Interview with Joaquim Clos, General Director of Derby Hotels Collection

"The investment we have made in technological and digital transformation is not only for the external customer but often for the internal customer as well."

We took advantage of the Fitur fair to explore the challenges, achievements, and trends that are shaping the tourism sector in the complex post-COVID recovery scenario.

We had the opportunity to interview Joaquim Clos, General Director of Derby Hotels Collection. He is a prominent figure in the hotel industry, known for leading one of the most innovative hotel groups with vision and strategy. With a passion for art and culture reflected in each establishment, Clos has positioned Derby Hotels as synonymous with exclusivity and a unique guest experience. His leadership is characterized by the fusion of luxury hospitality with cultural and artistic heritage, marking a before and after in the concept of hotel stays.

In an interview where Joaquim highlights 2023 as a record year for the chain, driven by digital transformation and projects resumed post-pandemic. He also shares how the adoption of emerging technologies and the migration of systems to the cloud have significantly improved operations and customer experience. He emphasizes optimism for 2024, where a continuation of the positive trend is expected despite global economic challenges, supported by a change in consumption habits that benefits the hotel sector.

Xavier López, CEO of EISI SOFT, and Joaquim Clos, General Director of Derby Hotels Collection

How has 2023 been in terms of challenges within Derby Hotels? Where have you focused, and what have been the biggest challenges facing the sector that you feel proud of as an organization?

In the end, we are defining 2023 not only at Derby Hotels but for the vast majority of colleagues as a record year. It has been the year when we finally saw the numbers after the pandemic. During the second half of 2022, things started to pick up significantly, and in 2023 it has only grown, allowing us to close with revenues about 15% higher and resume certain projects that were pending before the pandemic stopped us, many of them related to this digital transformation. It is a significant investment of resources, such as for the PMS change, where we have opted for the cloud. Therefore, we have already migrated all servers to Tesipro cloud for all hotels, and another major project we are also undertaking with the system change, also to the cloud, is in the financial and storage area, where we have partnered with Business Central. This includes the significant BI project, which has been growing since the pandemic, where we have invested in expanding the internal team and deepening the program.

For us, this good year has allowed us to resume a major renovation we had planned in London, the complete renovation of the Hotel Caesar, where we have been able to keep 50 rooms operational, making the renovation even more challenging but satisfying. It's been a year since we started the renovation, and we expect it to take possibly another year and a few months to complete, preparing the hotel for next year.

Worse things have been seen. Trying to do a renovation alongside the operational part is one of those challenges we really enjoy.

Correct, but the fact that it's combined with a city like London, which continues to surprise us every year, and with the hotel at half capacity, it won't be a record year because we lack rooms, but we are happy, as we said.

Derby Hotels has always been an organization that has advocated modernization in management. What tangible benefits are you really seeing within the strategy and investment you are making in digitalization?

The investment we have made in technological and digital transformation is not only for the external customer but often for the internal customer as well. I think certainly for the internal customer, for our entire team, when we make system changes, we always do so with a view to retaining talent. In the end, technology only adds to any project, and for me, it is a vehicle to continue motivating the team to keep growing. And obviously also for the customer, all these new technological alternatives that are emerging, from Chat GPT, artificial intelligence, etc. 

In a year, we will have to update this interview...

Absolutely, and maybe I was a bit more reluctant to what I see now, which ultimately is a way to convey and deliver a message. With the brutal competition today, that allows us to continue differentiating ourselves.

How do you see 2024, and what do you think could be the next trend in the hotel sector?

In the end, it is increasingly challenging to make forecasts and know what to expect for the coming year. Today, in our case, after a record year, our forecast is that the trend is positive. In our case, we wanted to be somewhat conservative, as good businesspeople, asking for growth, but not 5% or 6%, rather we saw a 2%. But, as the beginning of the year looks, the budget has been exceeded by far. The upcoming months are expected to be similar, and despite the global economic crisis and recession messages, I think there has been a change in habits. People, regarding us, the hospitality sector, do not have the habits they used to have, and what they do is seek that escape valve which, in our case, is very positive, as it helps grow those bubbles in the sector that have really been supporting us in recent months.