence.

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PROFILES

Thrilled, Paul and Rae said: “Winning this award (sponsored

by Seekom) in both 2018 and 2019 is very fulfilling. We’ve always been confident that we provide a fantastic product but it’s so gratifying to be recognised by our industry peers and know that they agree with us.

“We set out to provide the best possible luxury accommodation in Hanmer Springs. Our mantra is “the difference is the detail’ and The St James experience is about premium accommodation coupled with outstanding service and hospitality.”

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Seekom pride

St James Premium Accommodation was opened

by Paul and Rae in in 2010 to provide guests with the sort of holiday experience this couple enjoy themselves. They consider this region to be the “perfect holiday location” and a “paradise anytime of the year”, and although Hanmer is a small relaxed village, it certainly offers something for everyone.

Surrounded by forest and mountains, with thermal pools and boutique stores, cafes and restaurants nearby, it is indeed a very special part of the country and Paul and Rae always look forward to sharing it with their guests. This picturesque

establishment targets couples looking to recharge in a beautiful alpine setting just off the main street with views across Chisholm Park Reserve towards the mountains.

Paul told us more about this outstanding property: “It was architecturally designed using colours and building materials in keeping with the natural alpine vista. The accommodation is a mix of studios, executive spa studios and one-bedroom spa suites and all units have kitchens, under tile heating, air conditioning/ heat pumps and most have views towards the mountains.

Bernard Burke, the business development manager at Seekom was filled with pride and praise when he presented Rae and Paul, owners of St James Premium Accommodation, with the 2019 Award for Best Motel at Hospitality New Zealand Annual Awards for Excellence.

He admitted: “Since Paul and Rae converted to using our PMS as well as channel manager in 2013, it has been a pleasure to provide the total solution for St James.”

“Successful busy properties require reliable reporting and fast connections to their channels and website.

Vendella values Vendella supplies two main products to The St James including Dreamticket luxury 1000gsm mattress toppers and Compost Me bin liners.

Our relationship with The St James is important to us here at Vendella as we both share common values in wanting to create a more sustainable future for our planet and the generations to come.

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The St James is actively pushing sustainability in the Hanmer region by planting native trees funded by their guests which aligns with our own partnership with Keep New Zealand Beautiful.

In this partnership, we fund the planting of a native tree for every eight pillows we sell. Through The St James’s product choices, together we have been able to save 4,100 single use plastic bags & 3,358 plastic bottles from entering our landfills and oceans.

Speed and reliability are what Seekom is renowned for and it is a privilege to have been part of the success that has made the St James New Zealand’s best motel in 2018 and 2019.”

Recently Seekom added to their growing services. Bernard revealed: “We are pleased that Paul and Rae have also agreed to trial our new automated revenue management tools.”

The Seekom team are delighted to be supporters of Hospitality New Zealand, by being a partner and by sponsoring the Awards for Excellence-New Zealand’s Best Motel Award.

The team at Seekom congratulate Paul and Rae for again being judged New Zealand's Best Motel at the Hospitality New Zealand Awards for Excellence. We look forward to continuing the great partnership with St James in providing them with our PMS and Channel Management.

Bernard Burke Business Development Manager

Ph: 04 974 8008

www.seekom.com online booking and distribution solutions PROFILES

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“We insist on continual ongoing painting and maintenance and we keep our property in tip-top condition. In fact, guests still comment on how new the place looks, and right now we are replacing all the beds and TVs.” Guests appreciate the exceptional standards. Paul advised: “We receive very positive feedback and are rated number one in Hanmer Springs on TripAdvisor and 9.6 on Booking. com. Guests routinely tell us they not only enjoy our hospitality but also the attention to detail and cleanliness of our property, which is very satisfying to us and our housekeeping team.”

How do Paul and Rae manage to do so much to such a high standard? Paul joked that coffee is their hero and plays a large part in their day, helping to inspire them!

Community-minded Paul has been chairman of the local business association and a member of the Hurunui Tourism Board. He was also instrumental in forming a support group for accommodation providers following the region’s

devastating earthquakes. He is the ‘big picture’ person, always coming up with lots of ideas for The St James and the village, but Rae is the rock who keeps him grounded.

Paul said: “Rae makes things happen and keeps us true to our commitment to detail.”

Rae revealed: “As small business owners we wear many hats throughout the day. We multitask as we move from interacting with our guests at reception to maintenance, IT, HR, accounts, marketing, housekeeping and laundry and so on...

“However, we have great support from our housekeeping team and couldn’t manage without them.

They take great pride in what

they do and are always thrilled when someone notices and mentions their work in a review.”

Staffing can be a challenge in a small village with a limited workforce, so how do they manage? Rae: “It can be difficult; we rely on international visitors who are doing their OE. The downside is that most of them are only here for a short time, so we are constantly training and bringing new recruits up to speed. Another challenge is that English is usually their second language, but the upside is getting to meet and work with so many wonderful people from around the world and they all become our international ambassadors.”

Finally, Paul and Rae confirmed that in 2018 they were delighted to introduce a very important initiative, the ‘Save a Service - Plant a Tree’ programme.

Rae explained: “We invite guests who are staying more than one night to contribute to our scheme. For every daily room service each guest chooses to forego during their stay we purchase a tree which is planted by the Hanmer Springs Conservation Trust.

It means both our business and our guests are positively contributing to the local environment in several ways. We use less cleaning products and energy and our guests get to choose a tree over a daily room service and offset carbon.”

Chocolate delights Van H Chocolates Ltd is one of the oldest ‘boutique’ chocolate manufacturing companies operating in New Zealand, having been in the business for over 33 years working from a purpose-built factory in Christchurch.

They are proud suppliers to The St James, Hanmer Springs. Chocolates in the room add a little luxury and it is often the little details

that count. The St. James offers this little luxury by offering solid chocolate handmade ‘welcome’ tablets, wrapped in a silver foil.

We are manufacturers of a large variety of Handmade chocolates, Dessert cups, Logo tablets and Chocolate bars.

Using only pure, fresh New Zealand ingredients and Callebaut Chocolate. Proud supplier to The St James, Hanmer Springs.

Phone 03 342 8438 | sales@vanhchocolates.co.nz WWW.VANHCHOCOLATES.CO.NZ

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To carry on with the silver theme, they also supply a silver Van H four chocolate box and Van H two chocolate box. The chocolates are all handmade and made from Callebaut chocolate.

They range from smooth hazelnut praline hearts to liquor filled chocolates like Grand Marnier or Baileys.

The St James also offers festive chocolate boxes and bright Easter themed boxes at the appropriate times of the year for their guests.

PROFILES

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The Rees Hotel, Luxury Apartments & Lakeside Residences

Luxury Queenstown accom – local and authentic

By Mandy Clarke, Industry Reporter

One of Queenstown’s very best, The Rees Hotel, Luxury Apartments & Lakeside Residences, is first-class accommodation situated on the shores of Lake Wakatipu with views that can only be described as out of this world!

However, there is a special element that adds to the continued success of this business - its commitment to kaupapa - Tiaki Promise.

Opened in 2009 and designed with ultimate luxury in mind, at over ten years old this contemporary property still looks as fresh and beautiful as the day it was launched. The building’s design seamlessly blends with the stunning location, mirroring the landscape. It was architecturally designed and furnished by local suppliers and artisans. Additionally, it incorporates the history of Queenstown’s early settler and developer William Rees, who is enshrined in the logo, brand ethics and in the valuable library and art for guests to enjoy.

The property’s CEO and general manager Mark Rose told us: “The Rees’ point of difference is that it’s an individually owned and managed property, not part of any chain, and aims to give guests a definitive, local and authentic South Island New Zealand experience.”

In late 2017 the property added five freestanding lakeside residences.

Each of these luxurious two level, three-bedroom villas has its own hot tub. They’ve been beautifully designed by awardwinning architect Kerry Avery to complement the existing accommodation, and are finished and furnished to the same exceptional standards.

The Rees Hotel, Luxury Apartments & Lakeside www.accomnews.co.nz

Residences has a reputation for providing a consistently high standard of service. It is a highly praised industry leader in hospitality practices in many ways, internally with staff, for its facilities and offering a superior guest experience.

programme is extensive, with a wide range of initiatives from Soap Aid to innovative recycling practices and the Bees @ The Rees project. These initiatives also honour the business’s commitment to Tiaki Promise.

Boasting an extensive list of industry accolades, the property gained several 2019 TripAdvisor awards including a Travellers’ Choice Award for the third consecutive year and TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence Hall of Fame award. It has also received many awards for its fine food and wine.

Moreover, The Rees Hotel, Luxury Apartments & Lakeside Residences earned some of the most sought-after industry awards last year: the Allied Operator of the Year award from the NZ Tourism Export Council and the rare double of Qualmark’s 5 Star Hotel and Gold Tourism Business Sustainability certification for the third year running. Winning these awards consecutively, Mark says, acknowledges that “The Rees leads the way in New Zealand tourism through delivering exceptional customer experiences and sustainable tourism practice”.

The Rees’s sustainability

The Tiaki Promise is a key value that has been widely adopted by the tourism industry and is a foundation of all that The Rees Hotel, Luxury Apartments & Lakeside Residences stands for. This Tourism New Zealand initiative promises to care for people, place and culture while in New Zealand and is one that this hotel has embraced across all areas: economic, social and environmental.

More than demonstrating care for the environment, the Tiaki Promise also focuses on the care of people and culture, and according to Mark enriches the business by honouring these aspects of hospitality. This is demonstrated at The Rees Hotel, Luxury Apartments & Lakeside Residences through many cultural initiatives that honour Aotearoa’s bi-cultural history, with Te Reo Māori spoken and signposted at the property.

General manager Mark is a trained chef by trade but managed a series of hotels, resorts and property

PROFILES

projects across the world before being called upon to return to Queenstown and launch The Rees Hotel, Luxury Apartments & Lakeside Residences. This choice led Mark to purchase the management company along with his partners in 2015.

With his hands-on, no-nonsense leadership style and desire for innovation and excellence, Mark is the first to acknowledge that his team is the greatest asset for both his, and the hotel’s, success.

There is an unusually low turnover of staff for a tourism-based town, which suggests happy staff and goes a long way to ensuring exceptional service is provided, therefore making happy guests!

Mark said: “We have terrific and talented people who are passionate about giving the best service they can. The team is encouraged to take responsibility, make common sense decisions and be part of the strategy development. Feedback from our guests positively reports that The Rees Hotel, Luxury Apartments & Lakeside Residences exceeds their expectations in nearly every way, but in particular it’s the service ethics of the staff and the excellent service standards that are most often mentioned.”

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: h c n u p r e k Suc The power of a m u u c a v t u o k c kno

By Kate Jackson, Editor

A dirty floor is not just a huge turnoff for guests but a potential health risk for anyone treading the halls of your accom.

•

Noise Listen before you buy, because an annoyingly high pitch vacuum can claim a low decibel rating on the sticker or brochure.

•

Filtration. Large, accessible and easyto-clean filters allow for simple maintenance and consistent performance.

A HEPA (high efficiency particulate arresting) filter will effectively remove dust, pollen and mites to produce clean air stripped of the irritants that cause allergies and asthma.

•

Hot water extraction If thinking about an extension to normal vacuum cleaning, ask your supplier about the advantages of adding a hot water extraction system to your toolkit.

•

Attachments The most effective vacuum cleaners do not just get their power from a motor, but also from the variety of attachments which allow them to access all areas.

Carpets serve as a magnet for pollutants, contaminants, bacteria and odours, and can harbour nasties such as fleas, cockroach eggs and dust mites.

A commercial vacuum used regularly is key to keeping your floors healthy, fresh and clean. An investment in quality equipment appropriate for your floors will also prevent wear and tear and prolong the lifetime of carpets.

Your choice of vacuum (or range of vacuums) directly impacts your room turnaround time and for busy operators it is a crucial decision to get it right. There is a vacuum for every need so select the most reliable and effective: one that can reduce costs, boost energy savings, enhance safety and increase productivity.

Pullman purity The latest Pullman PV900 and PL950 backpack vacuums incorporate patented vortex HEPA filtration systems, which effectively capture and contain 99.9 percent of dust and allergen particles once they’ve entered the vacuum, making for a healthier, more breathable environment.

What to consider: •

•

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Raw power A powerful motor is a given for a commercialstandard vacuum and essential to strong, longlasting performance.

Industry View: AccomNews asked Michael Owen, general manager of retail at Godfreys, to share some expert advice on how to select the right vacuum.

Quality Don’t overlook the most basic machine parts of the vacuum: the strength of wheels, clips, and other plastic mouldings. No matter how much power it delivers, a vacuum cleaner will not be any use if it’s out of action because its wheel falls off.

AccomNews - Summer 2020

What are the benefits of backpack vacuums vs uprights, and vice versa?

When comparing the benefits of a backpack and an upright vacuum, it essentially draws down to user preference.

For example, a lot of our customers choose backpack HOUSEKEEPING

www.accomnews.co.nz

…A lot of our customers choose backpack vacuums for their quiet operation, high manoeuvrability, ergonomic and user-friendly design and large dustbin capacities. vacuums for their quiet operation, high manoeuvrability, ergonomic and user-friendly design and large dustbin capacities. And for customers working against the clock in hotels, schools or other time sensitive environments, a backpack vacuum allows users to clean up to three times faster than a canister or an upright*, particularly with the latest battery-powered models offering cordless convenience, superior performance and lengthy runtime to get the job done quickly and efficiently.

Those working in a primarily carpeted environment, with plenty of outlets and essentially zero stairs, would consider an upright vacuum. However, apart from the motorised powerhead that draws out deeply engrained dirt and dust, these all-in-one units can be quite cumbersome in a commercial setting, especially when it comes to elevated cleaning such as stairs or countertops, and loading and unloading can be quite a challenge due to their increased weight.

They’re also tricky to manoeuvre in busier and constrained areas, unlike a backpack vacuum, and can be a real burden in workplaces where OH&S standards remain imperative.

How do different accom situations and needs determine which style of vacuum works best?

Before deciding on a backpack, upright or canister vacuum, a few external factors need to be considered; i.e. the size of the cleaning environment, how long will each job take, time of day cleaning will occur, is the environment larger and more open or are areas more constrained

and space-sensitive, is there an abundance of power outlets or would more portability be preferred and so on. It’s important any supplier understands their customer’s needs and values to ensure every purchase is a conscience purchase.

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What are the comfort and ergonomic benefits of each for housekeepers?

Our latest backpack vacuum reduces user fatigue with patented anti-vibration absorbers that virtually eliminate motor vibrations on the user’s back, along with a three-stage height adjustable harness designed to accommodate mostly anyone’s preference, that evenly distributes weight and reduces strain on the user. Seeing as backpacks and canisters are by far the most widely used vacuums in a commercial capacity, new and updated ergonomic technology remains our key focus to better accommodate cleaners in the accom industry.

What are the latest developments aiding commercial vacuum performance?

Advancements in lithium battery technology enables backpacks and uprights to run longer without sacrificing on cleaning performance, while design improvements and better filtration systems mean vacuums can seal more dust and debris within the canister and prevent dust, debris and other allergen particles from re-entering the environment. *Reference: The Official ISSA 612 Cleaning Times & Tasks; The Worldwide Cleaning Association.

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Those working in a primarily carpeted environment, with plenty of outlets and essentially zero stairs, would consider an upright vacuum. www.accomnews.co.nz

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HOUSEKEEPING

AccomNews - Summer 2020

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Image courtesy of ELS New Zealand

Why accom is frothing over laundry upgrades

By Kate Jackson, Editor

Guest laundries have come a long way. They no longer require users to hoard gold coins like watchful squirrels or spend precious holiday hours waiting for their well-crisped smalls to stop tumbling.

Significant performance enhancements in recent years mean cashless commercial machines run smarter and faster than they have ever done.

Quality washers and dryers will last for up to 20 years and beyond, so choosing a reputable supplier offering comprehensive servicing agreements and an extensive warranty is a must.

And when planning or upgrading a laundry, design is critical to its functionality. A logical layout is fundamental, taking into account safety and ergonomics which allowing guests and staff to access equipment and move around easily.

Simple considerations such as bench space will reduce the risk of items becoming trip or traffic hazards. And selecting

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Latest dryers and higherextract washers will lead to significant energy savings thanks to the dual effect of dryers using less energy and better design making dry time faster. the right finishes, such as granite or stainless steel bench tops and splashbacks made from toughened glass rather than tiles, will counter tough cleaning and eliminate hardto-scrub grout. Ensuring that proper ventilation requirements are met is also a must.

A good guest laundry is an extension of an accom property’s service, meaning customers have the same expectations of quality, minimal hassle and no hiccups that apply to every other aspect of their stay.

AccomNews approached Justin Treagus, managing director of ELS, for the washup on what to expect from next-generation laundries.

What needs to be considered when planning laundry facilities?

The biggest change in laundries is rethinking traditional laundry solutions to optimise and enhance efficiency for both the customers and the business. It requires a shift in thinking from individual components and separate functions for washers and dryers to an interactive process.

Drying begins in the washer.

Faster spin cycles (typically found in front loaded machines) normally result in more water being extracted during the spin cycle, making drying your clothes easier before they even reach the dryer.

HOUSEKEEPING

Using the right amount of water to start with means that less energy is required to remove excess water. And because the washer helps reduce drying time, that translates into less waiting time for the customer and higher productivity for your laundry.

Matching speeds of washers and dryers also leads to higher productivity through preventing bottlenecks. For example, a quick wash and slow dry will create bottlenecks which lower productivity and frustrate waiting customers.

Larger equipment and nondetachable stacked units allow for greater accessibility and satisfy customer’s expectations about getting greater loads into each wash. Remember, in today’s world, 10kg is the new norm.

Better ventilation through the advent of condenser and heatpump dryers presents opportunities to use space that was previously not considered due to lack of venting. www.accomnews.co.nz

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Heatpump solutions cost more upfront but use far less energy over the lifecycle of the machine.

What are the latest design trends and features, and how do modern washers and dryers rate for energy efficiency?

Evolution of a full range of payment solutions removes the need to collect and bank cash and lowers the risk of theft and damage. The link to management systems also opens the way to knowing customers better, catering to their needs while tailoring operations to maximise profit.

Image courtesy of ELS New Zealand

Latest dryers and higher-extract washers will lead to significant energy savings thanks to the dual effect of dryers using less energy and better design making dry time faster. Dryers that reverse in intervals throughout the cycle help clothes dry faster with less energy consumption and less wear and tear, while their more uniform drying giving customers a better result.

Automatic detergent systems not only give another source of revenue but are a convenient alternative for customers and limit issues from poor usage - such as oversudsing.

What’s your advice on stacked washers and dryers?

Maximising capacity in stacked units will allow business owners to increase productivity and provide customers with additional space to move around in comfort and fold laundry on benchtops.

How do you optimise revenue from a coin operated laundry?

I would advise operators to focus on both the top and the bottom line.

servicing - which can absorb profit quickly. Make sure you understand cycle costs and the impact of efficient equipment on your bottom line - because cost is the iceberg above the water, running costs are the iceberg below the water.

And look for other saving options in equipment.

Detachable stack offers the significant advantage of only

Investing in durable equipment means less downtime for

For example, EcoPower drying will automatically lower the dryer

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AccomNews - Summer 2020

needing to replace one machine in the event of a major failure.

HOUSEKEEPING

temperature when the optimal dry level is reached, protecting the linen from damage and providing energy savings.

I’d advise optimising space to achieve better productivity, and utilising payment systems to increase profit, for example special pricing in quiet times and additional chargeable services like automatic dosing.

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Bed bugs:

Your most unwelcome guests

By Kate Jackson, Editor

They are primarily nocturnal and hide well in crevices, so it’s often not the bed bugs, but signs of their infestation, that are detected first. Little brown or black faecal dots on linen or mattresses are a giveaway, as are shredded bug skins, squashed dead bugs and tiny white eggs.

As the summer season wanes and accom looks to fill autumn beds, there’s one visitor noone wants checking in.

Bed bugs induce itchy welts and ugly reviews and are particularly likely to be on the march during times of high tourism movement - which means now is the perfect time to check for the pinhead-sized parasites.

Treat them yourself or call in the experts?

Bearing in mind the breeding cycle of the female bed bug, which lays 2-3 eggs per day, it’s advisable to call in the experts on this one.

According to Netherlands-based scientist Bastiaan Meerburg, the emergence of house sharing platforms is prompting a resurgence in pests globally.

“All those people who rent out their house through Airbnb to a few dozen people do not know who they are bringing into their house,” he said earlier this year.

“It is a very small animal that hides in cracks and seams.

Once you have bedbugs in the house, then really everything has to be taken apart, there is a lot of work in it.”

Entomologists from London to Auckland have identified the double whammy of fewer legal pesticides and an increase in cheap travel as causes for increased bed bug activity around the world.

The good news is while they may be resilient, plentiful and superb travellers, there are effective treatment and prevention measures available to stop them in their tracks.

Prevention The best cure, as they say, is prevention, and while it’s naïve to think you can ever bug-proof you property, there are ways to minimise risk.

1. Provide luggage racks These help guests avoid them putting their bags on the bed and giving any hitchhikers a free ride onto mattresses.

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2. Make detectives of your staff Ensure your housekeepers are familiar with what bed bugs look like and can identify the tell-tale signs of their presence. They should always check the bed and bedding when cleaning or making up a room. All establishments should also conduct regular more thorough checks of all rooms. Although most will be found in the bedding, they will also travel to other areas such as bedside tables.

3. Invest in detecting traps These will quickly provide evidence of a bed bug infestation. If one is found, there are likely to be more, and immediate action should be taken.

4. Use bed bug-resistant mattress and pillow encasements Quality options will have a dust-proof flap and tamperproof seal, making the mattress or pillow bed bug entry and escape proof, whilst also ensuring allergens can’t become airborne. Cover the mattress encasement with a waterproof fitted mattress protector for easy removal and regular washing with other bedding.

5. Fit bug-trapping caps to bed castors These are discrete screwin barrier caps which are chemical free and designed to prevent bed bugs accessing the body of a bed via its legs.

6. Wash linen on hot Always wash and dry bedding at the highest permissible temperature allowed. Bed bugs don’t like heat.

7. Vacuum seal After vacuuming rooms, always make sure the contents from the vacuum are sealed in a plastic bag and discarded in a bin outside. Even if you haven’t seen them, the vacuum may have picked up a bed bug or their eggs.

Detection Contrary to popular belief, bed bugs do not mean a dirty room.

They can latch onto luggage or clothes causing infestations in the cleanest of environs.

Pest control experts are licensed to treat the areas infected by the bugs with a much stronger insecticide than accom operators can safely use.

Reputable companies will employ licenced pest controllers who have undertaken specific training in bed bug removal.

They should provide ongoing inspections, as often more than one treatment is needed to completely eradicate bed bugs.

Although heat treatments may be an option, pesticides will most likely be required, so check on what residual chemicals may be left and how long the property needs to be left unattended.

The guest who cried bed bug Remember, guests can be like Google doctors when it comes to bug detection. Just because they think they’ve seen one, they may well have mistaken it for a harmless creepy crawly.

To detect them, you first need to know what you are looking for.

“I can’t tell you the number of times that a guest just sees a bug near a bed or on a bed and makes an assumption,” Victoria Agredo, a hospitality industry veteran, told USA TODAY Recently.

Bed bugs have small, flat oval bodies. Adults are brown in colour, reddening after feeding.

Fully grown they are about 4-5mm in length, small but visible.

“An untrained eye checking a room for themselves really isn’t that helpful. They may find something, or they may create a panic over nothing.”

HOUSEKEEPING

www.accomnews.co.nz

New scholarships supporting “bright futures”

By Tourism Industry Aotearoa

The inaugural winners of the New Zealand Hotel Industry Scholarships have been announced.

The scholarships were on offer to young New Zealanders entering their final year of degree study in hotel management. The first two scholarships, managed

by TIA and Horwath HTL, have been awarded to Imogen Graham and Kate Sweeney Alongside a prize of up to $3000 towards their course fees, the winners will have access to valuable connections to the industry. They will also gain entry to industry events including the New Zealand Hotel Industry Conference and Hotel Industry Awards Gala Dinner.

“Imogen and Kate both showed a real commitment to the industry in their applications,” says TIA hotel sector manager Sally Attfield. “As well as recognising the value of the scholarships, both applicants demonstrated a genuine drive to succeed in the hotel industry. They each offered insightful comments in their interviews that showed a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.”

Horwath HTL director Stephen Hamilton says he is looking forward to seeing the scholarships support Imogen and Kate in their journeys and careers. “Both winners clearly have very bright futures ahead of them,” he says.

TIA and Horwath HTL are co-hosts of the New Zealand Hotel Industry Conference.

About the winners: Kate Sweeney Kate is studying a Bachelor of Commerce, majoring in Hotel and Tourism Management and Global Business at Lincoln University.

Imogen Graham Imogen was awarded the scholarship to put towards tuition fees for her Master of Global Management at Victoria University of Wellington.

© auremar - stock.adobe.com

“The scholarship will allow me to have a deeper understanding of the industry and the emerging trends regarding guest experiences and leadership challenges,” says Imogen.

When asked what attracted her to the hotel sector, Kate said: “This job is one that is secure and will constantly stay interesting. No two days in the hotel sector are the same and the development within the sector ensures there are sustainable career outcomes.”

“Winning this scholarship will not only ease the financial pressure of covering my course costs, but it will give me an advantage against others in my career.”

“It will help with understanding hotels in New Zealand and their global positioning.

Establishing connections in the hotel industry will offer a wider network for problem solving.”

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© Vector Tradition - stock.adobe.com

Think power and future proof your business

By Mandy Clarke, Industry Reporter

The government predicts a steady increase in the number of electric vehicles in New Zealand. We should see a rise to 64,000 electric vehicles by the end of 2021.

But what does an increase in EV usage have to do with the accommodation industry? As it

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© Pixel_B - stock.adobe.com

We are lucky that our beautiful country recognises the importance of sustainable initiatives. It makes sense because we are especially well placed to benefit from the likes of electric vehicles (EVs).

With New Zealand’s high renewable energy levels, the emission reduction benefits are greater here than in most other countries and produces 80 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions.

from an external electricity source in two ways, by electric batteries or a combination of batteries and a conventional engine (plug-in hybrid electric vehicles). All of these vehicles will need to use convenient EV charging stations.

turns out – a great deal! On one hand, you might be motivated to exchange your accommodation business vehicles for EVs, your decision might be based on sustainability, ethical or economic reasons. This would not only make great business sense, but it also sends a great message to your customers and if you go down this route you need to install a charging station.

On the other hand, with most visitors hiring and using

vehicles to tour this glorious country, it would suggest that the use of EVs by tourists will soon be widespread and finding a charging station will become an important element of touring holidays, indeed any trips. Hence, a key to your accommodation’s future success will be the ability of your property to cater to the increased use of EVs by providing electric power charging stations.

Electric vehicles are charged

ENERGY & RESOURCES

According to Better NZ Trust “as of Jan 2020, there are 144 DC rapid charging stations in the North Island and a further 65 in the South Island, plus another 300+ AC charge points registered on Plugshare”.

Getting caught short in a powerless EV in between destinations is a real possibility for travellers and would certainly ruin a trip. Consequently, if your accommodation has EV charging infrastructure available that can conveniently charge guests’ EV vehicles overnight, it would be a very attractive draw card for your business.

New Zealanders are more environmentally friendly than they’ve ever been, so expect that electric vehicles will take over the roads in the next few years. Providing charging infrastructure is a smart choice that will future proof your accommodation business. www.accomnews.co.nz

Image courtesy of TransNet

Safe and convenient EV charging stations will not only be a selling point for your business but will also give you the satisfaction of knowing that your guests will be driving on clean, affordable, domestic electricity helping to improve air quality for families across New Zealand AccomNews asked some of the leading experts in the EV charging field for some practical guidance on the installation and management of charging stations.

Industry View: Glenn Inkster from TransNet Why should accommodation owners consider installing an electric vehicle charging station?

Consider this, there was a time (not that long ago) when not all accommodation properties offered guest wifi access, and customers would simply choose to stay at another establishment that was ready to cater to their online and technology needs. As a result, the whole accommodation market had to quickly catch up and everyone began to provide better technology to remain competitive.

Similarly, I predict that there will be a point in time (not far into the future) when anyone with an electric vehicle will seek out accommodations that offer a suitable charging infrastructure for their car.

Most travellers using electric vehicles (and users are rapidly www.accomnews.co.nz

increasing) will plan their route depending on where they can charge their car overnight and will choose accommodations that can do this.

However, before accommodation providers rush ahead and purchase/ install charging infrastructure it is essential that they fully understand their requirements and the potential usage.

Remember what you install to begin with must be designed to grow with your system so that your electrical supply is not overloaded.

How is usage managed and what should managers plan for?

Start as you mean to go on because managing your supply is essential.

The most effective way to charge is using low capacity charge over the maximum amount of time (overnight is a perfect solution) this ensures the maximum use of the potential supply without having to invest in a substantial upgrade.

cars when it is available. This means everyone starts the next day on a full charge.

It is also important to know the cost of each charge session so that the cost of electricity is recovered from the customer, and the original cost of the charging infrastructure is recuperated over time.

The rapid charging network that has been built up around the country is essential for those quick top ups on longer trips. However, the majority of EV charging will always happen overnight because it is more cost effective and a lot more convenient. Therefore, charging when staying away will become standard practice.

Our EV S pec i a l i sts a nd El ectri c i a ns wi l l work wi th you to recommend the best s ol uti on for your property and the i nsta l l ati on of your new El ectri c Vehi c l e Cha rgi ng S tati on, provi di ng you wi th a NEW ZEALAND wi de Trusted S ervi ce a nd B rand.

T E SLA, WAL L B OX, C I RCO N T RO L CERTIFIED INSTALLERS

What are your main tips?

Only use a recommended industry specialist supplier/ installer who will make sure your charging infrastructure is fit for purpose and systemised.

There are systems that will do everything for you, including making sure that the electrical supply is not overloaded and automatically allocate more power to other ENERGY & RESOURCES

QUALITY PRODUCTS

Electric Vehicle Charging Specialist

HONEST ADVICE INDUSTRY EXPERTS REGISTERED ELECTRICIANS TRUSTED SOURCE

P H O N E 03 3772213 EM A I L hello@chargedev.co.nz FACEBOOK @chargedevnz INSTAGRAM @chargedevnz WWW.CHARGEDEV.CO.NZ

AccomNews - Summer 2020

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At “Charged EV” we found that purchasing an electric vehicle was a great switch for the business, the electric van is perfect for our shorter trips and installs. We have also received great feedback from customers on site about our staff working out of an electric van to install their electric vehicle charger.

What is your best advice for the accommodation industry?

Motels/hotels/camping grounds would benefit from the purchase of electric vehicles for their staff because they are perfect for trips to gather supplies or for maintenance workers to use around their property.

Purchasing an electric vehicle for business use means you not only save money on running costs, but you are also helping the environment. This could also become a talking point around the site and encourage customers and clients to

consider purchasing their own EVs. Accommodations might also consider the purchase and installation of an EVSE charging point for guests use, this service would set them apart from their competitors by allowing customers to charge safely and efficiently with fit for purpose EV chargers.

I liken this to wifi availability, we used to hope it was available onsite but now we expect it.

Any advice on planning an installation for public use?

When it comes to installing an

EV charger, there are a few key points to factor in: Where is my main switchboard located?

Where are the carparks, do we want to allocate EV parking only? Will we charge for the actual cost of the charge used? How many EVSE charge point do we need?

are familiar with EV charging technologies and terminology.

These are some of the questions I would ask a business that is looking to add some EVSE charging points to their site.

Nevertheless, here is an example of a planning consideration: When you are redoing a carpark or making changes to an existing building, at this point it would make sense to add service conduits and/or cables, for future use.

It is very important to use a business with people who

What about health and safety, location or planning considerations?

We can look after all this in-house because we provide a total solution.

ARE YOU ELECTRIC VEHICLE READY? Do You Need EV Charging Infrastructure? The short answer is yes! As more and more electric vehicles take to our roads and more companies are turning their fleets to electric the demand for overnight EV charging at accommodation locations is increasing.

EV drivers will always choose accommodation with onsite charging infrastructure. They need their EV fully charged in the morning. Onsite charging is both convenient and cost effective.

Who Is TransNet e-Mobility?

TransNet e-Mobility is a division of TransNet NZ

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are not always convenient and often already in use so booking a room and a charger is a game changer for any EV driver. Wallbox grows with you, as demand for EV charging increases you can add to your existing Wallbox installation without costly upgrades to your electricity supply. We will ensure you’re trained on Limited, a key supplier to the electrical industry throughout New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. Part of what makes our business unique is the position we hold within this industry. We work closely with the electricity network companies, car dealers and the EV users. We are also EV charging partners to Hyundai NZ, Kia NZ, Nissan NZ, Toyota NZ and VW NZ.

Why Choose Wallbox For Your EV Charging Infrastructure?

Wallbox offer the smallest and smartest EV chargers designed and manufactured in Europe. Easily record and report session usage for invoicing, lock/unlock & allocate chargers to clients via the cloud-based myWallbox portal, myWallbox app or RFID tags. DC charging networks

ENERGY & RESOURCES

both the soft ware and charge stations, and you get ongoing after sales service from a well-known 100% NZ owned company. TransNet offer the complete service, we can help you from concept/design right through to installation of your EV infrastructure.

Contact TransNet NZ on email at EV@transnet.co.nz

www.accomnews.co.nz

© ALDECAstudio - stock.adobe.com

New Zealanders are more environmentally friendly than they’ve ever been, so expect that electric vehicles will take over the roads in the next few years.

Industry view: Simon Wheeler from Charged EV, Wheeler Electrical Ltd.

EV charging

Are you prepared?

Why Wallbox is the Answer to your EV Infrastructure Needs...

Customers book a charger and a room together Manage/allocate chargers from cloud based app All charge sessions are logged for ease of invoicing Easily add to your network of chargers as demand increases - Wallbox grows with you Ongoing after sales service from well known, 100% NZ owned company

EV@transnet.co.nz | 0800 442 182 | www.evc.co.nz

for sale and maximise value Statistics show that the accommodation industry is making twice as much money as it was 20 years ago. If you are planning on selling your accommodation business, take the time to prepare for the sale so you may leverage sector success and maximise the value of your property.

Prospective buyers will be interested in three key factors - the physical environment, financial performance and the lease - the strength of these factors will directly influence the appeal of your property.

Physical environment, consider instant appeal; is your hotel/ motel immediately inviting?

Guest accommodation, chattels, and grounds; assess their condition. Do they present as fresh, clean, and well maintained? Are they in good condition and of good quality? Does anything need replacing or repairing?

© nusi55 - stock.adobe.com

By Steven Matthew, LINK Business Brokers

Prospective buyers will be interested in three key factors - the physical environment, financial performance and the lease… lift. Take care of outstanding maintenance and do what you can to improve the physical environment without over capitalising. Remember, while you aim to appeal to buyers, you must also ensure that you aim to maximise value at sale time.

The owner’s accommodation is another critical area to consider; this will become the buyer’s home. They will pay close attention to its condition, and ideally, they’ll be able to imagine themselves living there happily.

Your property’s financial records must be in order. Documents relating to cash flow, operating costs, accounts and GST will illustrate the financial landscape of the business.

Have ready access to all business documents dating back two to three years.

A fresh coat of paint, clean buildings, and a garden makeover are affordable measures that will give your property an instant

Unique to the financial portfolio of an accommodation business, is occupancy rates, revenues and room rates. This information

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option; therefore, the length of the lease determines the security of the business. Ensure that your landlord is willing to renegotiate terms with a new owner; this will save time during the sale process and build trust with your prospective buyer.

The rent review period states when the landlord can next increase the rent. Buyers will be looking for a review date a couple of years from the time of purchase. In the initial years, a new owner will look to keep rent and other costs consistent, giving them the best chance of success and breathing space to absorb any unforeseen expenses.

is at the heart of how your business performs throughout the year; it highlights trends, helps to identify potential growth areas, ways to improve the existing model, or where savings can be made. With a good grasp on these points, you can accurately demonstrate the position of the business.

The property owns the maintenance fund, not the lessor or the lessee. A healthy maintenance fund is a good selling point, adding further value to your business, particularly if the building is in good condition.

An astute buyer will view a healthy fund as an asset to the business. The maintenance schedule is a binding agreement between landlord and lessee; it determines how often the lessee is to address any painting or repair work. Ensuring all maintenance is up to date will enhance aesthetic appeal.

Perhaps the most critical aspect of an accommodation business is the lease. The terms of the agreement have a direct effect on the value of your property. Consider the time remaining, the rent review period, the maintenance fund and maintenance schedule.

In this current market, the accommodation sector is buoyant and witnessing great results. It’s a great time to sell. With proper preparation, you can achieve optimum results, capitalise on the market’s success and claim your slice of the pie.

The length of the lease is crucial. Relocation is not an

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Why boutique listings are rare for bespoke, experiential accommodation remains a key driver of development.

By Kate Jackson, Editor

© Thomas Reimer - stock.adobe.com

Accom businesses come and go on the NZ property market, but one sector crops up for sale far less regularly than the others.

Boutique hotels, which tend to boast healthy operating revenues and are often run by owneroperators, are rare additions to the commercial market.

Good revenue returns and the opportunity to run a lifestyle business mean owners are often reluctant to put them up for sale.

Capitalisation rates for hotels in metro areas and Queenstown (calculated by dividing net operating income by property asset value) typically sit at close to six percent and can rise to almost double that in regional areas.

As one industry insider told the New Zealand Herald in June last year: “With that sort of return on

investment, there has been little motivation for owner-operators - other than for lifestyle change reasons - to sell up and seek other investment opportunities.”

While strong returns and high occupancy are hallmarks of the boutique sector, the cost of new development means it has become financially prohibitive for new competition to enter the market.

That barrier to entry merely enhances the appeal of existing independent boutique offerings.

Boutique hotels first emerged in the 1980s, with Bill Kimpton’s Clarion Bedford Hotel in San Francisco widely credited as the first in a rash of small, style-focussed luxury properties which sprung up across the states and Europe to cater to a discerning clientele.

The sector has evolved worldwide to embrace different price points, and hotel chains now offer myriad “quirky” brands as the desire among travellers

But in New Zealand, which has an international reputation for standout high-end accommodation properties operated outside of the major chains, the cost versus return on investment issue means the number of boutique properties hitting the market is likely to remain scarce.

As Clare Davies, managing director of the Capstone Hotels group which runs a dozen boutique properties across New Zealand, told the Herald in June: “It is notoriously difficult to make a hotel development stack up”.

And for those who do acquire a boutique property, Davies sounds a note of caution.

“Refurbishment is also expensive,” she said, “but it’s needed to stay relevant in the boutique hotel market”.

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Bold Peak Lodge, in the heart of Glenorchy, provides a great accommodation, food, & • Prime location in Glenorchy beverage tourism complex, with beautiful • Multiple income streams scenery & a short stroll to the lakefront. This • Bold Peak Lodge, with 11 ensuite rooms LV D YHU\ DරRUGDEOH HQWU\ OHYHO SULFH LQWR D large tourism complex which is only 40min.

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AccomNews - Summer 2020

PROPERTY

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Societal trends affecting hotel design In this world where AI is a household word, climate change is top of mind, travel is easier (albeit not sustainable), and millennials value work/ life balance, change is inevitable in the hotel industry to respond to changing social norms.

collateral, your website and social media to create an entrenched design narrative for guests to engage with, will set you apart.

Vee Kessner

Director, Space Studio

In addition to this, social ‘proof seeking’ millennials want unique, sustainable, authentic experiences.

narrative should be the starting point of your unique proposition.

In creating unique hotels that support memorable experiences, something to post, or an adventure to share - be it a contemporary challenging design concept, a story woven through the property or an adventurefilled offering - the design

Being able to create an emotional connection in seconds with potential guests is key. By telling an authentic story through all elements of design, art,

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AccomNews - Summer 2020

It starts online

As guests increasingly book direct for better value and not the last sell room, there is an opportunity to engage on a personalised level with the guest prior to their stay.

AI and digital technology makes it simple to create connection prior to the stay.

Let them know what is happening in the area during their stay, offer services to enhance their stay and show that their enjoyment is your priority.

Be generous and genuine in

REFURBISHMENT

the offering not only seeking spend in your own property.

What makes you unique and memorable As experiences become more important to guests, align offerings providing local insights with authenticity. Recent research by Skift suggests that some 67 percent of high income travellers value experiences more highly than the best hotel rooms.

As a result, the more unique and niche the offering the greater the connection. Work closely with your designer to enrich the design narrative and explore the different ways this can be manifested.

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Inspired design delivered

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www.spacestudio.co.nz admin@spacestudio.co.nz REFURBISHMENT

AccomNews - Summer 2020

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Design should accommodate the ability to support: 1.

Custom itineraries rather than lists of attractions either presented digitally, an in-room guide or through a concierge

2.

Understanding of your neighbourhoods and their offerings

3.

Alignment of food and beverage with healthy, seasonal and unique local cuisine

4.

Upgraded collateral to provide an insightful touchpoint of interest with the guest

5.

Ensuring that artwork, design elements, materials and styling are authentic and expands local interaction.

The rise of Airbnb can be directly attributed to the desire to experience the ‘real’ place. Airbnb hosts learned the importance of providing information for guests requiring local connection.

Destination marketing and management is going to be the most important priority for many hoteliers. BCG reports: “By 2024, personal and experiential luxury alone is estimated to be a €1,260 billion market - a significant increase from €845 billion in 2015.”

Personalisation As our devices personalise messages to us yet reduce our interaction, so our need for social interaction and personalisation increases.

While design can support technology to provide personalisation such as individual control of heating and cooling, light moods, entertainment systems, and communication with the guest, guests should still feel welcomed and important on a personal level.

Dwell time A well-established trend has seen travellers spend more time socialising and working within common areas than being confined in rooms. This,

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AccomNews - Summer 2020

REFURBISHMENT

coupled with the mobility of devices, has impacted on the need to provide a variety of common area spaces where guests can dwell undertaking a variety of different functions, and reduced the need for guestroom desks.

Spaces that support relaxing, meeting, socialising, working alone or as a group should be included in a variety of common areas of the hotel.

The key word being ‘variety’ of spaces transitioning from quiet to social spaces.

Connect with guest’s values Increasingly, customers are concerned with environmental issues and question whether businesses they deal with are behaving ethically.

You should look to: Design for local supply - food and beverage, FFE, linen, and toiletries in refillable containers to name a few.

Reduce waste across all aspects of the operation Review your services - water usage, power usage Wellness extends beyond providing healthy and organic food and drink offerings.

Exercise offerings over and above the gym are now commonplace. In room exercise offerings, better workout facilities, and suggested walking, cycling and running tracks that encourage engagement with the neighbourhood are recommended.

And on departure Make a strong enough connection that they will recommend you and choose to come back - don’t stalk them! Heaven knows we all get too many emails or calls from loyalty programmes.

www.accomnews.co.nz

The new wifi standard expected by guests Most accom guests no longer consider free wifi as a distinguishing perk.

In fact, the idea of being charged for something so ubiquitous is now a major turn-off. But provision of free wifi alone is not enough.

According to a survey by Openkey, an overwhelming 98 percent of guests expect high-speed wifi.

For accom, a fast and reliable connection is essential to meet the needs of their guests constantly connected lifestyles.

Anything less leaves the door wide open for major guest discontent.

The demand for great wifi According to GlobalWebIndex, the average consumer owns 3.2 internet-enabled devices. When visiting a hotel, most people bring their devices with them.

Instead of pay-per-view entertainment, they’re watching Netflix and Stan on their tablets.

While relaxing by the pool, smartphones are routinely whipped out to check social media, plan trips and check out restaurant reviews.

All of this puts a huge strain on a hotel’s network infrastructure.

Suffice to say, an outdated network just won’t cut it anymore. Slow internet speeds and poor coverage are almost guaranteed to irritate guests and potentially earn a batch of negative reviews on TripAdvisor.

now, it will be worse with 5G. While offering 5G will certainly become a significant selling point, it’ll be difficult to implement throughout a property.

So hotels will still have to offer wifi for the foreseeable future.

That said, the standard of that wifi will need to improve.

So what level of wifi should your hotel offer?

Brendon Granger Director, Technology 4 Hotels

times faster than the typical 4G speeds on today’s mobile phones.

But will 5G replace the need to provide wifi in the hospitality sector?

The short answer is, no.

At least, not initially.

First, it will take a few years for the 5G network to be fully rolled out.

In 2019, coverage will be restricted to capital cities and certain regional areas. However, the more significant barrier for mass adoption is a technological one.

5G uses much higher frequencies than 4G, and this higher frequency is more susceptible to being blocked by common objects, such as walls, windows, and other common building materials. As a result, this may lead to 5G ‘black spots’ within a hotel. If you have poor 4G coverage in your hotel

As consumers start to enjoy 5G in their own homes, they’ll also come to expect that hotels offer the same internet speeds. But there’s something else to consider.

The consumption of on-demand content continues to rise and the next few years will see a huge leap in the number of internetenabled devices including smart watches and fitness trackers. As a result, hotels can expect more and more travellers to bring their own entertainment with them.

Summed up, being able to offer 5G and high-speed wifi are going to be integral to the modern-day hotel experience. But having a secure network will also be vital.

Around the world, hotels have been targeted by acts of cybercrime on an unprecedented scale. So in addition to fast and reliable wifi, customers will need to feel reassured that their connection is secure.

© sdecoret - stock.adobe.com

I often hear hoteliers and owners say: “I can’t wait until we have 5G”, implying that this will solve all of their problems

How will 5G impact the hotel industry?

It’s hard to ignore the huge hype surrounding the 5G network. It’s estimated that 5G will deliver speeds of around 10 gigabits/ second to a phone, which is 600 www.accomnews.co.nz

TECHNOLOGY

Hotspot 2.0 offers a potential solution to these problems.

Harnessing hotspot 2.0 The seamless wifi people often enjoy at home is hard to replicate in a hotel. Frustrating login processes and an unreliable connection create hassle and disrupt the guest experience.

Of course, your property’s network infrastructure is far more complex than a domestic set-up, and it needs to cope with far more devices. Hotspot 2.0 offers a way to improve the overall wifi experience through a form of frictionless connection.

After a one-time installation of the Hotspot 2.0 profile to their device, a guest can return to your property and instantly connect to the wifi. In fact, they can instantly connect to the wifi at any property within your hotel chains brand.

This connection is also secured

by WPA2 - a form of encryption for wireless networks based on the Advanced Encryption Standard technology (AES).

In addition to a speedy and secure network, Hotspot 2.0 allows hotels to drive revenue by sending “timely and context-specific guest messages”, which can be sent via in-app push notifications, SMS messages or emails.

Why an investment in great wifi pays off Providing great wifi is now integral to the quality of the hotel guest experience. With the rollout of the 5G network, customers will start to enjoy lightning-fast speeds in their own homes.

When they check-in to a hotel, high-speed wifi will become the new minimum standard.

With more streaming services available, the rise of the smart guest room and a global surge in connected devices, investing in your hotel wifi has never been more important to meet the rising expectations of your guests.

AccomNews - Summer 2020

43

2020 Vision:

What the future holds for hospitality TVs As we race headlong into a new decade, the acceleration of technological change will see TVs develop to embrace a personalised viewing future.

Over the last 20 years working in the hospitality technology space with focus on in-room technology and in-room entertainment, I have had the opportunity to see the technology develop from movie-tapes in the basement, to premium Ondemand entertainment, to the guests embracing Bring-Your-Own-Device and Bring-Your-Own-Content.

Up until now, the common structure of in-room technology has been the existence of an in-room technology vendor offering a solution that requires a head-end, be it a local server or a cloud-based solution. The service has developed over time to deliver an interactive portal that displays hotel compendiums, movies-on-demand, roomservice menus, property facilities, etc. The common devices at the end is always the television set. The role of the television set has become less glamorous as it’s become more or less a glorified monitor, with TV tuner or network capable appliance for IPTV (internet protocol television). What if there was a smarter TV that offered more?

Extended lifetime is one of the key features that really futureproofs TVs.

Richie Cheng,

Hospitality Channel Manager, Westan Philips Professional Displays

ability to BYOC and BYOD in the form of launching apps from the TV and casting, with built-in access to Google Play Store and Chromecast 4K as a world first.

Providing hoteliers with the ability to create, manage and edit a customisable user interface (UI) means management can brand their interactive portal on the television screen, empowering the team to manage their own content.

Extended lifetime is one of

the key features that really futureproofs TVs. With the ability to upgrade the Android platform, new technology applications and features are introduced without the need to upgrade the television sets. This gives the product a new look and feel with the latest applications all made available in the future.

The future of hospitality televisions needs to not only accommodate what the guests can experience easily at home, but also provide an easy-to-access method to experience entertainment.

Latest models allow us not only to meet guest experience with Chromecast, Google Play Store and customisable UI, but offer them as a package with the investment into the television at no additional cost.

Our latest TVs are not a new solution to simply replace these services. Products still rely on a managed network, a good IPTV or MATV (master antenna television) head-end.

The objective is to empower businesses to have the ability to choose if they need managed services or can self-manage.

This is a new concept for a lot of hospitality businesses and it’s exciting to see that they have a choice. My personal belief is that there is still a role for the traditional vendors, but it requires them to re-invent themselves and add value with their service rather than simply expect to be included as part of in-room technology.

Offer a product that will allow ongoing upgrades that continue to introduce and accommodate new technology in the coming years, ensure operation cost for management are removed, and continue to support integrators with the ability to develop their applications via the development kit.

Our latest smart TVs are Googlecertified and Android-powered, offering three key messages for hotel owners when they evaluate what product to invest in for their hotel: enhanced guest experience, cost saving and greater value. They offer the AccomNews - Summer 2020

One common question asked by hotel management regarding the role of traditional IPTV vendors and movies-ondemand vendors is: ‘Do we need these vendors or can we self-manage them to save cost?’

How do you futureproof hospitality televisions?

Futureproofed TVs into the next decade

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The removal of operational expenditure is exactly how such TVs will add value to the hotel room and the investment.

TECHNOLOGY

www.accomnews.co.nz

Want to boost your hotel’s operational efficiency? Wifi is the answer

By Hannah Hambleton, Content Manager, Beambox

is a great way to see increased ROI on marketing operations.

Every hotel knows how important quality guest wifi is for a positive customer experience.

How to choose the best wifi for your hotel

But as well as boosting your hotel’s brand reputation and providing that perfect guest experience, wifi can make evidence-based hotel operations much more efficient; helping to drive your profits while maximising capabilities and capacity.

Wifi provides your hotel with actionable guest data Every time a guest logs on to a guest wifi network, your hotel can begin to collect real-time guest and behavioural data.

This includes contact details, demographic information and a series of data points created with every hotel interaction.

With this data, you’ll be able to create actionable, data-rich profiles of your guest experience.

For example, you’ll be able to easily track how long customers stay in your restaurant, what time peak check in and check out times are and the revenue total of guest in-room services. This data is then analysed and used to optimise the guest experience and operations, all while improving your hotel’s bottom line.

Three ways great guest wifi will make your hotel operation sleeker and more profitable Wifi data gives management teams the ability to view service demand and guest behaviour as whole sets of data points.

Here are 3 ways you’ll be able to use wifi to make your operation slicker and more effective, ultimately increasing your hotel’s market growth. www.accomnews.co.nz

© Spectral-Design - stock.adobe.com

Wifi is now an essential guest expectation, so it’s essential that hotels get it right, including quality, speed and access.

1. Wifi help you plan optimum hotel staffing levels Hotel staffing levels are important to get right, for both guest service and balancing profit margins. When guests use your hotel wifi network, smartphone beacon technology can track gueststaff interactions and guest movements around the hotel.

This gives you essential data on staffing levels to meet demand, capacity and business goals.

Firstly, your hotel will be able to respond in real-time by moving staff to hot spots of congestion or long wait times, for example at check in or check out.

For long term efficiencies, you’ll be able to use hotel wifi data to create the ideal staff to guest ratio at all times, carefully balancing staffing costs with guest expectations.

Creating the perfect staffing level is a challenge for many hotels, but wifi data will give you the ability to meet this challenge head on, with no wasted manpower or costs.

2. Internet of Things and hotel wifi will drive efficiencies The Internet of Things (IoT) is a hot topic in hotel technology at the moment, and with good reason. For guests, IoT will allow their hotel rooms to be hyper-personalised. This means that guests will be able to control the lighting, heat or aircon in their room to their

exact needs, removing blanket guess work and making sure that energy use is accurate, effective and cost-efficient.

For your hotel staff, IoT can automatically provide maintenance and repair schedules, highlighting when work needs to be carried out before it becomes a repair emergency.

Being able to plan for maintenance and schedule likely repairs is an important way for your hotel increase its efficiency, as well as maximise budget lines.

3. Data from hotel wifi will supercharge your marketing efforts Hotels spend a lot on marketing, so ROI and efficiency of marketing spend and budget is vital. Data collected from wifi will ensure that your marketing communications can be segmented, analysed and used to tailor communications to pack maximum impact. Guests can be sent behavioural emails triggered at every captured interaction with your hotel, helping to encourage repeat bookings or support upselling opportunities to boost revenue. In addition, wifi data will help inform where you need to spend your marketing budget for customer acquisition.

You’ll soon know how your guests like to interact with you, so you’ll be able to target accordingly via demographics and customer profiles. Hotel wifi

TECHNOLOGY

So, we’ve established that quality wifi isn’t just a ‘nice’ extra for hotels to give to their guests, it’s an essential way to drive lasting efficiencies and increase your hotel profits too. Investing in wifi infrastructure with longevity is important for any future thinking hotel, and there’s lots to consider. Firstly, your hotel must decide on the frequency of wifi needed, deciding between 2.4GHz and 5GHz wifi.

While it can seem complicated, it’s basically about the size of your hotel and its speed requirements. For hotels targeting business guests, 5GHz wifi may be more suitable, especially if you have a separate business suite. For large hotels with multiple rooms, 2.4GHz may be a better, cost effective option.

You’ll also need access points and suitable infrastructure, as well as thinking about any other devices that have Bluetooth technology which can interfere with wifi signal.

Once a great guest wifi network has been implemented, your hotel can begin to make operational efficiencies straight away; so don’t underestimate the importance of getting it right.

Guests and hotel operations benefit from great guest wifi Wifi is important for guest experience, but hotels can also massively benefit. Using the data provided by guests to tailor and personalise communications, you’ll be able to make your hotel marketing more targeted and efficient. Beacon technology combined with wifi will allow you to track customer movements and respond in real time with optimum staffing levels. Every hotel wants to maximise their investment and create efficient operations, and wifi will give you the insight, strategy and tools to be able to do this.

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ars: w p u p o p e Th

Why personalisation matters

By Tambourine

The home page is the single most important experience for consumers.

It’s a sacred space. It’s your opportunity to tell your hotel’s unique story.

Hotel marketing execs call this your UVP (unique value proposition) and communicating it creatively and succinctly is critical.

But with all the third-party gizmos and gadgets available to hoteliers, that sacred homepage experience is getting cluttered. It can be tempting to try to mention every benefit, feature or promotion the hotel has to offer, but doing so can actually be detrimental to the user’s experience.

Competing messages can be confusing and give consumers too many options at one time.

Special offer pop-ups and book direct incentives are great, but for them to be truly effective, they need to be strategically deployed.

That’s why personalisation is so powerful. It’s meant to help streamline your communications by deploying the right message at the right time.

Here are five methods to de-clutter your home page and personalise the pop-up experience for your guests.

Your home page should have one clear message It’s important to decide on one UVP to feature specifically on your home page.

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AccomNews - Summer 2020

Personalisation is just another way of segmenting your audience to provide the right message at the right time.

What makes a good UVP? Users should be able to get a sense of the property’s location and unique attributes quickly and honestly. If a user can’t determine if the property meets his/her general criteria or the property is totally misrepresented, then the UVP isn’t pulling its weight.

Because having one clear UVP is so important, there’s just no room for additional distractions.

Special offers or incentives should be secondary to your UVP.

Geo-targeting for a surprisingly relevant experience As a general rule, offers and promotions custom-built for a highly targeted group perform better than generic, one-size-fitsall messaging. One way to exploit that is to get tactical with your pop-ups and personalise them to users from specific geographies.

For example, if you have a resident rate that’s lower than the price offered to your out-of-state guests, you can deploy a custom pop-up for residents, using geo-targeting to advertise this special rate directly and exclusively to them.

Personalisation is just another way of segmenting your audience to provide the right message at the right time.

A second example: Say it’s snowing in New York City.

Hoteliers can customise a pop up to specifically reach website users from New York, referencing the weather within the ad.

Customise pop-ups to users who take specific actions on your website In the same vein as geo-targeting, action-based targeting allows hoteliers to deploy pop-up ads when website users visit specific pages on your website.

It’s pretty simple: a customer profile is created based on the specific page a user visits.

Based on these actions, certain pop-ups will be deployed.

For example, a pop-up can be created to target meeting planners or brides-to-be after they’ve visited the meetings or weddings section of your website.

Once they’ve completed the desired action and move on to a different page, a pop-up promoting a special offer incentive for event planners who complete a request for proposal could be deployed, driving them back to the RFP page.

the appearance of pop-ups can be customised to be less intrusive. Depending on how they’re programmed, pop-ups can pop-in to the page, be closed by the user, vanish when the user begins to scroll, or stay open.

Hoteliers should always choose the least invasive option and minimise their use on mobile. It’s also good practice not to deploy a pop-up immediately upon landing on the website. Pop-ups can be time delayed for 5-10 seconds, allowing users to get oriented, take in your UVP and move on.

Additionally, refrain from putting pop-ups on the booking engine itself. If the user is already in the process of booking, it can be distracting or disruptive to present them with an offer at that time, and the last thing you’d want to do is drive a user away from the page during the booking process.

Get their info before they go Exit intent is a valuable tool that leverages pop-up technology to increase your email database.

These pop-ups appear when a user shows signs they are about to leave the website, such as when a guest’s mouse moves towards the top of the page to close out.

This pop-up prompts the user to enter their contact information before leaving the site and often includes a specific incentive or special offer automatically

Make closing out easy Nothing’s more annoying for a user than being unable to ‘x’ out of a pop-up. To lessen disruption,

MARKETING

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Reputation is everything repeat as well as new bookings.

Online reputation is vital to the success or failure of almost every business.

“This is because the review and your response will be visible to a large pool of your customer base and you can make sure to turn it into your advantage by being thoughtful.”

© Olivier Le Moal - stock.adobe.com

By Kate Jackson, Editor

It defines how others see your brand when they search for, or come across it, online. Which is why operators spend so much effort on proactively influencing what people see on the net.

Strategies to push damaging and harmful content down the Google search engine results pages and rank more desirable material above are regularly employed in the battle to maintain a healthy online presence.

Why? Because the top five listings in Google’s search results receive about two-thirds of all clicks. If one of those top five says your accom is less than great, chances are you’re losing business over it.

Reputation management is not just about search engine ranking and content, though. Reviews have become the go-to resource for evaluating a business online, a 2018 BrightLocal survey finding 85 percent of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

The same survey found around half of all consumers look for at least a four-start rating before deciding to use a business.

Online reputation management can be handled in-house using free web monitoring tools, or through specialised resources developed by digital marketing companies, but it does need to be a part of any online strategy for a successful accom provider.

First responder Good online reputation management is about reacting well and in a timely way to what people say about your accom.

A proactive approach means guarding and guiding your public reputation through regular monitoring of social media activity.

A recent TripAdvisor-commissioned poll of 23,000 travellers globally found personalised responses from accommodation owners or senior management

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AccomNews - Summer 2020

lead to better customer reviews and better repeat booking levels.

emails and constantly monitor reviews across multiple sites.

The Ipsos Mori study showed 84 percent of those polled believed personalised, polite and respectful engagement with aggrieved customers can lead to an otherwise negative review becoming more balanced and less damaging.

Those reviews are consolidated through a ‘dashboard’ which sorts them by keywords or sentiments, for example, so comments are readily actionable and can be shared easily to a property’s social platforms.

Management tools can also help properties compare their ratings with those of competitors.

And more than half of potential new customers said they were more likely to select a hotel or restaurant if online reviews showed a strong engagement rate by management with other customers.

The study was conducted by TripAdvisor to highlight its new free management response tools, which allow accom owners to respond once to reviews, both good and bad, so giving them the last word on any comments made.

“These survey results clearly show the importance of managing online reviews,” said Fabrizio Orlando, senior manager for industry relations.

“If an owner responds to a review, whether that review is positive or negative, it makes a real difference to a traveller’s perception of a property and can have huge effects on increased room bookings and table reservations.”

There are a number of professional management tools on the market which help operators respond speedily and appropriately to online comment, including mobile apps for on-the-go monitoring anywhere. The best allow properties to request guest reviews through customisable

There are also free tools out there besides TripAdvisor - Google Adwords for example - which can help with DIY online monitoring.

Lemons into lemonade Bad reviews, however frustrating, unreasonable or plain unfair they seem, are a part of the accom game and need to be dealt with.

Digital solutions company STAAH says the best approach is to see them as a chance to turn lemons into lemonade.

“Whenever you receive a negative review, consider it an opportunity to assess the gap between your services and guests’ expectations,” the company posted in a recent blog.

“Also, use this opportunity to demonstrate that you care for your guests’ opinions and you’re willing to improve.

“Always remember that your answer to feedback won’t be only visible to the person who wrote the review, but to all the travellers who might be in search for their next ideal hotel.

Every negative feedback can be your chance to win more

MARKETING

TripAdvisor agrees, its ‘top tips’ for responding to reviews including: •

Introduce yourself and write your response as though you’re providing an introduction to your business; potential guests will also be reading.

•

When responding to a negative review, share the rest of the story and provide context on what was happening behind the scenes or what was unique about that specific situation.

•

Amplify the benefits of the positive reviews. This shows you’re committed to using feedback to make ongoing improvements and that good experiences are no accident.

While criticism may sting, it can make you better if that negative feedback is used to fuel improvements. By not hiding from an issue but addressing it publicly and acting to change things, an operator is viewed as more transparent and therefore more trustworthy.

Dan Virgillito, a content strategist for Massive PR, says: “According to several business experts, trust is a perishable asset and it is hard to gain.

Making people respect you and your work is more important than any other online reputation management commandment.”

While also advocating a polite and diligent response to online reviews, Virgillito does point out that in extreme cases it’s necessary to fight illegal behaviour or false information posted online.

“Sometimes, if you don’t sue them, they might do it again,” he says on neilpatel.com. www.accomnews.co.nz

© DisobeyArt - stock.adobe.com

The hidden cost

of working with influencers

By Frederic Gonzalo

According to a recent report by Business Insider Intelligence, brands are set to spend up to $15 billion on influencer marketing by 2022.

So last week, I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine who manages her own small agency specialising in influencer campaigns in Canada. She was just coming out of a contract involving a demanding client and less-than-more collaborating micro-influencers. I thought our conversation would make for an interesting article here, but first, let’s get some definitions right.

The different types of influencers

Macro Influencer: Someone with 100k - 1m followers Micro Influencer: Someone with 10k - 100k followers Nano Influencer: Someone with less than 10k followers You will notice these categories are slightly different than the tiers defined by Business Insider Intelligence (right). Truth be told, these thresholds are not set in stone and how an influencer can be categorised will vary depending on the type of campaign. For example, a foodie or travel lifestyle blogger with 65,000 followers could be considered a micro influencer on a nation-wide campaign, but perhaps as a macro influencer in her native town where that level of following is less common.

There are many ways to define influencers, but sadly we tend to revert to the simplest variable accessible out there: reach. Or said differently, how many followers a person has across its social media presence. I like to think you can essentially put influencers in one of the four following categories:

Nevertheless, take a good look at the arrows to the left and the right of the pyramid in the chart.

That pretty much sums it up when it comes to the pros and cons of working with smaller or bigger types of influencers. Because beyond follower counts, the more important variables at play are engagement rates, perception of authenticity, niche specificity and levels of professionalism.

Celebrity: Anyone with a million followers or more

Which brings me back to that conversation, mentioned earlier.

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5M+

Higher cost (fees) Higher audience reach, but lower specificity Lower engagement rate Greater professionalism

MEGA INFLUENCER

Greater cost-effectiveness

1M+

Higher engagement rate

MACRO INFLUENCER

Lower professionalism

100K – 1M

Lower authenticity Lower accessibility

MID-TIER

Greater authenticity Higher accessibility Higher Specificity (Targeted reach)

50K – 100K

MICRO-INFLUENCER 1K – 100K

NANO-INFLUENCER Less than 1K

Influencer tiers, by reach.

MARKETING

Source: Business Insider Intelligence

AccomNews - Summer 2020

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© Anton - stock.adobe.com

Why micro influencers are so popular There is a simple reason why micro influencers are all the rage nowadays, I believe. Simply put, it is because small and mediumsized companies are becoming more active with influencer marketing campaigns and feel they can set up campaigns by themselves. And since celebrities and macro influencers are usually represented by agencies, which obviously tends to increase costs of campaigns, this paves the way for the uncharted waters of micro influencers (and, to a lesser extent, nano influencers) without any form of middle man in between.

And this is when things get ugly.

“Frederic, I think my client was not that happy with the campaign.

In order to get to the final 4-5 influencers selected, we had pre-selected nano and micro influencers according to their requirements. Yet they refused more than 14 of them for a variety of reasons: didn’t like the tone or style, not enough followers, and so on. That’s fine, but we have to manage expectations”, said my friend Caroline.

To clarify, this was not a huge campaign. Total budget was AU$4,500 I asked her how much time was put into managing this campaign.

“Oh, you may not believe me, but

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AccomNews - Summer 2020

…Beyond follower counts, the more important variables at play are engagement rates, perception of authenticity, niche specificity and levels of professionalism. we estimated about eight hours of back and forth with the client at the beginning of the process.

“But the kicker was then dealing with the influencers: We estimated more than 32 hours, and have over 300 emails to prove it!”

So let’s get something clear, here. The above quotes are from my friend Caroline, who runs an influencer marketing agency that also owns a repertoire of Canadian influencers. Her agency already has ongoing relationships with many influencers, have contracts in place, know how to negotiate and what to measure.

Yet, it still took more than 40 hours to get the campaign running, and over 300 emails to act on or respond.

How much time and efforts do you think it would take a hotel, restaurant or attraction that doesn’t have in-house know-how for this kind of marketing tactic?

And what are the costs associated with working with the wrong kind of influencers when you don’t know which one will deliver, and which one won’t?

The need for professionalism

the professionalism levels of micro-influencers’

Of course, smaller brands can conduct influencer marketing by themselves and far from me the intention of having you think all campaigns require dealing with an agency. We just need to be cautious about the potential pitfalls when dealing with influencers, especially nano and micro influencers with whom smaller brands will most likely work directly.

“I wasn’t seeing these kinds of problems a year or two ago. But now it seems like many of these influencers are interested in the monetisation aspect, without understanding the business requirements that come with it.

In other words, there is a need to professionalise and there are still big discrepancies in the professionalism levels of microinfluencers”, she concluded.

So why was it so hard to work on this campaign, I asked Caroline. “The biggest problem I am seeing”, she said “is that some of the micro-influencers don’t understand the business requirements or are overwhelmed by their recent influencer status.

“We’ve had to chase one mommy blogger over 8 times before we eventually received a simple answer. She was supposed to write up two articles, but we’re still waiting on the second one which was due over two months ago!

“There is a need to professionalise and there are still big discrepancies in

MARKETING

Thus, there is still tremendous potential in working with microinfluencers, but travel brands ought to be conscious of the pros and cons of doing so directly versus dealing with a thirdparty that may not guarantee a perfect campaign but may take off a lot of the burden associated with the process while improving results and overall return on investment.

Frederic Gonzalo is a marketing and communications expert with more than 20 years of expertise in the travel and hospitality industry.

www.accomnews.co.nz

Don’t stumble over floor safety

By Kate Jackson, Editor

Trips and falls are an everyday occurrence, but they can be a matter of life and death to an accom business.

© Andrey Popov - stock.adobe.com

After all, one slip on a tile or stumble over a loose paver can result in serious injury not only to the unfortunate victim but to the fortunes of the property owner on whose patch it happened.

Reputation harm and legal repercussions can cripple a business - outside of the personal toll of dealing with onsite injury trauma. Luckily, anti-slip floor treatments can help provide a safety net for accom providers.

Hard floors While traditional solutions of etching, gritty coatings and adhesive strips still have their place, newer treatments for hard floors provide less obvious anti-slip protection.

Resilient surfaces such as vinyl, rubber and linoleum (and softer timber floors) give under pressure, then return to their original profile over time. New coatings designed to mimic that surface characteristic provide longwearing anti-slip protection while maintaining the smooth look of the surface - unlike traditional coatings that rely on grip from embedded materials like silica and sand. They involve slip-proof additives that are easy to clean and don’t trap dirt, while improving both dry and wet slip resistance.

When it comes to porous hard surfaces such as ceramic, granite, terrazzo, vinyl, concrete and porcelain tiles, latest anti-slip treatments create a chemical reaction invisible to the naked eye which changes the tread pattern of the stone surface, resulting in friction which dramatically increases the grip for feet and shoes. They can be quickly applied in an ‘apply and wash off’ process www.accomnews.co.nz

creating no discernible change to the surface appearance.

Stairs and ramps Half of all building falls occur on stairways - making it vital to ensure steps aren’t slippery. Rubber stair treads, plates and nosing can cover hard surfaced steps to reduce slip risk and help muffle footsteps. They are easy to install, durable and can be matched with anti-slip or rubber landing tiles to blend into their surrounds.

Anti-slip tapes, cleats and grit strips laid across risers are effective at stopping feet sliding, and barefoot-friendly versions are used widely on pool steps and pool surroundings alongside treated tiles. Anti-slip paints, tapes and rolls all offer increased traction on ramps.

Mats Entrance mats help create an appealing welcome while providing a high level of absorbency to handle heavy traffic and keep floors and shoes clean.

Runners are equally effective in creating a visually appealing and functional solution to keeping

heavy-use corridors and hallways safe. Both can be customised to suit myriad width, length and design requirements.

Elsewhere, anti-fatigue mats can soften the standing room for anyone from front counter staff to guests in lifts. They include specialty gym mats with interlocking anti-slip rubber tiles to ease the impact on joints during a workout, and anti-fatigue heavy-duty rubber mats with drainage holes to service busy kitchens and bars.

Pool and shower mats can provide essential protection against slips in the wet. Heavyduty PVC drainable loop and tubular mats are designed for optimal traction, comfort underfoot and ease of cleaning.

Maintenance More than half of all slips and falls can be attributed to problems with a walking surface, according to the US National Floor Safety Institute. Problems such as chipped concrete, loose floorboards, bucked carpets and missing floor tiles are often overlooked because they’ve either

SAFETY & SECURITY

been around for a long time or people have learned to avoid them. Many of these problems can be corrected inexpensively by maintenance staff or contractors.

Improperly cleaned floors can lead to a range of problems from loss of slip resistance and premature wear to a slippery build up that reduces traction. Anything that interferes with a foot making direct contact with a surface, such as dirt, wax or ice, will prevent an anti-slip treatment from being effective. Each manufacturer will recommend a cleaning regimen which should be carefully followed.

Older-style anti-slip coatings can wear unobtrusively over time to become less effective, while etched and blasted surfaces can also wear to a slippery finish. All should be regularly monitored - and again, recommended cleaning practices adhered to.

For guidance on slip resistance classifications in Australia and New Zealand, the Standards Australia Hand-book HB 198:2014 is an introductory guide which provides compliance advice and direction.

AccomNews - Summer 2020

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