Chris Wayne-Wills, CEO of Crerar Hotels: ‘Quality has no finish line’

How long have you been in the hotel industry and what inspired you to pursue a career in it? 

I’ve actually worked in hospitality for over 30 years and I have been in senior management positions for over 25 years. My family has a catering business in South Wales, so I grew up around hospitality. 

My career in hotels started when I was a sales manager before becoming a general manager. I then went on to regional managing director-type positions and other property positions. I have worked for hoteliers such as Marriott, Macdonald Hotels and the Q Hotel Collection. I took over Crerar Hotels in April of 2020, so right at the beginning of the pandemic.  

What inspired me to pursue a career in the hotel industry is creating experiences. It’s probably been the thing that has always interested me the most, as well as the staff; It’s such a people’s business, and as my career progressed, I became more fascinated by its culture.

In your opinion, what has changed the most about the way hotels are run? 

I think the basics have never changed. In fact, the best operators never get bored of the basics. The best general managers or heads of departments understand that world-class basics such as exceptional cleanliness, warm welcomes, hot food, the way that you’re made to feel, don’t ever change and I don’t think it has changed during my career. 

The obvious thing that’s changed is how technology has influenced the industry. When I had my first general manager job 22 years ago, there was no such thing as social media. The advent of things like TripAdvisor, which are fantastic consumer-led platforms that have raised expectations, have also raised standards because you have to invest in quality and train your people. I don’t need a mystery guest programme anymore as I can go on TripAdvisor or booking.com and read the reviews. 

Your summer bookings indicate a boom in staycation holidays. How long do you expect this trend to be popular?  

We’ve definitely seen an absolute boom in summer bookings, and the trends around spa breaks and our locations have been exceptionally successful. 

I’m seeing this trend continuing for the rest of summer, certainly into autumn and winter. We ran a campaign that we started two years ago, called ‘Coorie’, that runs during the autumn and winter as it lends itself really well to what people are looking for in that season.

This trend isn’t slowing down for us because we’re seeing so many issues with international holidays and airports that, from our point of view, we offer hassle-free holidays as our customers can get in the car or on the train and get to us easily. 

What advice would you give to smaller hotels that are looking to give rest and relaxation offerings to their guests? 

I think that smaller businesses should create something that’s accessible, easy to buy into, but also something that the guests can embrace. I think that the small touches make the difference; we find that small venues should work as hard as possible on forging local partnerships with other small businesses in the areas. That way, they can ensure that they’re having a positive effect on both the local economy and the guests. 

For example, we found that wild swimming is a popular trend at the moment, so we found some local partners who are willing to take our guests into lochs and teach them some wild swimming techniques. In terms of smaller hotels, thinking “what would the guest want to do locally” can give guests that rest and relaxation. The critical thing for me is how you are made to feel while you’re staying at the hotel.

Crerar has taken to offering personalised stays to holidaymakers. How do you keep up with the demands of every personalised stay?

We are keen to try and keep up with demand and to customise things where possible, and tailor-make breaks around the experience customers want to create for themselves. We created an online quiz, which allows them to fill in their needs and it points in the direction of which hotel within the group would best suit them, whether it’s an island for a coastal retreat, or a country house hotel.

The hotel teams can then accommodate the guest’s specific demands; they know the local areas, they know the surroundings inside and out, and they’re providing that ‘live like a local’ experience. They often know the best farmers markets or the best place to eat outside of the hotel as well. 

What is at the heart of Crerar’s success?

At the heart of our success is the people that we have. They are absolutely at the heart of our business and what we do. We’ve invested heavily in our properties in the last few years, as we went into the lockdowns with a mantra of ‘never waste a crisis’, but equally, we’ve had to really invest in our people, too, which is something that we’ve achieved fairly well. 

We created a new role for the group HR manager and created the Crerar Academy, which is part of our £1m investment into our teams and recruitment, as well as retention and development, which has been super important for us. 

Are there any future plans in store for Crerar Hotels?

Quality for what we are doing has no finish line. We’re always trying to focus on integrity and authenticity in our business and we’ve got to be focused on the loyalty of our guests. I think we operate the best hotels in our locations, but there are competitor hotels and maintaining loyalty becomes hugely important. 

We’re not looking to venture off in any particularly different direction, but because we’re independently owned, we can be quality-focussed, and we can continue investing in our properties and our teams, which has undoubtedly been the secret to our success.