Digitising Luxury Experiences at Royal Resort Dubrovnik - with Samantha Todd

Fran (00:01): Hi everyone, my name is Fran, I'm the co-founder of Turneo and with me here today is Samantha Todd, Director of Guest Experience at Royal Hotels and Resort. Welcome Samantha.

Samantha (00:14): Hi, thanks for having me.

Fran (00:17): Thank you for taking the time. Really appreciate it. It's great to have you here. Maybe to start off, if you wanted to do a quick introduction about your role and your background and also maybe a little bit about Royal Hotels and Resorts.

Samantha (00:30): Yeah, sure. So like you said, I'm director of guest experience and brand engagement at Royal Hotels and Resort in Dubrovnik. Background about me, I'm an Australian living in Croatia. I ended up here accidentally four years ago and have just celebrated my first year anniversary at Royal. So it's been a bit of a whirlwind to say the least, but the last 12 months have been really exciting in building this department and getting it to where it is today. So we have five hotels here in Dubrovnik. So four of them are five star and one is four star with a total of I think 492 rooms. So it's yeah, it's pretty big.

Fran (01:13): Wow, awesome.

Yeah, I can imagine. Then you've got, are you working year round or is it closest off season?

Samantha (01:22): Yeah, so we operate year round. We do close down some of the hotels, but everything is bookable. Then we just, yeah, we keep everything open and people can still enjoy Dubrovnik in the wintertime. Has a different kind of magic to it.

Fran (01:39): Tell me how you ended up in Dubrovnik, but also how did you end up in hospitality in the first place?

Samantha (01:44): Gosh, my, I guess, journey to hospitality is, I was thinking about it the other day, it's a little bit weird. Maybe as weird as my journey to Dubrovnik. I started out my career in the music industry, actually, at an independent record label. And then I sort of moved to hospitality exhibitions. And then, what was that, six years ago now, I moved to the Northeast of Scotland with no plan. whatsoever and they were building and just putting the finishing touches on a new events complex, which had an outstanding arena of, think 15,000 people, exhibition halls and conferences and everything like that. I somehow within two weeks of landing in Aberdeen, I secured a marketing manager position there just before they opened the doors to the public. Yeah, it was unexpected, but really, really exciting. It felt like everything in my career sort of came full circle from the music industry, exhibitions, hospitality, it was all rolled into one. And then corona happened. So that was quickly shut down, unfortunately, and my visa was only for two years. So I ended up stranded. I had to leave the UK. Australia was in full border lockdown, and I ended up jumping around Europe for a little while. Came to Dubrovnik and loved it so I've stayed and that's four years ago now.

Fran (03:19): Wow, that is some story. And as you said, Dubrovnik is like a destination that's amazing in summer, obviously, but in the winter as well. How, perhaps in terms of your role as director of guest experience, I'm assuming that that involves both in-hotel experience, but also experiences at Royal.

Tell me a little bit about experiences in Dubrovnik. Like what are we talking there? What do people do? Why do they come to Dubrovnik in the first place?

Samantha (03:53): People come to Dubrovnik for a number of reasons. Some people for Game of Thrones, I guess that's pretty prominent history here in the town. But then also, I think there's been a big uplift in tourism over the last few years, whether that's for people just learning of Dubrovnik and the history that it has, but then everything that it has to offer. So you've got the Adriatic Sea right here and going for a boat ride, tasting oysters, drinking wine.

All of those sorts of things come into play when people are looking to book a vacation. So it puts Dubrovnik pretty high on the list.

Fran (04:27): Okay. And how do you guys at a hotel help facilitate that? Like what's your role, yours personally, but also your team's role in contributing to the curation of those experiences?

Samantha (04:42): Well, I get to try all the experiences first. For me, I think this position and department is perfectly suited to me. I personally like to vacation and try new things, whether that's trekking through Sapa in Vietnam or drinking really nice wine at a beautiful winery maybe in Spain or France. So I get to basically put that all together for other people. And my department... gets to help people and guests make those memories of their vacations, whether they're coming for a honeymoon, a birthday celebration, anything like that. We get to help facilitate those experiences.

Fran (05:22): And if I'm a guest now, booking Royal, what contact do I have at the moment with experiences? How do you present them to me? And then how do I get to book them if I want to?

Samantha (05:34): So there's quite a few things that I've implemented this year for guests to be able to book their experiences, whether that's through the pre-stay emails after they've made a booking. So they can start planning things before they arrive in the destination. Know, guests like to plan their vacations in different ways. Some people like to plan everything before they get here. Others like to do it on site once they've arrived, settled in.

So we facilitate both of those options for people. Our website, people can book directly. But then when they are here at the resort, we have our concierges and guest relations agents. So then you've got the human touch of recommendations from people that live here and have experienced those things themselves.

Fran (06:19): Okay. So I can book pre-stay, I can book at-stay experiences. What would you say perhaps some of the challenges are in offering guest experiences? Like what's the hardest part of it for you and the team?

Samantha (06:35): The hardest part of booking the experience is for us. I think previously it used to be the amount of paperwork and different processes that we had in place. That's been streamlined this system. So it's much easier and convenient for not only just the guest, but the sales agent as well. So that means that they can have a more in-depth personal conversation with that guest without worrying about, have I filled out this calendar? Have I given the voucher? It's all automated.

So I think it just allows us to really build that relationship and trust with the guest as well.

Fran (07:13): And you've mentioned now kind of removing that paperwork or removing that interaction that used to happen with the guest where a guest would have to write to you and ask something and then get that information back to and fro. I mean, we're seeing a lot of changing expectations, I'd say, in luxury hospitality. What are some of the things you're noticing with your guests in terms of what they're expecting, perhaps from you, your team, the hotel they're staying at? And then how are you responding to those changing expectations?

Samantha (07:42): Yeah, the expectations I think has moved definitely towards an instant sort of booking system with so many different options for online booking, whether it's through other third party sites. If someone is wanting to book, say they booked their airline tickets, their accommodation straight away. They don't want to necessarily have to wait three to five days to get confirmation that they booked a boat tour or their transfer. and have all these different layers of communication between people. Not only does that leave room for error, but maybe they might lose interest, I guess from a business standpoint as well, find something different from a different provider. So being able to give them something that allows them for an instant booking at a hotel level, I think is a great step forward.

Fran (08:32): Awesome. That makes perfect sense to be honest. Mean, everything's moved online and if I booked my flight, if I booked my hotel online, I don't understand why a transfer isn't something that I could book online but would instead. And similarly, even if I woke up to a concierge desk and I want to have the assistance of a concierge, either through recommendations or actually making the booking for me, I'd still want a digital confirmation. I'd still maybe want to edit, cancel, manage that booking digitally.

Samantha (08:43): That's right.

Fran (09:01): So there's a bit of that omni-channel expectation from guests as well.

Samantha (09:06): Yeah, that's exactly right. So previously it was paper vouchers that a guest might be given. And if they booked that tour at the start of their stay and it's in a few days time, the likelihood of that piece of paper going missing is pretty high. So at least with digital confirmations, it's instant, it's in their inbox, they can bring that up themselves. Our partners have the exact same confirmation. And then if we update any details like number of people or start time. maybe it's a dietary requirement or anything like that that the guest has brought to our attention, that instant update goes to the guest as well as the partner as well. So communication is clear.

Fran (09:45): So by partners, mean obviously third party providers. So some of the experiences you guys organize, right? And then some of them are done by other companies in Dubrovnik.

Samantha (09:54): Yeah, so we have a number of partners. So we have our in-house experiences like our airport transfers. We have a speedboat tour. I've digitalized our spa and wellness center as well. So those bookings can also be made and paid for online. So I guess they're all considered our in-house experiences. Or even if someone wanted to arrange a of champagne or bouquet of flowers, we can do that as well. So our external partners would be something like horse riding, other speedboats, luxury yachts. winery tour or maybe someone wants to go to Montenegro for the day. So we have a curated list of experiences and partners that we work with.

Fran (10:34): And the guest makes a booking. You're saying that booking goes straight to the partner, goes straight to you and your concierge team and obviously to the guests.

Samantha (10:41): Yeah, that's right. And then the inner nerd in me can see everything. And I love being able to see all the bookings that have come through, what's going on for the day. Can forecast my sales projections and everything like that. It's yeah, it's really helpful.

Fran (10:59): Do you sometimes also hear some feedback from guests as in after the booking, obviously they can leave a review. How do you manage, let's say positive or what do you do with the positive and what with the negative or development, let's say areas that guests highlight?

Samantha (11:13): Yeah, the feedback is really important. I think it's a, it's a vital part to the whole process because if I go and vet an experience before the start of the season, I might get maybe a slightly different experience than a guest because they're trying to put on the best show perhaps, or I don't know, maybe something happens through the season and it just needs to be just, but everyone's expectations are also different. So negative feedback needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

But it's important to make sure that the service and the product is always the highest level of quality that we would want for our guests. So the integrated feedback system is really important for me to be able to assess all of that and see if there's any things that need to be tweaked along the

Fran (11:58): Yeah. And obviously, you know, implementing a new system, so a booking engine for experiences, for example, at your hotel, it's a big change. It's a change to processes that have been established for years and years. Can you think of any examples early on of, you know, maybe guest interactions or has anything happened that you can tell us how that experience was for you personally, for the team, but also for the guests in terms of when you got the new system and when you started using it?

Samantha (12:28): Yeah, absolutely. There was one experience right at the, on the cusp of the changeover from our, let's say, analog system to the digital version of the department. I guess with that being my first season as well, I haven't worked in hotels either. So I was a little bit nervous and anxious, especially because I pushed for this, this program so hard. So it was a big project of mine to take on and the season that was very early in the stages and I had one concierge at the time. And so we had on one day a group, I think it was like six ladies from the UK and they wanted to go to Montenegro and they booked it through us, we booked it through our partner, everything like that using our old analog system with paper vouchers. And then they went on their experience, they came back, they had an amazing time. Then they wanted to book something else the next day and they wanted to go to Bosnia, which would have been the exact same partner. But in the space of that time, I had started making that switch to the digital version of booking and I booked it for them. They received the email and they turned around to me and said, what, no paper voucher? I was like, no, nothing like that. I'm like, great. This was so easy. So that instant gratification of like, okay, this might work. It might be really good. It was a great positive start.

Fran (13:50): Yeah, I think that any changes in hotel processes are so difficult sometimes because it's so important to get it right for the guests, because you have such a small window of getting things right or wrong, like they're on a one week holiday. And if something goes wrong with either their trip to Montenegro, as you said, or to trip to Bosnia, it's a huge part of their holiday. So I can definitely see why implementing your processors or technologies might be a challenging thing to grasp.

Is there any tips or advice that you would give to other hoteliers perhaps when they're implementing a new technology or embarking on a program like you did?

Samantha (14:29): My tips and advice. Definitely set it up the way it's supposed to be set up from the beginning. Like you said before, changing, coming in and changing a system at a location that's potentially been using one way of doing something for a really long period of time. It's quite hard to be that person that comes in to implement that change. There's skepticism, there's doubt, I guess elements of fear as well. how's this going to work? I have to work across many departments with accounting even. So trying to get everyone on the same page. And I am not from Croatia. So I'm a foreigner coming in trying to change something. And let's just say it was an interesting process and I learned a lot. But my advice would be to persevere because most problems can be solved. And don't get me wrong, we've had... we've had hiccups along the way and that's where having a supportive team behind that program that you're using is really important because it could be a fire in my office and it's all going crazy, but the guest knows nothing. So as long as they're not aware of any situations or hiccups that we're having, it's okay. Their holiday experience will still be the luxury service that they would require and expect from a place like here.

So yeah, just I think give it a go is my advice. It's either going to work really well or not.

Fran (16:01): Yeah, exactly. And nothing's irreversible, right? And then you've mentioned something interesting there, which is kind of that the use of technology, but the support team behind it. Obviously, there's a support team at Royal as well. You've got a wonderful concierge team. And oftentimes when we talk about technology that guests can use themselves, let's say to book an experience, a lot of people in the hospitality industry talk about replacing or removing concierges.

Now, my understanding is that Royal did not replace or remove Concierges. In fact, your Concierges work wonderfully with guests side by side with the technology that you use. What are your thoughts on that, on kind of mixing the human touch and technology? How can one support another rather than replace it?

Samantha (16:46): I think the integration of having the technology come into the sales team, it's only been beneficial for us. For me, I see it as an extension of our team because having the digital platform allows us to operate 24/7 So more so at the start of the season when this was first implemented, first thing I would do when I would wake up in the morning was just check what sales had come through during the night.

And I got really excited about it the team got excited as well. My team, especially has worked really harmoniously with the support team at the platform because the goal is the same is to make sales and to make sure that the guests have a great experience. The easy use of the platform for my agents means that they can spend more time and focus, I guess. on the interactions that they're having with the guests. It's not worrying about different elements of the sales. I didn't reduce the number of agents that I had this season. And so I think that's an important thing. So I don't think people should be fearful that people would be losing jobs or job opportunities because that's not the case. That's not what I've experienced. If anything, it's an additional team member.

Fran (18:08): Yeah. And you know, you've said something there as well, which reminded me how one of the biggest challenges in hospitality industry today is finding and retaining talent. And I remember a hotelier once talking to me about how if you want to have top people on your team, you can't have shit software, right? You have to have, when someone comes in works at the hotel,

To have amazing software that they can use, that they can look at things, that they can use that software to make guest bookings. Are you seeing today your team being happy, satisfied, having a modern tech stack for booking experience?

Samantha (18:46): Absolutely, without a doubt. It's very user friendly and I think that's a huge advantage to the platform. And also having a team behind the platform that is happy to answer my many phone calls of, we build this and how about we implement this change? Just because then we're working together to make it the best that it can possibly be. So if my agents come up to a sort of like, a barrier for how they can deliver on something to a guest. The team behind the platform is like, okay, you know, we completely understand that. So if you're worrying about completing three different Excel tables and a Word document for a voucher and then contacting a WhatsApping partner, it's not so much an enjoyable experience. Mistakes can happen, then you get hard on yourself.

Management then has to take action and at least with a platform where it's all taken care of in one spot, there's less room for error. The confidence in the team grows, the guests have a great experience, the partners are fully aware of everything that's going on. And then my job's easier because I can, I can completely just, I can just focus on the growth of the team and supporting them in the backend. And then maybe also.

Fran (20:03): It's interesting. Yeah, sorry, go on.

Samantha (20:11): Building on the number of experiences that we have.

Fran (20:15): Yeah. And what you said there is kind of, it frees you up to continue building the experiential hospitality element of Royal. And Royal today is a hotel chain that probably has the best or the biggest experiential offering in South Adriatic. And definitely thanks to you and your team. Where do you see the future of that going? Mean, obviously you're co-creating a product, you're at the cusp of experiential hospitality, both as a team, but also as a hotel chain. You've got technology partners that you work with and that you co-create the products. Where do you see future of experiential hospitality go?

Samantha (20:58): It can only get better, as more, guess with Dubrovnik, also it's, I guess it's tricky in a sense that people are quite set in their ways and implementing change can, you can come up to a few barriers. So I did think that I would have more pushback from our partners than I actually did. So I think now that I, I can kind of see. their understanding of the platform, how it operates and everything like that. We can just keep adding to the number of experiences that we offer our guests. Maybe it's combining different things together so that the guest has everything in one place. They know, I was with this partner for this experience. It's trusted and I can see all of the reviews and the feedback. So for me, I think it's only going to get better. The number of experiences we can offer will be greater. And I think the usage of the platform by the team will be more in depth. So for me, even from a management point of view, the analytics and the insights that I can see of where my bookings are coming from. So different marketing strategies that I've implemented through the season with QR codes and ways of booking. It means I can target my campaigns more. So from a guest perspective, they've just got more variety. it can only get better.

Fran (22:24): So final few thoughts and questions as we're coming to a close. First of all, what is your absolutely favorite experience in Dubrovnik or what would be your perfect day that you would curate and create for your guests, for your favorite guests?

Samantha (22:40): For my favorite guests, my favorite day that I would create for guests definitely involves a yacht or a speedboat. So all of our experiences have transfers included. So I guess I don't have to worry about trying to find the port or locate the exact boat that they need to get onto. So they just get picked up from the hotel in the morning. So it would definitely start off that way, swimming in the Adriatic, visiting the blue cave, island hopping. sipping champagne, a really nice long lunch somewhere, come back, shower, get ready for an evening out and go somewhere really nice for dinner. That's really it. Mean, gone are the days of me wanting to fit a whole lot of things into a short itinerary perhaps. Guess slow travel is a bit more on trend these days. So for me, it's taking it easy and just really relaxing.

Fran (23:38): Thank you so much for that. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I've learned a lot. It's super interesting how your background in events and event management led you into hospitality and now you're actually managing experiences at one of the hottest hotel chains in Southern Adriatic. Thank you for sharing all of that with us today.

Samantha (24:00): Thank you. Thanks for having me. This has been great.

Fran (24:04): All right. Thanks everyone for listening. This was another in a series of conversations on experiential hospitality. Stay tuned for more. We'll be back soon. Bye bye.