The pub giant’s hotel business has successfully navigated changing demand in corporate travel, thanks to its GDS presence and focus on agent relationships.
Key results
- Grew GDS business by 30%
- Corporate travel in 2023 increasing pre-Covid revenue
- 2023 was the strongest commercial results ever for corporate travel
- ADR growth in corporate market
- Successful shift in guest profile to a higher spending corporate traveller
Having emerged post-Covid as a growing force in the hotel world, Greene King made significant investment in its properties, coupled with a refreshed positioning. This led to a shift in the group’s commercial strategy, placing greater emphasis on the corporate travel market. As well as providing the GDS, HotelREZ supports Greene King through agent outreach, RFPs and niche marketing programmes.
About Greene King
Well-known for its 2,500 pubs, Greene King also offers a welcome respite for travellers with 139 hotels throughout the UK. Their hotel portfolio is as diverse as the type of guests it attracts, with 10 different brands ranging from Hungry Horse hotels to Chef and Brewer, and the recently launched premium Everly Hotels Collection, with founding member White Horses in Rottingdean, East Sussex.
The group has been working with HotelREZ for over a decade, predominantly as a GDS provider, as well as utilising our representation services.
An adaptable strategy that grows with Greene King
With each location providing quality food and beverage through a Greene King pub, the group’s hotel business has wide-reaching appeal to both corporate travellers and weekend leisure guests.
Lauren Goodwin, Head of Hotel Sales at Green King, said: “A big part of my job is ensuring the segmentation is correct for each hotel, finding the right business which helps hotels hit their budgets.
“Five years ago, we shifted from an occupancy-led commercial strategy to one that’s more focused on driving rate. As part of that refresh, we looked closely at our segmentation and sought ways both internally and via HotelREZ to drive better-rated business. Our key focus has been to grow our corporate business, particularly with the type of guest who will dine with us, and we extended the challenge to HotelREZ to deliver via the GDS.”
Michelle Mayes, commercial sales manager for hotels at Greene King, said: “Having agents be able to book directly into our system is so important, and the GDS from HotelREZ facilitates that. But our relationship is more than just GDS – we work closely with HotelREZ’s team to develop strong relationships with corporate travel agents and travel management companies. Where we can’t be present, HotelREZ does a great job of representing us. A lot of our corporate success I’d put down to the GDS, but having the relationships is important in driving awareness that our hotels are available on the system.”
Our thoughts
Daniel Simmons, CCO of HotelREZ, said: “The corporate travel market isn’t all high-flying executives; all sorts of companies and all sorts of employees have travel needs. Greene King’s portfolio is a great match for a diverse range of guests, and with so many different brands under their umbrella, it’s important to put the right brand in front of the right client and agent. This is where our partnership really comes into its own: we connect them with the right people through our niche marketing programme and representation services, they do a fabulous job of selling their hotels, and the booker can easily make a reservation via the GDS.”
The future
Maye said: “We work closely with HotelREZ during RFP season, identifying clients whose programmes we’d like to be on, getting seen by agents, and submitting proposals, with HotelREZ managing that process. It saves us time and makes our lives easier. Not many pub companies are on the GDS so we stand out.”
With their corporate bookings at an all-time high, Greene King is now seeking to boost their weekend business with additional leisure guests.
Mayes said: “We’ve started working with HotelREZ to tap into other segments to support our weekend bookings. This involves their niche marketing programmes; some of our hotels welcome dogs or are located near airports, so we’ve recently signed up to the relevant targeted campaigns and are looking forward to seeing the results.”
For more information Greene King, visit greeneking.co.uk
