Collaboration, appropriate phasing and a fresh perspective are key to repositioning a leisure property portfolio, according to those behind Mitsis Group’s rebrand and renovation project.
Mitsis Group, Greece’s largest privately-owned hotel chain, is in the midst of an ambitious €250 million renovation and refurbishment programme to upgrade 17 of its high-end hotels and resorts. Expected to be completed by 2026, this includes an €80 million investment into the Mitsis Grand hotel in Rhodes.
Collaboration the key to success
Mitsis has worked with hospitality design firm WATG on 19 investment projects since 2017 and both sides agree that involving the designers in the rebrand discussions has been key.
“It gives the interior designer and the architects the chance to use, to infuse, the plans with what the soul and the core of the brand is,” explains Stavros Mitsis, managing director of Mitsis Group.
Nick Carrier, vice president at WATG and Wimberly Interiors, adds that while external designers can provide fresh eyes, a new perspective and suggest opportunities, “some of that needs to be tempered with an understanding of the property as well [and] insight of how that site is actually being used”.
WATG undergoes a ‘visionary masterplan’ process with Mitsis involving its advisory, master planning and architectural teams to analyse each site and how to realise its full potential. “It’s looking at it from various different angles and trying to find out the best solution that’s going to drive revenue but also increase guest experience,” explains Carrier.
With both sides challenging each other in a constant dialogue, Carrier says, “we’re able to come up with a much richer product”.
Importance of phasing
Mitsis adds that phasing is important, particularly in a country such as Greece. “The transformation of a product should take time in order for the guest to absorb this transformation and also to be able to pay the difference in rate,” he says.
Projects including the Mitsis Rinela in Crete and the Mitsis Summer Palace in Kos, he explains, took place during the winter while the hotels were closed, for example.
“It gives us the time to do these huge interventions without affecting the guest experience,” he says. “By phasing the project interval into smaller parts, it’s easier for the clientele to absorb and also for the staff, because they have to be trained to offer a completely different experience and service from the one before.”
Reaping the results
And this approach is working, according to Mitsis. WATG oversaw a repositioning of the main pool area at the Mitsis Norida in Kos, including the creation of three new beachside restaurants, which has meant a room rate increase of 20 per cent.
“The food and beverage offering was quite limited for a resort like that,” says Carrier. “That created a much more dynamic food and beverage journey.”
Mitsis says that the project helped to at least double the total revenue of the hotel: “It was a small intervention for the size and the scale of the hotel. However, it helped us attract business and create revenue,” he recalls.
Adds Carrier: “Mitsis Norida was quite a good example of how a very focused intervention actually created quite a large impact.”
And following WATG’s renovation project at Mitsis Rinela, the property reported a 128.22 per cent increase in average daily rate (ADR). As well as investment into creating diverse recreational amenities with multi-generational appeal, decreasing the number of rooms by approximately 15 per cent and creating two new food and beverage outlets helped to triple hotel revenue and quadruple gross operating profit (GOP) per available room.
Rebranding by 2026
Mitsis is looking forward to the completion of the business’s rebrand in 2026, as well as the opportunities presented by hospitality investment in Greece.
“Greece is emerging as a really attractive destination for the tourist and the investor,” he adds, underlining the opportunities the professionalisation of management and distribution could present.
“There’s more to come in Greece, especially with all the investment which is happening now and is set to happen in the next years.”
All those quoted in this article appeared on stage at the Resort & Residential (R&R) Hospitality Forum, held in Athens, Greece, between November 18 and 20 2024, in a session called: Repositioning a portfolio: In leisurely conversation.