Joseph Kirtley, Belgraves, A Thompson Hotel
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Travel Daily speaks to Joseph Kirtley, general manager of luxury hotel Belgraves, A Thompson Hotel about the UK capital, growth plans and providing a homely feel.
Belgraves opened a year ago as one of many luxury hotel openings in London. How has the year fared?
This property used to be a Sheraton and underwent a two-year floor-to-ceiling renovation to become Belgraves, A Thompson Hotel. The interiors and electricity were completely redone and we opened on 1 February 2012. It was a successful opening as it was during London Fashion Week and the first transatlantic opening for Thompson so there was a real excitement about it.
We had an extremely positive first year and are in place to better improve in 2013. We hope to continue outperforming our competitors and boost guest loyalty. There are luxury hotels opening on every corner in London but we will drive loyalty with that home experience so that it is an easy choice when they come to make their next booking. People like to come back where their face is recognised and we invest time in our employees to provide that experience and make their own decisions for the customers.
There is always a buzz in London but we need to continue to create awareness through a determined sales initiative and creating guest experiences. We loved the Olympics held in the city though; we were sold out all of the 17 nights.
Hotels are changing their public spaces but this property seems to have adopted that already. How important is design to the hotel and brand?
The hotel has been designed to be cosy and we strive to offer a home from home experience. The interiors are like a New York City loft apartment and not the coldness of other modern luxury hotels. Travellers work more on the go than ever and we have provided an inviting environment in our public spaces that we promote as social areas. These have an innovative and unique design and all the artwork changes on a daily basis to keep it fresh and comfortable. Our hotel transforms from day to night and we encourage that; guests can come in with a laptop to work then come for drinks with friends in the evening.
What development plans do you have for the year?
Our focus is on providing a luxury experience and to do that we have to predict the needs of the guests. People are travelling more and for less but they expect more and we have to anticipate that expectation before they ask for it. When we learn what is right we can use that information and feed it throughout the company to enhance experiences across the group. TripAdvisor is a key indicator as it is an authentic response and we can communicate back to them too.
Are there any markets you are looking to expand into?
We currently have the right mix of business and leisure travellers but we are looking to increase the MICE sector as we have our restaurant and terrace that can be hired.
Thirty three of our rooms are interconnected and we have special programmes for kids such as menus and amenities so we cater for the family market.
In our packages we tend to cater to different seasons so there are packages suited to the shopping season; business packages and romance packages; anything that is fun and quirky and we change fairly often.
What growth plans are in place for the Thompson brand?
Thompson has a number of openings planned including a property in Chicago as well as Thompson Ocean Drive in the current Hotel Victor in Miami Beach. A hotel will also open in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico next year. Since Thompson entered a joint venture with Commune Hotels & Resorts it has been able to give us the ability to grow globally including Europe and we are now looking into Asia.