A music solution that grows with your brand
About Harbour Hotels
Harbour Hotels sure has a lucky place to call home. Nestled along the beautiful South England coastline, this luxury hotel brand is riding the tides of success and in an exciting stage of expansion.
The Harbour Hotels:
- Started as a chain of five waterside properties, and has since expanded into vibrant city and countryside locations
- Pride themselves on their stunning locations and award-winning restaurants and spas
- Has new opens on the horizon
- Are striving to evolve into a full lifestyle brand to match the new diversity of their portfolio.
We sat down with the woman at the helm of many of these changes, Jennifer Needham (Head of Entertainment, Events and Partnerships), to discuss how Harbour Hotels were using music as part of their growth and rebrand strategy.
Take a listen to Harbour Hotel’s playlist
Why Music? Creating a profitable guest experience
Guest experience has always been paramount at Harbour Hotels.
“Without music there is no lifestyle, and vice versa,” Jen explains. “Music defines the personality of a social space. This is why it’s a key part of our rebrand strategy.”
“Music works on an emotional level, but also from a revenue-generating perspective. If you’re in a space where you’re enjoying the vibe and the music, it’s the difference between deciding to go elsewhere or staying for another cocktail.”
“Without music there is no lifestyle, and vice versa. Music defines the personality of a social space. This is why it’s a key part of our rebrand strategy.”
Jen points to the American Airways olive story, where the airline found that simply by eliminating one olive from each passenger’s salad plate they could reduce costs by $40,000.
“It’s those momentary decisions – to go for another glass of wine or pint – that can add up massively,” she says.
The problem: music for building identity
Diversity, adaptability and control were key issues for Harbour Hotels, particularly in the face of expansion.
Harbour Hotels needed a music provider that could work across their business levels:
- On a COMPANY level provide music to consistently communicate their new lifestyle brand ‘DNA’ across sites
- On a SITE level curate music to reflect each hotel’s unique locale and clientele
- On a VENUE level deliver dynamic music to match the atmosphere and demographic shifts of each space throughout the day
Harbour Hotel’s previous music provider had struggled to achieve this multi-zoned, multi-site flexibility. And their use of DIY solutions in the spas and gyms had proved time consuming and ineffective.
Ambie’s solution: versatility and control
We worked closely with Jen to define the personality of each hotel and venue space, and curate the perfect playlists.
Ambie provided:
- Centralised music control and easy management access
- Playlists tailored to each hotel, venue and location
- Dynamic music that shifts throughout the day, can be adjusted in the moment, and is updated every month
“Although under the same ‘Harbour Hotel’ brand, each of our hotels has a completely different personality,” says Jen.
“Just look at the bars, for example. Our Bristol Gold Bar has a speakeasy vibe. It’s cool, compact, luxurious – where you’d head to on a date. Our Guildford Long Bar, however, or our Southampton HarBAR are places where you’d go with your girlfriends or boyfriends for a party and a good night out.”
“With Ambie, we looked at all these things. We looked at trading patterns and chatted to the local team to get the right sound. They even found Bristolian trip-hop for the Gold bar!”
“We chose Ambie because of the flexibility of their music curation, the ease of their system, and the personal approach they brought to everything.”
And each of our playlists are dynamic, just like the spaces they play in.
“Sometimes you find you have a randomly busy Monday afternoon. Ambie enables you to make changes quickly,” adds Jen. “You can jump to a new playlist, skip a song or bump the volume to best fit the live atmosphere of a room.”
“We chose Ambie because of the flexibility of their music curation, the ease of their system, and the personal approach they brought to everything.” Thanks Jen!
Find out the Hyatt Andaz London, The Montcalm and Bespoke Hotels have all switched to Ambie. Request your free music sampler here.
