Transcript
[00:00:00] Dean Culpan: I think the market's going to change, and we all need to be sensitive to that. A lot more of our clients are going to bring their pets with them rather than their children.
[00:00:19] Matt Welle: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another Matt Talks Hospitality. And this week, I have a very different topic than you're probably used to, and I have Dean Culpan joining me. Dean is the General Manager of the South Place Hotel in London, and he's led the hotel to embrace a luxury but dog-friendly approach that's improving the guest experience and driving more revenue. Welcome, Dean.
[00:00:41] Dean Culpan: Good morning, Matt. How are you?
[00:00:43] Matt Welle: So good. And so, this is a topic that I feel very passionate about, so I'm very excited on a Monday morning to start with you. First question, are you a dog or a cat person? This is a hot topic in our company always, but I have to also embrace the cat lovers, but I'm a dog person.
[00:00:57] Dean Culpan: This is like the salty and sweet question, you know, but I'm both. I have a miniature schnauzer called Dave, who's four years old, and I've got a Russian Blue cat called Phoebe. So I'm definitely both.
[00:01:11] Matt Welle: Oh, good. And they get along?
[00:01:12] Dean Culpan: Oh, they love each other. They sleep in the same basket.
[00:01:15] Matt Welle: That is so good. So when you travel, does your dog and your cat come with you or only the dog or neither of them?
[00:01:23] Dean Culpan: A lot of the time, the dog. So, I mean, if we go travel, I love the UK. So, obviously, based in London, you can get very far quite quickly. I love hiking. So Dave definitely comes along hiking. Phoebe doesn't like hiking. Phoebe likes lying in the sun and just being a cat. A typical cat comes and bumps you when she needs you, but Dave's hard work. He needs a lot of exercise, and yeah, how about you? Have you got a dog or a cat?
[00:01:54] Matt Welle: I have a dog, and I just changed the, I've got a Jack Russell Terrier. It's so funny how the dogs are our phone, kind of, cover nowadays, markets.
[00:02:03] Dean Culpan: I was just trying to show you mine, but mine wasn't, that was on Brighton Beach a few weeks ago.
[00:02:12] Matt Welle: Beaches are the Disneyland for dogs, honestly.
[00:02:14] Dean Culpan: Yeah. Absolutely.
[00:02:15] Matt Welle: And you can just see the joy that happens in their head when we get to the beach.
[00:02:20] Dean Culpan: It goes a little bit mentally. It just does this, these like figure 8s in the sand, or on the pebbles, whatever.
[00:02:27] Matt Welle: So, Dean, you've been in hospitality for a very long time, if I can say. What drew you to your current role at South Place Hotel, and the luxury space specifically in London?
[00:02:38] Dean Culpan: Yeah. Having worked in London for nearly 24 years, it was my first city hotel. So for those of you that don't know London very well, the city of London is the old Roman London, square mile. And so it was my first hotel that I ran and a very businesslike hotel. So I would say our mix is about 80-20 business to leisure. And it was really the leisure side of things that needed work. I mean, you know, the city of London is becoming busier and busier. And from a business perspective, you know, you've got travelers now who are traveling with their dogs, even from a business point of view. Everyone considers that it's a leisure guest who wants to bring their dog along. You know, from our point of view, luxury is down to the person themselves as well, from a business point of view or from a leisure point of view. You've got everyone who resonates with something in them, which either we offer as an establishment or not. And I think we offer a luxury environment. We've got a Michelin-star restaurant at the top of the building. We've got an all-day concept on the Ground Floor, which is also the street level and then 80 bedrooms and meetings and events. And like I say, everything's done to a luxury level, very proud that we, you know, are Forbes 5-star plus we have a Michelin star as well. And all of that resonates to wanting to run an establishment like this. And like I say, the other, the other parts of that was that it was in the city of London, which is very different audience to running hotels in Westminster.
[00:04:14] Matt Welle: Because you struggle with weekend occupancy in that location?
[00:04:17] Dean Culpan: And that's the point, you know, and that's where, look, boys being a dog lover and other hotels where I brought dog friendliness into it, it was, you know, one of my first strategies was why aren't we dog friendly? You know, why aren't we attracting these? I mean, you know of the OTAs that exist that, you know, just specialise so people can find dog friendly hotels very easily. We won't mention them. I'm not sure if we can mention them. But like I said, I just wanted to introduce that segment to it because it is a market that people want. Um, and also a lot of the the other dog friendly hotels sort of from a, from a weekend perspective where we, where we do lack, um, occupancy here in the city, you know, are quite expensive, where I can do something a little bit more cost effective. Still luxurious. And like I say, you know, all the little bits and pieces that we've added to our dog friendly approach from a training perspective, also from an equipment perspective, you know, has driven that luxury feel, um, for those weekenders.
[00:05:16] Matt Welle: Because one of the as a dog owner, often I look whether our dog is allowed in a hotel, um, and sometimes you find a rare gem of a hotel where they actually embrace the dog instead of just allowing my dog, which doesn't feel very welcoming. And I think, you know, as a pet owner, I wanna feel like they want me and my dog at the hotel, and it felt like when I was looking through your website, you've embraced dog. Like, you you were actually have a business strategy to drive dog owners and their dogs to come to your hotel. Was that a conscious decision that you make? Do you remember the day when you made that decision? And was it guest led, or or was it led led by you specifically as a dog owner?
[00:05:52] Dean Culpan: No. You you know, I think a little bit of both. You know? I mean, we, um, look, as a dog friendly, I mean, we've, we've supported pet charities, but, but also some of the guests that we had coming in, we've got a French businessman who travels into London every every week, and he's got a dog called Winston. And and I think a lot of that led on to us going, oh, so you've got a dog coming. May we know what the dog's name is? So, you know, when they when they check-in, the dog gets a welcome as well. You know, it's not just the the guest, mister and missus. And depending on how formal formal the the guests want to be. If they wanna be mister and mister Smith, that's absolutely fine. But if Fluffy has been named as Fluffy, we don't we don't call it and Fluffy Smith's on the side there. Good morning. Welcome back up to South Plains. You know, so we've gone to that level where we we we ask those kind of questions. And also, you know, I'm I'm sure you're gonna ask these questions later on in terms of amenities for pets, you know, when we start asking the questions on the phone, uh, from the reservation point of view, but also if you're doing it online, you'll see that you're prompted, you know, to put your dog's name in and if they've got any dietary restrictions because we've got a couple of menus and then also special, special requests. You mean you
[00:07:06] Matt Welle: have a couple of menus, like a room service menu for dogs?
[00:07:08] Dean Culpan: Yeah. A very I mean, you you would have come across Anna Webb at some point. She's probably the biggest podcaster. And I've been on her podcast before. She stayed in the hotel before to vet us in terms of our dog friendliness and that kind of thing. And it also helps us put a dog friendly menu together, you know? So, um, uh, I mean, we've even got Portini's, which is like a martini for for dogs. I mean, I'll be honest, I've tasted it. There's no alcohol. It's very watery, but it's it's it's dogs seem to like it. It's it's not sweet. It's it's a little bit on the savory side. So, yeah.
[00:07:48] Matt Welle: So do you find that people that have come to your hotel, have brought their dogs along, are more likely to return than a regular customer who stayed with you?
[00:07:57] Dean Culpan: And also, word-of-mouth is great. You know, I mean, I I, um, when when reservations, which is just outside my door, if when the phones are ringing, I can just pick up a call and take the reservation. It's much easier. And what I love to hear, and which was literally the week just passed, was, um, uh, a guest said that a friend of theirs had stayed with their dog and that such a good experience because we also offer little maps and walks where you can take your dogs where, you know, it's, it's a more dog friendly, uh, maybe route to go see a site, uh, rather than the, you know, a very busy touristy, uh, sort of destination. And like I said, it was a referral. They, they, they had an amazing stay with their guests. And we've really targeted sort of the home counties around London. Uh, in terms of that, there are a couple of people who have internationally brought their dogs with them. But like I said, I would say 98% are from London and the environments around London.
[00:08:55] Matt Welle: Um, How do you target them?
[00:08:57] Dean Culpan: Very, very easily. You know, our search words, uh, within an SEO perspective is is very geared up towards that, you know, in terms of dog friendliness, um, dog menus. Um, and and then there's been a couple of articles in in the press in terms of not only us being pet friendly, you know, the extra lengths we have to go to because not everyone is pet friendly. So a lot of the times you've got the opposite. You've got people saying, I'm not gonna stay at your tail because, you know, uh, a dog would have been in that room before me. So we've got extra cleaning routines and regimes and equipment that we've used so that people are assured that even though we're dog friendly, we've, we've really gone through an extra layer of cleaning. And we've got four bedrooms, which have got wooden floors, which we prioritize as pet friendly, uh, rooms. And I think pets also prefer it. Um, obviously, there's rugs in those rooms that we can take out and have laundered and things like that. And Aware
[00:09:56] Matt Welle: and tear is real in hotels. Right? So do you do you go through that kind of material faster because of the deep cleaning that you're doing on the materials? Or
[00:10:04] Dean Culpan: Yeah. Yes and no. We've really pushed the pet friendliness for the last year, two and a half years. And I wouldn't say that we've we've, uh, seen extra wear and tear because of it. You know, it it it's the normal wear and tear. It's just the the products that we're using, um, are a little bit more stringent. You know? Uh, and but once again, you know, lots of I would say, you know, we can. We've normally got three to four dogs staying with us. So, um, and sometimes there's multiple dogs in a room. Uh, and and from that point of view, you know, concentrating on on those particular rooms is is being part of that strategy. You know? So, um, you know, we've got some, uh, repeat guests who will say, can I have that room again? It's slightly, uh, it's configured in a different way and I like it. So like I say, just that extra mile where those, because you did ask about repeat guests. Um, but like I said, we get a lot of referrals from other pet owners, uh, who spread the word about staying in London. Um, also staying in the city because the prices drop quite sharply over the weekends. Um, compared to, you know, sort of tourist London, Covent Garden, Soho, Mayfair, Knightsbridge, where prices go up at the weekend. We're the we're the opposite. So and, um, we've got we're very fortunate. We've got the Elizabeth line right underneath the hotel.
[00:11:28] Matt Welle: -So good.
[00:11:29] Dean Culpan: -Yeah. So good. Two minutes to the Moorgate exit for the Liverpool Street, uh, station. Uh, and you can be in Tottenham Court Road in five minutes, another two minutes onto Bond Street. You can shop till you drop. But also, back to a previous question, in terms of targeting, we've targeted a lot of people along the Elizabeth line, sort of the the far reaches who are coming into London. It's also, you know, the Lizzie line is very dog friendly.
[00:11:55] Matt Welle: Love that. Because one of the things that, uh, and I remember if we talk about repeat guests, like, um, I've stayed in hotels where I've been raving about these hotels in Austria, where the room service menu for my dog was incredible. I took photos of everything, which I then share on social media. And it is a very tight knit community of people that care deeply about their animal, that want to come to hotels where they know that they're being loved. And it is so rare to find hotels where you can just see that there's someone who deeply cares. And I want to recommend all my friends to go to those hotels.
[00:12:26] Dean Culpan: No, and exactly the same. And you know, as a as a dog loving owner, I've had the same experience as you and also we've learned from our colleague, you know, I call the other dog friendly hotels, definitely colleagues, not competitors, where we learn a little bit from each other all the time. So if you go up to the lakes and you're staying in a dog friendly B and B, you know, they do some, some small touches, which, you know, in the morning, uh, for breakfast, you know, there, there is a special breakfast menu, and then they've moved on. So then I felt the pressure to have a breakfast menu for the, you know, so but it's all great stuff, especially at the weekend, because I would say 90% of our our dogs, uh, who are staying with us is all over the weekend from a Friday to a Sunday.
[00:13:13] Matt Welle: My husband used to work at a steakhouse, and he remembered this this guest that was coming to the steakhouse very regularly. And the dog was being fed filet mignon and avian only. And I thought that is so insane. Do you have any guests that are doing some of these crazy things at your hotel as well? Yeah.
[00:13:29] Dean Culpan: So the guests that I mentioned, I won't mention his name, but I'll mention his dog's name, Winston. And he'll, um, I've asked him to look out for the podcast because he'll be thrilled that I've mentioned Winston. Winston's a bulldog, and and when Winston gets, um, chicken breast, but he likes it on on the tender side. So what we wouldn't serve to a human, we will serve to Winston. But according according to his owner, that's the the vet has said that that's the best way Winston's digestive system works and it's, um, San Pellegrino's still, uh, the Panna, uh, only has Panna water. And Winston has his own bed here. So, um, and his owner is very specific. He says, again, it's fine that you have dog beds, but I want the same bed for Winston all the time and no other dog can use it.
[00:14:18] Matt Welle: I absolutely love this. How do you, luxury, a five star luxury hotel with the practicalities of having dogs around the hotel?
[00:14:28] Dean Culpan: Well well, first of all, I think when when you when you start with Outreach in terms of websites and and confirmation letters, You know, our confirmation letter is driven through a third party where we just make sure everyone understands that we're a very dog friendly hotel. You know, and, and, and I suppose it's a deterrent if you're not a pet fan. Yeah. Uh, which, which is great. But I'd, I'd, I'd rather that on the onset people know so that when they do come into the hotel from a luxury point of view, you know, there have been occasions where, you know, I've had to step in and say, you know, the Great Dane is running through the lobby. Can we calm it down? And, and, and that's where the luxury side comes in. We still, we still need to, you know, think of everyone who's in the environment, not just the fact that we're dog friendly, that the dog is actually behaving in a luxurious way as well, you know, and that's how we bring it across to their owners. I mean, for instance, up in our Michelin star restaurants, I have to interview the, the, the pet before I allow her to eat in the Michelin restaurant. Yeah. Yeah. You know, so we, we had requests for, from guests who wanted to eat in the Michelin star restaurant with, with their pets. I said, I don't have a problem with that, but I need to interview their pet first. And and I and I don't want to sound like, um, arrogant person, but it is a Michelin star restaurant. And and not everyone who wants to come in. And it is the only seafood Michelin star restaurants in London. So we have quite a bit of high level people who want specific requirements. And like I say, when it came up for the first time, I said, what size dog is it? Anyway, and we trialed it on the the terrace first. There's a small terrace outside, um, the restaurants and that worked, you know. And now we've got a regular guest. She brings, it's a, it's a bag. I mean, it's a chihuahua who sits in a bag. It's the most polite dog in the world. You know, she will take something morsel down and feed her dog and it doesn't offend anyone. And, you know, uh, up until now, and that's been probably a year and a half already, nobody's complained, you know, once again, and that's, that's just controlling the luxury. It's just making sure that, you know, we, we, in terms of the placement within the restaurant that, um, you know, the pet owner is is on the side and and any table closer to it, we'd just like to inform you that, uh, the guest on the table next to you has a small dog. It's well behaved. But if you'd like to sit somewhere else, we're more than happy to accommodate you. And most people are going, oh, we're fine about it. Thank you.
[00:17:09] Matt Welle: Yeah. That's amazing. Do you, is there a way for you to measure the impact of this strategy towards dog friendliness? Absolutely.
[00:17:16] Dean Culpan: Through social media, through Google Analytics, um, we've definitely created a bit of a buzz around, um, Southplace, especially from the Weekenders. A lot of the OTAs that specialise in dog friendly hotels, you know, we work very closely And yes, you know, I mean, like I say, we've gone from having no dogs at the weekend to nearly three to four to five bedrooms a weekend of dog owners. And like you, like me, you know, I travel with my dog, you know, so I I need all of those things facilitated. So so even when we travel abroad, you know, from our point of view, we've only driven Dave across, um, to Europe, uh, twice now. But once again, it's made so easy through, through social media, you know, what you're going to expect. And, you know, I give Dave a raw diet. So it's also making sure that I can give him the equivalent food when we get to Mainland Europe.
[00:18:17] Matt Welle: Yeah. And do you find that families with dogs will spend more at the hotel than someone, just a couple that stays at the hotel and is more likely to probably go to restaurants in the city?
[00:18:26] Dean Culpan: The thing is, is that there's not that many restaurants that are dog friendly. And also a lot of people just don't wanna take the chance. So they'll do most of the they're staying, they're eating in the hotel, and then they'll shoot out and do whatever they need to do. And I mean, it's it's become a little bit of a fad, and especially the home counties, because people are working from home nowadays, they actually wanna come back into London, uh, with their dog and and and go for a walk down around the town's, Tower Of London, uh, London, uh, Tower Bridge. One of the other restaurants in our, in our group, Pont de la Tour, they're also dog friendly restaurants, but only on the terrace. So if it's a lovely day, you know, we've got a nice little walking trail that takes you over to that, which is, which is, which is fine. You know? So, yeah. And I could say, um, dogs are allowed on the Clipper, which is the obviously ferry up and down the the river. So, um, there's dog seats on those as well. So we give people a lot of information in terms of how to best experience London through their, you know, with their dogs. Um, so in terms of that, your question was how we've met. Yeah. Like you say, uh, five five, six rooms, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, addition to what we would normally have had at the weekend. Um, just, just through our outreach, uh, a lot of socials doing things like this. I mean, this, I think this is, um, not not to dilute you, but this is my third podcast around dog friendliness. You know, like I say, um, Anna, Anna Webb was the first person we engaged with. Uh, she stayed and she stays often, you know, when she comes into London, she participates in a lot of activities around judging and things like that when it comes to dogs.
[00:20:08] Matt Welle: I think joining a podcast or, or content around your hotel, the AI models pick up on a lot of the stuff that we we talk about on these podcasts. And as you ask questions in a couple weeks' time, it will consume the information. And if you do start looking for you know, we've mentioned the word dog probably a 100 times on it so far, plus the name of hotel, and it will start to connect the dots. And as a digital strategy, it's a really good strategy.
[00:20:30] Dean Culpan: Absolutely. Like I say, I mean, we've got a digital strategist who basically works on that. And and as you know, I don't know, I don't know if you do know, 62% of all of our search words into London aren't in English. So we've also started to build those languages up.
[00:20:47] Matt Welle: So you can just feed it into the algorithm somehow.
[00:20:50] Dean Culpan: Exactly. And, and when we started seeing our European cousins coming across a lot more, so I would say a year ago when we started, uh, adapting some search words into, um, the European languages, we started to see, you know, at least two or three visits a month by European dog owners, um, bringing their dogs to London and having the confidence to come and stay with us, knowing that the dog's going to be well cared for. Nice. You know, and then it's also the fun of, um, training staff, especially, especially the housekeeping staff. When talking to a dog, you, you talk calmly, you don't talk high. You know, so You
[00:21:28] Matt Welle: do special trainings?
[00:21:29] Dean Culpan: Yes, of course. You know, um, and, and Anna helped us with that. I mean, Anna obviously from a dog therapy perspective, you know, if, you know, when, when there's a dog that's barking, you try and tone your voice down. So, you know, you know, and you greet it and, you know, you go down towards it. Once again, you know, not everyone is, is, is a dog person. So from a housekeeping training perspective, you know, it, it was, it was okay. If you're not into dogs, that's absolutely fine. But this training will help you in that situation because every weekend we will have a dog. Um, Winston comes through the week, so but everyone knows Winston and he has the same room. And the housekeeper that looks after him, we've had to keep on that, uh, due to Winston's owner's request. So and and she loves it. So Winston owner goes out for business meetings sometimes late. He'll do an event in the evening, and he gets Winston looked after by by the the room attendant that, um, cleans his room.
[00:22:31] Matt Welle: I I can't wait to meet Winston at some point
[00:22:33] Dean Culpan: in my Yeah. That's great.
[00:22:34] Matt Welle: Stay in London midweek. I will come to your hotel to meet Winston.
[00:22:38] Dean Culpan: I mean, many years ago, I ran the hotel called the Bailey's, and we had a we had the cats called Archibald. Archibald had its own Facebook page. So I've been, I've been saying to Winston's owner because he has become a character within the hotel, you know, all of the staff knowing by name, greet him as he comes in and that kind of thing. And, and, and he's got a bit of a strut to him. So, you know, it's fun. It's fun to see.
[00:23:06] Matt Welle: What's next for you in like your roadmap of dog friendliness? Have you got ideas for the future or any?
[00:23:12] Dean Culpan: Look, the market's changing all the time. And, um, just looking at what pet owners expect is much higher than what we thought it would be. So when, when we started on this adventure within Southplace, um, it was, you know, beds of different sizes, halls of different sizes, and then obviously we added the menus onto that. And now it's getting more sophisticated. You know, those menus are becoming seasonal. No. So everything we've applied to you people, we're now applying to our small fluffy friends. Um, and, and they, they changing as well. Their needs are changing, you know, and, and people are understanding that a lot more. Also, you know, I mean, human, human nature is changing. A lot of people's messages, uh, millennials, if you speak to, uh, there's some interesting studies released where how many people aren't wanting to have children and they just choose to have, um, companions and pets, You know? So I think I think the market's going to change, and we all need to be sensitive to that, um, as it does where a lot more a lot more of our clients are going to bring their pets with them rather than children. Yeah. So and we just need to gear up for it. I mean, obviously, children are taken care of as well. We've got children's menus, coloring books at restaurants. They're not. They're not. No. Mine are grown up now. So now I'm I'm a lot more pet pet centric.
[00:24:36] Matt Welle: So my last question, um, if people are listening to this and they are currently not a dog friendly hotel and they're considering becoming a dog friendly hotel, what would be some of the advice for starters in the in the space of dog friendliness?
[00:24:47] Dean Culpan: From our point of view, the niche part of it is is acceptance. Like I say, taking it from a, from a website perspective so that you're warning both dog friendly people, as well as people who are maybe not as inclined to be dog friendly. So that that expectation is met. Done. And then when we start talking about all the little elements that make it, you know, a five star environment as well for the dog, you know, um, it's a plush bed. You know, the I always get asked where we've got, where we bought the bowls from. You can tell me now it's from Fortnum and Mason. They make beautiful dog accessories and, and there's toys and things that we add to the room as well. Um, a lot, a lot of the time the toys are a gift from us to the dog and they brand it Southplace. So it's a little bit of marketing as well, you know, and, um, we change it every year and already I've got some of our regular guests going, what's next year's pet toy? So every year we're releasing a new pet toy. So, and, and that, that was a mistake. I mean, that, or an accident for that matter. You know, The the company I used year one couldn't give me the same toy the year two. So I said, okay. I'll go for the elephant. So I'm thinking, uh, I don't wanna break the news yet, but it might be a giraffe for 26. I love it. So and it's like I say, they just it's and people people embrace that. So for for people who are looking to go pet friendly, it's it's having the attitude, staff training, staff understanding. And like I say, extending that hospitality, not only to the guest, but also to the guest's fluffy friend. Yeah. You know, because a lot of the time that the guests' fluffy friend means the world to them. You know, we've had a couple of celebrities, I won't mention their names, where definitely, I think they are more pet centric than they are people centric. And I think as a celebrity, I think sometimes you hone in on on animals who don't know who you are, you know, because they're that unconditional attraction, affection is is what you want.
[00:26:46] Matt Welle: Well said. I think that's a great place to end. Dean, thank you so much for sharing these fantastic stories. I really appreciate you joining me today.
[00:26:52] Dean Culpan: I really appreciate it as well. It was really lovely talking to you, Matt.
[00:26:56] Matt Welle: Thank you.
