Tune Hotels CEO talks to London Hotels Insight.

The CEO of Tune Hotels Mr Mark Lankester recently shared details of the budget hotel brand's experience so far in London and future plans exclusively with London Hotels Insight

A few weeks ago we were first to break the news that Tune Hotels were planning to open a second London Tune Hotel in the Liverpool Street area in early 2012 after a meeting with Tune Hotels CEO, Mr Mark Lankester.

Tune has since announced a further expansion in London with a total of 15 new London hotels opening in the UK capital over the next 5 to 7 years.  They’ve also promised to continue providing accessible rooms of the quality shown in their first hotel near Lambeth North tube station.

Given the early success of Tune’s “no frills” budget hotel concept, it seems Tune Hotels is here to stay.  So it’s worth delving deeper into the Tune concept to see what the company has in mind, direct from the CEO.

Here then are some answers to further questions that we put to Mr Lankester.  We are sure you’ll find his responses enlightening:

Why did you choose London as the base for your overseas expansion?

Tune Hotels is part of the Air Asia family and Air Asia’s first flight outside Asia was to Stansted Airport.  So you could say it is partly historical.

Several of our Board have also been educated in the UK so we have a natural affinity for the country.  Finally, London is such a competitive and cutting-edge market we felt it would be an ideal testing ground to hone our concept.  But we also plan to expand outside London and the UK.

In choosing London above other European locations, Mark Lankester felt UK consumers would instinctively grasp the value proposition - and so far he's been proven right

What was the biggest challenge you faced when opening your first London hotel?

We had to build our brand awareness from scratch which is not easy.

Although we are famous for our low prices we are also very mindful of product quality.  The key aspects are cleanliness, a powerful “wake up” shower and a decent bed.  I think our bed – made by a manufacturer that sells the same bed to many 5 star hotels – really differentiates us from other budget hotels.

Are there any limits to your “pay for extras” pricing model as applied here in London?

We haven’t gone all the way in charging for extras, for example by billing true energy costs based on time.  But we’re totally transparent on our website about extras and we don’t try to nickel and dime customers.

What has been the guest profile at your Tune Westminster hotel?

We expected that we’d initially rely a lot on customers who know our brand in Asia while gaining traction in the early stages.  That was also the thinking behind locating our first hotel opposite a tube station since public transport connections are very important to our core customer.

In fact, we’ve had almost full occupancy since opening.  We’ve found that around 50% of our guests have been UK domestic customers and around 30% from Europe – both figures are well beyond expectations.

Ryanair has a similar pricing model but is not loved by all.  When offering rock-bottom prices should you care what customers think?

Customer service is important to us.  We are in it for the long-haul to build a brand.  So far we’ve achieved 96% customer satisfaction in London which I’m proud of.  We put effort into training people to offer friendly service.

Staff at Tune Hotels are taught to say "no" to unfeasible requests with charm

What sort of staff do you hire?

We don’t necessarily look for “hotel people“: key requirements in our job vacancies are a positive attitude and excellent customer-facing skills.  We often fill our London jobs via people experienced in the service business.

Being a limited service concept, it’s critical to train staff to say “no” in a friendly way.  It’s worth noting too that our parent company Air Asia has evolved into a highly-regarded, service-led brand in Asia.

Will you extend the Tune brand into other businesses?

There are no plans to do so currently.  We don’t want to dilute what we do well – which is to manage hotels offering superb value for money.

How do you get the best deal at a Tune Hotel?

Book as early as possible!

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Photo credits: Tune Hotel Westminster.

Tagged as: Tune Hotel Westminster, Tune Hotels