HighGate’s portfolio of properties cater to a variety of consumers. What are your strategies for reaching these diverse demographics?
We’re constantly tracking the behavioral patterns of our guests and trying to stay ahead of the curve. A lot of our hotels are independent, which allows us to react quicker to market demands and guest trends than if we were driven by a brand standard.
When we were reimagining ‘Alohilani, for example, one of the things we really wanted to focus on was slow travel. Rather than just providing a room and a place to get breakfast, we really try to be an all-encompassing resort. In the earlier days when Waikiki was developed, there was a huge emphasis on the beach. Now I think a lot of guests really like to have a world-class pool experience at their resort. So we created two—one for kids and an adult-only pool with an infinity edge and a bar.
We also felt it was important to offer a first-class fitness center and spa on property, especially as we transition to a luxury space. ‘Alohilani is an urban resort, but guests can really relax and not feel the hustle and bustle of the city.
One of the environmental initiatives we have at Highgate properties in Hawai‘i is providing each guest with a reusable satchel so they don’t have to buy one-time-use plastic water bottles during their stay. They can fill it with filtered water straight from the hotel lobby and then take it with them afterwards as a memento.
Have alternative accomodation services like Airbnb affected business?
The hospitality sector is still highly compressed, even with Airbnb. The number of hotel rooms in Waikiki has shrunk over the last 10 years, and the number of air seats bringing people here has increased. The growing number of direct flights from different parts of Asia and the mainland has created additional compression of the marketplace.
If anything, Airbnb has opened Hawai‘i up to a younger demographic and to first-time visitors who wouldn’t have otherwise been able to afford to come here. People who come to Hawai‘i tend to be repeat visitors, so it’s bringing more and more people here, which is great for the industry as a whole.
How do you keep your hotel clients relevant in the marketplace through Technological innovation?
Highgate is a big believer in technology and social media. More people are booking their travel online, so one of the things we did early on is strategically align ourselves with online travel agents. We have a broad network that helps us drive business to our diverse range of properties and a lot of third-party companies that help us post on social media and drive the image of our hotels.
We also developed our own proprietary software that predicts trends and helps us manage revenue for all of our hotels across the platform. Revenue management is a big part of any hotel business, but we invested heavily in technology and data collection earlier than a lot of other companies out there. A lot of the big companies are doing it, but I don’t think they’re doing it to the degree that we are.
