How to overhaul your USP

STANDFIRST: Q: When I first opened my independent hotel more than 20 years ago, we were the largest and highest quality hotel in the town and our USPs were personal service, friendly, loyal staff and high-quality furnishings. It might sound simple, but it worked and we had circa 92% year-round occupancy. Things have moved on, we face more competition, guests are making different choices and I think it is time to overhaul the USPs. Any tips to get us started?

I often come across businesses whose USPs are an afterthought and in many cases a lucky accident. The owner or manager sets about creating their vision without actually formalising what that vision is, then quickly establishes what their USPs are after the fact when they need to promote the business. You are right that competition has increased in recent years, particularly from the roll-out of some of the big brands, and they are sucking up the ‘ordinary’ market; guests looking for a clean, pleasantly furnished venue with approachable staff, leaving independents struggling to compete.

I feel like I regularly say this, but one of the best things about independent hoteliers is their passion for the industry, and their love of hospitality. It usually goes beyond a job or a career, to a lifestyle; a way of operating and engaging with guests at an individual level. This passion in itself is not always a USP, but using your other passions can make it one. Some of the most successful hotels I have had the pleasure of visiting have built large audiences of core guests around their individual passions.

I remember one in Southern Scotland with a petrol-head motorbike enthusiast, who organised four biking weekend experiences a year, and also provided covered motorbike parking, a workshop with spares, maps and routes of the best biking country locally and even had a range of bikes for use by the guests, as long as they organised insurance before coming to stay. His hotel was traditionally weekday business trade, and for the first two years, these organised stays guaranteed him four weekends of full occupancy and high revenue, during traditional quiet periods. By year three, news had spread and not only did he continue running his four events, but motorbike enthusiast clubs started organising their own weekend events, and bikers also came to stay during the week. It was this which took the business from 90% weekday occupancy and 45% weekend occupancy, to a year-round 89% average. I was fascinated to visit, even if I am rubbish at riding pillion! If you haven’t read it already, my dear friend Deborah Heather has written this month about diversification and has highlighted the story of Millbrook Estate in Devon and their Runaway Weddings. Another success story.

If you haven’t got a passion that you feel others will share, or perhaps of course you don’t want to share with others, then look at success stories elsewhere in the country, which don’t have competition near you. Establishing USPs which makes your hotel the destination is the aspiration, so what are others doing that you can replicate. While you of course have to be happy with it, I have seen hotels that specialise in naturalism, in golf or other sports, in arts and all sorts of things. USPs don’t even have to be a specialism, but they do have to be special. What will make your hotel stand out from the crowd and be remembered? What little touches can you add? I once stayed in a hotel in Cornwall that left me with a hamper of pasties and cream tea and while it is sadly no longer in operation, I visited six years in a row.

Before I go, one hotel that deserves a mention is the newly launched Divorce Hotel in Yorkshire. Dubbed the ‘heartbreak hotel’ by some media outlets, the hotel provides couples with a neutral space for an amicable settlement of their estate, providing two days of talking and mediation culminating in an official divorce just three months later. With a price tag of £10,000, couples will check in, stay in separate rooms, wine, dine and relax and settle their affairs over two days. Owner David is a trained mediator and counsellor and believes the business model has the potential for huge success. Whether you’re comfortable with the idea or not, you have to admit that’s a pretty unique USP!

This feature first appeared in the May 2017 issue of Hotel Owner.