Hoteliers Distil Excellence at this year’s Hotel Leadership Conference
Creating unforgettable experiences, living your businesses’ values and embracing change were just some of the many topics explored in how to distil excellence at the annual Hotel Leadership Conference hosted by the Master Innholders this week.
Over 500 attendees, including over 450 senior hoteliers were present at the two-day event at Hilton London Bankside for the Distilling Excellence programme, which featured a lineup of expert speakers, both from within and outside of the hospitality industry, who shared their insights.
Opening the conference was James Peach, global business leader and keynote public speaker, who spoke on the importance of understanding your hotel’s core values and how a great culture can help you and your team live these values.
Head of digital marketing & analytics at Journey Hospitality, Billy Mohan, shared emerging trends in the hotel world and the changing nature of the economy, technology and guest expectations.
Billy said: “86% of luxury travellers express a preference for unique experiences over material goods. The can has now been kicked to the end of the road and it is now time for change and to create these unique experiences that change us from can kickers to road pavers.”
Not being afraid to try new things in helping to craft these experiences was echoed in the conference’s marketing and managing your hotel panel session, bringing together hotel experts Kalindi Juneja FIH, CEO of PoB Hotels, Simon Bullingham, CEO & founder of Journey Hospitality and Ian Miller CEO of Crafted.
Before creating new ways of working, it’s important that hoteliers look at the data they have, Ian Miller, said: “Have a data analyst. I think data is underutilised at times in the hotel world – you as an industry have access to a wide range of data and information about your customers that other industries do not.
“Having a deeper understanding of how your guests book can help you personalise their experiences in future, as well as look at wider trends to help make better improvements across your hotel.”
Alongside a focus on trying new things, hoteliers were also reminded not to neglect the fundamentals and that 2025 should also focus on what we know, who we are and what’s to come.
Focusing on the importance of this in particular was Sunday Times No.1 best-selling author, speaker & coach, Michael Heppell. In his keynote presentation, Michael explained that many of the fundamentals of providing a great guest experience come back to truly seeing your customers with the “see, smile, say hello” approach.
Michael Heppell said: “We all need to be meerkats and have a heads-up approach, ensuring we are seeing, smiling and greeting our customers wherever possible.
“Providing great guest experiences requires you to do what you say you’re going to do, do what the customer wants you to do, as well as provide experiences and feelings to your customers they didn’t even know they needed.”
Not creating these experiences can easily lead to guests simply looking elsewhere, as demonstrated by the final keynote speaker of the conference, speaker, consultant and expert on culture & human performance, Mark Robb.
Mark explained that the biggest reason customers leave a business is due to an attitude of indifference, with a massive 68% of people deciding to look elsewhere because they felt indifferent about the service they received from the business in question.
Mark Robb said: “Not taking risks to enhance the experiences of guests means you are staying static. The opposite of risk culture is a blame culture – not a safety culture. Playing safe overtime leads to mediocre performance and complacency.”
Concluding the first evening saw the perfect opportunity for attendees to enjoy a black-tie dinner, where the awards for General Manager of the Future and Hotelier of the Year were presented to Brigitta Kovács and Gareth Banner MI respectively.
The evening also raised over £5000 for charity partners Hospitality Action, Springboard and the Master Innholders Charitable Trust - with the funds being used to provide support to those most in need within the hospitality industry, as well as to contribute to funding Master Innholder educational programmes such as the Aspiring Leaders Diploma and Innholder Scholarships.
Summarising the conference on day two was Hotel Leadership Conference chair, Tim Hassell MI, who reflected on the overall theme of distilling excellence and how it comes in many different forms within the hotel world.
Tim Hassell MI said:
“This conference simply doesn’t happen without the support of our attendees, sponsors and supporters, all of whom help ensure the Master Innholders raise funds for the education of our hotel leaders of the future. It also would not have happened without the incredible team at Hilton London Bankside for helping to deliver this amazing event.
“As our amazing speakers over these two days have shown, excellence can be found in many different areas within the hotel world. It is now the responsibility of all of us as hoteliers to distil this excellence back at our own hotels, being bold and not afraid to try new things or risk getting things wrong. Excellence lies outside of the comfort zone – and we must venture there to truly distil the excellence we all strive for.”
Next year's conference will be held on 19 and 20 January, London Hilton on Park Lane. To be one of the first to know when more information becomes available, be sure to sign up for the Master Innholders newsletter.