Paul Pisani, Chief Development Officer, Corinthia Hotels, talks about the work his company is doing to address staff shortages, develop ESG policies and improve sustainability ahead of the International Hospitality Investment Forum (IHIF) 2022 in Berlin on 3-5 May.
Hospitality Insights: How have relations between owners, operators and stakeholders changed in the luxury segment?
Paul Pisani: Since COVID, we have seen owners requiring operators to share a higher proportion of risk in management agreements. Indeed in many markets, certainly in the luxury segment, rarely do we come across pure management opportunities and the requirement for strong guarantees backed by solid covenants (and further deal sweeteners, as the case may require) has become the norm. In other markets, leases are the only way in.
As Corinthia, even before COVID, we always believed that the best way to structure a deal is to tailor-make it to marry the opportunity and our partner’s needs/requirements with our own strategic interests. Indeed, we have never shied away from using our balance sheet when an opportunity is strategically important to us and will continue to do so, on a case-by-case basis.
Hospitality Insights: With people at the core of hospitality, how do you address the current talent shortage?
Pisani: This is certainly a challenge being faced by everyone in our industry. In the short term, we have addressed this by fast-tracking the development of our talent pool and giving the opportunity to younger Corinthians to grow and shine. Remaining gaps are filled through recruitment drives undertaken internationally.
In the longer term, Corinthia aims to remain the employer of choice and plans are in place around this, aimed at the further growth and development of our existing talent pool and also attracting newcomers from outside our industry.
Hospitality Insights: How do you use technology to improve profitability, sustainability and the guest experience?
Pisani: New technology applicable to the hospitality industry has demonstrated a direct impact on profitability with the use of more efficient technologies for heating and cooling, which, when integrated with proper control systems, reduce consumption of utilities by up to 40%. Furthermore, renewable energy such as PV systems, CHP systems and heat pump technology combine efficiency and significantly reduce the carbon footprint and therefore the environmental impact of hospitality operations. This, together with state-of-the-art IT systems are allowing Corinthia to further enhance the guest experience rendering it personalised and unique to align with the uniqueness of all of our guests.
Hospitality Insights: How are you developing, implementing and measuring ESG policies to ensure their effectiveness?
Pisani: The implementation of energy-efficiency, waste reduction and renewable energy are all components of ESG and the ESG framework is ideal to measure the initial and continued effectiveness of the implementation of these measures. The ESG framework pushes the business to gather and continually monitor result data and this enables the business to control and ensure that the effect of sustainable systems introduced is being maximised. ESG also provides measures for understanding and controlling policies within the human resources aspect of sustainability which again help the business keep a balance in its approach to managing its people.
At Corinthia we are currently investing in a total of 2MWp PV installations over our properties and have undertaken energy efficiency projects in six of our hotels with a view to extending this to all our hotels. In all our properties we are undertaking projects to reduce waste and single-use plastics. We recently launched the company sustainability policy and this is now being converted into a strategy. This will ensure that Corinthia implements action plans that keep it at the forefront of sustainability.