Page 25 - June 2021

Before the onset of Covid-19, the company had just had an
Hotel Indigo The Hague, Netherlands
Hotel Indigo The Hague, Durham, UK
Residence Inn, Ghent, Belgium
Mercure Brighton Seafront Hotel, UK
exceptional 2019, with excellent growth in terms of the number of
hotels that they had brought on board, with 10 to 12 new additions
and the portfolio as a whole was performing strongly. October of that
year was also when the merger with Aimbridge Hospitality took place
and Brexit was the topic on everyone’s minds.
“Despite everything that happened across the world last year, 2020
was actually the best year we have ever had in terms of bringing on
new hotels as we brought 38 hotels into the Interstate family, which
represented a tremendous achievement and took us to over 100 hotels
in the UK, the flipside was they were all empty!” Nicholas Northam,
Executive Vice President – International at Interstate Hotels & Resorts
says with a wry smile.
A lot of their portfolio closed at the beginning of the pandemic,
however this changed quite quickly when it was realised that a
selection of people were still travelling, and so the vast majority
of their hotels re-opened, albeit with a significantly scaled down
labour force.
“We spent a lot of time and energy on training and making sure
that we operated safely. This was the key focus for us, making sure
our environments were safe for both the teams in the hotels and the
guests coming to stay.”
This year will see the opening of six additional hotels in the UK
and continental Europe and while Nicholas feels new builds have
slowed down for sure, he believes there will be further development
opportunities in the future as the fluctuating market continues to
affect operators and owners.
In terms of new markets for the business, continental Europe
remains a huge opportunity for Interstate as they look to firstly add to
their already 100-strong portfolio in the UK and Ireland, and secondly
to add to their footprint in the Netherlands, France, Italy, Germany
and Spain, which is a market they are not yet in but believe there is
real opportunity for growth.
“We have an office in Amsterdam so we have a team based in
continental Europe so the plan is to grow in those markets and we’ve
got a foothold in Europe and if we need to open offices in other
countries we have the capacity to do this,” explains Northam.
The role of Interstate is to maximise the demand that arrives in a
particular area, so for them the old adage of location, location, location
remains as strong today as it ever has. These are not destination-led
hotels, what the company does is manage the hotels already situated
in highly sought after locations and make sure that their product, their
service, their people, their team and everything that they offer in the
hotels is the driver behind people choosing to stay in their hotels when
visiting a certain destination.
So what does Northam feel are the key drivers behind the company’s
success?
“First and foremost I believe it is scale of the organisation. Because
of our size, owners feel safe and secure in asking us to manage their
hotels and as such, we have best-in-class operating systems, resources,
people and talent… everything you would expect from the perspective
of a large, multi-national organisation. In total we manage around 35
different brands, including being the largest operator of Marriott,
Hilton, IHG and Hyatt Hotels worldwide.”
E-commerce and social media has become an important area for
Interstate, to the extent that even just five years ago they did not
have an e-commerce department, and now they have a dedicated
one focusing entirely on e-commerce matters. As for social media,
Northam comments that the company is represented on all major
platforms as they look to stay ahead of the curve, noting that
whether it is a bedroom, a meeting room or a restaurant, the
first place people visit is social media to make sure the brand is
well represented.
When looking to the future, Northam feels that continuing to
grow the company against the backdrop of the global pandemic is the
greatest challenge Interstate have in front of them.
“Our ability to grow is fundamental to our success because the
more hotels we have, the more our scale and ability is amplified
to the benefit of our people, the guests who stay in our hotels and
our owners. Our mission is to be the best third party manager in
the world and this is what we strive towards day in and day out,”
he concludes.
JUNE 2021 RETAIL & LEISURE INTERNATIONAL 15