Old-world Charm Meets Automation: New England Inns & Resorts with Deborah Burns, Executive Director of New England Inns & Resorts Association

New England’s old-world charm is best captured by the idyllic, charming inns and resorts down backcountry roads, in the midst of beachside towns, and on the perches of snowy mountains. New England Inns & Resorts (NEIRA), established in 1907, makes it easy to explore over 300 resorts, inns, bed and breakfasts, hotels, and motor inns. Deborah Burns, NEIRA Executive Director, gives an inside look into how the care and personal touches are powered by strategy and the latest technology.

The “Distinguished” podcast is produced by Boston University School of Hospitality Administration.

Host: Arun Upneja, Dean
Producer: Mara Littman, Director of Corporate and Public Relations
Sound Engineer and Editor: Andrew Hallock
Graphic Design: Rachel Hamlin, Marketing Manager

Music: “Airport Lounge" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Transcript

Arun: Welcome to the Distinguished Podcast, produced by Boston University School of Hospitality Administration. I'm Arun Upneja, Dean of the school. Today, I am pleased to welcome our guest, Deborah Burns, Executive Director of New England Inns and Resorts Association, or Neira. The association represents over 300 New England resorts, inns, beds and breakfasts, hotels and motor inns since 1907. So, Deborah, tell us about your role at Neira as the Executive Director, and what is the mission of the organization?

Deborah: Thank you for having me today. So, I am the Executive Director, so I work for the Board of Directors. We are a lodging-based association. We function very similar to a Chamber of Commerce, but only for the lodging industry. We have about 300 members, as you mentioned, and our mission is to increase the business success of our members through marketing, education and networking programs. As Executive Director, I am responsible for accomplishing the overall mission of the organization and driving the strategy of increasing the business success of our member properties.

Arun: So, tell us about something about the properties. What is the range in terms of size of these Inns and Resorts, largest to smallest?

Deborah: The diversity of our membership is quite vast. So, our smallest property is a four-room bed and breakfast on the coast of Maine, and our largest property is about a thousand rooms. It's a resort in the urban environment. So, the diversity of our membership helps us actually accomplish our mission because it's really to bring guests to our member properties. And so, we really have a solution for any type of vacation or getaway that someone is trying to make because they can go visit the four-room bed and breakfast or a large urban resort. Typically, they are independent properties throughout New England. We do have quite a few that are part of either management groups or ownership groups, but it's really a vast diversity amongst our membership from a property type perspective.

Arun: I really like the name New England Inns & Resorts. It's kind of connotations of the past and some historic and so forth. But I am curious to know what percentage of them are independently owned, what percentage of them are part of some bigger chain, and are there management companies that are managing them or the owners themselves manage them?

Deborah: It's a little bit of both. We have seen a lot of acquisition amongst the industry, particularly in New England. So about 50% of our membership is affiliated in some way with either a management group or an ownership group. The other 50% are more independent owned, sort of independent properties. What happens with the management companies for us is that they still are sort of independent in that they are unique in each of their own characteristics, but they are managed by streamlining services by these management companies like Lark Hotels, Main Street Hospitality Group, Olympia Hotels, those kinds of groups. So we've seen an increase in the last few years in sort of this consolidation or acquisition of properties within the membership.

Arun: One of the charms of visiting these historic properties is that the owners who live on site are the ones to welcome you, and perhaps they might style their management and create a separate group that manages the hotel, but in many cases it's the owner that is on site as well.

Deborah: Yes, yeah. There are certainly some of those bed and breakfasts that the owner is living on property and welcoming each guest and making beds in the morning and dinner at night kind of thing. But we also have the larger, as I said, the larger resorts or hotels that maybe have a general manager that's doing all of that. Certainly the personal touches are still there, and you still get that independent sort of entrepreneurial spirit. But it's not always the owner that's on property.

Arun: A lot of people have the dream of owning a property like that and doing a bed and breakfast, and I'm included in that list as well. So hopefully in my next career. So the next I want to ask you about this concept called pleasure travel. So pleasure travel is defined when people are traveling on business, but they tack on some extra days. So they're combining business and leisure travel. So and this was it gained traction, you know, right towards the as the pandemic was ending. So what is the impact of leisure travel on Neira members? Is it helping the business? Are there any drawbacks to this?

Deborah: It is absolutely helping their business. It allows them to have an extended stay for someone who maybe is traveling for business, but particularly in the family segment will bring their family with them and stay for a few extra days. They're still connected because they don't actually necessarily have to be in the office. So they are connected and able to experience our member properties in more of an extended period of time. So sure, it's absolutely helped the member properties. I'm not sure the business is driving the vacation as much as it was during the pandemic, where now it's people really want to go on vacation and they're allowed, they're able to stay and still do business because they are still more connected, more than ever.

Arun: So like I said at the beginning, I really like the ring of this word, New England Inns & Resorts. I think of traditional; I think of historic, but the two words that don't come to my mind are modern and innovative. So what are the Neira members doing front of the guest or at the back end? What kind of technology is being put into place? Are there any recent improvements, marketing, advertising, reservations, housekeeping, security?

Deborah: The charm in the lore of New England is still there, but our members are certainly innovative, particularly within operations, recruiting, for sure. Any kind of housekeeping and security, advertising, the innovation really comes in the back end and the operations of the organization. They're really careful to make sure that none of that jeopardizes the guest experience and the true New England experience that you can have. So our members are very focused on integration of systems and technology and maybe having some communication tools that allow guests to text even prior to arrival, so that when they get to the hotel, they have their reservations for the evening or they have their activities already scheduled and they can do that via their mobile phone. Even properties that use their mobile phone as keys are still escorting the guests to their rooms so that there's that extra touch, but it's never at the expense of the guest experience.

Arun: So innovate and modernize at the back end, keep the old-world charm at the front end. So I think this is the big issue that we are facing in our industry, which is recruiting and retaining talent. So what have you, first of all, do Neira members face this? And what are some of the solutions they've come up with for this issue?

Deborah: They absolutely are faced with this, and they've really made an effort in the last, I would say, 18 months to focus on retention of employees and making sure that the employees that are working hard every day, sometimes long shifts, really feel appreciated and valued, and that the programs in place are really to support them. In addition to recruiting, some of the international H2B and J1 programs have returned to some extent, so some of the international workers have certainly helped take the burden from a labor perspective. Many of our members are implementing systems where they are accepting candidates via text or email, and some of our best practices that we've shared in the last year or so to help them through this is really responding quickly to any kind of candidate who does apply for a position. We've also seen lots of sign-on bonuses, referral bonuses, stay till the end of the season bonuses for the employees. So it's really about appreciating and retaining the employees they have and, of course, getting new employees to supplement, but it is certainly something that they have struggled with, particularly during the high seasons.

Arun: So this is a good time for people to apply for jobs at Neira member properties.

Deborah: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Arun: And if anyone has ever had ambitions of opening an Inns & Resort, you can go and get experience working for a property now.

Deborah: Yes, we recently opened or formed an educational foundation, the Neira Educational Foundation, and we've been awarding scholarships for hospitality students for about 10 years now, but one of the missions of our educational foundation is really to help someone that has an interest in coming into working for a hotel or a resort in the hospitality industry and maybe would start at the front desk or start in housekeeping or start at the valet and eventually help them move through workforce development, education and training into higher level management positions, director level positions. So it's one of the things that our industry and our hospitality educational foundation is really focused on.

Arun: Deborah, there are a lot of stories in the media about visa problems that people face when they want to come to the United States, either as a student or to visit. And you mentioned that Neira members are using H2B visas and J1 programs. Have the members faced any problems in their employees getting to the US in terms of just getting access to visas, getting appointments at US embassies and consulates worldwide?

Deborah: Yes, for sure. It's gotten better than it had been in the last 12 months or so. The lottery for H2Bs is really the key there, and using law firms that can assist with that process is always something that we recommend. There's certainly more work to be done in that area, but it has improved slightly, I would say. 

Arun: So along the lines of worker shortage is how to automate repetitive tasks such as vacuuming. Of course, there are machines for many such tasks, but that's easier said than done. For example, vacuuming a room in a historic bed and breakfast cannot be easily mapped by a robot vacuum, or maybe guests may not find it that exciting to go into this charming New England property and have the room service delivered by a robot. So just curious to hear, what do Neira members think about automation and robotics in their properties?

Deborah: Yeah, the robot vacuum hasn't been something that's been widely started, particularly in those historic properties or the unique rooms that exist with the properties for their part in New England Inns & Resorts. So every room is a little bit different. You can't map it out. And they've told me that really vacuuming is the easiest part of cleaning a room. It's some of the other touches. But there's certainly innovation that's happening, as I said, in the operations side.

Many of our members are using artificial intelligence for some frequently asked questions, whether that's on their website through a bot or it's through the text tools that they've implemented. And kept track really of what the frequently asked questions are and make sure that if someone has a question that is quickly answered and escalated to an actual human being, that can answer the question if it's not something that's frequently asked. We've also had artificial intelligence beginning to be used when it comes to automating the night audit in the books and the integration of systems.

So the robot is more on the back end. From a sustainability perspective, we have many members that no longer put water in the room because they're trying to save the plastic and the time for the staff that has to go in and put the water in the room, but they create these beverage stations on every floor. Many are using more glass type vessel type solution so that you can fill your water bottle a million times during your stay, but you're not using that plastic. And it's also providing the service for the guests and it's helping with staff time and resources. So maybe they could be there to welcome the guests versus being there filling, you know, putting water in a room. So lots of innovation from a technology standpoint, but never at the expense of the guests.

Arun: So when I am interacting with a property online and I am thinking that I'm actually chatting with the owner, I might actually be chatting with a bot.

Deborah: Yeah. You can tell. You can certainly tell. And when it's a frequently asked question like, where can I park or what time does the restaurant close? Those are the easy questions. The bot will never replace that personal touch or the concierge type experience that you can have at one of our properties.

Arun: So I can always pick up the phone and speak to someone.

Deborah: Yeah, of course.

Arun: And you are not yet have put in bots which are answering the phones.

Deborah: No.

Arun: So you mentioned sustainability. And so I'm curious to hear what is the perspective of the owners and managers in terms of sustainability? Are they willing to invest to make their property sustainable? Are the guests that are coming, are they asking for and demanding sustainability efforts in the hotel?

Deborah: The short answer there is absolutely yes. Our members are very focused on it. They're focused on the environmental sustainability as well as the building, the staff, their own teams. Keeping everybody at a level that they can remain energized is certainly important. But from an environmental standpoint, it's a very large focus for both the property owners and the guests. The guests do want to see efforts made from an environmental sustainability standpoint. They are embracing, from our perspective, they're embracing the use of some of these new innovative solutions, like the beverage stations on each floor as opposed to in each room, the text communication that's happening. So you're saving having to print and use paper, but we're also seeing that the use of QR codes for menus and wine lists and that kind of thing is helping with the use of paper. But they also want to see, they may want to hold a wine list if they're in a luxury resort.

So they're very cautious to make sure, as I said, that it's not affecting the guest experience, but it is something that is worth the investment. Sustainability is a big piece for our members and guests are certainly looking for it, especially in the luxury space.

Arun: So high on sustainability, charming New England Inns & Resorts, automating at the back end, keeping their rustic charm at the front. Any message, Deborah, you want to give to people who are considering a vacation, why should they consider New England Inns & Resorts?

Deborah: That's a great question. So our mission is to really help the guests find the perfect place for them to stay. So we know that the New England experience and the experience you're going to have when you visit a property that's part of New England Inns & Resorts is part of the experience, it's part of the vacation. You're visiting a historic property, you're visiting a unique scenery, you're visiting a beautiful foliage, you're seeing the coast of Maine or the mountains of Vermont or you're having maple syrup from Vermont. It's really part of the experience when you come to one of our properties.

Arun: I can't wait to come and enjoy. Thank you. So Deb, at the end I have for fun a few questions to ask you. Just tell me whatever comes to your mind first. New England Patriots or Boston Celtics?

Deborah: New England Patriots.

Arun: Dunkin's Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew or Pumpkin Spice Signature Latte?

Deborah: Oh, Pumpkin Spice Signature Latte.

Arun: Good answer. Beach or mountains?

Deborah: That's a hard one, but I'd have to say beach.

Arun: Oysters or fried clams?

Deborah: Oysters.

Arun: Deb, thank you so much. It was a pleasure to talk to you today.

Deborah: Thank you so much for having me. Prior to this, I had the honor of being a guest speaker in one of your intro to marketing classes, and I truly enjoyed meeting all of the students and really talking to them about their projects and what they were working on and some of their questions regarding the hospitality industry. They were very attentive and just a lovely group to meet. They had lots of interest in learning more about New England Inns & Resorts, and I sent them to our website. If they're interested in either taking a vacation, buying a gift card, or as they work into as hospitality workers, visit our website and hopefully maybe become a member sometime in the future. Like them, Dean Upneja, you are an honorary member and Boston University School of Hospitality Administration is an honorary member of New England Inns & Resorts. So it's our honor to have you part of that group and hope to see you at our annual conference and some of our other events throughout the year.

Arun: Absolutely. I look forward to it. Thank you for joining us today. Special thanks to the team who produces this podcast, Mara Littman, Andy Hallock and the entire team at Boston University School of Hospitality Administration. To keep up with the Distinguished podcast, be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. You can also learn more about our undergraduate and graduate programs at Boston University School of Hospitality Administration by visiting bu.edu/sha.