Social media, a GM and the changing world of hotels.....

Posted by David Welch, General Manager

Welcome to our first blog!  This is all very new to me.  I have been a General Manager for 28 years now and who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks!!

I had no idea just how big a subject social media is until these last few weeks!

We have always responded to customer reviews and monitored our position with the internet booking parties, as well as review our own on-line feedback forms.

This all changed at Christmas time when I found myself in another hotel and got talking to a very confident young man, (yes – that’s you Duncan!) who was buzzing around the tables keeping everyone happy.

At the time I wanted to expand our service at The George and had a chat with him ‘………….oh and by the way – you can pick up social media………….’  Little did I know!

The rest as they say is now history!  This old dog of a GM is now tweeting and reviewing the hotel's Facebook pages and I think it is amazing – and scary!

I believe we are the first hotel in the UK to have QR codes on our collateral.  For those (like I was until last week), who are uninitiated – QR stands for ‘Quick Response.’  Basically if you have the QR app and hover over the graphic – than it will direct you to a website, for example, we are using one that takes you to our ‘comeback offer’ of 10% discount off our best available rate.

So – enough of social media!

I promise that my next blog will be more about being a Hotel Manager!

Gate crashing weddings.....it's a hard job

Posted by John Greenhill  – Conference and Banqueting Operations

Don’t you just love a good wedding?

I certainly do and I have to say at the George Hotel we do a great wedding. From the first meeting with the happy couple to the pre-event meeting a week or so before the Big Day the relationship just grows and you feel part of the wedding.  I often feel like a guest and have even been invited to family parties weeks after the event!

Every Bride has a dream; most have been working on this day from the age of 12!  I really enjoy helping the Bride unravel this and then my challenge is to turn the dream into a reality.   Every wedding is unique, I think some venues do what I call ‘cut and paste’ weddings...’yes we can do this and that… but we will do this!! – Yuk! All our weddings are individual and we love all of them!

Having won awards including ‘Wedding Venue of the Year’ we have built up a great reputation for weddings. With this comes great expectations form our bridal parties and we live up to this.

The team here at the George Hotel are all involved in the preparation. The wedding planners at the hotel, we have two, are in constant contact.  No stone is left unturned and all weddings are invited to have a food and wine tasting.  The Executive Chef or Head Chef are very involved and ensure that we get the food and wine to meet and exceed expectations.

The Big Day is such a joy to work. Posh frocks, kilts, suits, hats fit for Ascot, they are all there. From the drinks reception to the meal to the celebration we are with them all the way.

Weddings are so unique, then again so are we!

From RFP to cocktails to Christmas

Posted by Douglas Campbell – Regional Director of Sales

The sales team at the hotel are busy planning lots of client events over the summer period – we need to make the most of the fantastic balcony the Panorama Suite offers! Views all round Edinburgh, from the Firth of Forth and Fife, to the bridges and to Edinburgh Castle

We’re also planning the George summer cocktail party at the end of June and we’re aiming for 150 of our top clients to come along and enjoy some hospitality to remind them of what a fantastic venue The George Hotel is and to say thanks for the business

It’s not all about parties however – we do work hard!

We’ll soon be coming into RFP season – this is when clients give us their Requests for Pricing – they tell us how much business they have for Edinburgh and we bid for this by giving them rates and then negotiate from there – we’ll be up against lots of stiff competition from other hotels to win the contracts but with our great product and service we always do very well! 

We’re also well into selling Christmas Party nights for December believe it or not – and have been for 2 months! We have over 4000 spaces to fill so lots of work to do but our Kings Hall party nights are now famous after 5 fantastic years – I’m very confident we’ll reach our numbers! Natalie is our Mother Christmas and we have a lot more bookings this year at this time than we did this year!

The Evening Munchies

Posted by Stephen Begg, Tempus Restaurant Manager

With summer coming (hopefully) it is time to plan our new summer menu and think about the promotions we are going to put in place to keep all our fantastic customers coming!

The menus in Tempus are continually evolving and moving with the current trends. One of these trends has been the increase in more informal dinning with an ever increasing number of people choosing to eat in the bar and lounge areas whilst relaxing over a glass of wine at the end of the day.

Hey presto!  The birth of Tempus mini-foods!  These started life more as nibbles and came under the heading of ‘Evening Munchies!’  They absolutely have exploded in popularity and now we have launched a multiple choice as a sharing platter, (I could eat a whole one at the end of a long day), of course with a pint of Peroni!

Another important area that we are continually aware of is the move to more sustainable sources of food. We have recently been awarded the Gold award in the Green Tourism Business Scheme.  Part of the criteria is about local sourcing of food, we try where we can to find ingredients from Scotland – after all we have a fantastic larder on our doorstep!  Our beef in Tempus is from Ballindalloch, our salmon is from Loch Duart  and smoked salmon is from Loch Fyne.  We also buy our sausages from the award winning butcher – Crombie and our ice cream is made for us to our secret recipe from Luca!

We are planning an Event in June to launch our new menu and showcase some of our local ingredients with local suppliers giving talks on their products. This will give the Chef a chance to show off his skills that are normally kept behind closed doors. It will also be a great opportunity for people who may not have dined with us before to see the fantastic restaurant we have here and the amazing team that work in it.   

Find out more about Tempus Bar and Restaurant in Edinburgh

Money, money, money... how do hotels set their prices?

Posted by Andreas Maszczyk, Hotel & Revenue Manager

Money, money! Who likes to work at the stock market in Frankfurt or New York should join the role as a Revenue Manager in the hotel industry!

Sell, sell, sell!

Revenue Management really got going in 2002 this was when low cost airlines came into the market place and this thing called ‘the internet’ was relatively new on the scene. Before this time, hotels had fairly fixed pricing strategies with the usual flimsy hotel brochures.  Pricing was generally seasonal and there was little movement of rates.

My time as Revenue Manager is taken up with assessing rate strategies and moving these all the time!  The internet has changed the way we do business dramatically.  As the World is now such a small place, you are one click away from Las Vegas to Tokyo and within seconds you can see everything on line, from rates to guided tours!

I not only keep an eye on what is happening within hotels in Edinburgh, I also monitor National and International trends.  What is happening around the World can impact on our business – we are so global these days!  Even the weather can impact!  A good weather forecast for Edinburgh will influence what we will pick up within 72 hours.

All this information is put through a computer (my brain!!) and I make decisions along with the team and GM as to bedroom and conference rates looking forward.  Some days are so dynamic that this can happen 3 times a day!  It really is like the stock market on some days!

Initially revenue management was about bedrooms – the same principles apply to conferences, leisure clubs spas and restaurants, revenue per chair in a bar or restaurant is interesting!

A lot of people always look at the website when reviewing prices, don’t ignore the hotel websites – we will always offer parity and can give very direct information!