Business Case Studies

       

Kings Cross Hotel Network

 

The main objective of the King’s Cross Hotel Network (KCHN) is to offer business support and advice to hotels in the King’s Cross area in order to equip them to offer the best welcome to customers as the area's tourism increases. Many need to modernise, improve their service offering or marketing presence to capitalise on the arrival of St Pancras International Eurostar terminal and many other new businesses and retail outlets flocking to the zone.

 

Having a well trained work-force is key to providing an excellent experience to hotel guests but this is often an area that can be overlooked. The challenge for many hotels is that it is difficult to schedule time away from duties to provide staff training and also that staff turnover is high.

 

Initially a consultation took place with each hotel manager to find out what type of training the hotel is interested in and for which members of staff. In depth conversations took place in order to get a clear picture of what was needed.

 

A period of observation took place to monitor the staff in action before a training proposal was drawn up. Training was usually delivered at the hotel at times that best fit in with the shift patterns and working practices. The range of training included: customer service, train the trainer, time management and sales techniques.

 

The Ambassadors Hotel (click here to play video) has recently refurbished to upgrade from a 3 to a 4 Star hotel. Manager Christophe Belare said: "We were aware that we needed to provide training to ensure all the staff were up to speed. The KCHN project offered the right mix of flexibility and knowledge to deliver the training we needed at exactly the right level. Our staff are now better equipped to deal with any challenges ahead."

 

Customers are becoming more sophisticated, taking shorter more frequent trips and their requirements are constantly evolving. To avoid losing market share or becoming old-fashioned or shabby it is important that hotels continually update their offer.

 

As part of the quality audit, experienced KCHN staff look at the whole experience; from the first impressions of the hotel from the outside - through to looking at all the bedrooms and public areas. A report is produced that details the current quality of the accommodation on offer and the improvements that could be made in the short, medium and longer term. The purpose is not to be critical and judgemental but to sit alongside the hoteliers to encourage and support them in making improvements.

Manager Hans Jaffer from the Mabledon Court Hotel said: "It was really useful to get an objective view of the hotel and how we match up to the competition. I found the advice and recommendations to be useful and easy to put to practical use. The whole audit was a positive experience encouraging us to move forward with the development of the hotel."

The Di Popolo family have a portfolio of 4 hotels in King’s Cross, run by different family members, and one website which represents all their properties. The family wanted to improve their website so KCHN initially analyised its effectiveness in terms of usability, functionality and design.

Improvements, such as an online booking system, were made and the next focus became the marketing of the website. KCHN provided ongoing support in how to evaluate the results of existing and new 'Google Adwords' campaigns and make the most of the hotel's marketing budget.

Manager Assundina di Popolo said: "The advice and support that I have received through the project has really helped me to focus on our website and online marketing. With so much to think about everyday when running hotels it is great to be able to call in some expert advice for certain areas. Having online bookings is something we had wanted to do for a while but had not had the time to research the best option, with this project all the work was done for us."

For more information, please contact: James Walsh at Centa on 020 7278 5757 or email: jwalsh@centa.co.uk