Putting your life jacket on to survive the storm – An interview with Hotel Millenia, Samoa
On a grey autumn day in gloomy Auckland, it’s hard at first glance to feel sorry for anyone living in a resort hotel on the tropical island of Samoa, but, on closer inspection, things are not what they seem from the dreamy images available online.
COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on the small 55-room family-run Hotel Millenia, as it has on all hotel businesses across the Pacific, and around the world. Instead of creating happy memories for countless families and travellers as it has since 2001, it’s struggling to survive even with government assistance.
Accountant Marian Leota, from Leota & Nuimata Chartered Accountants in Apia, could see immediately the hotel was heading for deep trouble. She raised her concerns with colleague Alice Nuimata-Leota who contacted Business Link Pacific (BLP) to seek help with the financing issues the hotel faced due to the pandemic. BLP agreed to facilitate assistance with financial planning through their subsidy scheme.
Marian and Alice worked to renegotiate business loans and financial arrangements with the Bank of South Pacific, taking advantage of the Bank’s relief package to get the hotel through the crisis. Along with Government relief packages available to businesses, the hospitality sector was offered a much-needed stimulus package. As with all such packages, manoeuvring through the paperwork is a challenge and Leota & Nuimata were able to assist with the application process.
While the bundle of packages from the Government has been extremely helpful, it’s not enough to enable the hotel to survive, so Marian and her team had to find another way. “We have had to do all that we can to help ourselves rather than having total reliance on the Government,” says Rosaline Ah Him-Peters, General Manager of the Hotel Millenia. They turned their focus from family holidays to the corporate sector, offering attractive conference packages and other specials to walk-in or in-house guests.
These marketing initiatives include offering special rates on rooms, meals, and bar promotions, and the hotel now makes better use of Facebook to promote the hotel, as well as more traditional mechanisms such as newspaper advertisements, roadside boards and information available at the hotel reception and in the bar and restaurant.
There are challenges running any business, any time, but COVID has exponentially heightened these challenges.
“We are so grateful to BLP and Leota & Nuimata for their support. It has really helped to get the business through this difficult year. It’s hard to see the hotel not bustling with holidaying families and we are looking forward to when the borders are open and we can welcome our guests back to the hotel,” says Rosaline.
BLP supports an extensive network of advisory partners across the pacific islands, who offer services in 15 different areas, including accounting, marketing, human resources, diversity and inclusion and business strategy.
To get in contact with a BLP business advisor, businesses that employ 5 to 50 employees can use the free self-assessment online tools, such as the Business Health Check and the Continuity planner. Also, companies can book a free face-to-face consultation in the countries where BLP operates to go through the business diagnostic, a comprehensive assessment of business needs and opportunities. Based on the assessment results, businesses are provided with a list of Business Advisory Service Providers that can help address relevant business needs.
Visit Business Link Pacific Portal to use our free self-assessment online tools or book a local consultation in your country. Country contacts.