A blast of rock music always gets hotel industry conference attendees in full swing. Two weeks ago it was The Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” heard at Choice Hotels International’s annual convention, covered by my Hotel News Now colleague Shawn A. Turner.
At the Boutique and Lifestyle Hotel Summit, it was Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain.” At least, it was the last bass-heavy minute or so of that song, the bit that revs up and is in the United Kingdom synonymous with coverage of Formula 1 motor racing TV coverage.
The reason for this was the song was pumped out to introduce a keynote from David Richards, who not only builds racing cars as chairman of Prodrive but was former chairman at Aston Martin and as a force behind Formula 1 racing teams Benetton and British American Racing. He also owns hotels in the United Kingdom county of Cornwall.
All brilliant, because this writer knows a metaphor when he sees one, and also knows not when to stop running, or racing, with it.
Richards is the owner of two 5-star boutique hotels, with seven guestrooms (following renovations, although the hotel is still operating) at the St Mawes Hotel and 19 rooms at The Idle Rocks, which wouldn’t be a bad name for a band.
Attendees zoomed out of the grid on the lookout for comparisons between driving faster than 200 miles per hour and operating boutique, lifestyle hotels.
Both are people businesses, Richards said.
“The biggest challenge is getting the right staff, and to get that right staff, you need ambition,” Richards said. He said he opened the hotels after seeing there were few, if any, decent spots in which to eat and sleep in Cornwall, a popular vacation destination but historically one of the poorest U.K. counties.
Conference-goers must have felt they had gathered speed down the straight when Richards said good hoteliers also need, as do racing teams, to “create a culture, which does not happen overnight, and it (the culture and the hotels themselves) has to be a true reflection of yourself.”
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| David Richards is all revved up, about both motor racing and boutique hotels. (Photo: Terence Baker) |
Both Formula 1 and boutique hotels are big spaces involving big personalities, Richards added.
No yellow Formula 1 flags warning of danger up ahead were waved, as attendees swayed from side to side sensing they were in the industry’s coolest segment.
“My pet peeve is that (the hotel) has all your details, but when you arrive they want you to fill in all these forms,” Richards said, although one track chicane might be the sector’s winter season.
“This month (May) occupancy is 75%, in the summer 90(%), but we have to work on winters,” Richards said.
To counter seasonal decline, hoteliers everywhere, especially in destinations generally regarded as summer vacation spots, know they have to create a story, or many of them.
Richards is creating a 30-seat cinema at the St Mawes and targeting small, high-end conferences from such players—the same that often spend quidzillion dollars to advertize at and sponsor Formula 1 teams and races—as UBS and Rolex.
By this stage, attendees could clearly see the checkered flag, at which point heard again was Fleetwood Mac. Vroooooooooooooooooooooooom!
Email Terence Baker or find him on Twitter.
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