25 Jul 2023
Words John Miller Informer 107

A Radisson Individual

A little more than six months into his new role as Managing Director Australasia of Radisson Hotel Group, Lachlan Hoswell has ambitious plans to drive the group’s growth here.

Lachlan Hoswell
Managing Director Australasia
Radisson Hotel Group

While the 114-year hotel giant has an international presence of more than 1,700 hotels in operation or development, including an operating portfolio of over 100 properties in India and 76 in China, its presence in Australasia is limited to four hotels with one each in Melbourne, Sydney, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

In Australia, the group’s two flagship properties are Radisson on Flagstaff Gardens Melbourne and Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel Sydney.

Since joining Radisson in October 2022 after an 11-year stint as general counsel and commercial officer for Minor Hotels, Hoswell has been tasked with driving the group’s expansion in a huge expanse of territory that includes Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and other islands in the Pacific.

“We’re looking to aggressively grow our portfolio in this region,” says 50-year-old Hoswell. “Obviously, you always want more hotels in Sydney and Melbourne. But we’re also keen to get ourselves into markets like Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide, Gold Coast, Auckland and Wellington.

“And when you go to the islands themselves, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, they’re all places we think the group can do well in.”

So far, Hoswell has signed two new hotels to be constructed in Queenstown, the 171-key Radisson Blu Hotel, Queenstown Remarkables Park and 257-key Radisson Queenstown Remarkables Park, which are next door to each other and within walking distance of the Queenstown Events Centre and close to the Remarkables ski fields.

Radisson Hotel Group also has a pipeline of new openings for Lake Tekapo, located halfway between Queenstown and Christchurch, Eden, and Radisson Collection hotels in the Blue Mountains and Queenstown.

“We’ve also had letters of intent signed this year, and we are close to finalising a number of these,” he says. “Radisson Hotel Group has a portfolio of well-known global brands, and we have an extremely strong presence in leading international source markets for Australasia like China, India and Europe.

“We’ve been focused on innovation and our strategic priorities are constantly evolving so that we not only deliver strong revenue but do so efficiently to better serve our owners and partners.”

Hoswell says the group’s agility enables it to put forward better commercial terms than other big majors.

“We do different deal types,” he says. “We lease as well. We’ll underwrite our management agreements. We’ve got a new franchising package we’re putting forward this year that we’re looking to include services like revenue management and reservations. So, we know when our brand is on the door we’re going to make a difference to owners.

“It’s not just about distribution. It’s about what services we can add that are going to make life better for a franchisee. Our revenue management services allows owners to have access to their own specialist dedicated revenue manager who has the latest revenue management systems to maximise their performance at cost better than having a revenue manager onsite. Even things like our essential reservations’ hours. If an operator wants to operate only between 9 am and 5 pm, but they want to redirect calls of a night-time, they can redirect calls to us.”

Another useful string to the group’s acquisitions bow is Radisson Individuals, its affiliation brand. This allows an existing hotel to join the Radisson family but retain its own individuality. The offering sets the group apart from other major hotel brands. In 2022, the group made its first foray into Papua New Guinea this way by opening the 156-key Grand Papua Hotel in central Port Moresby.

“When you’re talking top tier hotel groups, our Radisson Individuals brand is unique,” says Hoswell. “The smaller hotel groups have what’s called a ‘white label’ presence, which means they operate the hotel, but you don’t know they do. The majors don’t do that.

“Radisson Individuals will be a very compelling regional brand because it allows an existing hotel to plug into Radisson Hotel Group’s global distribution, but they can keep their own brand.

“Their property is what it is but is referred to as a Radisson Individuals property.

“It means it’s a low transition cost to an owner as well. So rather than us sitting there and saying, look it must be a Radisson Hotel, these are the brand standards, you need to change all your showers, change your furniture, change this, change that, provided you sit in that upscale market segment you really don’t have to do too much to jump onboard.

“A lot of individual owners like to hold onto their individuality, so I think there’s some strong merit behind our Radisson Individuals brand.”

Hoswell thinks the Radisson Individuals brand would be perfect for established upscale hotels on the Gold Coast, Brisbane and Sunshine Coast.

“For us, a good management rights offering, whether it’s Gold Coast, Brisbane or Sunshine Coast, Radisson Individuals could be a perfect fit,” he says. “I know there are a few conventional competitors in that space, but they’re not going to give you the global presence of Radisson Hotel Group.

“For us to be able to introduce some additional services like revenue management, reservations and other key things we can support them with, I think that could be a good fit for properties who want to broaden their client base.”

Hoswell is a 20-year hospitality industry veteran. He began his hospitality career as legal counsel for Wyndham in 2002 in their development team, then with Accor where in addition to his in-house legal role he rose to the executive team.

After four years with Accor, he joined the up-and-coming Thai-headquartered Minor Hotels where his legal and commercial roles synergised. Hoswell says the fusing of his roles helped his transition to his new role with Radisson.

“When I was at Minor my role evolved, so pretty much the last five years at Minor I was leading development,” says Hoswell. “I was overseeing the legal team, but I wasn’t tools-on anymore.

“I oversaw the property team, the contract team, sat on the executive committee, and I was a director of the organisation.

“I had already started moving in a different direction within Minor. So, I had a lot of knowledge to take with me into Radisson Hotel Group. Obviously, Radisson Hotel Group is very different to Minor.

“But with the network of people I have, and the brand Radisson Hotel Group is, this allowed me to make the transition relatively smoothly. So far, so good.”

Hoswell says one of the biggest changes he’s seen in his two-decade career has been the rise of the Chinese and Indian tourist markets.

“Australasia is seen as a very desirable location to holiday for these markets,” says Hoswell.

“We provide natural beauty with a well developed tourism industry, and a safe environment to travel.”

Since 2018, Radisson Hotel Group has been a subsidiary of Jin Jiang International, which is one of the leading hotel operators with a global portfolio of over 11,000 hotels.

“Jin Jiang’s loyalty program alone has 180 million members,” says Hoswell. “The size of the Chinese market, we just can’t comprehend that volume as a membership base.”

As for the group’s plans in Australia, Hoswell sees regional areas getting stronger with international visitors on top of the already well-established tourist destinations.

“It’s going to open up more regional tourism to international travellers, which I think will be a positive trend in the future,” he says.

Based in Radisson Hotel Group’s Sydney business unit, Hoswell resides in Buddina on the Sunshine Coast, where he finds himself on weekends when he’s not travelling.

“I’ve been fortunate to work for some of the best hotel groups in the world but still live in one of the best places in the world,” he says. “I’m very blessed to live where I do and have the job that I do.”

While hard pushed to name a favourite Radisson hotel, Hoswell says the group’s Fiji property is something special.

“I love Fiji and the Radisson Blu there,” he says. “It’s on Denarau Island, which is a great spot to be. That’s the one I love to escape to.” END