Saffire Freycinet recently won the World Boutique Hotel Awards highest accolade – the “World’s Best Boutique Hotel”, to add to the list of awards the hotel has amassed since it opened on 1 June 2010.
Saffire is located in Freycinet, a remote wilderness region, four minutes’ drive (with traffic) from the small village of Coles Bay on the east coast of Tasmania, Australia.
Justin King (right) is the General Manager of Saffire, and although from Victoria originally, he now considers himself a Tasmanian having fallen in love with the region. Justin has held the position of General Manager for two and half years. Since graduating from the Blue Mountains International Hotel Management School, Justin’s career has developed through roles in Singapore, London, the Middle East and Fiji, where he held the position of General Manager of the Blue Lagoon Beach Resort.
I caught up with Justin to discuss what it is that makes Saffire so special.
Justin, congratulations on being named the best boutique hotel in the world. You have won many awards both locally and globally – what does this award mean to you?
It was such an honour to be awarded the highest accolade from the World Boutique Hotel Awards 2014. For a small hotel in a remote region of Australia, it is exciting beyond comprehension for the whole team. It instils a great sense of achievement and recognition from the industry.
Personally, it is heartening to know that you as a property have made a difference, particularly on the world stage, and that you’re part of something big. We are a small property with 20 suites which allows us the chance to get to know our guests. It’s like having friends to stay in our “shack on the beach”. However, we have all the luxury facilities available, including a $1M boat, a marine farm and the latest development, a Tasmanian Devil sanctuary. Our guests travel from all parts of the world to experience the region and the unique facilities we have to offer. The marine park and Devil sanctuary in particular have been developed to protect and showcase the natural environment.
What makes Saffire Freycinet a unique destination?
Saffire is genuinely one of the only properties in Australia that affords staff the opportunity to engage with guests in a truly meaningful way. The team have permission to ensure guests go away with a lifelong memory. Our team pass all their decisions through three filters – authenticity, luxury and surprise.
Authenticity requires the team member to question whether their action is genuine to themselves, the property, and indeed, the location. Luxury relates to delivering quality products and services. But we have the most fun with surprise! The team is ultimately empowered to be nice to guests at all times. We are in the enviable position of having a higher labour count than most properties, however we don’t demand a certain level of experience from line staff, instead we prefer to select genuinely nice people. Our motto is ensure our guests feel like two days at Saffire feels like two weeks.
Our market is 75 percent domestic, 22 percent inbound, with remainder intrastate. Our guests are sometimes millionaires and billionaires, but almost always time poor. Many are small business owners or CEOs who can’t get away on long haul holidays, so their aim is to make every second away count. Our role is to make sure it does!
Saffire Freycinet is located in a spectacular region of Tasmania, but what specifically is it about Saffire Freycinet that your guests fall in love with?
Our guests are attracted to the untouched wilderness of Saffire’s location. The area has not been developed and our footprint is minimal. For example, we have our own waste water treatment plant.
On any given day, you can go for a walk along the 7th best beach in the world and have it all to yourself! The Freycinet area was named by Dutch explorers in 1802 and in 1916 the area was reserved as a national park, making it the oldest national park in Tasmania. The natural beauty is breathtaking. Saffire overlooks Great Oyster Bay with two granite mountains joined by a sandy isthmus as a backdrop.
The remoteness provides a tranquility that is complimented by the freshest local produce, and the whole experience is wrapped up in the unique architectural design of Saffire.
Saffire is a place where you can reconnect with yourself and feel like you have escaped.
What is your philosophy on customer satisfaction? How do you ensure your team delivers service the way you would – every time?
We break every interaction down into a moment of truth and the team have identified about 500 so far. We then benchmark and score every moment to ensure we succeed at exceeding our guests’ expectations.
Take, for example, serving our guests a cup of coffee. We take the task and make it incredibly special. We may know that the guest likes chocolate or Persian Nougat, so we will source some from the chef to serve to the guest with their coffee.
There are no “no’s” – we will do whatever it takes to keep the guest delighted. At one point we set up the entire restaurant in the marine park with bonfires surrounding it as the guest suggested they wanted to do something different. The team member thought, “Here’s a great idea, let’s make that happen!”
Your partnership with fellow Blue Mountains International Hotel Management School graduate and wife must provide its challenges and rewards. Do you find your partnership a collaboration or competition?
Melanie and I were joint General Managers in Fiji and, like many successful couples, we know we can work well together. When we moved to Freycinet, our plan was for Mel to become a lady of leisure, but that lasted two weeks. Mel is a part of the team and understands the moments of truth. She is very creative and enhances the team and the guest experience. We do not have a “no work” policy – we enjoy talking about new and creative ideas all the time, whether at work or at home. Mel has natural strengths that I respect and our individual strengths and weaknesses complement each other.
How has your education and experience contributed to your career success?
The Blue Mountains Hotel School provided me the fundamentals, a firm grasp on a range of operations that I believe you require before you can really understand how a hotel works. I’m not saying that a “normal” education does not provide the knowledge, but Blue Mountains has provided me the solid grounding. I lean on the teachings, which is the basis and the main reason I am a continued fan of hotel schools.
Another strength of the Blue Mountains education is the strength of the Alumni lead by Val Cook. Having a network of fellow professionals around the world is an amazing resource to draw on, as the industry is always changing. I can pack up and move around the world to cool little properties and always know there will be an Alumnus there to catch up with.
What message would you like to send to aspiring hoteliers keen to push the boundaries in the development of boutique hotels?
Firstly, never say no to ideas, never say no to anything!
If someone gives you an opportunity, take everything. Opportunities rarely take you where you expect, but often when every fibre of your being is saying no, sometimes these ideas are successful. There are such proud moments when you see your team developing and delivering great successes.
Finally, it does not take ultra-luxury to create a fully immersive experience, just passion!
Matthew Stephens is the Vice President of eHotelier. He has 20 years of experience in both General Management and IT roles in the hospitality industry. He is also a graduate of the Blue Mountains Hotel School. Read more about his background in the About Us section of eHotelier.
