Does hotel programming move the needle?
Discussing one of the most underrated tools in creating "x factor"
Hello everyone and happy Saturday,
Apologies for the late letter, but it’s another long read and hopefully insightful for you.
Thank you for all your notes on this week’s In The Room featuring Tommaso Pacini at La Bottega Collective.
Some important announcements:
I’m thinking of expanding The Stanza to Asia and/or the Middle East. If you are based in either of these regions, passionate about hospitality, and have an insider’s view, please reply to this email and introduce yourself. Institutional investing experience is a must.
I’m opening the Classifieds section to share sales of properties and fundraises on a complimentary basis for deals that make absolute sense for The Stanza’s audience. No brokers or placement agents please. Happy to share on an anonymous basis as well. Email classifieds@thestanzamedia.com.
Best,
N
If you’re new here, or want to catch up on the best of The Stanza, I’d recommend that you start here.
The latest podcast episode with Anne-Laure Ollagnon, CEO of Airelles, can be found here.
In today’s newsletter:
Why programming return is one of the most misunderstood aspects of operating a hotel, and how the operators getting it right are measuring it instead
How strong programming self-selects the guest, and why that is the most underrated tool an owner has for protecting long-term rate integrity
Andrea Franchini, Global Brand Director of Culture and Entertainment at Edition and W Hotels, on the advice he gives to hotel owners and operators who want to build cultural relevance
Richard Leuenberger, Managing Director of Badrutt's Palace in St. Moritz, on how intentional programming has supported a more than 300% increase in EBITDA over the last decade
Read previous issues of The Stanza here.
Current listings:
For sale: Fully-entitled hospitality site in West Hollywood $6M
For sale: Beachfront 5-Star Boutique Hotel in Mykonos
For all live listings & inquiries (hotels for sale, investment opportunities, open job roles), click here.
Advertise with The Stanza Classifieds: via classifieds@thestanzamedia.com.
Does hotel programming move the needle?
As a follow up to last week’s newsletter on relationships as the soft power behind distribution, I’ve been reflecting on my personal experience with another soft power driving hotel retention: programming. It’s a big part of the guest experience that isn’t considered enough by the people capitalizing hotels, even though it can be a powerful tool to create emotional resonance, and therefore drive ADR and room night growth. The flipside is that it requires significant resources to execute thoughtfully.
I had my first horseback riding lesson at Castello di Reschio. It was a sunny, crisp autumn day and I’ll never forget it. The horses at Reschio are purebred Spanish horses; calm, elegant, and majestic. My instructor taught me how to trot in the Teatro Equestre, then we proceeded to ride around the grounds. A couple weeks ago, I shared my horseback riding experience in the gardens of Versailles while staying at Airelles Le Grand Controle. Here, I graduated from the trot to a gallop, and now I’m planning to learn more about my new hobby at these places again, to chase the feeling of being completely in the present moment surrounded by beauty. It’s one example of how hotel programming creates stickiness by facilitating positive memories and emotions. While I know that not every hotel can offer horseback riding lessons, there are versions of programming that can create a parallel stickiness that is accretive to the long-term performance of the hotel.
Now back to the original question: does programming move the needle, and if so, to what magnitude? The answer depends on what kind of hotel you’re operating and what you’re trying to achieve. The mechanism looks different at a lifestyle brand with a global footprint than it does at an independent ultra-luxury property where the hotel's identity is rooted in its destination. I spoke with two operators who sit at opposite ends of that spectrum, and even though there’s an obvious contrast in approach, there’s also a clear fil rouge: the goal of captivating human emotion.
