Wheels Festival 2014

On a bright sunny day back in October, I had the great pleasure to be stood in the Lower Gardens here in Bournemouth watching a high-speed pass by Michael Schumacher's former Benetton F1 car, followed by a procession that included Hot Rods, Low Riders, a Monster Truck, Super Cars and some great Beach Cruiser bicycles..... A great morning out for a 'Petrol Head' like myself and a fantastic insight into what we can expect from the three-day Wheels Festival in May 2014.

Arts By The Sea - 2014

Dates for next year's festival here in Bournemouth have now been confirmed, as 26 September - 12 October 2014.

Genius - thinking out of the box and onto the seas

The ice cream market here in Bournemouth is massive in the summer - over last weekend alone, just Saturday and Sunday; 70,000 ice creams were sold by the official beach vendors.

Over the years, this must have presented itself as an obvious opportunity to many a budding entrepreneur, wanting to grab a piece of this 99 action.

The challenge has been however, that the council owns and license all of the retail opportunities along the beach - the beach and promenade that they own.  I have no issue with this, as they do a phenomenal job of cleaning the beach every single night to present visitors with untouched golden sand every morning.

So, with all this said, for the creative thinker, there must be a way around this obstacle......  So, if you can't work from the beach or promenade,..... what about from the sea???

Genius!

Keeping it Indigenous

Our food philosophy here at The Highcliff is very much based around local produce, but only when it supports our sustainability principles and of course, when it is first and foremost great produce.

So here is a cracking new ingredient that will be making its way into our kitchen, on to the Highcliff Bar for our awesome bloody Mary's and on to our breakfast buffet.

Dorsetshire Sauce...  Quirky, cool and very much of the region - we love it!

Have hut - will travel

We are on the move...  

We are taking the Highcliff Hut on the road this summer, to launch #Streetfood, our very own "pop up"

street food concept.

First stop will be Bournemouth Town Hall Square, where we will be positioned for the entire 10 day duration of Bournemouth Food Festival.  Future gigs include the famous Bournemouth Air Festival, where you will find our hut positioned up on the West Cliff and then hopefully at a few more gatherings across the region during the summer.

The menu, as simple as it is, is still under wraps, but as with everything that comes out of the Highcliff Grill, you can expect a strong seafood element (sustainable of course) and a nod to some of the great gastro street food that the likes of Kerb in London have been doing a great job to promote.

Matt (Matt Budden - Exec Chef) and I have watched with interest the growth in pop-ups and the increase in street food culture that has developed over the last couple of years, nipping up to London from time to time to sample the food and soak up the atmosphere of this great movement. Now it's our turn to have a go and bring some of this foodie fun to Bournemouth and Dorset.

Engaging customers and Spotting new opportunities

I like to think that I walk around the hotel with my eyes open every day, thinking about and looking at what our customers see and experience, whilst trying to evaluate how we can commercially evolve our business to do more;  More, both financially and more, to engage our changing customer's expectations.

I always try to break down great customer experiences or smart ideas at other businesses, to consider if and how we could do that, or apply the principle laterally to our business.

I visited my local quality Chinese takeaway last night, possibly the most expensive takeaway within a fair radius, but good food, so worth it.
Recently, they have had a price hike right across their menu, adding a good 20% to a typical order, but I have stuck with them because as I said, the food is good, in fact the best in the area. 
On getting to the counter last night to pay my telephone ordered £32 bill, I was told “Oh, we charge £2 now for debit cards!" 
What followed was an uncomfortable exchange; because I just don't buy it. 
Running a business that deals in a volume of cash every day as I do, I would say "give me debit cards every time."  The real cost of dealing with cash; cashing up each shift, time spent banking, security firm cash collections and the genuine risk of theft, far out way what are the relatively small charges for the secure and audit tight payment process of accepting debit card payments.  So I don't get the logic and I don't appreciate passing this cost of doing business on to the customer.
I will take your pay hike, but I won't take such attempts to be clever with a stealth charge that far out ways the genuine cost.
So I will now be taking my regular, weekly, mid-week spend of between £28 and £35 somewhere else.


So, this morning I arrive early for my train to London at an unmanned station that serves some very smart conurbations in the Poole area.  With 10 minutes to spare before my train, I nip into the very smart gastro pub that sits proudly in the station car park, not 20 meters from the platform.  My plan, to get a takeaway coffee for the journey, knowing that all I will get on the train is sachet coffee.

I enter the pub and “result!"  There before me, stands a magnificent 2 stage espresso machine and smiling bar staff - I am in luck!  "A black Americano to go," is my polite request, which is met with an equally polite but very disappointing "sorry, we don't do takeaway coffee......but we have been thinking about it!"   Well, think a bit harder!!  This business has a phenomenal new revenue stream staring them right in the face and all they need to do is buy some paper cups and if they really want to make some money, invest in a sign.


So, whilst I know that neither of these examples apply to The Highcliff literally, there are some good lessons to be learnt about disengaging otherwise loyal customers and not missing the obvious opportunity under your nose.

It is easy to criticise other peoples businesses.  The important thing is to learn from such experiences and ensure that you are not in denial about similar instances in your own business.

Happy 86th Anniversary, Marriott!

On this day in 1927, a tiny new enterprise opened its doors at 10 a.m. in Washington, DC: a nine-stool root beer stand that was soon named The Hot Shoppe.

Who would have believed that this small business would be the start of one of the most successful lodging companies in the world and it all began with a root beer stand.  Founder J. Willard Marriott and his wife, Alice, got their young business off the ground by quenching people’s thirst during Washington D.C.’s hot, muggy summers. Good food and good service at a fair price became a guiding principle for Hot Shoppes restaurants--and for Marriott International as it grew.

Today, Marriott International has more than 3,800 hotels in 74 countries - including the wonderful Bournemouth Marriott Highcliff Hotel.