By Vanessa Cavasinni, editor Australian Hotelier
Several topics were covered in the last session of the Pub Leaders Summit conference, ‘The Year Ahead’, but one question related to the utilisation of accommodation as a stream of operations within industry uncovered that large groups Merivale and Redcape are exploring or will explore more opportunities surrounding accommodation in the future.
Antony Jones, acting COO of Merivale, stated that while the group currently does not have many accommodation rooms within it’s portfolio, it’s something that the group has looked considered and will continue to consider.
“Accommodation for us is a very very small part of the business but from a balance point of view, in Establishment for example, it’s a really, really important component.
“My personal view is that I think it’s an avenue that we should explore because it represents such a small portion of our business that it would make sense to look at over-indexing more in that area to balance out all of our revenue streams. So I’d have to say it’s something that we’ve explored recently and will continue to do so.”
Dan Brady, COO of Redcape, also stated that accommodation is currently a small portion of Redcape’s business, but something they want to explore long-term with the resources at their disposal.
“I think that as a group we’re in that classic category of having this underutilised amount of real estate that we could be going out there and investing our capital and getting returns on, and I think that’s something that should be and will be looked at over the coming period. All of our hotels in Sydney are in areas where accommodation is in demand and we’re certainly looking forward to getting to those opportunities in years to come.”
Grady Patching of Colonial Leisure Group and Steve Howarth of Howarth and Associates also took part in the session, which also touched on gaming, how to gauge ROI of an investment opportunity and the questions of how to use data once it’s compiled.