A frenetic pace has been evident at the Club Hotel & Spa in St Helier, Jersey, over the past month. The hotel's first guests are due to check in this week, and owner Lawrence Huggler and his team, backed by an army of builders, have had to work around the clock to get everything finished on time.
With cleaners going around each room to eliminate every last speck of building dust, and carpets still being fitted in the upstairs bedrooms at the time of going to press, it has been something of a nail-biting finale.
But that's probably not surprising, given the scale of the two-year, 7m refurbishment. Previously run as a midmarket conference hotel, the 1970s building has had its interior ripped out to create a 46-bedroom, design-led property, with a 60-seat restaurant, outdoor pool and luxurious spa.
The general manager is 35-year-old Tim Phillips, who trained at the five-star Chewton Glen in Hampshire and, most recently, spent six years at the boutique Emerson Inn & Spa in New York. Having been on site since January, Phillips admits he has been itching to get things up and running as soon as possible.
"That's the good bit," he says, grinning. "Getting to where we are now has been incredibly exciting, not to mention nerve-racking, but the office part is driving me a bit crazy. I like to be around people and can't wait to bring all the different elements of the hotel together."
On the staffing side, Phillips has been busy over the past few months building up his team, including six in the spa and eight in housekeeping. For front-desk staff, he has also introduced sales training, which he hopes will boost bookings.
"Our aim is for staff to answer the phone within three rings, then positively sell the property and the facilities," he explains. "Most people, when they phone up, are ready to book - they just need extra information before they make that final decision. It's designed to convert sales, but in a professional way."
He points out that an average stay in Jersey lasts four-and-a-half days, compared with the usual short-break average of two-and-a-half. "So," he says, "if we can close an extra 15% over that period just through training, that's a significant amount."
More than half the rooms are already reserved for the August bank holiday - not bad, since marketing spend has been minimal so far - but, as the hotel has missed the bulk of Jersey's summer holiday trade, the challenge now is to target the corporate market, both local and from the UK and France.
Phillips has set a "high but realistic" target occupancy of 40% by the end of the year. "I'd be surprised if we did less than that," he says, "because there's a big finance industry here on the island and we attract a lot of business people in Jersey. It's that community which will kick-start the property and give us cash-flow, initially."
Both Huggler and Phillips are keen to promote the hotel's website as a booking tool. To encourage online booking, guests can currently take advantage of a special one-third-off web discount and, in time, the goal is to build up online reservations to 30%.
"We'll never fill the hotel via the internet," Phillips says, "but it's still a very important channel for us, especially before we get into agents' brochures next year. But making bookings needs to be straightforward to be good for our business."
To make bookings simple for staff, too, the hotel's online room reservations are "live" and fully integrated with front of house, which means that if guests cancel, the room can be rebooked online immediately. Spa availability is also tied in to central reservations, so front-desk staff can take bookings over the phone rather than having to check a separate system.
Phillips says it's still early days for marketing - "we won't know what the gaps are until we've been open for a while" - but he's planning a number of promotions with local luxury retail brands, and the hotel is affiliated with Classic British Hotels and Johansens. He has also invited key business contacts for a tour of the hotel, to spread the word locally.
So far, feedback has been positive, from potential guests and, more surprisingly, other hoteliers on the island. "We've had a lot of local support, which is great," says Huggler. "We're trying to open up a new market in Jersey. If that means we can attract another big tour operator to the island, everyone benefits."
Club Hotel & Spa
- Bedrooms: 46
- Opened: 20 August 2005
- Room rate: from £180
- Refurbishment cost: £7m
- Staff: 27
- Projected turnover, year one: £3m
Adopted business
Caterer has "adopted" four hospitality businesses, which will be visited in rotation every four weeks. There are: the Cube & Star, Hoxton Square, London; the Club Hotel & Spa, St Helier, Jersey; the White Lion, Stoke; and the Mason's Arms in north Devon