The Park Lane Hotel, with a prime location near the likes of The Ritz-Carlton, Jumeirah Essex House and Mandarin-Oriental, saw a chance to grab customers from those top-of-market properties. The hotel redid its top seven floors a year ago - overhauling corridors and rooms to make them fresher and with higher quality furnishings.
That worked well enough so that the hotel is now doing an additional five floors for a total of 180 rooms out of 564. With these floors at the top of the 46-story hotel, they provide striking views in every direction. Plus:
Guests enjoy complimentary: continental breakfast via room service or in the restaurant; cappuccino at any time.
Cocktails at Harry's Bar s in the evening; pressing of one item a day;
Specific newspaper on request;
Interent access and calls (including international); and a meeting room.
They also get express check-in and checkout.
The rate difference from "regular rooms" can be significant - but remain well below those luxury brands. If a guest takes advantage of all those extras, they would more than make up the difference (breakfast alone is $25.)
We spoke to Ray Keane, the Park Lane's director of marketing, about the strategy and how it's worked. Here's what he had to say:
Following a tour of the hotel and interviews with the hotel management team, here's why Andaz seems to be living up to those criteria:
Glitz Gone: The décor is elegant but simple in both interiors and public spaces. Some may not like it but no carpeting in the guest rooms.
Enter Intimacy and Inclusivity: Andaz, according to its mission statement, aims for "inclusivity and interactivity" That means no check-in desks; instead hosts take guests through a streamlined arrival process and right to their rooms.
No Nickel and Diming: All complimentary: non-alcoholic mini-bar beverages and snacks; WiFi throughout; and local calls.
Affordable Restaurant: Wall & Water, the hotel's restaurant, keeps up with the trends in serving locally sourced and seasonal food. But menu prices are far from stratospheric for Manhattan.
But Luxury Travel Connoisseur Karen Weiner
Escalera says Value Added Alone Is Not Enough
Karen
Weiner Escalera, president of the KWE Group
in Coral Gables, one of the most insightful thinkers on luxury travel, told an
industry newsletter in an interview that, "Early in 2009, many marketers
thought that offering "value adds" would be enough - i.e. a
four-night stay for the price of three, a resort credit, a free dessert when
ordering an entrée, etc. As the year progressed, it was obvious that these
initiatives weren't enough. The overall rate had to be priced right as
well."
Escalera
continued, "The winning combination is value add and the right rate.
Nuggets From 2010 ALIS - Luxury Segment Panel - By Harvey Chipkin
Terry Stinson, president of Mandarin Oriental hotels, said that the much-vaunted
"AIG effect" is "fading away, market by market." He said
that even group business was returning to luxury hotels, though again with an
ever-diminishing booking cycle.
Homi Vazifdar, managing director of Canyon Equity which owns properties at the very
top of the market like Amangani in Jackson Hole, said his hotels had actually
raised rates last year and except for the occasional value-added element for a
regular customer, had not discounted at all.
In a post-panel interview with LT360, Robert Lowe, Jr.,
president of Lowe Hospitality Group (Destination Resorts), said that a number
of trends in luxury pre-dated the recession including the move to vacations as
"memorable and meaning experiences that are local, cultural and
authentic" - and that the recession had only enhanced that trend..
"The only change since the recession," he said, is that "value
has been added to the equation. Guests are abandoning "extravagant, showy
vacations."
Rob Rush, CEO of LRA Worldwide, a consulting company for companies wishing to maximize their service delivery, has worked with the likes of Ritz-Carlton, Starwood, InterContinental and Hyatt. LRA's specialty, said Rush, is to help brands "operationalize their brand promise" - putting that promise into on-the-ground practice - a tough job for luxury hotels in these times. Here are a few bits of advice from Rush:
Before a black-tie crowd of travel industry marketers at the annual Adrian Awards ceremony sponsored by the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI), Ed Ventimiglia, senior vice president and publisher of Departures, the American Express Publishing magazine, took a tough stand on luxury and its vitality. (The winner was Abercrombie & Kent Residence Club for a "Discovery Kit" brochure)
Here are highlights of the remarks by Ventimiglia, who also shared thoughts from Richard David Story, Departures Editor in Chief.
"You may have noticed that our award is still called the Departures Luxury Marketing Achievement Award. That's because - no matter what some pundits say to the contrary - we do not believe that luxury is a dirty word OR a dying category. True luxury endures."
"Luxury has gone back to what we at Departures have always known it was about: superior quality and service, enduring value, uniqueness, and authenticity. The customer perceives these as providing value - making true luxury goods and services still well worth their price."
"Our editor in chief, Richard David Story, summed it up very nicely when he said: 'Luxury was always intended as a limited resource. Whether it was travel or retail, architecture or real estate, the word was synonymous with exclusivity.... luxury was never meant to go mass. But it did, and look what happened. We are now experiencing an almost Darwinian selection process in which nothing comes easy - neither the sell nor the buy. And consumers are back in the driver's seat, demanding products and experiences tailored to their specifications, for their individual needs and desires.' "Drive-by-luxury, " Richard concludes, "has come to a stop. "
Just as after 9/11, luxury hotel occupancies and rates tumbled faster
than the rest of the industry and many questioned the very viability -
and even future - of that segment. Joe Brancatelli, editor of Joe Sent
Me, the website considered the voice of the business traveler, told us,
" Every rule is off the board now as far as where people stay. While
many business travelers are staying in lower categories other are
asking, 'If I can get a Hyatt for $49 a night, why not.' He added, "The
industry is not getting the message that we won't want to pay for
frills that we don't want. We don't need five-ounce bars of Bulgari
soap."
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