Gleneagles
Gleneagles is one of Scotland’s most famous hotels, a place where country pursuits and glamour have reigned for over a century. Set in 850 acres of Perthshire, it has three championship golf courses and is the only venue in Europe to have hosted both the Ryder Cup and the Solheim Cup.
When we were engaged in 2017, Gleneagles had a new positioning, created by Brave New World: the Glorious Playground. Our task was to make it real, interpreting the brand in service and marketing terms and making sure the commercial operation could deliver on it.
Our strategy
We began with a full commercial review, looking at how business reached the hotel, how it was priced and how the teams behind it were organised.
The biggest insight, and the biggest opportunity, was groups and meetings. This sector made up a large share of the hotel’s business, yet its rates had barely moved in more than a decade while the individual guest business had grown strongly. We reworked the offer and moved the hotel to a far more dynamic pricing model.
We then reorganised the commercial structure around it. Sales and marketing were reshaped to play to the strengths of the team and the opportunities in the market. One of those was the American leisure traveller, a market with far more potential than the hotel was capturing and no structure in place to pursue it.
We also rebuilt the relationship with Leading Hotels of the World, who represented Gleneagles internationally. The contract existed but the partnership did not, so we turned it into a working one with shared plans and regular review.
The results followed in late 2018 and early 2019, with revenue up by more than 30%. The Glorious Playground had come to life.