The Secret's out

Michael Slagle was general manager of the George Hotel in Colchester in 1979. Now he owns it. He bought the property from Queens Moat Houses in October 1994 and has been stamping his mark on it ever since.

For Slagle, buying the hotel was like taking a step back in time. The George did not seem to have changed and was in need of modernisation.

"As far as I could tell the bathrooms, bedspreads and curtains were identical to those when I was general manager," he says.

When Slagle took over the George, occupancy was running at roughly 50% and turnover for the year was £700,000. The hotel was not on people's lists of places to eat or drink.

Slagle's feeling was that the hotel had lost out at the end of the 1980s and had found it more difficult to attract business as new hotels had opened in the town.

"People suddenly had an alternative, "he says.

While meeting with roofers and decorators he watched customers coming in. He observed people who wanted a cup of coffee being turned away because the porter had not arrived for his shift.

He immediately set about changing the hotel's direction. First, he looked at the hotel's existing client base. Slagle felt it could go more upmarket from the golf sales and slimming clubs it was attracting, and bring in greater revenue.

Under Queens Moat Houses the hotel had an entire building devoted to conferences, but Slagle immediately closed this and turned it into offices and staff accommodation.

"Realistically, for where we are, we are not going to score from conferences. Companies are not going to bring conferences here. Colchester is a nightmare traffic-wise and employees would be distracted," he says.

Slagle decided instead to target the local market. He wanted to turn the hotel into a place which people would think of for morning coffee or a light lunch.

He was fortunate in that the building, a 500-year-old coach house, had its own character.

The age of the building presented him with planning problems, however. Slagle found he could do little to the Grade II-listed building without prior permission.

From taking over the hotel at the end of October, it took five months to get planning permission just to reposition the reception and bar.

Slagle's plan was to sort out the lounge and restaurant areas first. However, he was advised by a local bank to work on rooms simultaneously.

"They said to do a little bit of the ground floor as well, so it improved the product all round, and to make sure it worked before pouring my money into it," says Slagle.

He decided not to close during refurbishment, preferring instead to do one section at a time. Consequently Slagle found himself meeting with architects one minute and making beds or serving behind the bar the next.

To keep business ticking over he also decided to discount his rooms if he knew they would otherwise be empty.

Refurbishment took from May to September 1995 and cost a total of £1m: half from the bank and the rest from cash-flow.

Slagle enlisted the help of interior designers PCL, who had worked on projects such as Crieff Hydro. He took the designers on a tour of the hotels he liked, decided on some basic colour schemes, and then left PCL to it.

While refurbishment was under way Slagle became despondent. Redeveloping the restaurant into a brasserie had meant ripping out the carvery which was popular with locals, so he lost their business.

"People were walking in to find no carvery and voting with their feet, back the way they came," says Slagle.

He walked the streets of Colchester asking himself what he had done and wondering if he was mad.

"People asked me what I was up to. When I said I had bought the George they replied, ‘Brave man'," he says.

Gradually things got better: despite losing customers, he managed to increase the previous year's turnover by nearly £200,000.

As soon as the downstairs was finished things began to look up. Slagle ran a six-week radio advertising campaign which cost some £4,500. Simultaneously, he started a three-month advertising campaign in the local paper.

The drip-drip effect of teasers such as "What's the best kept secret in Colchester?" with answers such as "afternoon tea/fresh lobster at the George" sparked interest in the town.

At the same time, Slagle wrote to local businesses inviting them to a free lunch or dinner at the hotel.

"This immediately gave us some atmosphere. It made the restaurant busy," he says.

Slagle reckoned if he could get people in, give them good service and value for money, they would come back. To this end he created an infrastructure by working out how quickly customers should get a coffee or a full meal and ensuring staff stuck to it.

The hotel's membership of marketing group Best Western has also helped bring in business. Slagle pays roughly £11,000 a year to the group for inclusion in its brochures and use of its central reservations facilities.

"I don't want to be an independent out there on my own. It's good to have somebody doing a little for you," says Slagle.

Things have come a long way from the days of 50% occupancy, golf sales and slimming clubs. The hotel is now running at an average occupancy of 76% and the bar and lounge facilities gross between £3,000 and £4,000 a week.

Slagle is now looking at ways to expand the business further. Adjacent properties offer the potential for more rooms and he is also considering the idea of a wine bar.

His ambition is to make the George into a place where people will come for a meal and then do some shopping, rather than the other way round.