Why storytelling matters to your hotel’s branding

As hoteliers we are always looking for new and inventive ways to promote, sell and transform our business. Our guests are looking for exciting and creative ways to enhance their stay in our hotels. Our guests are perhaps more widely travelled than, say, 20 years ago, and therefore potentially more savvy in their expectation. Such expectation requires additional thought beyond the standard delivery of impeccable service, well-appointed accommodation and a delicious breakfast. But could guests be looking for something additional, more creative, rather than the ubiquitous? Creative minds work wonders for our industry. Having worked for clients including the Alfred Dunhill Club, Wembley Stadium and the Royal Albert Hall, experience has taught me many things; I have noticed that guests enjoy a good story either factual or imaginary. Fortunately we live in a country with a rich history and heritage and much can be made of this by the hotelier, which will not only enhance perceptions for current customers, but perhaps also attract a new clientele. These days especially many hotels are buildings of an historic nature and this can work distinctly to the owner’s advantage, as such history can provide a tapestry backdrop for our guests to enjoy as well as the team to embrace. In my line of work I engage with a broad spectrum of clients, and sometimes this requires a more creative approach, particularly when we are looking to identify a new selling point or highlight. With one particular hotel in an historic building I encountered this exact challenge. The property was impressive with large state guest bedrooms rooms on the first floor and small unimaginative guest rooms on the second floor. The difference between the two offerings of accommodation could not have been more stark. Marketing such a property had been a challenge and the guest feedback had not been entirely favourable. The rooms were clean and well presented, but uninspiring. The building was listed and therefore comprehensive rebuild or significant room size alteration was not an option. We therefore had to look at different and inventive ways to transform and remarket this area of the business. Upon investigation it transpired the majority of the accommodation on the second floor was carved out of rooms once used as servants’ quarters. We decided to play this to our advantage and set about transforming the whole floor, including the corridors and adjacent areas, with this fact and piece of history in mind. A modest budget required us not only to be inventive, but also cost effective. Fortunately the M&E and bathrooms were in very good order and required very little adjustment apart from the floorings and paintwork. This therefore left us with the guest bedrooms as an entirely creative palette. The plan was to re-create the area back into a servant’s quarters, with styling as it had been in the 1930s when the house was at its height. Several sorties on the archives provided us with the information we needed to set about creating a theme for each guest bedroom. The rooms would be named after the principle servant roles of house during that period thus: Chauffeur, Butler, Cook, Gamekeeper, Footman, Valet et al. Careful thought was required to theme each guest room relating to the particular servant role. In one room we found we were able to make the most of a fascinating feature already in existence, the servants’ bell box, dormant for 30 years, but now placed back on the corridor wall. Colour schemes, signage and imaginative use of fabrics and props were woven into the project without risk becoming clichéd. Admittedly this was near, when each guest room was provided with a quality ribbon padded notice board for which to slip final touches, which included a facsimile of the servant duties relating to each room name. The end result was a transformed area of guest accommodation based on the 1930s, but with a smack of luxury, heating, modern telecommunications and (ahem) Wifi. Guest feedback was positive and it was very clear that the creativity of the area had been transformational. By a stroke of luck this was completed just before Downton Abbey reached our screens the result of which played into our hands magnificently. Guests sometimes like to keep mementos of their stay in hotels and we can all recall unusual mementes guests have chosen to keep or indeed leave behind. In this particular project, they were not the usual collection of bathrobes, or fine English toiletries, but the small slip of paper containing the duties of the servant. We had created something imaginative and the guest wanted something to remember it by. Of course there are ways of creating a story without hooking into a rich history. Your geographical location may be something a hotel can play on to create its own tale to tell customers. But whatever you do it’s important to remember that a hotel can, and should, utilise what it has at its fingertips - a great story that lends itself to enhancing a guests’ stay by leaving them with not just a memory but their own story to tell. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: By, Mark Fagan, who has more than two decades experience working in the highest caliber county clubs and hotels. As well as holding the position of GM at the renowned Stoke Park, he also worked on development plans for the prestigious Dunhill Club in London and the set up of the Bobby More Club at Wembley Stadium.