VERO BEACH — For the customer whose concept of luxury is a banquet in a ballroom, there are hotels with sweeping staircases and hovering bellhops, where staff intones “It would be our pleasure” in auto-response mode.
For others, formulaic fanfare is the last thing wanted on vacation; that being more a mark of the corporate world, these vacationers are looking to escape instead into an indulgence in the salve of swank.
Reaching those seeking a more idiosyncratic bliss – and packaging it – is the challenge of a new group of luxury hotels within Benchmark Hospitality International, the company that manages Vero’s Costa d’Este Resort.
Costa d’Este has just been named a part of that group, formed last month when Benchmark acquired MTM Luxury Lodging, a Seattle-based hotel management company.
With four small high-end properties and a fifth under construction, MTM’s hotels were joined with eight similarly focused Benchmark properties to form a new division under the branding “Personal Luxury Collection.”
With an eye toward marketing the hotels to individuals rather than groups or for corporate use, Benchmark says it is looking to personalize the luxury hotel experience, tailoring options for individual customers as opposed to a one-size-fits-all approach, hotel officials say.
Already the alliance is providing fodder for Costa’s PR staff.
“I’ve been thinking about a get-to-know-Florida tour of our properties here,” says Monica Smiley, whose job it is, as Costa’s head of sales and marketing, to implement the new branding effort at the Vero property.
Smiley is considering using Vero-based Paris Air, which already offers charter flights to the Bahamas, Key West, the Everglades and college football games, to ferry hotel guests on a tour of Florida.
Included in the Personal Luxury division are the Naples Bay Resort, the Marenas Beach Resort north of Miami, and the Villas of Grand Cypress in Orlando.
“Our Naples resort has a captain and a full fleet of water vessels, and it’s only a short drive from the Everglades. Grand Cypress is one of the top golf schools in the U.S. And while it’s near Disney and all of that craziness, you pull into that drive and it’s a beautiful winding tree-lined drive and you feel you have walked into a sanctuary.”
The Marenas property, an oceanfront high-rise located between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, would offer the “downtown Miami experience,” Smiley says.
“Then there’s the experience of Florida of yesteryear in Vero Beach,” she says.
All in all, the division takes a much more playful approach in marketing, conjuring up leisure time extravagances for its guests.
Getting the word out is another matter.
Individual bookings are much harder to target than corporate business, requiring a “shotgun approach,” according to James Simkins, the newly named COO of the Personal Luxury division.
Simkins was partner and CEO of MTM. Jim Treadway, MTM’s founder and chairman, has been named general manager of its Napa Valley property, Bardessono, as well as vice chairman of Benchmark’s advisory board. All of MTM’s other hotels are in Washington State.
“Benchmark grew up in the conference center business,” says Simkins, who points out that four large companies – Deloitte, Whirlpool, Lockheed Martin and Capital One – maintain dedicated conference centers run by Benchmark.
In addition, Benchmark runs several large business-oriented hotels.
“Of the three main segments – group, corporate and leisure – leisure has been hurt the worst in this economy. It really took a beating.”
Recovery in that sector of the industry is particularly challenging, he says.
“The group and corporate database is much smaller, so direct sales are more influential. Transient business has to be based on the PR and word of mouth.”
Of Benchmark’s 28 properties, Simkins says the corporate-oriented hotels have fared better than luxury brand properties such as Four Seasons, St. Regis, and Ritz Carlton. He says those hotels bear the stigma of lavish corporate travel, following the “AIG effect.”
As for the Personal Luxury properties, they have fared well in the tight economy due to the “stay-cation” concept, he says.
In the luxury sector, vacationing closer to home can redirect travel budget dollars to higher-end hotels, meals and entertainment, when they would otherwise be spent on air fares or fuel for destinations farther away.
Costa d’Este made the cut for the new collection because “it fits the profile of a lifestyle hotel,” Simkins says. “It well fits the personality and profile of the destination and the community.”
“The exciting thing is that MTM brings to the table all these creative ideas,” says Smiley. “I’m super, super excited about the partnership.”
The effort is aimed at each hotel developing its own character.
Recently, Simkins made his first visit to Vero and to Costa d’Este. In the first hour of an overnight stay, he described his initial impression of the boutique hotel as “informal although not casual.”
“It has a professional appearance to it. It almost screams ‘sophisticated destination,'” he says.
“We do not pretend to be ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen, which is the Ritz and the Four Seasons approach. We are far more interested in a personal relationship with the guests, and a sense of professional informality.”
Costa d’Este was built with a South Florida clientele in mind, Smiley says, drawing on the aura of its owners, Gloria and Emilio Estefan, to woo Miami and Fort Lauderdale patrons north.
“It is appealing to what the south Florida coastline has become known for: a fun, relaxed lifestyle,” says Simkins.
