A great thinker once wrote, “the beginning is half the whole” - and nowhere is this more true than in opening a new hotel.
First impressions mean a lot. So does establishing a strong cash
flow, at pre-opening, opening, and beyond. The best marketing tool for
doing so, is a well conceived and executed media relations effort.
I don’t mean advertising. Buying an ad in a newspaper or on a
website requires little more than writing a check, and anyone can do
it.
I mean differentiation – truly and decisively stating what separates
your hotel from its competitive set, what makes it the #1 choice in
your market, and repeating the message again and again, in the media,
online and anywhere else you find a receptive audience.
That is the work of public relations.
Opening in a Deep, Dark Recession
Nashville’s new Hutton Hotel (www.huttonhotel.com) faced a daunting task.
In the shadow of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, with the stock
market down by more than half, and corporate meetings and the luxury
consumer all but frozen - the 248-room luxury hotel that offers more
than 13,000 feet of meeting space opened its doors in February, 2009.
It wasn’t easy. The credit for getting the doors open at all,
belongs to the savvy ownership, management and sales team that was
assembled to navigate the choppy waters.
But it was clear to the team that if the hotel was to gain
recognition and sell rooms, a public relations blitz would be
necessary.
Here is what they did...
Finding the Right Message
The Hutton was designed with particular care, as a place of
comfortable, easy luxury – neither staid and starched like many
Southern grand dames, nor trendy and sleek, like a run of the mill
“boutique.”
The hotel’s owners also designed an environmental leader: dual flush
commodes, bamboo flooring throughout the hotel, and automatic light
switches highlight just some of the touches that makes it the Greenest
hotel in Nashville, maybe in the entire southeast.
Then there is Nashville: Music USA, home to country stars and
celebrities, boasting a thriving dining, cultural, university and
business scene, have blunted some of the hard edges that slashed some
other cities in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
All that remained was to tell the story.
“With Love From Nashville”
Step 1 - we brought the hotel’s ownership and management to New York
City, for a series of meetings with top journalists in the trade,
consumer and financial media.
To execute this kind of “media tour”, you need to have well groomed,
articulate spokesman representing the hotel – and we were fortunate to
have both.
Hutton management met with more than twenty different journalists at many leading outlets, in the course of four visits.
Results included an article in the Wall Street Journal, several
meeting trade feature articles about the hotel’s meeting space, and
recently, a nationally-televised appearance by the owner on FOX
Business News (View video).
We also designed and publicized a special “With Love from Nashville”
weekend rooms package, including dinner at the hotel’s cutting-edge
1808 Grille restaurant, tours of local music landmarks, and an Amazon
gift card for downloading the guest’s choice of country music.
This package garnered publicity and generated a significant number of weekend reservations.
“Air Hutton”
Hutton Hotel’s Luxury Green positioning was enough to interest not just the print media, but media “in the air” as well.
Early on, a noted international travel journalist visited the hotel
and broadcast his weekly radio program from the hotel’s lobby. It was
heard everywhere.
Still in the air, American Way magazine, the in-flight magazine for
American Airlines, featured the hotel’s Green features in a full-page
article in the magazine’s Up Front section. This means that over a
two-week period, it was read by every passenger who checked the seat
backs on American flights, coast to coast and internationally.
With Hutton’s Green reputation elevating “everywhere” in the
stratosphere, it’s no wonder that Al Gore’s Climate Organization chose
the hotel to host its annual Summit meeting in June!
Lessons from the Trenches: Spreading the Good Word
What’s next for Hutton?
The much-anticipated pick-up in corporate travel should be a boost,
and the hard work of the talented local sales team is beginning to bear
fruit. Thanks to the hotel’s standing as the only Nashville member of
Leading Hotels of the World, the luxury traveler should soon start
beating an even deeper path to the hotel’s eco-friendly doors.
As for the media, the momentum continues to build. Look for Hutton
on the airwaves, in the national and regional press, and in the heart
of the Social Media.
When planning a media strategy for your next hotel, you might consider taking a page from Hutton’s playbook.
Michael Frenkel is president of MFC PR, a Manhattan-based PR firm that represents the Hutton Hotel. Reach him at
michael@mfcpr.com.
Michael G. Frenkel
M Frenkel Communications, Inc.
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