NEW YORK—Angela Brav likes to think of her company-managed estate of 250 North American properties as the “Mikey” of InterContinental Hotel Group’s franchised portfolio.
Like the classic Life cereal commercial, Brav likes to be the first to try new things—as long as they produce results for IHG’s 3,000-some hotels throughout the region.
“If we’re going to test something, let’s test it at our own hotels as opposed to first going out to the franchise community,” said IHG’s COO of North America. “… What we don’t want to do is give it to the franchises and say, ‘Give it to them. They’ll do it!’ We want to first taste it ourselves and make sure it’s something palatable.”
Taking that initiative is a relatively new approach for the U.K.-based hotel giant. Whereas before there was a
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Angela Brav, IHG |
stark division between the company-managed estate and IHG’s franchise community, Brav is now blurring those boundaries in an attempt to share best practices and yield profitable returns throughout the entire system.
“We have 3,000 hotels, give or take, in the Americas region. Getting it right at 250 hotels is nothing close to the profitability IHG would see at 3,000 hotels. We appreciate that and understand that,” she said earlier this month during a break at the NYU International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference.
“The company-managed hotels will help us become better franchisors because of the transparency. How else do you know how effective a marketing program is?” she offered as an example. “I personally see it, and I can see how it translates to the bottom line. I can push back internally.
“When you have company-managed estate it really becomes clear on how effective certain programs are,” she added.
Facing challenges
Brav’s all-for-one approach became a necessity as the downturn ravaged performance metrics throughout much of the hotel industry. Back then, everyone had to hunker down, focus on what was important, and simply hang on with the hopes of seeing a better day, she said.
Now that the recovery has taken hold, the COO is guiding the IHG estate and the company’s franchisees to growth, both in terms of rate and staffing.
They represent considerable challenges, Brav said—especially the former. She gets notably, if not playfully, exasperated when asked how she’s helping operators drive average daily rate increases.
“I can’t seem to get it across to them!” she said. “They need to drive rate. Supply is down. The hotels are in better condition than they’ve been in the past X years. They should be hugely confident.”
What’s lacking is not expertise. Operators have gotten increasingly savvy during the past decade, Brav said. For those who aren’t, IHG also sets owners up with third-party revenue management services.
The real problem is confidence.
“The biggest challenge is confidence at the owner and GM level to actually re-look at their rates,” she said. “… Look at your hotels. Look at your competitive set. How relevant is your brand to your customer? Price yourselves accordingly. They should not be shy to ask for rates that they believe is fair for the products and services they’re delivering.”
Staffing for service
The other big challenge facing IHG, and the industry in general, is people—both finding the right employees for the right position as well as returning to the right staffing levels to enhance the guest experience, Brav said.
IHG has started again offering its “New People” tools to help operators in this aim. The resource comprises eight different tools that help franchisees search, hire, train and maintain happy, effective associates.
“Those tools help our franchisees and ourselves manage hotels; advertise properly so you get the right kind of people applying for jobs; interviewing tools, background checks; onboarding programs; employee pulse surveys, so once you have the employee you continue to measure how happy they are, asking what is it they need to stay with you.”
One example might include want ad templates for various positions within each of the different brands. Each hotel and position requires a slightly different skill set, Brav said, and it’s important to attract the best person for any given role.