The client

Lifehouse spa & hotel, Essex, United Kingdom. 

What did Hotel Solutions Partnership achieve for the client?

In March 2012, the bank brought in management headed by Peter Murphy and Donald Emslie. Peter took on the Managing Director role and put in place a turnaround plan that has seen financial performance go from loss to profit within 24 months.

Revenues have doubled whilst operating costs have been kept at the same level. The 3 year plan sees revenue increasing to £6.3 M by 2016 with an EBITDA of just under £1.2 M. The Lifehouse is now widely acknowledged as a centre of excellence for wellbeing treatments for both corporates and individuals in the UK.

Background

Lifehouse spa & hotel is located in 130 acres of countryside in Essex, United Kingdom. It has 89 rooms, food & beverage outlets and a contemporary lifestyle spa with 35 treatment rooms, gym, swimming pool, thermal spa and manicure/pedicure stations.

Project objective

After incurring heavy losses under the developer owner, a leading UK bank foreclosed on it’s loan and was saddled with an asset that was not correctly positioned in the marketplace and was haemorrhaging cash.

Project scope

• Got rid of Groupon, set up online distribution channels, applied judicious rate management and built a corporate client base.
• Created wedding brochure, sold spa memberships proactively, and pre-sold dinner and treatments before guests arrive.
• Pushed both room and food & beverage rates up to achieve better margins.
• Trained the staff so that they work more efficiently. This has kept total payroll steady at 40% of revenue.