Face to Face: Lisa Brightwell, Coco Collection
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Lisa Brightwell is vice president sales & marketing at Coco Collection, a hotel group developed and based in the Maldives. Here she shares the latest news from the Maldivian hotel group.
Coco Collection is a new concept, what does it entail?
Within the Coco Collection we now have several brands and the scope to expand. These are the Prive, which is private island offering and the Resorts : Retreats brand which is more of a five-star boutique style with an individual style. We combined the brands under one collection as part of a strategy to position ourselves as an international brand. If the brand decides to expand outside the Maldives, this move will make us more appealing. A new brand structure needed to be put in place to make it clearer.
We still also have the Coco Palm Dhuni Kolhu and in the future could merge the hotels to become into another brand but at the moment there are no prospects and it will retain its name. This property is a little more bohemian with a ‘no news, no shoes’ style policy.
This way we can now offer clients a premium, boutique or more relaxed hotel style. We have now rebranded our websites to reflect this.
Where is the group looking to expand?
Our international expansion has already started through our new villas in Mauritius. Coco signed a deal with Sankhara Villas to take management of these villas and there will be developments around these soon.
Coco Collection could also expand into other continents with a focus on secondary cities or resorts. Perhaps destinations like Bali, Istanbul and France, there is nothing in the pipeline but we are open to opportunities.
Currently a lot has been invested in the hospitality and the brand. Markets are changing all the time and at the moment four-star all-inclusive properties are doing better, so sometimes companies have to adapt to where the markets are going. With our new brands we can diversify with these categories in mind.
What can you tell us about the new Prive name?
We already had a long-standing relationship with developers and our base as a Maldivian hotel group but needed something unique. This private island, Coco Prive Kuda Hithi Island, gives us a real hook when speaking to high-end operators and travel agents; it makes them pay attention. It diversifies who we sell to and puts the island up there with [Richard Branson’s] Necker Island, which means we can form partnerships with jet companies, yacht brokers or lifestyle brands that have like-minded customers.
How important is the UK market to Coco?
Our UK clients typically like the bohemian style of our Coco Palm properties and the escapism element. We have a sales representative based in the UK for the trade as it is so competitive now that we need that exposure, although I spend a lot of time here meeting with partners.
I am currently looking into online resources for the trade and how we can boost these, but those will be developed more next year.
I am also keen to develop an online gift registry for weddings, so the couple can choose some of the extras they may want and send that to friends and family that they can pay towards. It would be interactive and allow guests to include a message and would work just in the same way as a department store wedding list. A lot of agents book honeymoons with us.
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