Trail Meets Village Hotels' Fiona Meek and Lindsay Southward

In our new series, we're putting operations in the spotlight. Getting unique insights from the front line. Today, we're speaking to the Village Hotels team.
Jo Stephenson-Thompson
 • 
Dec 2023
4 min read

We caught up with Fiona Meek, Risk and Safety Manager and Lindsay Southward, Director of People and Brand Development at Village Hotels.

They shared how they used technology to guide and coach their teams through the pandemic.

What’s the best part of your job?

Village Hotels is a fast-moving dynamic company that is always looking to grow and develop even during the pandemic, it’s really exciting to be a part of this.  

Plus, we work with an amazing group of people which makes coming to work so much easier.

What has been your biggest challenge at work during Covid-19?

Keeping up to date with changes in legislation—we have hotels in England, Scotland and Wales. The devolved administration has been a challenge with differences in timings and what we can open when. We have to ensure the business has the correct guidance to follow.

Managing a workforce remotely while keeping the team motivated and engaged has also been a new skill we’ve had to develop.

What’s the biggest thing that has changed in the way you operate since Covid-19?

Everything has changed! However, the most significant changes have been the way we use technology in the guest journey, the employee journey and the management team.

Has technology helped during the pandemic?

As with all businesses, we have had to adapt quickly, from the management team to the call centre all being remote. Technology has been fundamental to our success in navigating through to this point.

Video conferencing has helped communicate with the teams and kept them engaged, from daily Exec calls to Townhall meetings and virtual team comms.

Technology has also been used in other areas, such as online classes for leisure and app check-ins. The business is now cashless, and so there has been huge investment into room technology.

You implemented Trail pre-Covid. What were the main problems you wanted to solve?

We wanted to create more transparency and consistency in our operational standards across the 31 hotels. And ensure we were  compliant.

Trail massively helped during the pandemic. From closing down operations to ensuring that the ongoing statutory due diligence checks were completed. Trail gave us that bird's eye view, as we weren’t able to visit all the hotels. With the aid of daily, weekly and ad-hoc checks, we could easily track and monitor progress. This also assisted in ensuring we were in a good position to open quickly when we were given a green light.

Do you have a sense of where Trail has saved time/money?

It isn’t easy to quantify, but the feedback has been immeasurable. It's very positive from an operator's angle, as it’s easy to use, saves time and is very adaptable.

Village Hotels customer testimonial


What customers are saying

"I f****** love Trail, it's taking my businesses to the next level."
Josh Paterson
Owner
"We rarely provide training to our guys, they just bought into the idea straight away. I love that I have a full visual of everyone's activity in front of me."
Katrin Toots
Compliance Manager
“It’s not a paper diary that’s covered in barbecue sauce. We have clarity over what’s done in our sites and are confident going into our audits.”
Jay Brown
Operations
“The EHO visited almost every site last year and every store was given a five star rating."
Jay Brown
Operations Chef
"We turned our Costa Checks and various compliance forms into regular tasks on Trail, which has contributed to some of the best scores we have had."
Delroy Daniels
Operations Director
"Our teams love it, it gives our managers of all levels absolute clarity on what they need to achieve every day."
James Brown
Operations Director

Rated 5/5 on