Turning design into experiences that drive sales throughout the year

The South West is among the top regions for tourism in the UK, and for holiday parks, hotels, restaurants, and bars, that is both a blessing and a curse. As well as being a vibrant tourist hotspot, the Devon and Cornwall region is highly seasonal, and with so much volatility to navigate, maintaining cash flow – the most vital metric for any hospitality business can be especially challenging.

This article discusses how, through locally led guest experience and place design, hospitality operators such as hotels, restaurants, bars, and holiday parks in Cornwall and Devon, are adapting. In addition to generating growth, they are reducing volatility and increasing operational efficiency. These hospitality businesses have learned that they can choose their audiences and, in doing so, influence how much hospitality revenue is generated and how consistent that stream of revenue is.

The best connections are based on need and desire

Hospitality revenue is determined by a combination of location, quality of experience, market size, audience connection, and demand. Businesses such as restaurants, pubs, cafes, and holiday parks in Cornwall and Devon suffering from seasonality have essentially three options: become defensive, do nothing, or address the underlying issue. By reducing labour and product costs, a defensive strategy can help relieve some financial pressure. However, fixed costs – which may account for 30% to 40% of total expenses – generally can’t be changed. In addition, managing headcount reactively tends to increase staff turnover, resulting in lower productivity and higher costs further down the line. So, while battening down the hatches may seem like a safe bet, with inflation it has become far less safe. Plus, if an upturn isn’t as strong as expected, the hospitality business can find itself in a very tight corner.

So, what’s the answer? Crank up the marketing budget? Perhaps – but if there are deeper reasons for a fall-off in trade, spending money on something that will have limited impact at a time when funds need to be conserved may do more harm than good. How about competing on price? That can help. However, if customers are acclimatising to higher prices, they are more likely to focus on the quality of an experience – for example a week’s break on a holiday park in Devon or Cornwall – and its value to them rather than on whether a price is marginally cheaper – unless it’s really cheap.

Seasonality is caused by multiple factors: fewer visitors to the area, discouraging weather, reduced disposable income, and people choosing to go elsewhere and spend money in different ways. As well as a change in weather, there is a mismatch between what is on offer and what guests want. This is a design problem as well as a time-of-year problem. To get past this, holiday parks in Devon and Conrwall and other hospitality venues such as bars, restaurants, cafes, and pubs have to adapt. A hospitality venue becomes a favourite place or destination through audience connection. The best connections are built on need and desire, and people living and working nearby, in towns such as Exeter, Plymouth, Torquay, Brixham, Dartmouth, St Ives, Falmouth, Newquay Devon and Cornwall, have a need. Venues just need to create desire.

Transiency creates a threat and an opportunity

Markets are transient. Younger customers bring new values and attitudes, and lifestyles change. People move in and out of areas, temporarily and permanently, and neighbourhoods change. As well as presenting an opportunity, this can also pose a threat. Sometimes the next step is only revealed by taking a step back and reassessing the bigger picture – locally.

For example, how is the competitive landscape changing? Are new hospitality and leisure establishments in Devon and Conrwall changing the flow of footfall and creating adjacencies? It could be that younger attitudes are gaining traction, causing the needs and behaviour of a target audience to change. Or a planned development is about to alter the density and demographic profile of an area in Devon or Cornwall. Some consumers may have grown weary of chain formats and now crave something more personal, with a deeper connection to their community. Or perhaps the way families are socialising, or how individuals are spending their leisure time in between work commitments, has changed. A decline in public leisure facilities could be signalling a gap in the market. Maybe there is a growing and as-yet-unfulfilled demand for space to socialise while childminding, or for sustainable luxury, ethically driven, or mixed leisure-social experiences. Change at a grassroots level from towns with Devon and Cornwall drives higher-order change and the demand for new guest experiences.

If guests are visiting a venue but not staying for food and drink, a layout and sensory change can alter the guest experience and, by extension, customer behaviour – leading to greater spend per head. Plus, by getting it right with a local Devon or Cornwall audience, word can spread quickly, and a trickle of new customers can turn into a flood – providing exponential growth with a low cost of sale. Habit and convenience can also fuel loyalty and repeat business. With the right concept, timing, and execution, the void left by seasonal guests can be filled. Some holiday parks in Cornwall and Devon and venues that were once almost exclusively summer destinations have, by attracting more locals, become thriving year-round destinations. So while local markets in Devon and Conrwall might be a difficult nut to crack, they offer some excellent benefits.

It takes one to know one

Falling into different age brackets and often holding different views on value, locals have a unique character. They may have different cultural tastes, lifestyles, and social habits. How they are influenced and make decisions may also vary. Change within their neighbourhood can take on a different meaning for them – progress for one may be an imposition or a missed opportunity for another. While their views are individual, they are also shaped by being members of a particular community with a unique culture. Above all, customers are highly intuitive – if something doesn’t feel right, they won’t buy into it. Bringing about change to attract new customers while retaining an existing client base can be a delicate balance.

Starting with the most complex customer segments first and then expanding outward, from a design perspective, often makes a great deal of sense. This is why we frequently begin by addressing the needs of the local market first. Get this part right, and everything else will fall into place naturally. Furthermore, as a result of addressing a root cause, enhancements in other areas of the business will start to have more impact, and the optimal return on investment can be achieved. Additionally, with less volatility, the business will find itself on a more stable footing and in a better position to achieve growth.

Guests are intuitive, and their behaviour is driven by how spaces and experiences feel. On a commercial design and refurbishment project, success is determined by how these feelings and meanings are sensed, interpreted, and curated. All hospitality designers are intuitive, but with lived experience, local hospitality and interior architectural designers are especially so and therefore uniquely qualified. As the saying goes, it takes one to know one. By getting the cultural tone and balance right, their schemes are more likely to produce superior results. In addition to a natural affinity for the customer, local design teams in Devon and Cornwall are in a position to spot opportunities before others. They can also respond more quickly, at a lower cost, and in a way that is better for the planet. And the case for using a design team from outside the area? Cue the tumbleweed

How we can help

Our goal is simple: to create environments that guests love and to enable hospitality businesses to thrive. We start with strategy, as it lays the foundation for and informs high-quality design and capital investment ideas. From there, we identify the areas where the most value can be realised, conduct feasibility and impact assessments, and develop plans and design concepts — providing operators with all of the information they need to make informed decisions. If a plan is agreed upon, we can then implement it either as a turnkey design-and-build service or by working within an existing supply chain. The founders of Gutxi are; Mark Green who brings over 25 years of hospitality and architectural design expertise, and myself John Gaughan, and I bring over 25 years of business strategy and business development experience. As a team we offer a unique blend of creative design and commercial experience. Behind us is a team of engineers, designers, fit-out project managers, and consultants with a broad range of specialist skills.

We design and build environments for leisure, sports and entertainment, social eating and drinking, quick-service dining and takeaways, competitive socialising as well as general resort facilities. Our customers include leading holiday park and resort operators as well as a host of restaurant, bar, entertainment, and leisure resort operators.