Chicago-based Aparium Hotel Group is focused on efficiency and grassroots efforts as it reactivate its eight-hotel, 1,000-room boutique portfolio impacted by COVID-19.
Some of the properties have reopened in some capacity (rooftop F&B), while others are still in the process of coming back online. They also have plans for further development that include six new hotels, which you can read about here.
“We have created a foundation of training and SOPs so we know staff will have the PPE that they need,” Co-Founder Kevin Robinson said. “They’ll have the training to meet the expectations of guests, who will still desire the originality of the lifestyle hotel but might second-guess the execution because they may not be as familiar with the hotels.”
Aparium is connected to anywhere from 30 to 50 local farmers, breweries, coffee roasters, artisans and investors. “We do Zoom meetings and activate the grassroots nature of what we do,” Robinson said. “We get them talking about the unique things about each one of our hotels in those markets.”
Aparium also reactivated its lifestyle director early on in the planning process. “There’s not an ROI on this individual necessarily, but he or she, depending on the hotel, is the connective tissue to the market,” Robinson added. “They have built the relationship with everyone in the community around the hotel and in that city. Local business owners, local influences, social folks, the political connections. They are the personal embodiment of the brand.”
Aparium also brought in the FBI (food and beverage innovation) team. It hired back culinarians to create best practices via tri-weekly, Zoom incubation ideation session. For example, they consider how to manage rooftop bars, what they can create for takeout and what it can do online to connect back to its local followers.
“The result is going to be leaner, meaner, better, more connected, and everyone benefits,” Co-Founder Mario Tricoci said. “They’re calling the farmers, the small entrepreneurs that are getting pummeled right now, and they’re building them up and saying, ‘Hey, hang in there. We’re going to be buying from you again as soon as we open… What unique thing are you working on? How can we bring you into the hotel and support you and bootstrap you?’”
Tricoci said the hotel benefits from that alignment as it provides community fabric that people crave. “At this moment, nothing’s more important than connecting, being around and looking out for one another — being socially responsible.”
Tricoci also believes the communication with partners turns into a built-in reservation system. “We already get way more than our fair share (130 share index, he said). So now, trying to get our fair share of 30% occupancy. That stinks, but we’ll do it. But the way to do it doesn’t rely on just emails, social media and e-commerce, the traditional levers… The extra step of activating and engaging the community, and showing that we care and that we’ve got all these partnerships and that we’re going to better together doing this into the future, I think it moves the needle.”