Global impacts

There's a lot of talk at the moment about globalisation and how it has reshaped the hotel industry. Every week, independent hotels are being acquired, redeveloped and rebranded by one of the handful of global chains. As inevitable as the mergers and acquisitions are, the impact on C&I business has been profound and can already be felt. The general prognosis seems to be that these changes are impacting negatively on customer services, with those who used to be responsible for looking after us disappearing, their roles being taken over by faceless executives on the other side of the world.

Not only have they become more impersonal, but the hotel managers have almost become quasi-property managers, more concerned with the value of the real estate than delivering exemplary services. One symptom of the industry's changing face is the increasing number of Australian hotels using overseas call centres to man their reception areas after-hours. When asked whether they outsource their phone services after-hours, many hotels are understandably cagey, preferring not confirm or deny the claim.

Another example of this increasingly corporate landscape emerged when a well-known, family-owned boutique hotel in Adelaide was acquired recently by one of the larger European hotel chains. After 14 years in the business, the family simply decided to sell up to pursue other business interests, while the multinational plans to divide the property into time-share apartments to increase its market share. Perched in a pocket of the Adelaide Hills, this heritage site was built in the mid 1850s and was nearly leveled during the Ash Wednesday bushfires in 1983. What's in store for it now is difficult to gauge, although what is certain is that its independence and special character will not get in the way of the new owner's bottom line.