60 seconds with…Richard Harrison - Coombe Abbey Park Ltd, Managing Director

How was the re-opening of your business and how was it carried out in line with safety procedures put in place to allow social distancing? 

The re-opening of the business back in July was very smooth. We delayed for a week, after the July 4th re-opening date to ensure we had everything in place for our staff and guests’ safety and to guarantee we could deliver a first-class service albeit in a very different way. Staff were issued with face masks even though this was not a requirement at that point, all guests arriving on site had their temperatures taken and one-way systems around the hotel’s public areas were put in place. Our food and beverage team also put in place some ‘grab-and-go’ options to ensure guests could, if they wished, take breakfast without any contact with others - that was in addition to socially distanced restaurant service and room service options. We had been operating our cafes since the end of May as takeaways and this was an extremely useful testbed to see what worked and what did not.

How is the general feeling and feedback from your team members and your customers now the lockdown is over? 

The feedback from our guests has been great. They have confirmed that we have got the balance right and created a COVID-safe environment without compromising on service. Our business is all about creating experiences and we remain adamant that while the service within our hotel, cafes and kiosks maybe different, it is no worse and, in some places, with the addition of new products and services, it has even improved. This has been largely down to the great work of our team and their ability to adapt. All but 12 of our team across the business (which is approx. 250 people) were furloughed and during this time we kept a high level of communication with them which has led to them coming back into the business and being able to slot straight back in. I have been blown away by the commitment and flexibility of our team and the way they have adapted to the ‘new norm’ and creatively looked for ways to improve what we are doing.

What role has technology played in supporting your re-opening plan? 

Our hotel is within a 11th Century Abbey, so the challenge has always been to use technology subtly to improve the guest experience but to ensure it is in keeping with its surroundings. Prior to re-opening we introduced guest check-in terminals and the Coombe Abbey App developed with our partner Criton. With the addition of these, our guests now have three ways to check-in and out of the hotel, as we have retained our reception service, so it is down to guests as to how they use our services. The App also allows guests to order room service, book tables in our restaurants and open their bedroom doors if they wish. It also allows us to keep in touch with them after they leave with offers, promotions and news and of course importantly lets them re-book. We have used technology to give guests more choice of how they engage with our team and tailor their experience whilst with us.

What market trends are you seeing since re-opening? 

We have seen a real lift in guest spend. During the summer of 2020, the room bookings we were receiving were very much focused on our Grand feature rooms and Suites rather than standard rooms. Average spend in the restaurants has increased along with dinner conversions to the point we had to open a second restaurant within the hotel. We have also seen an uplift in extra sales with our in-house florist business seeing a 100 per cent growth in orders for flowers in bedrooms and an increase in flower deliveries. On the park side of the business, we have seen sales growth year on year within our cafes and ice cream kiosks, with these outlets having their best summer since opening. With average spends again on the rise. The on-site Go Ape course has also had a good year and traded extremely strongly seeing guests wanting to get out and do something different.

What techniques have you used to build sales and re-engage customers? 

For us it has been about communication. During lockdown in early 2020 we kept the level of social media interaction high. This was not direct selling as at that time it was pointless and not appropriate, but it was about engagement. We did weekly quizzes, features on certain key parts of the business and a weekly slot where our chef published a recipe for a dish of the week, asking followers to cook it and then post images of their efforts as well as ask questions and to make requests for dishes. This then developed into us starting takeaway and delivered afternoon teas. The hotel is well known for its afternoon tea with over 48,000 a year being sold, so being able to have a Coombe Abbey Afternoon Tea delivered to your door or being able to collect it, was very popular and generated a new audience. We really saw the benefit of this once the hotel re-opened, on opening weekend we could have filled the hotel twice over as well as afternoon tea sittings. However, we limited the hotel to capacity to 50 per cent to ensure we could deliver the safe environment our guests were expecting and rather than looking to generate extra revenue in the short term, we took the longer-term view to re-engage with guests ensuring they continue to return into the future.

What positive lessons do we need to learn from what the industry has been through? 

I believe as an industry we have identified the need to continue to innovate. Innovation comes easiest when there is a need for it and over the last year, there has certainly been a need. When we look at the number of new products and offers our industry has developed in a short space of time, whether it is how we engage with guests, take away and delivered products, outside events, many, many things that a year ago we would not have thought about. At time of writing this we are again as an industry unable to operate normally and we are now seeing Christmas Day lunches being offered for home delivery or collection, drive in festive light shows and visits to Santa – all things we would not have considered 12 months ago. As a business we used some of the time within lockdown to take part in a research project into productivity across various sectors. One thing we have learned is that as an industry we do not measure or focus on this as much as we should. I believe we need focus on this more. We should look at best practice around productivity within other industries and see how we can use this within our own, ensuring that everything we do is productive, and the outputs are measured and worthwhile. This level of focus in addition to the amount of innovation currently happening could deliver real change and speed up the recovery of our industry in a post COVID-19 world.

Richard Harrison – LinkedIn profile