In this episode of the Tech on Toast Podcast, Chris Fletcher is joined by Jo Morgan, Operations Director at The Other House, for a brilliant conversation on how modern hospitality is evolving — and what it really takes to scale a hybrid hotel model that blends flexibility, technology and heart.
Jo shares her journey from Yorkshire pot-wash to cruise ship director, through to leading one of London’s most exciting hospitality concepts. They talk scaling without losing culture, how tech like Mews and Lightspeed power better experiences, and why warmth and human connection still matter most.
🔍 Topics include:
Life at The Other House and the launch of Covent Garden & Belgravia
Why hospitality needs flexibility — for teams and guests
The real role of tech (hint: it’s not all QR codes)
How to nurture and promote your best people
What AI could mean for the future of hotel teams
🎧 Whether you’re a hotelier, tech provider or just love great operational stories — this one’s for you.
🧠 Powered by our friends at Lightspeed
👉 Book your demo: lightspeed.co.uk/techontoast
📍 Hosted by Chris Fletcher
📨 Connect with Jo on LinkedIn
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Hello and welcome to the Tech and Toast Podcast.
My name is Chris Fletcher and this is season 12.
Tech and Toast Podcast is serving up fresh chats with the
sharpest minds in hostility and tech.
If you're looking to level up your up, streamline your
service, or just sprinkle a little tech magic into your
business, you've come to the right place.
And guess what? Our partners like to be the back
this season to look after us. They're the Epossum payments
platform helping over 165,000 businesses.
(00:26):
Businesses such as Big Mama, Mildred Mallow, and Cubit House,
they'll help you scale it. You guessed it, the speed of
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(00:48):
check out Lightspeed Capital. No hidden fees, no interest
charges, just smart support whenyou need it.
If you're curious about all of this, just head over to
lightspeed.co.uk/tech on Toast and book yourself a free demo.
You won't regret it. Now look at that, ready for the
next episode? Let's go.
(01:10):
Welcome to the next episode of Tech and Toes podcast.
And today I'm delighted to be joined by Joe Morgan, OPS
director at the Other House. But Joe, we're in a different
environment there. Normally I'm in Brew Dog.
This is Voor Boss's head office.What do you think it's?
Really cool, it really is like the tech's.
Amazing the Scouser and someone from Yorkshire sitting in a very
shiny posh office. I know.
I mean, it took me about four years to find it.
(01:31):
I was wondering aimlessly. Right, no to the next guest I
should probably provide. It's not easy though, is it?
It's really not. I even looked out the window to
see if I could see the point where I'd got to before I got
lost. No.
Oh. Dear and and and as I bore
everyone every week, I'm a big fan of the other house.
I'm staying there tonight and asyou're at the Naomi told me
Naomi it's founder and CEO. So Naomi told me that I'm I'm
(01:52):
the record is that is this correct?
I'm the record state I've got the most amount consecutive
stays in the other house outsideof the residence.
Outside of the long stay residence, yes.
OK, it made me feel a bit weird but I love it.
I don't know. Yes.
You're home for when you're in town or the house or the house.
That's that Chris, you are literally the epitome of the the
the type of guest that. Could have gone anywhere but
(02:14):
you. You finished it.
No, really it, it really is like, you know, you're in London
for work. You want the flexibility of
having somewhere to stay with all the hotel services and all
the meeting space that you need for your work and stuff.
But also like you said to me theother night, you know, I'm just
going to grab some food and chill out in my flat and just
just switch off from the world. And that's kind of the benefit
of the other house. You don't.
Have like about. It in a box.
(02:35):
So I don't have to be social if I don't want to, but also I can
be really social if I want to be.
So yeah, it depends. And tonight I'm going to use the
pool. Do you know?
I've never used it before. It's so nice.
But on a bit, I told you now my sales director is on my case.
I need to lose some weight. So she's I'm in a competition
with the stuff I'd unless I justsit here all day and do nothing
and have to do something tonight.
So I thought I'd do a few lengths and wave Trevor in the
(02:56):
bar. That's a bit weird though, isn't
it? Can they ask?
Can they see in? Yeah, you can see in, yeah, we
do have people there is blinds. We have people really put the
blinds down. But then we have other people
that like to sit there because the whole idea is it's like kind
of in the evening it goes kind of Piazza and then the pool
would be in theory. No one wants me naked on their
Piazza. In either.
Anyway, look, Joe, obviously, soyou work at the other house, but
(03:18):
we'll get to that point in a minute.
Tell us a little bit about you, your background, how have you
got to this point? Because you obviously you're a
Yorkshire ass. Yes.
So yeah, I've been in hospitality kind of all my life.
I started working. I actually my first job was
working for my friend's mum in contract catering.
And I remember standing in her kitchen when I was about 1516
and she was teaching us how to silver serve frozen peas and
(03:39):
butter patties. Indoctrinated early.
Yeah. And then I got there with all
these great grand ideas. I was going to silver serve all
these really important people. I ended up washing up dishes in
a dustbin in the back of a marquee.
But yeah, I've literally done every job from pot wash to GM
and in multiple locations and countries.
So started off in kind of catering and restaurants and I
(04:01):
was part of the first team at TJFridays in Leeds.
Such a great company by the way,especially without being rude to
you in that era when you were there.
I think probably the best on theHigh Street.
Awesome. Internationally as well.
Yeah, I mean, it was absolutely fantastic.
The training you got and the, the service standards and the
processes were like nothing I'd ever seen.
And I even use bits of it. I hear myself saying to people,
(04:24):
time to lean, it's time to clean.
And that's the TGI Friday saying.
And so then, yeah, I, I wanted to be a lawyer.
I know, right. And my, my teacher, my A level
teacher said to me, Joe, I can see you do really well in a
courtroom because you just don'tshow up.
But I can't see you spending sixyears in a library And I can't,
(04:46):
I just, I think, I don't think this is the path for you.
And then she said, have you considered hospitality?
And I thought, actually, I do that as a part time job and I
quite like it. And when I looked at it, it was,
oh, you can, you can do studies at this.
And I did a degree at Sheffield Halem in hotel and catering
business management. And can I just say that our.
Lives are really weirdly. So I did Leeds, I was down the
road in Leeds literally at the same time you were in Sheffield
(05:08):
then. And I, I did, I went to do law
and dropped out and did hostility.
Oh my God, now that is and. My son's about to do law.
It's really creepy, but I, I actually think it's a really
common theme across people in the industry that you have hopes
and dreams when you come out of school or, or you don't know
what the hell you're going to doand you end up in this and the
people that do really well stay forever, right?
Like you have, and I have nearly, I'm clinging on just
(05:31):
talking to people like you. Sorry.
Your hospitality adjacent. Yes, yeah, I'm still here.
Yeah, I'm still poking in, but carry on.
Sorry. So you went to you, you
finished, You did a course at Sheffield.
Yes, I did a hotel management degree at Sheffield.
As part of that I worked out in the States, I worked on
Nantucket Island, which is like a five star resort which was
nuts suspending the summer out there.
(05:52):
And I was training to be a chef with them.
And then I realised that whilst this is great fun, it's and more
suited in the people sort of space.
So I'd been in the kitchen at TGI, then training to be a chef
in the resort, thinking I'd kindof want to go down like the chef
restauranteur route. And then there was space on
reception and I started picking up shifts on reception.
(06:12):
I never really looked back then from being in front of house.
I worked in France for Eurocamp and ran a campsite, lived in a
tent for eight months. I mean it was a nice tent, it
had like a fridge and electricity, but it was a tent
A. Tent with a fridge.
Interesting. It was lovely.
So that was, yeah. And I came out and lucky and
I've got a position on the Marriott graduate scheme and was
(06:32):
with Marriott for six years now.That was full on in like full on
standards processes, hotel management, really structured.
And yeah, from there I just worked all over, worked for
different companies, worked. It was part of the team that did
the rebrand of regional hotel company called Paramount and
(06:53):
Barthelo, the Spanish company kind of came over to the UK and
took over all the hotels as partof the team that did that.
I worked for Thistle and GLH forabout 5 or 6 years and both in
the UK and then out in their properties in Asia.
And then I got approached to work on cruise ships and I was
like, I've never even been on a cruise.
And they're like, no, no, we want a hotelier.
We want like a hotel operations person to because.
(07:15):
They want your standards, right?Yeah.
So I did 3-4 just over three years at TUI running the Marella
cruise ships. Did 3.
I've given TUI more money than Icare to.
I swear to God. Those people owe me.
How is that, though? That's quite interesting because
obviously you're, I know you're moving around because you're on
a boat obviously, but that feeling of not being on land and
(07:39):
you know, did you feel like thator is it just work or are you
just kind of in the. Motion, it's just work You you
spend a lot of time on deck going.
That looks like a lovely place. I should go there.
It sounds really everyone's. Getting off.
As everyone's in port getting off and then that's when the
real work starts. But it sounds really glamorous,
like travelling all over the I mean, I went everywhere I went,
Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Caribbean, Mexico, all over
Europe. I never managed to get on a
(08:01):
Nordics cruise which I regret. I've done that.
This is beautiful. I would have loved to go to the
fjords. And it's still on my list.
You can. Do it now if that was a guest.
But yeah, it sounds really glamorous, but you see a lot of
the inside of planes, cabins, taxis, and you see a lot of
place from the deck of a ship, but you don't.
Almost like being in a boy band.That's what I always hear boy
(08:22):
bands say, that they go all overthe world, but they never leave
the hotel room. Yeah, yeah, I Can't Sing either,
so that would be a challenge. The 6th member Spice Girls never
aware of her. But no, yeah, I mean, that was
great. But having my daughter, she was
quite young at the time and it got to the point where I was
spending too much time abroad and away from home.
(08:42):
So I came back and just fortuitously came back to the UK
just before COVID hit, so that, I mean, obviously no one saw it
was coming. I came back kind of late summer
2019 and by six months later we were in lockdown.
So that was really challenging. I when I came back to the UKI
was working for a charity doing holidays for disabled people,
(09:07):
which was just amazing. It was so rewarding and just
brilliant. Yeah, I really believe everybody
deserves to have a holiday and deserves to have a really good
time. So how do you help someone that
might have barriers to that in aregular resort or a regular
holiday? You normally think of, right?
You wouldn't even think twice about packing your bag and going
on holiday. Not at all of.
(09:27):
Course you want to go. So we had resorts, but they were
all fully adapted. We had on site carers, nurses,
all of the, you know, full wet rooms, profiling beds, all of
the all about Kitten. We were full 90% of the time.
There's three resorts, one in Southampton, one in Epping and
(09:48):
one in Southport. You probably know Southport,
yeah, very well up in the northwest and it was brilliant.
But come COVID, our whole customer base disappeared
overnight cause the first group of people that we told to lock
down was anybody with, you know,who had any kind of reason to.
Shield I mean, I know I don't want to, you know, the pandemic,
(10:08):
you try and forget it, but you, you, I've had a few instances
last two weeks talking to peoplewhere you forget some of the
impact not just on people, but on trade as well on business
that that would have had very quickly, which then knocks on to
people as well, like you who work for a business like that.
And and as you say, that business wasn't really about,
I'm sure it was about profit. It was a charity.
Yeah. But it was more about the what
(10:30):
you just said at the start of it, that it was so rewarding for
you personally as well as actually for the people taking
part. And that just gets taken away
very quickly. That must be quite that must
have been quite a quite a momentfor you.
It really was, you know, to remove what was sometimes the
the only break, the only difference between 4 walls that
an individual got and to take that away.
(10:51):
But also for the people caring for them because they also need
a break. And it was an opportunity to
either come on the break with the person that you care for,
but the care element was taken away and you could just relax.
Or you could go on holiday as a carer knowing that your loved
one or the person that you caredfor as a job were taken care of
and looked after in a proper environment.
(11:12):
So you could relax knowing that the person that you care about,
he's in the right place. Yeah.
So all of that was kind of takenaway.
And being a charity, we were like, Oh my gosh, what do we do
now? And we reached out to the NHS
and we're like, we've got rooms,we've got beds, we've got
nurses, we've got carers. You've got a massive crisis on
your hands. Can we help?
(11:33):
And we literally started runningstep down.
So getting people out of hospital who didn't have COVID
but were recovering from hip replacement or just needed to
recover, but they also had like dementia, so they needed to be
in a protected space. So just to free up beds, but
also protect those people from being in hospital where they
could have got COVID because at that point we it.
(11:54):
Was potentially more dangerous there than it was outright.
So we did that and did that for nearly a year.
Well, no, probably about 7-8 months.
And if I'm honest, there's a hotelier.
I was suddenly like a clinical director.
It was scary as hell. And I was like, hang on, I'm not
the right person. And everything was just getting
worse and worse and worse. Was going to the back of 2020
and I just said, look, I don't think I'm the right person to do
(12:17):
this. And blessed the charity agreed
with me. The board of trustees were like,
yeah, no, we don't either. It's not great, is it, when you
say that to the boss? Look, I just don't think it's
just me. Yeah, we agree.
Yeah, morally, I'm sure you probably need this is not right,
but also you probably need someone a bit more experienced.
So I left there, they got a clinical lead, so that was
absolutely the right thing to do.
But then I find myself in the second lockdown with no job and
(12:39):
that's when I started contracting.
And then that's when a year, 18 months later, someone who I knew
was working with the other house, I got a project with
them. And then I've kind of been there
ever since and. The rest is history.
Yeah. Can you do this?
Can you do that? Can we, can we get you to do
this? And.
For people who don't bore reading my social media tell us
what the other house is and because obviously you have the
(13:01):
one property in Kensington and soon to be followed by Covent
Garden, but tell us what it whatit is and what it its purpose
is. So it's a residence club which
is kind of a a hybrid of different areas of hospitality.
So the idea being is you've got kind of apartment style living
with hotel services, private members club, access to Wellness
(13:23):
facilities. But then we've also got a street
St. brasserie, we've got beautiful cocktail bar.
So it's kind of bringing lots ofdifferent elements of
hospitality together, but not putting it in a box.
So, you know, we have club flatsrather than just having
bedrooms. We do have some standard hotel
rooms and. I don't even know that I had to
(13:43):
stay in one a few weeks ago because there wasn't
availability. And I ended up in a in a bedroom
and I was like, oh, where's the rest of my stuff?
And they were like, that's just a bedroom.
In the kitchen. And that's, so that's how much
I've been indoctrinated that I can't, I was like, I can't live
without my little bit of the flat because as you were saying,
that's the one of the big appeals about that place, the
flexibility. Yeah, it, it, it really is.
And we, we, we have people who book on booking.com and come for
(14:06):
a couple of nights, you know, I'm a tourist in London or book
on our website or, you know, allthe different engines.
And then we have people who comethrough travel agents and people
who come through letting agents for longer periods.
And then we have people who livewith us, like we have some
residents who've stayed with us since the very, very beginning.
And if you think about it, you're paying a set fee.
And if you think about this versus renting in London, but
(14:28):
this includes all your utilities, your council tax,
your Wi-Fi, your gym membership,your private club memberships,
concierge security, you name it,it's all included.
Plus you're in a space where people know you.
And I'd like to think it's friendly.
It's it's very safe and it's beautiful smells.
Great. Everyone says that.
(14:49):
I can't tell you. Every time I take someone there,
they walk and they go. Just smells great.
It just smells nice. Yeah, that's pretty bad.
Don't put that on your. Website.
No, no, no. It's true.
We have our own fragrance. We've even made candles from it
because people people talk aboutthe.
Smell. I need a candle.
OK. Good, you need a candle.
I will remember. Actually, do you know what I
don't because I want it to be. That's my place.
It's not for the kids and for the missus.
(15:10):
It's for me when I come down. But, and and I think when I
first met the original general managers, I'm sorry, when you
guys first opened, it was very much meant to be all, all the
idea was that you guys were changing the game a little bit
around not being tech heavy, butreally looking about how the
experience should be within the building.
Kind of not all, I'm trying to think of the right word, but
(15:31):
seamless. Is that right way?
It is, yeah. I mean, we've got our own
bespoke app that guests can use and it depends how much you want
to interact with something like that.
So I mean, you can even look andsee how busy the gym is because
it's connected to the heat mapping comes off.
There you go. So you can use it for the
standard things that you could use for like checking in and
(15:52):
using as the key, but you can also see different elements of
the operation. And we'd be developing it even
more for Covent Garden. But then back of house, we've
got a really significant tech stack.
We try to really enable guest service.
So all of our kind of property management systems, Epos,
everything's kind of linked up so we can get decent reporting
(16:12):
off it and understand the straightforward stuff like
revenue and cost. Has that been a challenge in the
past in your previous jobs in inhotel That because my
impression, I don't know enough about it yet and I'm teaching
myself, but my impression of thehotel tech stack is that it's
old or, or there's a couple of main players who kind of run the
PMS part, which basically is theheartbeat, I suppose of
(16:32):
everything else you do. But you guys have Muse who I
think are like one of the like not disrupting a little bit or
doing they are kind of the new kids on the block.
No, no, they're not new. But do you know what I mean?
And Lightspeed in your restaurant.
I think, sorry, I'm such a geek.I know what there's I am there a
lot. But I think that's it's
interesting that you've embracedthat rather than going down the
Oracle route or whoever it was who you might have worked with
(16:53):
at Thistle or? I mean, I'm AI don't know how
much you know about hotel PMSS, but I'm a Fidelio girl where the
screen was bright blue. You only had a keyboard and it
was DOS based. So I'm that old.
We you couldn't even use a mouseon it.
I remember when we first saw Opera, which was like the, you
know, the, the, the, the new up to date version and we were
like, what is this great thing with with a mouse and you click
things. Where is my keyboard shortcuts?
(17:15):
Was that the one used to? When you used to go on the top
corner of each part of the screen to Oh my God you see a
lot with the same. Yeah, it's yeah, yeah.
And the the old mic cross and open food.
I miss it. I.
Think it's Micros 3700. I think that is the original
Micros, which now I was talking to someone the other day who has
50 restaurants who has that still in in place.
In fact, you would know them because you would have pressed
(17:36):
those screens once in your career, not saying any more, but
they still have that from when you were there.
And that's not a joke. So that kit doesn't break, but
it also isn't advanced. It just shows that I find it
interesting everywhere I go thattech is, you know, depends how
much people are wanting to invest or what, what whatever.
They're on their journey. But you guys seem to have
embraced it, embraced it early, but not in your face.
(17:57):
Is that fair to say? Yeah.
No, that is absolutely fair to say.
We had discussions around havingyou know, like virtual concierge
and having like touch screens and we've explored the whole QR
code thing. And what we really tried to do
is be resident LED. So what works for our residents
and obviously we have different types of residents and we've got
(18:18):
to kind of meet the needs of a real mix of people at any.
Time because you've got yeah, because you've got people who
live there as you say, which is like bizarre in any circumstance
for the team because they're there every day with them as
well. And then you've got people like
myself who are regular but not living there and then you've got
the in and outers, like you saidon the train on we're walking up
here. You were saying when Wembley's
full or when there's a big marathon's on, you guys
(18:38):
obviously get the impact from that and I'm guessing you have
to cater to all of those withoutpreferencing 1.
Good. Look.
No, exactly. It's very true.
And this is where that kind of flexible hybrid, this concept of
hospitality comes in because youhave to consider the
conversation we had. So right, OK guys, we've got 400
people in house on Saturday night.
(19:00):
It's marathon, it's cup final. We know breakfast is going to be
busy. So how do we how do we deal with
that so we don't get slammed? OK, well, marathon people are
going to be eating early, so let's get ready for that.
Let's have lots of grab and go stuff ready for those.
Let's make sure we've laid up the bar.
So if we overflow, we've got somewhere to overflow to.
Let's get everything pre prepared so we can turntables
quick and doing all those use things so that if you want
(19:22):
marathon, you want to come down,grab a coffee, grab a banana,
get on your way. Or you want to be like take
things to go because you want togo find the best spot in
Greenwich or whatever it is. You can do that if you're having
a lovely lazy weekend and just so happen to pick the marathon
weekend because you didn't realise we should be amazed
people do. Yeah, unlucky.
You can still have the nice leisurely, lazy breakfast and
not feel like everything's been decimated before you got there
(19:45):
and you've just walked into the bum fight.
So it's trying to balance all those things, but then also
trying to really communicate with people who do live with us
or stay with us regularly to saythings like actually there's an
event on here tonight, so it's going to be really busy.
We can recommend elsewhere or wecan.
We've opened this area for you because unlike a kind of
traditional hotel which have meeting spaces and banqueting
(20:07):
spaces, we just have amazing. And cool spaces and we turn them
into whatever a guest resident, a member wants them to be.
But then we've got to make sure that doesn't negatively impact
everyone else in the building. And it's all that, that open
communication and making sure wherever possible we've got
something for everyone. It's a juggle, but it's it's
fun. And I think when you look at
(20:28):
what restaurants have done, the kiosk movement is becoming more
and more relevant, whether a little ones on your phone, big
ones, whatever, it's becoming more and more relevant because
head count is becoming difficultto manage and not just difficult
to get, but difficult to pay forbecause things are hard.
But I actually think the hotels that resist that.
And that's why one of the thingsall over that place that when
you walk in, I still get that human interaction, but I've
(20:48):
already checked in, I'm already done it.
I'm already ready to go. I just need to get my key or I
don't even need to get my key. I can just do it on the app.
So it, it, there's choice. I think that's what I'm trying
to say that that that choice element in technology is still
very still not being done very well by everybody.
But I think you guys seem to have on that journey and kind of
nailed it for now. That's good to hear.
That's what that that's certainly the aim.
That's certainly the aim. I think the choice is, as you
(21:10):
said, a guest can interact with us as much or as little as they
want to. They can speak to the team, get
to know the team. I think, you know, you sent me
some feedback about Georgie, like, you know, get to know the
names of the guys. It was positive.
I know it was it was lovely. I was, she was chuffed to bits
by the way. But have that those meaningful
interactions and have people whoreally deliver the service and
(21:34):
make that lasting impression, which is one of our core brand
pillars. Or not be the microphone.
So, so Leeds that. And then you can literally have
somebody who walks in the building, they've checked it on
their phone, and they're straight up to their flat, and
we don't see or hear from them the entire time.
And that's because that's how they want to interact.
No, I love that. And and one of the important
things about other house, I think, and you're opening Covent
(21:54):
Garden, which we'll talk about in a second is the neighborhoods
are quite important to you, aren't they?
As in you really kind of Naomi was saying they really kind of
it's important to include the area in what you're doing.
And it feels like when you walk past it, it doesn't look like a
hotel. It looks like it's meant to be
there and it's flats or whatever.
So how do you incorporate that into like operationally?
And it must be difficult to kindof be a community, serve all
these different people, enable them all through technology.
(22:16):
How do you kind of include the neighborhoods in your day-to-day
kind of running of it? So we so make sure that as you
first of all said, we don't looklike a faceless hotel and look
like somewhere that you can't come in unless you're a guest or
a member. Obviously we have lots of people
who are members who are part of the locality, which helps.
So then we will bring in people who want to do events for our
(22:37):
members in our members club and be part of that event
programming. And then we put on a lot in the
spaces that are available for everyone.
So like in the other kitchen browserie, for example, we have
jazz brunch on a Sunday. We have D Jing out and out in
the Owl of Monkey on a Friday night.
He's got quite a good following now.
We have happy hours on a Monday and a Tuesday.
We do a parativa which is reallypopular on a Wednesday.
(23:00):
Come and have a drink you have. A bit of a parativa.
Parity. Yeah, It's like my favorite
night on a Wednesday. I walk in.
It's just such a call out. On a Tuesday, quickly move it
to. Happy hour on a Tuesday, OK?
Yeah. But yeah, we try to do lots that
open the space up for the community to join.
And then, you know, we make surethat there's all there's nods
(23:20):
towards the community. So even the names of the
corridors, for example. So your flat address, you don't
have a room number. You have a flat address.
Yeah, that's pretty cool. The names of the corridors are
all linked to different either celebrities or famous people or
important people who are part ofthe area.
So Spencer is from about the Lady Diana Spencer and Marley's
after Bob Marley because he usedto live down there.
(23:41):
Do you? Know what I didn't even think?
Oh yeah, yeah. So.
Spencer a lot. OK, that's very cool.
And Covent Gardens coming up. And what is, I suppose how close
to Kensington? Obviously you're in a different
area because you're amongst the you're really are amongst the
tourists in that part. You're in theatre land, aren't
you? How how different will it be to
Kensington and kind of what's the opening look like?
How far away are you from getting it done?
(24:03):
So Q4 this year, it's really exciting. close, Yeah, very
close. I was there last week.
Just looking at like how the progress week on week now, it
seems really fast, yeah. It's crazy, isn't it?
Yeah. When you've been looking at a
shell for so long, then all of asudden boom.
Yeah, yeah. It's so it's 7 buildings joined
together. So it's the whole block between
the like the Piazza and the Lyceum Theatre.
(24:27):
Four of the buildings are listed.
So all of that comes with its own challenges in construction
and refurbishment. Yeah.
Oh, you see that corridor? You can't put that corridor
there because you're not allowedto knock down that wall.
Can't be moved. Yeah, that, that staircase, I
know you say it's not wide enough, but you can't make it
any wider. So yeah, it's, it's not without
its challenges, but it's going to be stunning.
(24:48):
But the other house concept is very much kind of siblings, not
twins. So there is another kitchen,
there is an owl and monkey. So you will if you recognise
that brand, you'll feel like. Nods to the.
Current, but it won't look exactly the same.
So it'll have certain elements that are the same, but it won't
look. I know.
I can't afford to stay there though.
I think it'll be it'll be a little more priced than
(25:09):
Kensington. Probably it will be more
pricing. To service the audience.
Right, Yeah, I mean, the demand around there is huge.
We've already got people asking us about membership.
You know, we just, we've just properly launched the club at
South Ken with our events programme and we're really
driving membership down there now.
And we've already got people going.
Yes, this is lovely. We really like it.
When's when's Covent Garden opening and when can I put my
(25:30):
name down? And it's kind of like, Blimey,
we haven't even opened membership for that yet.
That's super exciting. And then you've and you've got
and someone told me there's a third one.
Yeah. So we purchased a site at
Belgravia. So it's the old Belgravia Police
station, just download from Victoria.
So we purchased the site there awhile back and Planning
Commission has just finally all gone through.
So we're hoping to start work onBelgravia, ideally later this
(25:54):
year. Joe, I feel like your temporary
consultancy role, which was a year ago, is no longer going to
be really like you're dancing with the devil.
But that's exciting, right? Especially for you and, and in
terms of scaling the challenges that come with that with people
like we talked about Georgie, whether does Georgie go and help
in Covent Garden or does she go to Blood Gravy or does she stay
in Kensington? I'm not.
(26:15):
I'm literally just making that up.
Yeah, I don't know, Georgie, if you're listening, I have no idea
where you're going. But you know, those challenges
will come up, right? And you'll be, I suppose you'll
be tasked with those challenges.How do we open this?
How do we do it with the same vibe?
How do we not break the other things while we're doing it?
Is that a big part of your role coming up now for the?
Yeah, it really is. So there's kind of two, two
parts of this. So there's the brand.
So we have brand pillars that wetry to make everything build on
(26:40):
those pillars. So we want to make sure that we
create a home for people, a place that people really feel at
home, allow people to be in control.
So when we talk about the the access to things, you can be as
involved or removed from the operation as you like as a
guest. And then we always want to make
(27:01):
a lasting impression. So whether it's the maximalist
decor, whether it's the team, whether it's the the food that
you have, the cocktail that you have, we want everything to
leave you with that. This was great.
This was, this was a really positive impression.
And then sustainability goes through everything we do.
It's not just one of those things that we say right from
sourcing, right from which suppliers we use, what do we
(27:22):
buy, where do we buy it from? How do we take that forward?
What actions do we do on property, even the construction?
We have Briam awards, we have Grasby awards to everything that
we're doing is focused on sustainability and having that
positive impact on our locality and, and sort of legacy moving
forwards. And then from a people side of
(27:43):
things, we build all our training around those pillars
and we really focus on developing and growing our own
in the, I'm so proud of this. In the last two months, we have
internally promoted 7 people. It's very cool, 7 people in two
months. We've promoted within department
(28:03):
from team member to supervisor. We've had people promoted from
one department to another. So for example, our goods
receiver itself, Ken's been promoted to procurement at head
office and then Tone say names. But yeah, one of our rumoured
public area cleaners has been promoted to the goods receiver
role. So we've been able to really
(28:23):
offer opportunities to people. And then in the recent round of
performance reviews, we've spoken to everybody about what's
your ambition and do you want tobe part of Covent Garden?
We don't want to RIP the heart of South Kensington either.
No, no, I wouldn't dream of it. You'd never forgive me, but
where can we really capitalize on the talent that we've got in
Covent Garden? And then what?
(28:43):
What opportunities does that offer for people kind of in the
wings itself can to make that step up?
I think it's a super. It's interesting.
I bring it up because I scaled afew restaurant chains in my
career and that's the pinch point, right?
When you've got to grow. And it's different in hotel
world because one property's like 10 restaurants, you know,
because you're more staff, more people you're serving or maybe
more. And that challenge of having to
(29:05):
almost pick and choose what you do next.
And, and you know, you have those kind of aces in places,
those people you always lean on,you know, and, and it's not fair
sometimes because you actually lean on them because you, you
know, they give you security, you know, they'll deliver a job.
And it's, it's just that that choice you make there.
And then how do you do that? I mean, because as you go into
that bit, now you've will the technology just expand from what
you've got in Kensington and you'll just literally follow
(29:27):
that road map. Yeah, it really will.
I mean, that's part of the reason why a lot of the tech
that we've chosen was chosen because of the scalability of
it. The fact that you can add
another property by either increasing licenses or moving to
a multi site model. We have also got a lot of our
technology has open API so it can connect to other systems and
(29:48):
then we basically everything links up and pumps the
information up to a data lake, which then we can get Power BI
reports from and things like that.
I mean, I have never worked anywhere where every morning I
am literally fed. The exact performance of every
single outlet is in my inbox really before I've had a cup of
coffee and. It's, it's that relevance of
(30:09):
data. I also talked about this that
that you don't want to be sent 20 pages of something that might
be important for the exec or whoever.
But really, you know, for day-to-day, I need to understand
what's happening in my building that kind of relevance.
And I think only tech can reallyis, is really being able to kind
of service that now, which is super interesting.
And that's why you built. And I remember that I remember
Naomi saying that that was builtwith that purpose, right?
Wouldn't it, although it may seem we're buying lots of stuff
(30:30):
for for one site, this is never going to be 1 site.
This is got one property. It's going to be more
properties. Very interesting.
And if you could, I'm going to give you a magic wand.
If you could have a magic wand and you could build anything to
help you in a day-to-day. It doesn't have to be the other
house, but in day-to-day operations, if you wanted
something to help you, a tool that would help you kind of run
your day better, kind of look after the team, whatever it
(30:51):
might be, what would you like? Almost.
If you had, I mean, tech wise, Ithink we really need to explore
AI because we use it without even realizing it.
Like in Muse for example, you put it, if I put in Chris
Fletcher into Muse, it will giveme a summary of your previous
stays. And if you've ever raised any
feedback or anything like that or anything that you like, it
(31:13):
brings me up like a summary of the guest.
And we take that stuff for granted already.
And actually I think we could use that.
More on an employee side or on acustomer or boat because I, I
find it, I think the employee side's quite interesting about
that. I see a lot of people, we're
doing it that people where you can, you're taking all of these
manuals, all these documents, everything you've ever had and
(31:34):
they're pumping them straight into the kids hands.
But it's relevant again so they don't have to fan through 20
recipes or 52 about TJ fryers. How many cocktails did you used
to have to learn? Oh God.
I used to have an ironing board at home and I used to practice
on the ironing board, my flaringand.
Oh, I'm trying to remember. Was it 100 and 1000 and am I
going no it? Was over 100, they caught Talis
was over 100 and you had to pass.
(31:54):
And they knew them, right? Yeah, the bartenders.
Knew Oh my God, I was a was it dub dub the I was oh.
My God. So and I, I didn't know them
because I was. Only everybody tried to learn
them though, didn't they? The guys, honestly the guys that
ran those bars who were super like who knew 100?
I mean insane. Those people must be like mad
scientists by now or something. Quite possibly.
Or dead. They also lived a good life.
(32:17):
But yeah, but that kind of knowledge though, it's leaving
the industry, right. As it said, me and you are at a
certain age where we're looking at the new lot coming up and it
is different whether you like itor not or harp on about it, it
has changed. It's changed.
It's what do the generation thatare coming into the business
now. And you've got people who joined
(32:39):
the industry at my age like that, late teens, early 20s,
when I was when I joined the industry.
But we socially isolated them for two years, Yeah.
And then we and then they live on a screen and then we wonder
why they struggle to interact with.
People I sit with, my kids, particularly the I've got 3, the
oldest 1, not so much because hewas kind of through GCSE at that
point. So he's kind of developing what
he wanted to do. But my teenage daughter, I mean
(33:01):
just teenage daughter, just tells you what you need to.
Know yeah, I've got 1. And then a younger boy that they
were really impacted particularly by that more social
actually than educational stuff because they were learning at
home. But it was, you can see it in
the, you can definitely see a gap.
And I, and I think that gap in the way tech has evolved.
It's definitely going to change the future and the people we
look after. So, yeah, I, I, I think about
how do we get that relevant input to these people's hands?
(33:23):
It's, it's, it's a challenge, I think.
And the turnover is high, right?Yeah, the the turnover is high
and getting good people, yeah, is high.
Is, is is really challenging. And then when you do have good
people, it's really trying to look after those good people
because of course everybody elsewants them.
You know, as much as I was saying, you know, it's been
amazing to promote people and I'm so proud of all of those
(33:45):
individuals you. Also want them.
Yeah. I always think don't do a
profile on them. Someone will come and nick them
because that's what I've also had.
I've got really good people thathave left or leaving because
they're really good and they've been poached or they're at the
point where because we're still quite small, we don't have that
step to offer them just yet or it's just not a step we have
(34:07):
within our operational structure.
And so they're having to step out and I'm proud of them and
I'm chuffed with them. But I'm also all right, bye.
Come back when you're a bit moregrown up and you've and I can
have you bring you back in. Please don't leave.
No, it's it's a thing and something that poor people like
you and previously me had to suffer all their careers.
Look, I I love catching up with you and we have we've been for
(34:28):
dinner, but it was a bit more boozy last time I saw you, I
think. Yeah, but and I am obviously
might bang on about it. Huge fan of what what you guys
do and I think obviously properties are made to look
pretty and people spend a lot ofmoney on the Capec and invest
them and all that kind of stuff.But you can't affect, the only
way you can affect what I feel in there is the operations.
So that's for me to you to say thank you for that because I
(34:51):
think that's when you're in a restaurant or a bar.
We were in a restaurant in Cornwall last week and it was
absolutely beautiful place, diabolical because just because
there was no it felt dead inside.
I can't explain it the way there's no warmth, you know,
there's nothing that. But at the other house is
different. You get that?
Like The Walking down the corridor on Spencer St. you bump
(35:11):
into like the one of the cleaners and they're, hey, how
would you like? And you know that people are
trained to say how I don't ignore people kind of thing.
But it's different. I can't explain why it's kind of
different to all the warmth. So yeah, you should take massive
credit for that. And and if people want to reach
out to you and kind of bug you about Covent Guard, about gravy,
yeah. I mean, a lot of tech people
listen to this, so I'm, I apologise in advance, but can
(35:33):
they reach out to you? Is it LinkedIn?
Is the. Safest place.
LinkedIn is the safest place. Yeah, absolutely happy, happy to
talk to people. Yeah, we've got a lot of tech
built in, but you know, we're we're always interested to learn
about. Crazy they'll be.
They'll be out here now. Knock.
On the door. No.
Lovely. Thanks very much.
What does the rest of the week look like for you?
(35:54):
We've got 90. Is it 90° somewhere?
Top of. This.
Yeah, it's supposed to be like my poor parents are in Cyprus
and apparently it's going to be warmer here.
I feel really bad. Really.
I'm going to Cyprus soon. Don't say that.
Oh, I love still warm though, isn't?
It yeah, it's still like 2425° out.
There, fine, don't worry about them.
We're sat in a room with egg cups on the walls there by the
beach. Yeah.
So yeah, yeah. And.
And when, what does the future look like for you?
(36:15):
Then obviously you've got CoventGarden.
Q4 and then Belgravia would be end of next.
Year Belgravia, yeah, late 26, but probably more likely 27
because it's a it's a really significant project and
everything we do, we was talkingabout sustainability earlier on.
So everything we do is very muchwithin that.
It's not just knock it down or RIP it out, Chuck something up
it really. Is.
(36:37):
No, I mean, it really is like whatever we're removing, how do
we reuse these things? How do we make it sit right
within the area? I mean, there's there's a
beautiful tree that we're preserving and all kinds of
stuff. So can't.
Wait to see the tree. All right.
Well, that was Joe Morgan. Everybody say bye.
Bye, Joe. Bye, bye, Joe.
Thanks very much. Bye bye.
Hello and welcome to the Tech and Toast Podcast.
My name is Chris Fletcher and this is season 12.
Tech and Toast Podcast is serving up fresh chats with the
sharpest minds in hostility and tech.
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service, or just sprinkle a little tech magic into your
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And guess what? Our partners like to be the back
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You won't regret it. Now look at that, ready for the
next episode? Let's go.
(01:10):
Welcome to the next episode of Tech and Toes podcast.
And today I'm delighted to be joined by Joe Morgan, OPS
director at the Other House. But Joe, we're in a different
environment there. Normally I'm in Brew Dog.
This is Voor Boss's head office.What do you think it's?
Really cool, it really is like the tech's.
Amazing the Scouser and someone from Yorkshire sitting in a very
shiny posh office. I know.
I mean, it took me about four years to find it.
(01:31):
I was wondering aimlessly. Right, no to the next guest I
should probably provide. It's not easy though, is it?
It's really not. I even looked out the window to
see if I could see the point where I'd got to before I got
lost. No.
Oh. Dear and and and as I bore
everyone every week, I'm a big fan of the other house.
I'm staying there tonight and asyou're at the Naomi told me
Naomi it's founder and CEO. So Naomi told me that I'm I'm
(01:52):
the record is that is this correct?
I'm the record state I've got the most amount consecutive
stays in the other house outsideof the residence.
Outside of the long stay residence, yes.
OK, it made me feel a bit weird but I love it.
I don't know. Yes.
You're home for when you're in town or the house or the house.
That's that Chris, you are literally the epitome of the the
the type of guest that. Could have gone anywhere but
(02:14):
you. You finished it.
No, really it, it really is like, you know, you're in London
for work. You want the flexibility of
having somewhere to stay with all the hotel services and all
the meeting space that you need for your work and stuff.
But also like you said to me theother night, you know, I'm just
going to grab some food and chill out in my flat and just
just switch off from the world. And that's kind of the benefit
of the other house. You don't.
Have like about. It in a box.
(02:35):
So I don't have to be social if I don't want to, but also I can
be really social if I want to be.
So yeah, it depends. And tonight I'm going to use the
pool. Do you know?
I've never used it before. It's so nice.
But on a bit, I told you now my sales director is on my case.
I need to lose some weight. So she's I'm in a competition
with the stuff I'd unless I justsit here all day and do nothing
and have to do something tonight.
So I thought I'd do a few lengths and wave Trevor in the
(02:56):
bar. That's a bit weird though, isn't
it? Can they ask?
Can they see in? Yeah, you can see in, yeah, we
do have people there is blinds. We have people really put the
blinds down. But then we have other people
that like to sit there because the whole idea is it's like kind
of in the evening it goes kind of Piazza and then the pool
would be in theory. No one wants me naked on their
Piazza. In either.
Anyway, look, Joe, obviously, soyou work at the other house, but
(03:18):
we'll get to that point in a minute.
Tell us a little bit about you, your background, how have you
got to this point? Because you obviously you're a
Yorkshire ass. Yes.
So yeah, I've been in hospitality kind of all my life.
I started working. I actually my first job was
working for my friend's mum in contract catering.
And I remember standing in her kitchen when I was about 1516
and she was teaching us how to silver serve frozen peas and
(03:39):
butter patties. Indoctrinated early.
Yeah. And then I got there with all
these great grand ideas. I was going to silver serve all
these really important people. I ended up washing up dishes in
a dustbin in the back of a marquee.
But yeah, I've literally done every job from pot wash to GM
and in multiple locations and countries.
So started off in kind of catering and restaurants and I
(04:01):
was part of the first team at TJFridays in Leeds.
Such a great company by the way,especially without being rude to
you in that era when you were there.
I think probably the best on theHigh Street.
Awesome. Internationally as well.
Yeah, I mean, it was absolutely fantastic.
The training you got and the, the service standards and the
processes were like nothing I'd ever seen.
And I even use bits of it. I hear myself saying to people,
(04:24):
time to lean, it's time to clean.
And that's the TGI Friday saying.
And so then, yeah, I, I wanted to be a lawyer.
I know, right. And my, my teacher, my A level
teacher said to me, Joe, I can see you do really well in a
courtroom because you just don'tshow up.
But I can't see you spending sixyears in a library And I can't,
(04:46):
I just, I think, I don't think this is the path for you.
And then she said, have you considered hospitality?
And I thought, actually, I do that as a part time job and I
quite like it. And when I looked at it, it was,
oh, you can, you can do studies at this.
And I did a degree at Sheffield Halem in hotel and catering
business management. And can I just say that our.
Lives are really weirdly. So I did Leeds, I was down the
road in Leeds literally at the same time you were in Sheffield
(05:08):
then. And I, I did, I went to do law
and dropped out and did hostility.
Oh my God, now that is and. My son's about to do law.
It's really creepy, but I, I actually think it's a really
common theme across people in the industry that you have hopes
and dreams when you come out of school or, or you don't know
what the hell you're going to doand you end up in this and the
people that do really well stay forever, right?
Like you have, and I have nearly, I'm clinging on just
(05:31):
talking to people like you. Sorry.
Your hospitality adjacent. Yes, yeah, I'm still here.
Yeah, I'm still poking in, but carry on.
Sorry. So you went to you, you
finished, You did a course at Sheffield.
Yes, I did a hotel management degree at Sheffield.
As part of that I worked out in the States, I worked on
Nantucket Island, which is like a five star resort which was
nuts suspending the summer out there.
(05:52):
And I was training to be a chef with them.
And then I realised that whilst this is great fun, it's and more
suited in the people sort of space.
So I'd been in the kitchen at TGI, then training to be a chef
in the resort, thinking I'd kindof want to go down like the chef
restauranteur route. And then there was space on
reception and I started picking up shifts on reception.
(06:12):
I never really looked back then from being in front of house.
I worked in France for Eurocamp and ran a campsite, lived in a
tent for eight months. I mean it was a nice tent, it
had like a fridge and electricity, but it was a tent
A. Tent with a fridge.
Interesting. It was lovely.
So that was, yeah. And I came out and lucky and
I've got a position on the Marriott graduate scheme and was
(06:32):
with Marriott for six years now.That was full on in like full on
standards processes, hotel management, really structured.
And yeah, from there I just worked all over, worked for
different companies, worked. It was part of the team that did
the rebrand of regional hotel company called Paramount and
(06:53):
Barthelo, the Spanish company kind of came over to the UK and
took over all the hotels as partof the team that did that.
I worked for Thistle and GLH forabout 5 or 6 years and both in
the UK and then out in their properties in Asia.
And then I got approached to work on cruise ships and I was
like, I've never even been on a cruise.
And they're like, no, no, we want a hotelier.
We want like a hotel operations person to because.
(07:15):
They want your standards, right?Yeah.
So I did 3-4 just over three years at TUI running the Marella
cruise ships. Did 3.
I've given TUI more money than Icare to.
I swear to God. Those people owe me.
How is that, though? That's quite interesting because
obviously you're, I know you're moving around because you're on
a boat obviously, but that feeling of not being on land and
(07:39):
you know, did you feel like thator is it just work or are you
just kind of in the. Motion, it's just work You you
spend a lot of time on deck going.
That looks like a lovely place. I should go there.
It sounds really everyone's. Getting off.
As everyone's in port getting off and then that's when the
real work starts. But it sounds really glamorous,
like travelling all over the I mean, I went everywhere I went,
Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Caribbean, Mexico, all over
Europe. I never managed to get on a
(08:01):
Nordics cruise which I regret. I've done that.
This is beautiful. I would have loved to go to the
fjords. And it's still on my list.
You can. Do it now if that was a guest.
But yeah, it sounds really glamorous, but you see a lot of
the inside of planes, cabins, taxis, and you see a lot of
place from the deck of a ship, but you don't.
Almost like being in a boy band.That's what I always hear boy
(08:22):
bands say, that they go all overthe world, but they never leave
the hotel room. Yeah, yeah, I Can't Sing either,
so that would be a challenge. The 6th member Spice Girls never
aware of her. But no, yeah, I mean, that was
great. But having my daughter, she was
quite young at the time and it got to the point where I was
spending too much time abroad and away from home.
(08:42):
So I came back and just fortuitously came back to the UK
just before COVID hit, so that, I mean, obviously no one saw it
was coming. I came back kind of late summer
2019 and by six months later we were in lockdown.
So that was really challenging. I when I came back to the UKI
was working for a charity doing holidays for disabled people,
(09:07):
which was just amazing. It was so rewarding and just
brilliant. Yeah, I really believe everybody
deserves to have a holiday and deserves to have a really good
time. So how do you help someone that
might have barriers to that in aregular resort or a regular
holiday? You normally think of, right?
You wouldn't even think twice about packing your bag and going
on holiday. Not at all of.
(09:27):
Course you want to go. So we had resorts, but they were
all fully adapted. We had on site carers, nurses,
all of the, you know, full wet rooms, profiling beds, all of
the all about Kitten. We were full 90% of the time.
There's three resorts, one in Southampton, one in Epping and
(09:48):
one in Southport. You probably know Southport,
yeah, very well up in the northwest and it was brilliant.
But come COVID, our whole customer base disappeared
overnight cause the first group of people that we told to lock
down was anybody with, you know,who had any kind of reason to.
Shield I mean, I know I don't want to, you know, the pandemic,
(10:08):
you try and forget it, but you, you, I've had a few instances
last two weeks talking to peoplewhere you forget some of the
impact not just on people, but on trade as well on business
that that would have had very quickly, which then knocks on to
people as well, like you who work for a business like that.
And and as you say, that business wasn't really about,
I'm sure it was about profit. It was a charity.
Yeah. But it was more about the what
(10:30):
you just said at the start of it, that it was so rewarding for
you personally as well as actually for the people taking
part. And that just gets taken away
very quickly. That must be quite that must
have been quite a quite a momentfor you.
It really was, you know, to remove what was sometimes the
the only break, the only difference between 4 walls that
an individual got and to take that away.
(10:51):
But also for the people caring for them because they also need
a break. And it was an opportunity to
either come on the break with the person that you care for,
but the care element was taken away and you could just relax.
Or you could go on holiday as a carer knowing that your loved
one or the person that you caredfor as a job were taken care of
and looked after in a proper environment.
(11:12):
So you could relax knowing that the person that you care about,
he's in the right place. Yeah.
So all of that was kind of takenaway.
And being a charity, we were like, Oh my gosh, what do we do
now? And we reached out to the NHS
and we're like, we've got rooms,we've got beds, we've got
nurses, we've got carers. You've got a massive crisis on
your hands. Can we help?
(11:33):
And we literally started runningstep down.
So getting people out of hospital who didn't have COVID
but were recovering from hip replacement or just needed to
recover, but they also had like dementia, so they needed to be
in a protected space. So just to free up beds, but
also protect those people from being in hospital where they
could have got COVID because at that point we it.
(11:54):
Was potentially more dangerous there than it was outright.
So we did that and did that for nearly a year.
Well, no, probably about 7-8 months.
And if I'm honest, there's a hotelier.
I was suddenly like a clinical director.
It was scary as hell. And I was like, hang on, I'm not
the right person. And everything was just getting
worse and worse and worse. Was going to the back of 2020
and I just said, look, I don't think I'm the right person to do
(12:17):
this. And blessed the charity agreed
with me. The board of trustees were like,
yeah, no, we don't either. It's not great, is it, when you
say that to the boss? Look, I just don't think it's
just me. Yeah, we agree.
Yeah, morally, I'm sure you probably need this is not right,
but also you probably need someone a bit more experienced.
So I left there, they got a clinical lead, so that was
absolutely the right thing to do.
But then I find myself in the second lockdown with no job and
(12:39):
that's when I started contracting.
And then that's when a year, 18 months later, someone who I knew
was working with the other house, I got a project with
them. And then I've kind of been there
ever since and. The rest is history.
Yeah. Can you do this?
Can you do that? Can we, can we get you to do
this? And.
For people who don't bore reading my social media tell us
what the other house is and because obviously you have the
(13:01):
one property in Kensington and soon to be followed by Covent
Garden, but tell us what it whatit is and what it its purpose
is. So it's a residence club which
is kind of a a hybrid of different areas of hospitality.
So the idea being is you've got kind of apartment style living
with hotel services, private members club, access to Wellness
(13:23):
facilities. But then we've also got a street
St. brasserie, we've got beautiful cocktail bar.
So it's kind of bringing lots ofdifferent elements of
hospitality together, but not putting it in a box.
So, you know, we have club flatsrather than just having
bedrooms. We do have some standard hotel
rooms and. I don't even know that I had to
(13:43):
stay in one a few weeks ago because there wasn't
availability. And I ended up in a in a bedroom
and I was like, oh, where's the rest of my stuff?
And they were like, that's just a bedroom.
In the kitchen. And that's, so that's how much
I've been indoctrinated that I can't, I was like, I can't live
without my little bit of the flat because as you were saying,
that's the one of the big appeals about that place, the
flexibility. Yeah, it, it, it really is.
And we, we, we have people who book on booking.com and come for
(14:06):
a couple of nights, you know, I'm a tourist in London or book
on our website or, you know, allthe different engines.
And then we have people who comethrough travel agents and people
who come through letting agents for longer periods.
And then we have people who livewith us, like we have some
residents who've stayed with us since the very, very beginning.
And if you think about it, you're paying a set fee.
And if you think about this versus renting in London, but
(14:28):
this includes all your utilities, your council tax,
your Wi-Fi, your gym membership,your private club memberships,
concierge security, you name it,it's all included.
Plus you're in a space where people know you.
And I'd like to think it's friendly.
It's it's very safe and it's beautiful smells.
Great. Everyone says that.
(14:49):
I can't tell you. Every time I take someone there,
they walk and they go. Just smells great.
It just smells nice. Yeah, that's pretty bad.
Don't put that on your. Website.
No, no, no. It's true.
We have our own fragrance. We've even made candles from it
because people people talk aboutthe.
Smell. I need a candle.
OK. Good, you need a candle.
I will remember. Actually, do you know what I
don't because I want it to be. That's my place.
It's not for the kids and for the missus.
(15:10):
It's for me when I come down. But, and and I think when I
first met the original general managers, I'm sorry, when you
guys first opened, it was very much meant to be all, all the
idea was that you guys were changing the game a little bit
around not being tech heavy, butreally looking about how the
experience should be within the building.
Kind of not all, I'm trying to think of the right word, but
(15:31):
seamless. Is that right way?
It is, yeah. I mean, we've got our own
bespoke app that guests can use and it depends how much you want
to interact with something like that.
So I mean, you can even look andsee how busy the gym is because
it's connected to the heat mapping comes off.
There you go. So you can use it for the
standard things that you could use for like checking in and
(15:52):
using as the key, but you can also see different elements of
the operation. And we'd be developing it even
more for Covent Garden. But then back of house, we've
got a really significant tech stack.
We try to really enable guest service.
So all of our kind of property management systems, Epos,
everything's kind of linked up so we can get decent reporting
(16:12):
off it and understand the straightforward stuff like
revenue and cost. Has that been a challenge in the
past in your previous jobs in inhotel That because my
impression, I don't know enough about it yet and I'm teaching
myself, but my impression of thehotel tech stack is that it's
old or, or there's a couple of main players who kind of run the
PMS part, which basically is theheartbeat, I suppose of
(16:32):
everything else you do. But you guys have Muse who I
think are like one of the like not disrupting a little bit or
doing they are kind of the new kids on the block.
No, no, they're not new. But do you know what I mean?
And Lightspeed in your restaurant.
I think, sorry, I'm such a geek.I know what there's I am there a
lot. But I think that's it's
interesting that you've embracedthat rather than going down the
Oracle route or whoever it was who you might have worked with
(16:53):
at Thistle or? I mean, I'm AI don't know how
much you know about hotel PMSS, but I'm a Fidelio girl where the
screen was bright blue. You only had a keyboard and it
was DOS based. So I'm that old.
We you couldn't even use a mouseon it.
I remember when we first saw Opera, which was like the, you
know, the, the, the, the new up to date version and we were
like, what is this great thing with with a mouse and you click
things. Where is my keyboard shortcuts?
(17:15):
Was that the one used to? When you used to go on the top
corner of each part of the screen to Oh my God you see a
lot with the same. Yeah, it's yeah, yeah.
And the the old mic cross and open food.
I miss it. I.
Think it's Micros 3700. I think that is the original
Micros, which now I was talking to someone the other day who has
50 restaurants who has that still in in place.
In fact, you would know them because you would have pressed
(17:36):
those screens once in your career, not saying any more, but
they still have that from when you were there.
And that's not a joke. So that kit doesn't break, but
it also isn't advanced. It just shows that I find it
interesting everywhere I go thattech is, you know, depends how
much people are wanting to invest or what, what whatever.
They're on their journey. But you guys seem to have
embraced it, embraced it early, but not in your face.
(17:57):
Is that fair to say? Yeah.
No, that is absolutely fair to say.
We had discussions around havingyou know, like virtual concierge
and having like touch screens and we've explored the whole QR
code thing. And what we really tried to do
is be resident LED. So what works for our residents
and obviously we have different types of residents and we've got
(18:18):
to kind of meet the needs of a real mix of people at any.
Time because you've got yeah, because you've got people who
live there as you say, which is like bizarre in any circumstance
for the team because they're there every day with them as
well. And then you've got people like
myself who are regular but not living there and then you've got
the in and outers, like you saidon the train on we're walking up
here. You were saying when Wembley's
full or when there's a big marathon's on, you guys
(18:38):
obviously get the impact from that and I'm guessing you have
to cater to all of those withoutpreferencing 1.
Good. Look.
No, exactly. It's very true.
And this is where that kind of flexible hybrid, this concept of
hospitality comes in because youhave to consider the
conversation we had. So right, OK guys, we've got 400
people in house on Saturday night.
(19:00):
It's marathon, it's cup final. We know breakfast is going to be
busy. So how do we how do we deal with
that so we don't get slammed? OK, well, marathon people are
going to be eating early, so let's get ready for that.
Let's have lots of grab and go stuff ready for those.
Let's make sure we've laid up the bar.
So if we overflow, we've got somewhere to overflow to.
Let's get everything pre prepared so we can turntables
quick and doing all those use things so that if you want
(19:22):
marathon, you want to come down,grab a coffee, grab a banana,
get on your way. Or you want to be like take
things to go because you want togo find the best spot in
Greenwich or whatever it is. You can do that if you're having
a lovely lazy weekend and just so happen to pick the marathon
weekend because you didn't realise we should be amazed
people do. Yeah, unlucky.
You can still have the nice leisurely, lazy breakfast and
not feel like everything's been decimated before you got there
(19:45):
and you've just walked into the bum fight.
So it's trying to balance all those things, but then also
trying to really communicate with people who do live with us
or stay with us regularly to saythings like actually there's an
event on here tonight, so it's going to be really busy.
We can recommend elsewhere or wecan.
We've opened this area for you because unlike a kind of
traditional hotel which have meeting spaces and banqueting
(20:07):
spaces, we just have amazing. And cool spaces and we turn them
into whatever a guest resident, a member wants them to be.
But then we've got to make sure that doesn't negatively impact
everyone else in the building. And it's all that, that open
communication and making sure wherever possible we've got
something for everyone. It's a juggle, but it's it's
fun. And I think when you look at
(20:28):
what restaurants have done, the kiosk movement is becoming more
and more relevant, whether a little ones on your phone, big
ones, whatever, it's becoming more and more relevant because
head count is becoming difficultto manage and not just difficult
to get, but difficult to pay forbecause things are hard.
But I actually think the hotels that resist that.
And that's why one of the thingsall over that place that when
you walk in, I still get that human interaction, but I've
(20:48):
already checked in, I'm already done it.
I'm already ready to go. I just need to get my key or I
don't even need to get my key. I can just do it on the app.
So it, it, there's choice. I think that's what I'm trying
to say that that that choice element in technology is still
very still not being done very well by everybody.
But I think you guys seem to have on that journey and kind of
nailed it for now. That's good to hear.
That's what that that's certainly the aim.
That's certainly the aim. I think the choice is, as you
(21:10):
said, a guest can interact with us as much or as little as they
want to. They can speak to the team, get
to know the team. I think, you know, you sent me
some feedback about Georgie, like, you know, get to know the
names of the guys. It was positive.
I know it was it was lovely. I was, she was chuffed to bits
by the way. But have that those meaningful
interactions and have people whoreally deliver the service and
(21:34):
make that lasting impression, which is one of our core brand
pillars. Or not be the microphone.
So, so Leeds that. And then you can literally have
somebody who walks in the building, they've checked it on
their phone, and they're straight up to their flat, and
we don't see or hear from them the entire time.
And that's because that's how they want to interact.
No, I love that. And and one of the important
things about other house, I think, and you're opening Covent
(21:54):
Garden, which we'll talk about in a second is the neighborhoods
are quite important to you, aren't they?
As in you really kind of Naomi was saying they really kind of
it's important to include the area in what you're doing.
And it feels like when you walk past it, it doesn't look like a
hotel. It looks like it's meant to be
there and it's flats or whatever.
So how do you incorporate that into like operationally?
And it must be difficult to kindof be a community, serve all
these different people, enable them all through technology.
(22:16):
How do you kind of include the neighborhoods in your day-to-day
kind of running of it? So we so make sure that as you
first of all said, we don't looklike a faceless hotel and look
like somewhere that you can't come in unless you're a guest or
a member. Obviously we have lots of people
who are members who are part of the locality, which helps.
So then we will bring in people who want to do events for our
(22:37):
members in our members club and be part of that event
programming. And then we put on a lot in the
spaces that are available for everyone.
So like in the other kitchen browserie, for example, we have
jazz brunch on a Sunday. We have D Jing out and out in
the Owl of Monkey on a Friday night.
He's got quite a good following now.
We have happy hours on a Monday and a Tuesday.
We do a parativa which is reallypopular on a Wednesday.
(23:00):
Come and have a drink you have. A bit of a parativa.
Parity. Yeah, It's like my favorite
night on a Wednesday. I walk in.
It's just such a call out. On a Tuesday, quickly move it
to. Happy hour on a Tuesday, OK?
Yeah. But yeah, we try to do lots that
open the space up for the community to join.
And then, you know, we make surethat there's all there's nods
(23:20):
towards the community. So even the names of the
corridors, for example. So your flat address, you don't
have a room number. You have a flat address.
Yeah, that's pretty cool. The names of the corridors are
all linked to different either celebrities or famous people or
important people who are part ofthe area.
So Spencer is from about the Lady Diana Spencer and Marley's
after Bob Marley because he usedto live down there.
(23:41):
Do you? Know what I didn't even think?
Oh yeah, yeah. So.
Spencer a lot. OK, that's very cool.
And Covent Gardens coming up. And what is, I suppose how close
to Kensington? Obviously you're in a different
area because you're amongst the you're really are amongst the
tourists in that part. You're in theatre land, aren't
you? How how different will it be to
Kensington and kind of what's the opening look like?
How far away are you from getting it done?
(24:03):
So Q4 this year, it's really exciting. close, Yeah, very
close. I was there last week.
Just looking at like how the progress week on week now, it
seems really fast, yeah. It's crazy, isn't it?
Yeah. When you've been looking at a
shell for so long, then all of asudden boom.
Yeah, yeah. It's so it's 7 buildings joined
together. So it's the whole block between
the like the Piazza and the Lyceum Theatre.
(24:27):
Four of the buildings are listed.
So all of that comes with its own challenges in construction
and refurbishment. Yeah.
Oh, you see that corridor? You can't put that corridor
there because you're not allowedto knock down that wall.
Can't be moved. Yeah, that, that staircase, I
know you say it's not wide enough, but you can't make it
any wider. So yeah, it's, it's not without
its challenges, but it's going to be stunning.
(24:48):
But the other house concept is very much kind of siblings, not
twins. So there is another kitchen,
there is an owl and monkey. So you will if you recognise
that brand, you'll feel like. Nods to the.
Current, but it won't look exactly the same.
So it'll have certain elements that are the same, but it won't
look. I know.
I can't afford to stay there though.
I think it'll be it'll be a little more priced than
(25:09):
Kensington. Probably it will be more
pricing. To service the audience.
Right, Yeah, I mean, the demand around there is huge.
We've already got people asking us about membership.
You know, we just, we've just properly launched the club at
South Ken with our events programme and we're really
driving membership down there now.
And we've already got people going.
Yes, this is lovely. We really like it.
When's when's Covent Garden opening and when can I put my
(25:30):
name down? And it's kind of like, Blimey,
we haven't even opened membership for that yet.
That's super exciting. And then you've and you've got
and someone told me there's a third one.
Yeah. So we purchased a site at
Belgravia. So it's the old Belgravia Police
station, just download from Victoria.
So we purchased the site there awhile back and Planning
Commission has just finally all gone through.
So we're hoping to start work onBelgravia, ideally later this
(25:54):
year. Joe, I feel like your temporary
consultancy role, which was a year ago, is no longer going to
be really like you're dancing with the devil.
But that's exciting, right? Especially for you and, and in
terms of scaling the challenges that come with that with people
like we talked about Georgie, whether does Georgie go and help
in Covent Garden or does she go to Blood Gravy or does she stay
in Kensington? I'm not.
(26:15):
I'm literally just making that up.
Yeah, I don't know, Georgie, if you're listening, I have no idea
where you're going. But you know, those challenges
will come up, right? And you'll be, I suppose you'll
be tasked with those challenges.How do we open this?
How do we do it with the same vibe?
How do we not break the other things while we're doing it?
Is that a big part of your role coming up now for the?
Yeah, it really is. So there's kind of two, two
parts of this. So there's the brand.
So we have brand pillars that wetry to make everything build on
(26:40):
those pillars. So we want to make sure that we
create a home for people, a place that people really feel at
home, allow people to be in control.
So when we talk about the the access to things, you can be as
involved or removed from the operation as you like as a
guest. And then we always want to make
(27:01):
a lasting impression. So whether it's the maximalist
decor, whether it's the team, whether it's the the food that
you have, the cocktail that you have, we want everything to
leave you with that. This was great.
This was, this was a really positive impression.
And then sustainability goes through everything we do.
It's not just one of those things that we say right from
sourcing, right from which suppliers we use, what do we
(27:22):
buy, where do we buy it from? How do we take that forward?
What actions do we do on property, even the construction?
We have Briam awards, we have Grasby awards to everything that
we're doing is focused on sustainability and having that
positive impact on our locality and, and sort of legacy moving
forwards. And then from a people side of
(27:43):
things, we build all our training around those pillars
and we really focus on developing and growing our own
in the, I'm so proud of this. In the last two months, we have
internally promoted 7 people. It's very cool, 7 people in two
months. We've promoted within department
(28:03):
from team member to supervisor. We've had people promoted from
one department to another. So for example, our goods
receiver itself, Ken's been promoted to procurement at head
office and then Tone say names. But yeah, one of our rumoured
public area cleaners has been promoted to the goods receiver
role. So we've been able to really
(28:23):
offer opportunities to people. And then in the recent round of
performance reviews, we've spoken to everybody about what's
your ambition and do you want tobe part of Covent Garden?
We don't want to RIP the heart of South Kensington either.
No, no, I wouldn't dream of it. You'd never forgive me, but
where can we really capitalize on the talent that we've got in
Covent Garden? And then what?
(28:43):
What opportunities does that offer for people kind of in the
wings itself can to make that step up?
I think it's a super. It's interesting.
I bring it up because I scaled afew restaurant chains in my
career and that's the pinch point, right?
When you've got to grow. And it's different in hotel
world because one property's like 10 restaurants, you know,
because you're more staff, more people you're serving or maybe
more. And that challenge of having to
(29:05):
almost pick and choose what you do next.
And, and you know, you have those kind of aces in places,
those people you always lean on,you know, and, and it's not fair
sometimes because you actually lean on them because you, you
know, they give you security, you know, they'll deliver a job.
And it's, it's just that that choice you make there.
And then how do you do that? I mean, because as you go into
that bit, now you've will the technology just expand from what
you've got in Kensington and you'll just literally follow
(29:27):
that road map. Yeah, it really will.
I mean, that's part of the reason why a lot of the tech
that we've chosen was chosen because of the scalability of
it. The fact that you can add
another property by either increasing licenses or moving to
a multi site model. We have also got a lot of our
technology has open API so it can connect to other systems and
(29:48):
then we basically everything links up and pumps the
information up to a data lake, which then we can get Power BI
reports from and things like that.
I mean, I have never worked anywhere where every morning I
am literally fed. The exact performance of every
single outlet is in my inbox really before I've had a cup of
coffee and. It's, it's that relevance of
(30:09):
data. I also talked about this that
that you don't want to be sent 20 pages of something that might
be important for the exec or whoever.
But really, you know, for day-to-day, I need to understand
what's happening in my building that kind of relevance.
And I think only tech can reallyis, is really being able to kind
of service that now, which is super interesting.
And that's why you built. And I remember that I remember
Naomi saying that that was builtwith that purpose, right?
Wouldn't it, although it may seem we're buying lots of stuff
(30:30):
for for one site, this is never going to be 1 site.
This is got one property. It's going to be more
properties. Very interesting.
And if you could, I'm going to give you a magic wand.
If you could have a magic wand and you could build anything to
help you in a day-to-day. It doesn't have to be the other
house, but in day-to-day operations, if you wanted
something to help you, a tool that would help you kind of run
your day better, kind of look after the team, whatever it
(30:51):
might be, what would you like? Almost.
If you had, I mean, tech wise, Ithink we really need to explore
AI because we use it without even realizing it.
Like in Muse for example, you put it, if I put in Chris
Fletcher into Muse, it will giveme a summary of your previous
stays. And if you've ever raised any
feedback or anything like that or anything that you like, it
(31:13):
brings me up like a summary of the guest.
And we take that stuff for granted already.
And actually I think we could use that.
More on an employee side or on acustomer or boat because I, I
find it, I think the employee side's quite interesting about
that. I see a lot of people, we're
doing it that people where you can, you're taking all of these
manuals, all these documents, everything you've ever had and
(31:34):
they're pumping them straight into the kids hands.
But it's relevant again so they don't have to fan through 20
recipes or 52 about TJ fryers. How many cocktails did you used
to have to learn? Oh God.
I used to have an ironing board at home and I used to practice
on the ironing board, my flaringand.
Oh, I'm trying to remember. Was it 100 and 1000 and am I
going no it? Was over 100, they caught Talis
was over 100 and you had to pass.
(31:54):
And they knew them, right? Yeah, the bartenders.
Knew Oh my God, I was a was it dub dub the I was oh.
My God. So and I, I didn't know them
because I was. Only everybody tried to learn
them though, didn't they? The guys, honestly the guys that
ran those bars who were super like who knew 100?
I mean insane. Those people must be like mad
scientists by now or something. Quite possibly.
Or dead. They also lived a good life.
(32:17):
But yeah, but that kind of knowledge though, it's leaving
the industry, right. As it said, me and you are at a
certain age where we're looking at the new lot coming up and it
is different whether you like itor not or harp on about it, it
has changed. It's changed.
It's what do the generation thatare coming into the business
now. And you've got people who joined
(32:39):
the industry at my age like that, late teens, early 20s,
when I was when I joined the industry.
But we socially isolated them for two years, Yeah.
And then we and then they live on a screen and then we wonder
why they struggle to interact with.
People I sit with, my kids, particularly the I've got 3, the
oldest 1, not so much because hewas kind of through GCSE at that
point. So he's kind of developing what
he wanted to do. But my teenage daughter, I mean
(33:01):
just teenage daughter, just tells you what you need to.
Know yeah, I've got 1. And then a younger boy that they
were really impacted particularly by that more social
actually than educational stuff because they were learning at
home. But it was, you can see it in
the, you can definitely see a gap.
And I, and I think that gap in the way tech has evolved.
It's definitely going to change the future and the people we
look after. So, yeah, I, I, I think about
how do we get that relevant input to these people's hands?
(33:23):
It's, it's, it's a challenge, I think.
And the turnover is high, right?Yeah, the the turnover is high
and getting good people, yeah, is high.
Is, is is really challenging. And then when you do have good
people, it's really trying to look after those good people
because of course everybody elsewants them.
You know, as much as I was saying, you know, it's been
amazing to promote people and I'm so proud of all of those
(33:45):
individuals you. Also want them.
Yeah. I always think don't do a
profile on them. Someone will come and nick them
because that's what I've also had.
I've got really good people thathave left or leaving because
they're really good and they've been poached or they're at the
point where because we're still quite small, we don't have that
step to offer them just yet or it's just not a step we have
(34:07):
within our operational structure.
And so they're having to step out and I'm proud of them and
I'm chuffed with them. But I'm also all right, bye.
Come back when you're a bit moregrown up and you've and I can
have you bring you back in. Please don't leave.
No, it's it's a thing and something that poor people like
you and previously me had to suffer all their careers.
Look, I I love catching up with you and we have we've been for
(34:28):
dinner, but it was a bit more boozy last time I saw you, I
think. Yeah, but and I am obviously
might bang on about it. Huge fan of what what you guys
do and I think obviously properties are made to look
pretty and people spend a lot ofmoney on the Capec and invest
them and all that kind of stuff.But you can't affect, the only
way you can affect what I feel in there is the operations.
So that's for me to you to say thank you for that because I
(34:51):
think that's when you're in a restaurant or a bar.
We were in a restaurant in Cornwall last week and it was
absolutely beautiful place, diabolical because just because
there was no it felt dead inside.
I can't explain it the way there's no warmth, you know,
there's nothing that. But at the other house is
different. You get that?
Like The Walking down the corridor on Spencer St. you bump
(35:11):
into like the one of the cleaners and they're, hey, how
would you like? And you know that people are
trained to say how I don't ignore people kind of thing.
But it's different. I can't explain why it's kind of
different to all the warmth. So yeah, you should take massive
credit for that. And and if people want to reach
out to you and kind of bug you about Covent Guard, about gravy,
yeah. I mean, a lot of tech people
listen to this, so I'm, I apologise in advance, but can
(35:33):
they reach out to you? Is it LinkedIn?
Is the. Safest place.
LinkedIn is the safest place. Yeah, absolutely happy, happy to
talk to people. Yeah, we've got a lot of tech
built in, but you know, we're we're always interested to learn
about. Crazy they'll be.
They'll be out here now. Knock.
On the door. No.
Lovely. Thanks very much.
What does the rest of the week look like for you?
(35:54):
We've got 90. Is it 90° somewhere?
Top of. This.
Yeah, it's supposed to be like my poor parents are in Cyprus
and apparently it's going to be warmer here.
I feel really bad. Really.
I'm going to Cyprus soon. Don't say that.
Oh, I love still warm though, isn't?
It yeah, it's still like 2425° out.
There, fine, don't worry about them.
We're sat in a room with egg cups on the walls there by the
beach. Yeah.
So yeah, yeah. And.
And when, what does the future look like for you?
(36:15):
Then obviously you've got CoventGarden.
Q4 and then Belgravia would be end of next.
Year Belgravia, yeah, late 26, but probably more likely 27
because it's a it's a really significant project and
everything we do, we was talkingabout sustainability earlier on.
So everything we do is very muchwithin that.
It's not just knock it down or RIP it out, Chuck something up
it really. Is.
(36:37):
No, I mean, it really is like whatever we're removing, how do
we reuse these things? How do we make it sit right
within the area? I mean, there's there's a
beautiful tree that we're preserving and all kinds of
stuff. So can't.
Wait to see the tree. All right.
Well, that was Joe Morgan. Everybody say bye.
Bye, Joe. Bye, bye, Joe.
Thanks very much. Bye bye.
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