Malta’s largest four-star hotel, the Seashells Resort at Suncrest, has registered an eight-year summer occupancy record, AX Hotels’ hospitality director Claire Zammit Xuereb told The Times Business.
With a summer average occupancy at 87 per cent, the Qawra hotel, which launched its resort package 18 months ago, has proved it switched to the budget holiday model at the right time.
“The resort concept was a huge success,” Ms Zammit Xuereb said. “With 450 rooms, the property is perfectly suited for this business model. The general manager, Joseph Vella, is widely experienced: the hotel presents a considerable challenge in terms of management. With the right direction, it can turn a healthy profit.”
The Seashells Resort’s summer performance is good news for AX Holdings which has just brought its four hotels under the umbrella of its hospitality brand AX Hotels. Ms Zammit Xuereb said the move aimed to streamline processes and consolidate operations.
All properties – The Palace, The Victoria, the Seashells Resort at Suncrest and the Sunny Coast Resort – will operate under their existing names but will be marketed under the AX Hotels brand, Ms Zammit Xuereb explained. After competing for business since their inception, The Palace and The Victoria have shared internal processes and commercial information for the past few months with the desired results.
Under the AX Hotels strategy, the entire hospitality arm will now share human resources, purchasing, sales, and accounting information.
Ms Zammit Xuereb said the move had been partly dictated by the trend shifts in tourism, business costs, and the international scenario.
“Economising is difficult,” Ms Zammit Xuereb stressed. “There is a limit to cost-cutting before it starts to affect standards. At this point, we are only able to cut further where energy consumption is concerned. By having all properties on the same platform, we will be able to take advantage of opportunities as soon as they present themselves. The ultimate objective behind building this base is growth.”
The AX Hotels concept, which Ms Zammit Xuereb said was defined by genuine, old-fashioned hospitality and high standards, has also meant core members of management have been handed a wider job description. Human resources managers are to move from the properties to the head office in Lija from where they will lead group-wide recruitment and training. Accounts and sales managers will follow suit soon afterwards. Teams will be centralised at different levels to allow hotel-based leaders more space to deal with operations. Ms Zammit Xuereb explained this new structure will also benefit the group’s smaller restaurant operations.
She added that “heavy” investment in IT was planned to facilitate streamlining and internal standardisation as a way to allow for better contracting, marketing and sales strategies for all properties under the brand, particularly winning online business.
Ms Zammit Xuereb said AX Hotels has shaped its budgets for the new financial year which starts in November, an exercise which was proving increasingly challenging every year.
“Trading times like these, particularly the winter months, dictate we have a monthly strategy in place,” she stressed. “The objective changes practically every month: one month it is about volume, the next month it is a direct change in rates. This has been the toughest year I remember. It is fair to say that our group has done well to retain our costs and market share.
“The hotel business is becoming increasingly complex and the changes in the market are revolutionary. Many hotels in Malta were designed to cater for bed and breakfast or full-board guests but service models are shifting. Fewer guests are seeking on-site dining options and properties have to factor in these elements in their business plans.
“Besides, we must find ways on how best to tackle the increasing costs the hotel industry is up against, particularly water and electricity. These costs are becoming almost unsustainable.”