FEATURE14 April 2022

A warm welcome: Insight and the hotel industry

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Colette Doyle

Features Impact Leisure & Arts UK

With the global pandemic having wreaked havoc on the hospitality industry over the past two years, hotel operators need to understand what it is their guests want. Colette Doyle talks to Warner Leisure Hotels’ Jennifer McCormick to find out why its insight function is so vital to the company.

Hotel

Short-break specialist Warner Leisure Hotels is part of the Bourne Leisure group, which also operates Haven Hotels and Butlin’s. The company currently has 14 hotels and coastal villas across the UK and is expected to open its 15th property, Heythrop Park in the Cotswolds, later this year. Situated on 440 acres of land next to Soho Farmhouse, the 300-room hotel will be Warner’s largest. This is bound to accentuate the importance of the insight team, given that the hotelier needs to ensure a steady flow of satisfied guests to keep occupancy rates high – and a large part of that will be down to tapping into how existing and potential customers think.

Jennifer McCormick is head of analytics and insight at Warner Leisure, and her background means she is well equipped to deal with the challenges of her current role. For seven years she worked at Whitbread, the owner of budget hotel chain Premier Inn, as well as restaurant brands ...