Ticket to Toronto
Paul Mulcahy first visited Canada on holiday in 1990, and he liked it immediately. He had been toying with the idea of moving away from the UK for some time, both to advance his career and to experience another culture, and he believed he had found the country to suit him.
"I loved the diverse countryside - the coastlines and the lakes - and the amazing feeling of space," he says. "From Toronto, it takes you the same amount of time to fly to Vancouver as it does to the UK. The size of the country is so exhilarating, and yet with 30 million people, it has only about half the population of England."
Mulcahy said he was also attracted by the open-minded attitude of the Canadian people and the fact that it was a young nation, where people were active in politics and felt a sense of responsibility to develop and improve their country. "And being next door to America gives Canada the advantages of US entertainment, such as television and music, while it also retains aspects of European influences and culture," he says.
Immigration problems
Falling in love with the country did not mean it was easy to get out there to work, however. Canada, like the UK, has been clamping down on immigration over the past few years and it is now extremely difficult to move there.
A person needs a firm job offer and the backing of their would-be employer to get a work visa. They also need proof that their role is not one that could be filled by a Canadian; this effectively rules out anyone who is below management or executive level from going to work in the country.
In Mulcahy's case, the lengthy visa application process meant that he had a one-year wait after being offered a job before he went out to Ottawa to start work.
When he explains the nature of the job, it is easy to understand why there were not scores of Canadians queuing up to apply.
"The hotel I went to work for in Ottawa was a run-down, independent hotel that had just made a loss of more than Cdn$750,000 (£343,000) for the year [1992]. It was facing bankruptcy," says Mulcahy. "I wanted the GM position there because, for a start, it was my first job at that level and it also gave me the opportunity of developing a business that was very depressed through a sales-oriented approach."
Within a few months of arriving at the 233-bedroom, four-star property, then called the Park Lane Hotel, Mulcahy decided the best way forward was to give it a brand identity and he signed up with the Ramada franchise system. This saw the property renamed the Ramada Hotel & Suites Ottawa, giving it a great deal more marketing clout and the back-up of a large, stable organisation with an established reservation network.
"I also spent more than Cdn$1.25m (£572,000) refurbishing the hotel and made it sales-oriented in every respect, targeting the government and business market," he says. "At Radisson Edwardian in London I had learnt about aggressive sales and I took that approach over to Canada with me."
Within two years the hotel's revenue had improved by $1.5m (£686,000), so that by the time Mulcahy moved on in July 1996, it had made Cdn$750,000 (£343,000) profit for the year.
Getting involved
During his time as a general manager in Ottawa, Mulcahy also became president of the Ottawa Hoteliers' Association and sat on Ramada's national marketing steering committee. It was these activities, along with his performance at the hotel, that brought him his current job.
"Ramada approached me and asked me to take up the job of director of franchise development for Canada, based in Toronto," he explains. "This was a new position and the idea was to have someone dedicated to converting new hotels to the brand and someone who could assist general managers with product development.
"In a nutshell, the job is about furiously selling franchises across Canada and growing the brand."
In this role, Mulcahy spends at least two weeks of every month travelling, visiting independent hotels across the country and asking them if they want to take on the Ramada flag. He also meets with would-be hoteliers who want to build new properties. As soon as the person has the finance in place, Ramada will step in and provide help with anything from planning applications to marketing plans and staff recruitment.
The company's biggest competitors in the Canadian franchise market are Holiday Inn and Choice Hotels. All three companies have the same simple goal: to have the biggest presence in the four-star market in the country.
Slick with his sales patter, Mulcahy explains what he believes are the advantages of signing up with Ramada. "We are a smaller company than the others, which means we provide a more personal service and we are not tied up with loads of bureaucracy and overhead costs," he says. "Nearly all of a member's fee will stay in Canada and go towards marketing their hotel. In addition, the Ramada Canada reservation office is entirely bilingual, showing our understanding of the local market."
Since Mulcahy took on the role in July last year, the number of Ramada-branded properties has grown from 32 to 36. The target is to have 45 Canadian hotels in the system by the end of 1997.
Mulcahy says he would like to continue in the role for another three to four years and certainly feels no incentive to return to the UK. His current package is worth Cdn$100,000 or £46,000 (he earnt £37,000 as a general manager in Ottawa) and this goes much further than it would back home because the cost of living is much lower.
Food, wine, transport, clothes and accommodation are all less expensive than they would be in the UK. Mulcahy currently rents his flat in Toronto, but is considering buying a house. A good-sized property close to the city centre will cost between Cdn$250,000 (£114,000) and Cdn$400,000 (£183,000).
"To go back to England, it would have to be a very sweet offer indeed," smiles Mulcahy. "But there are some other countries where I wouldn't mind working in future, such as managing a Caribbean resort or a hotel in Indonesia."
