The boss of one of Manchester's most luxurious hotels has revealed how it went from "pure survival mode" at the start of the pandemic to coping with a "tsunami of guests" once restrictions started to be lifted.
Kumar Mishra, general manager at The Edwardian Manchester, A Radisson Collection Hotel, also detailed how the hotel has bounced back after being forced to cut around 40% of its workforce in order to survive.
But the GM also revealed how the hotel is now feeling the pinch due to the current cost of living crisis and how it's trying to emphasise the "two jewels in our crown" to entice guests away from its closest rivals.
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History
The hotel is partly set inside the Grade II*-listed Free Trade Hall in Peter Street which was built in the mid-19th century on the site of the Peterloo Massacre.
The hall was constructed to mark the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846.
The building was owned by the Manchester Corporation and was bombed during the Manchester Blitz in 1940.
It was the main concert venue in the city until the Bridgewater Hall was constructed in 1996. It also served as the main home of the Hallé Orchestra
Over the years the likes of Winston Churchill, Charles Dickens, the Sex Pistols and The Smiths all appeared at the venue.
The hall was closed by Manchester City Council and sold in 1997 ahead of the opening of the hotel in 2004.
The Edwardian now features 263 bedrooms and is home to Peter Street Kitchen which serves Japanese and Mexican food.
A £12m reimagination
Kumar Mishra took up his role as general manager at the hotel in July 2018, having previously held the same position at The Hampshire Hotel in London. Before that, he was general manager at Vanderbilt Hotel in the capital.
When he moved up to Manchester the hotel was undergoing a £12m transformation which lasted for just over a year. The hotel was then rebranded from Radisson Blu Edwardian in October 2019.
Speaking exclusively to BusinessLive, Mr Mishra said: "When the company took the reins of the hotel, it was the iconic hotel in Manchester along with The Lowry.
"Over time, the market changed and evolved and we hadn't necessarily seen the hotel evolve in the same way.
"We decided that we had to reimagine the spaces to be more befitting to the time we were in.
"This is a sizable building and it's one of the biggest hotels in Manchester. To have completed the work in the time we did and with the budget we had while being fully operational is not seen, heard or appreciated in our industry as much as it should.
"We're extremely pleased and proud of the work we did and it's very much the vision of where we wanted to be.
"Our vision was always to be very ambitious and put up a very stylish yet very elegant, neat and clean hotel with crisp, clean lines all the way through."
'The two jewels in our crown'
The hotel exists in rarefied air in Manchester, competing with the likes of The Lowry and the nearby The Midland and Kimpton Clocktower Hotel.
With competition fiercer than ever, how does the general manager and his team of c.250 work to stand out?
The general manager said: "All of these are extremely good hotels. They have invested into their properties in a very timely manner and they also have the firepower of remarkable brands behind them, each of which are prepared to do what it takes to steal business from one another.
"But ultimately these are very well run, professional organisations who want what's best for the city. That competition, in my eyes, is very healthy.
"Each of us knows what our unique selling points are. For a hotel like ours, we're quite privileged to have the two jewels in our crown - Peter Street Kitchen and the spa and gym.
"What those two facilities do is bring people down to the lobby and it creates a very unique experience that you pretty much only get in our hotel.
"It's very different to what you would experience in the other top hotels in Manchester.
"They're all wonderful but I think the experience a guest could have in each of them are very different."
Covid and cost of living
Like all businesses, the hotel was not immune from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Just over 40% of staff lost their jobs in the initial months of the first UK lockdown as the business attempted to shore up its finances.
According to accounts for Radisson Hotel Manchester Ltd, its turnover fell from £21.7m to £5.5m in 2020 as a result of the pandemic.
Mr Mishra said: "It's a process that nobody ever wants to repeat again.
"It was a horrible time and we didn't know how we were going to pivot and what decisions we were going to have to make for survival. At the start, we were in pure survival mode.
"We had to make some tough decisions such as putting people on furlough and having to reduce our headcount.
"As soon as we saw signs of recovery we were able to bring back quite a few members of staff who were extremely pleased to be back with us.
"We were able to pivot quite quickly and were lean enough to manage the ongoing challenges and the demand we had at the time.
"People were suddenly remembering how beautiful the UK is and that a staycation is not a bad thing.
"The hospitality industry supports a large number of people in employment so it was important that the UK Government supported staycations during the pandemic.
"There's always criticism for some of the decisions that were taken but on the whole it has benefitted the industry substantially.
"The decision to encourage people to meet within safe spaces in the UK was brilliant.
"But the challenges are not over yet and in my view the next two to three years are going to be hard."
On the cost of living crisis, he added: "Our challenge is that we will have to be more cautious and not as confident about the future.
"That's not a great place to be, particularly when you want people to spend money.
"What we have started to feel the pinch is that people are being a little bit more cautious, and quite rightly so, on where they spend their money."
The future
On the hotel's future, Mr Mishra said the hotel values stability and is playing "the long game".
He said: "The plan at the moment is to cement where we are. It's all about stability. When you're in a long game, two or three years is absolutely nothing.
"It's important for us to note that in the long run the future is extremely bright for the hotel and the industry.
"It's not doom and gloom but we have to be able to ride through where we are right now.
"Our priority for the next three to five years is to continue to offer what we are at the moment."
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