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How to ensure investing in your hotel leisure facilities adds value

Hotel leisure facilities are one of the ‘nice to have’ aspects for some hotel businesses, especially those targeting business and international customers.

Quality hotel leisure facilities can move a property from 3 stars to 4 stars, potentially attracting a higher calibre of spending customer.

Most independent hotels offering leisure facilities do so through a restricted space – often a single room with a few free weights, a bike and a cross trainer. Leisure provision escalates from this entry level to include more machines, changing and shower facilities, to sauna and plunge pools and showers, and ultimately swimming pool areas at the top end.

At the top end, spas are often central to the marketing of a lot of hotel strategies, providing recurring revenue streams adding to the seven day, round the clock revenue potential of your business.

Adding spa facilities to your hotel offering does the following:

Creates a competitive advantage against other local hotels leading to increased bookings / occupancy (and reducing the temptation to discount).
Enhances the overall guest experience, leading to positive feedback and reviews which are critical to online marketing.
Keeps guests on site, therefore spending their money in your bar, restaurant etc. rather than somebody else’s.
Creates referrals and recommendations. There is no better source of business than word of mouth from a satisfied customer.
Adds the purchase of spa-related accessories and consumables.
Provides a defined targeted marketing opportunity for ‘spa breaks’.

Well-designed hotel leisure facilities offer a range of income streams when you consider the potential users. You might offer several gym memberships packages for off peak, on-peak, older visitors, hotel guests, corporate memberships, classes, fitness classes, baby swimming lessons and more.

Why is investing in your hotel function space a good thing for business?

Functions and events bring a whole different dynamic and audience to your venue. Using hotel function space for wedding business, birthday and other milestone occasions are an accepted way for independent hotels to improve revenue.

But considering business audiences can truly turn your venue into a seven-day operation and give you countless opportunities to realise additional revenue and reduce your overheads.

Opening up hotel function space for mixed use.

One successful approach may be to make your venue available to business networking groups. There are several national organisations always looking for quality locations and localised groups looking for regular breakfast, lunch and evening hospitality.

It provides regular ‘off peak’ custom. Some operate on a weekly or fortnightly schedule and can host anywhere from 20 to 80 delegates.
It keeps the kitchen and staff busy. Imagine that additional business every week in one corner of your venue.
It keeps bringing new people to your venue. This sort of approach also encourages a passive audience to experience and become advocates for your venue locally.
It stimulates further business. Attendees can be encouraged to leave reviews and some of these businesses return and run meetings and events of their own.

This is just one example of maximising hotel function space. Investment to support this kind of customer may come in the form of meeting room presentation, projection, boosted WIFI and meeting materials such as white boards, drop down screens and audio-visual equipment.

What other local businesses or groups could you accommodate during the day to increase function room usage and what investment would you need to achieve it quickly? What types of milestone events are you missing out on because a lack of the right facilities?

Why investing in your bars and dining areas are good for your hotel business?

Naturally people will spend more time in your bars and dining areas – and therefore spend more money – if the décor, visual impact and ambiance encourage them to do so. So, how can you improve the ambiance and grow your hotel business at the same time?

Typical alternative investment solutions for bars and dining areas include

Theming – it is important to consider the right look and feel, something that fits with the overall character of your property or area of the hotel.
Décor – how you choose to bring the theme to life in terms of colour, paints and wallpapers.
Carpets and curtains – an essential part of the design of bars and dining areas that will be attractive to customers.
Lighting – significant in creating an ambiance. What light is required spot lights, full lights, wall lights and where does lighting need to be installed?
Audio visual including TVs and sound systems – TVs are probably desirable in certain locations in bars; sound systems with location variability can help set the mood at different times of the day, evenings and weekends.
Furniture – tables and chairs go without saying – but what about bar stools, high tables, sofas, coffee tables and other furniture that might work well in transforming space and making it more enticing.
Art and wall furniture – don’t forget to consider what goes on the walls. People pay attention and it could just add that finishing touch, creating an environment in which guests will choose to relax.

Think about target audiences. If you are going for a truly mixed use feel – proceed with caution. Be sensitive to where the money comes from. Positioning as a family Sunday lunch venue but looking to provide sports programming can create a conflict if not delicately managed. Create different areas creatively and efficiently.

Why is investing in a mixed-use hotel business a sensible approach?

It’s likely you have some form of investment strategy when it comes to improving your business. However, before considering further or new investment, deciding on which areas to invest in and where to source funding, take a step back. A mixed-use hotel business is one of the best strategies to adopt.

The key to transforming the profitability of your hotel/restaurant business lies in thinking of ways to successfully use the space and the facilities on offer as optimally as possible.

If there are a wider number of uses for your hotel, it will be full more frequently which means it will be returning more revenue for continual re-investment and improvement.

Why is investing in a mixed-use hotel business a good thing?

You already have the infrastructure in place. It is being used and ready for increased use. The best way to increase revenue is to make better use of available assets.
A mixed-use hotel business allows you to build additional and quantifiable revenue streams.
A mixed-use hotel business helps owners and managers to access new and wider customer audiences. This might open up entirely new clusters at different times of day which may lead to repeat bookings, using facilities that might otherwise sit unused at certain times of day.
Optimising use of available space will directly impact on occupancy and revenue.

Impact on the kitchen

Firing up a kitchen costs £100s every day with the additional labour costs of having a chef not generating revenue if the dining room isn’t open until 6pm. As with other areas of the operation, if it is working harder it is making more from the facilities.

This may not necessarily be a direct contribution to the bottom line, but it certainly impacts overheads.

Impact on space and room bookings

Space is a valuable and expensive commodity in hotels and restaurant businesses. Empty, dormant rooms are a problem and need to be maximised. As a hotelier you are paying for a fair amount of space, either in rent or in energy costs, so consider transforming dead areas so they begin to make a return.

Whilst there are benefits to a marginal costing model on selling guest rooms and filling the hotel, discounted hotel rooms are less likely to deliver the type of guest with high discretionary spend.

Alternative finance looks at the sorts of things banks don’t always finance. They prefer the solid value of bricks and mortar. Specialist alternative finance providers will see the commercial value of business-critical assets, including fit-out.

Posts

How to ensure investing in your hotel leisure facilities adds value

Further reading:

Why is investing in your hotel function space a good thing for business?

Opening up hotel function space for mixed use.

Further reading:

Why investing in your bars and dining areas are good for your hotel business?

Typical alternative investment solutions for bars and dining areas include

Further reading:

Why is investing in a mixed-use hotel business a sensible approach?

Why is investing in a mixed-use hotel business a good thing?

Impact on the kitchen

Impact on space and room bookings

Further reading:

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