IN FOCUS: RIDING THE STORM OUT
We’ve heard myriad stories of the financial destruction and despair that COVID-19 has brought to many businesses.
B
ut a number of Tasmanian operators have proven that you could find positives from the pandemic pain if you were quick to pivot in the crisis.
For Kerry Houston, the problem has been managed with a calm approach. Kerry and her husband Alastair spent a year renovating Stanley’s iconic old 1840’s pub and transformed it into the increasingly popular Ship Inn Stanley in July, 2019. They couldn’t believe it when the North West was hit by the state’s worst outbreak of the virus and their booming business fell silent. “It was quite shocking. We had internal contingency plans in place for things like staffing issues or problems with the building but we had no contingency for a pandemic. It had never crossed our mind,” she says. “We didn’t know how we would come through the hardest lockdown in Australia at that stage in the North-West and thought we’d be seen as a pariah of Australia. Our social media followers dropped like flies at the time which was really interesting to watch people “unfollow” you.” Kerry admits their response to COVID was not developed with a complex thought process or deep analysis. “We had a mainland newspaper ring our PR person wanting to
10
do a story on what specials we were offering to encourage travel and we actually hadn’t thought about it,” she recalls. “We remembered hearing one of the TICT podcasts which talked about offering a special discount of ‘stay three nights, pay for two’ because rather than devaluing your price you could maintain your price range but provide an extra night as a gift, which actually encouraged people to stay in the Stanley and North-West region for a longer period of time too. “It’s been amazing - one weekend we thought we had the most expensive driveway in the country - there was a Maserati, BMW and Mercedes in the driveway and those people would normally be in the South of France or Croatia or cruising the canals of Europe but instead they were at the Ship Inn Stanley!” “It was an unknown market but we just did it and haven’t really looked back.” The Ship Inn Stanley expanded its offering during the enforced break, with the conversion of the adjacent old billiard hall to a guest lounge due for completion in Summer. “For couples who are travelling together it is nice for them to have their own rooms but be able to meet in a communal space where they can bunker down and feel safe,” she said. “You can’t worry about what is out of your control. You can only set up your safety procedures to the best of your ability with
