Hotel and Restaurant Times sits down with Jaclyn Kilmurray, Director of Sales and Marketing at the Glenroyal Hotel & Spa in Maynooth
Director of Sales & Marketing at the Glenroyal Hotel & Spa in Maynooth for the last 3½ years, Dubliner Jaclyn Kilmurray says that it was purely her penchant for design that drew her into the world of marketing. In her words, this then caused her to ‘fall into’ the hospitality world – a world she’s been in since 2010 when she first took on the role as Sales and Marketing Coordinator at the Clayton Hotel Burlington Road in Dublin.
“There was no real grá for the hospitality industry, per se,” admits Jaclyn. “I just love marketing and I love to talk!”
For Jaclyn, the creation of packages tailored to specific market niches and seeing the process of that creation was the hook that defined her attraction to the world of marketing.
“It was how people visualised that package, how you sold it and what content was written about it,” she says. “People want to buy how it looks and what it is and the content around that.
“There are two sides to it – you have the sales side first of all. And for me, meeting people, getting to know people and understanding them is something that I truly love. Then the marketing side of things is seeing creation straight through to the end and seeing how what you create can bring a revenue stream for you and create this brand.”
The Art of Brand Development and Sales Strategy
Developing the brand of the Arkle Bar was a key achievement in this regard. Much of the work began in Covid times before Jaclyn arrived but she was there for last few years to oversee, nurture and develop the evolving project. The recent victory at the Good Food Ireland Awards of the Food Lovers Choice Award for the Ancient East was an important acknowledgement in this respect; particularly as it was the one area where the general public voted for their favourite food experience.
Jaclyn’s first foray into the hospitality industry was at the Clayton Hotel Burlington Road. She spent almost two years there – first as Marketing Coordinator and then as Corporate Sales Executive – before moving to the Clyde Court Hotel as Corporate Sales Manager.
“Des McCann was there in the Clyde Court and I was there about two years,” recalls Jaclyn. “This was at the time when Dalata were taking over a number of other hotels and they were bringing in the Clayton brand.
“We were essentially starting out. It was a big learning curve for everybody. We had been using the Opera booking system and Alkimii was the one that was coming in… I think that they started their journey with the Dalata Hotel Group in fact. You had new websites, bringing in a new team. It was exciting times and we did get there. It was also exciting to see how quickly the company was growing and, I’d have to say that the training we got in Dalata was second to none… they invested in people as well. They were all about that.”
Embracing Digital Transformation in Hospitality
Marketing is essentially a sales management function that was first dreamed up by Americans 60 years ago and which flourished as an international phenomenon in the 1980s and 1990s. Today’s marketing world is a very precise and mainly online numbers game that is fast evolving. Even in Jaclyn’s last 15 years in the sector, she has seen a number of great changes.
“Technology has obviously continued to move on and the whole world of social media has absolutely exploded. The ability to be able to measure your results is a great thing to have. Back in the day, you had your newspaper adverts and your billboards adverts, which you were never able to truly measure with full accuracy but now (with online marketing) you can see clearly what works and what doesn’t.”
In the last year, she says, the hotel has put a lot of emphasis into their social media presence. They have almost doubled the revenue coming through their social media outlets, she says, just by carefully creating a story or customer journey that people are interested in.
“It’s not cheap but it’s been a very cost-effective way of increasing revenue online,” says Jaclyn, adding that their conference business has seen a positive uplift in this respect too, maximising the online presence that has no international boundaries. “It’s just incredible that you can target the wider world with just the click of a button.”
Jaclyn says that she is fortunate to be working for a hotel that understands the importance of the marketing function of a modern-day hotel.
“In this day and age, it’s important to have a marketing team – especially in hospitality. It is essential.”
Community Engagement and Corporate Relationships
Meeting people in person, however, is still very important – arguably even more so in such a digital-dominated age – and this is something that Jaclyn and her employers also fully appreciate. The area around Maynooth and Lucan have a huge pool of corporate clientèle, with whom the Glenroyal team maintain strong relationships. In addition, the property engages with the local community in various ways. From the landmark family events such as weddings, Holy Communions and Confirmations, to the likes of the Tidy Towns Committee and a number of other local volunteer fundraising activities.
Glenroyal Hotel Corrib Centre Cabaret style
Glenroyal Hotel – Connaught Suite Gala Dinner
“It’s very important for a locally owned hotel like ours to support the community and to be part of local initiatives and charities. For example over the last two years, we supported the Autism Assistance Dog Ireland Charity with that our staff came together on various fundraising activities & raised over an impressive €28,000. This money was used to train an Autism Assistance Dog to be gifted to change the lives of a family”
“The Glenroyal today is not the experience that it would have been five or six years ago. Part of that is also because of the Covid lockdown. The hotel industry is very busy and fast-paced and it was the one time that all hotels had to have a mind reset and to be able to take the time to make changes.”
Looking Ahead: Innovation and the Future of Hotel Marketing
Back on the technological side of things, Jaclyn says that they are looking forward to their new website, which will include the feature of a 24/7 AI-generated ‘concierge’ to take queries and bookings and which she expects to be up and running by the middle of 2025.
“We’re working with Fáilte Ireland on the new transformation,” she says. “It will be a great benefit for the hotel and it’s great that we have the opportunity to work with Fáilte Ireland on it.”
