Delta Hotels
When NOT to trumpet a great price.

Case History
Ever heard of a hotel achieving a 97.6% annual occupancy rate? It’s quite a story – and, so far as we know, the first time it’s been told. Here goes.

With its builders close to finishing a student residence building in downtown Toronto, the owners ran out of money. The property was picked up for the proverbial song and a little-known hotel company from B.C. chosen to convert it into a hotel. The hospitality trade buzzed. 'Delta Hotels? Who? And how can they turn that into a hotel?!’

Guest rooms weren’t exactly large. Ditto the lobby. Elevators would be scarce at peak check in and out times. A somewhat-seedy (then) Gerrard and Yonge location was barely on the plus side of the ledger. Though a noted interior decorating firm from down south did a first-rate job of making surroundings look as though they were meant to be cozy, the new hotel might have been politely termed “a challenge”.

The Chelsea Inn was due to open its doors within a few months (planning to trumpet a remarkably low room rate, courtesy the low building cost) when Delta’s president sent a marketing envoy to Toronto. The mission: ferret out a new ad agency. Enter Q Group predecessor Norman Lowe Associates.

We became a key member of the launch team (in fact, Norman Lowe acted as the chain’s Marketing Manager for the first few years) – and we took a different tack. Trumpeting the rate, we said, would cheapen the product. Our recommendation: concentrate on communicating atmosphere via specific and out-of-the-ordinary examples of good taste and hospitality. From décor to bellboys, the president's impeccable taste and civility were being echoed in the product; we suggested that be continued in the theming of the restaurants and other venues. With our input, the coffee shop was named ‘The Kitchen Garden’ and became a restaurant.

We worked closely with the President to create and produce materials that would reflect the themes: ‘The Kitchen Garden’ menu cover was a watercolour of a gardener whose plants were being trampled by dogs, horses and huntsmen in pursuit of a fox. We used the same English country inn approach to name the other food and beverage outlets, as well. For example, the small, high-end restaurant was named Wittles, in visual as well as verbal memory of a short-tongued Dickens character. In the lobby, a round-’n-red English “pillar box” awaited guests’ letters. Antique features were strategically placed. In-room collateral materials were equally whimsical. For the opening celebration, Chelsea’s mayor was flown over from London.

Our campaign for Toronto's Chelsea Inn featured items such as the above, and conveyed the hard-to-define qualities of gentility and such. In the opening advertisements beautiful four-colour photography and specific copy underlined the point. The price was buried in a P.S.

There wasn't enough money to make a splash by running lots of ads, so we made sure that what we did solidly positioned the hotel – and we made sure that it had impact.

Thereafter, very little media advertising was done. Instead, most communication was directed at hotel guests, with everything, especially in-room materials, concentrating on the cozy inn theme – in the second-largest hotel in Toronto. Cheeky!

Result? The Chelsea Inn was near full, year round. Except for Christmas.

Next festive season, ads were placed in towns and cities within driving distance of Toronto, inviting people to change their plans: enjoy the festivities with their near and dear and then retreat to the inn for peace and quiet, a nice room, a comfy bed – and their own bathroom. That filled the last few empty corners. As we recall, it was also the year the Chelsea Inn hit a 97.6% annual occupancy rate. And ‘unheard of’ Delta went on to became a leading hotel chain.


Footnote: We simply cannot close without saluting a great hotelier / businessman / entrepreneur. For their then-president Bill Pattison, Norman Lowe Associates helped Delta open hotels from Pacific to Atlantic and all points between as it grew rapidly to national chain status. Today, semi-retired somewhere near Victoria, we hear that Bill enjoys lecturing college students on the travel industry. Listen good, you lucky kids! Nobody knows his stuff like Bill Pattison.