By Stephanie Stubbs, Strategy Director
I have been thinking a lot recently about the moments that prompt a hospitality business to take a proper look at itself.
It might be a change of ownership, a new brand partner, a new leadership team or a significant programme of investment. Whatever the catalyst, these moments tend to create a lot of energy. Plans start moving, ideas gather pace and the conversation quickly turns to what people will see, whether that is the refurbishment, the restaurant concept, the brand, the guest experience or the launch.
All of it matters. But there is an important step that needs to come first.
Before deciding what something should look like, you need to be clear about what the business is becoming.
When hospitality change creates a moment to pause
I have encountered this question through two very different hospitality projects recently. One involved an established luxury hotel in Scotland entering a new period of ownership. The other was a large US ultra luxury resort preparing for its next chapter with a global hospitality brand.
The settings, audiences and commercial models were very different, but the central question was remarkably similar. What should stay, what needs to change and what are we trying to build towards?
Neither business was starting from scratch. Both had strong reputations, loyal guests and a great deal of history. There were things people genuinely loved about them. The job was not to sweep that aside in pursuit of something new. It was to understand what still had value, what the business may have outgrown and where there was an opportunity to do things differently.
Protecting legacy without preserving everything
That distinction is not always easy to make from inside the organisation.
When people have worked with a property or brand for a long time, familiarity and value can become intertwined. Something may be defended because it is central to the guest experience. Equally, it may simply be the way things have always been done.
Bringing people together around the strategy gives them space to challenge some of those assumptions. It also makes sure the history and character of the business are properly understood before decisions are made.
This is particularly important in hospitality, where so much value sits in the things that are difficult to capture on a spreadsheet. It can be the relationship between a guest and a long-standing team member, a particular ritual, the atmosphere of a room or simply the way a place makes people feel.
These things should not be dismissed as sentiment. They can be a real source of loyalty and commercial value. But protecting the best of a business does not mean preserving every part of it unchanged.
Sometimes the most respectful way to protect a legacy is to help it move forward.
Looking at the whole guest experience
There is also a natural temptation at these moments to break the business into a series of individual projects. The bedrooms are looked at separately from the restaurants. Each bar or dining space is treated as its own concept. Brand, operations, marketing and commercial planning all move forward on slightly different tracks.
That is understandable. It is how projects are often commissioned and managed. But it is not how guests experience a hotel or resort.
Guests experience the whole place. They may move from breakfast to the pool, from a meeting to the bar, or from dinner back to their room without giving much thought to which department owns each part of that journey.
This is why the strategy needs to consider the whole before getting too far into the individual parts.
In a large hotel or resort, every venue and experience needs a clear role. Guests should have genuine choice, but they should also understand what makes each option different. If two restaurants are aimed at the same people, for the same occasion and at the same time of day, they are likely to compete with each other rather than strengthen the overall destination.
The same applies to investment. Looking at the business as a whole helps leaders decide where change will have the greatest effect, rather than trying to improve everything at once.
Turning evidence and experience into better decisions
Of course, strategy cannot be based on instinct alone. Guest feedback, demand patterns, financial performance, market positioning and operational realities are critical to understand. Data often reveals where the business is performing differently from how people assume it is performing.
But the numbers only tell part of the story.
The most valuable conversations often happen when the evidence is considered alongside the experience of the people closest to the business. Leaders, operational teams, chefs, front-of-house colleagues and commercial teams will each see something different. The challenge is to bring those perspectives together and turn them into a direction people can actually use.
For me, that is the point of strategic intervention.
It is not about producing a document that sits on a shelf. It is about helping a leadership team make better choices. Where should we invest? Who are we trying to attract? What should each part of the business contribute? What can the operation deliver consistently? What should we stop doing?
It also gives people a reason to say no.
Periods of change tend to generate more ideas than any business can realistically deliver. Some will be genuinely exciting, but that does not mean they are right for the property, its guests or this particular moment.
A clear strategy provides a shared way to test those ideas. It keeps teams aligned and decisions are connected to the future of the business, rather than allowing the most urgent or visible project to take priority.
Using strategy to create long-term value
The best time to do this work is not necessarily when something has gone wrong.
In fact, it can be most valuable when a hospitality business is successful but approaching a turning point. That is when there is an opportunity to build on a position of strength, rather than waiting until commercial pressure forces a response.
Taking time to pause at the beginning can feel uncomfortable when everyone is eager to get moving. In my experience, though, it does not slow the process down. It prevents teams from moving quickly in different directions.
A new owner or brand partner will naturally want to make their mark. The real opportunity is to do that in a way that understands what came before, responds to what guests will value next and gives the business a clear commercial future.
The strongest next chapters rarely begin with a complete reinvention. They begin with an honest understanding of what is already there, the confidence to change what is no longer working and a shared view of where the business is going next.
If you are approaching a moment like this, let’s talk. Get in touch with me or the team at Genoa Black.
