General Manager
The Kahala Hotel & Resort
Tom Bell
What is your strategy for keeping your properties relevant in the marketplace and reaching your target demographics?
Continually reinvesting in our product and our team. Aside from large-scale renovations, we maintain a robust annual capital expenditure program to make sure all our properties are fresh and well maintained. We also recognize that tourists come here to experience Hawai‘i and the aloha spirit, so we celebrate the culture through our decor, uniforms, free cultural activities and guest offerings like Hawaiian outrigger canoe paddling. We are the polar opposite of big box and corporate.
Effectively communicating with our target customers is an equally important part of the equation. You can have a great product, but that doesn’t matter if nobody knows about you. We have fantastic sales and marketing teams deployed in Asia, Canada, Australia and the mainland United States who deliver our message globally and work to educate and build trusting relationships with our travel agent and wholesale partners.
It has also been very interesting for me to see the dramatic shift from traditional marketing and advertising methods to newer digital marketing strategies. This is not to say traditional marketing doesn’t play an important role today, because it does. But as with everything else, our marketing has evolved.
What other hotel trends and industry dynamics has Hawaiian Hotels & Resorts effectively navigated?
It is an interesting dynamic being an independent, privately owned local hotel company competing on the same stage as larger companies and brands. Over the years we have built an incredible team and infrastructure. Getting the right people in the right positions and allowing them to do their jobs has helped tremendously as we continue to grow.
Have alternative accommodation services like Airbnb affected business?
In the most basic sense, anyone selling room nights is a competitor. These short-term rental companies have grown in popularity in recent years, but we, too, have been realizing record growth, which leads me to believe this new niche market falls mainly outside of what our company provides.
That being said, I believe all hotel and short-term rental products should be held to the same regulatory and tax requirements. It needs to be a level playing field.
What else sets Hawaiian Hotels & Resorts apart from your competitors?
A distinction worth noting is that Hawaiian Hotels & Resorts has a long history of owning and managing its resorts. Our owner-centric approach to hotel management is unique. We manage and judge our performance from the perspective of a property owner, right down to the bottom-line results.
