How The Liz McGrath Collection Sell Experiences with Centralized Data

3 Key Benefits Of A Centralized CRM:

Every team member has remote access
Ability to easily segment contacts
Maintain accurate details for outreach

Company Snapshot

The Liz McGrath Collection
Group Sales Manager: Martina Barth
Industry: Hospitality/Hotels
Founded: 1988
Employees: 250+
Customer Since: 2003
Locations: 3 locations in Western Cape of South Africa

A world away from ordinary

Close your eyes and think about a time you were able to escape on holiday. Not just any holiday, but one where you were able to immerse yourself in a new place and culture. It probably included a memorable meal in an idyllic setting – like a table overlooking an ocean view. The food, hospitality, and passion of the people there created an experience that has stayed with you.

These memorable experiences are what the team at The Liz McGrath Collection does so well. Founded by Liz McGrath, they are a group of three family-owned 5-star boutique hotels, situated in the Western Cape of South Africa; Cellars-Hohenort in Cape Town, The Marine in Hermanus, and The Plettenberg in Plettenberg Bay.

The Cellars Hohenort – Liz McGrath Collection Hotel

Hotel history in the making

Liz McGrath always had a passion for decor, food, and gardening. She particularly enjoyed the art of living, which she and her late husband experienced at the Relaix & Chateaux hotels they visited over the years. In 1988, taking inspiration to create her own local expression of history and culture, she decided to transform the hotel she owned at the time, into an exclusive country house retreat.

Opening a hotel takes a lot of guts and passion. Liz had both. Plus a gift for finding people with the same can-do attitude needed to make it in the hospitality industry. But what made Liz’s decision so monumental, that at age 60 no less, she became South Africa’s first female hotelier. Then in just 8 years (and many awards later), she’d be the first to own three. So in 2015, when she passed away at age 93, as an homage to her legacy, the family rebranded the hotel group in her name. While still family-owned the three hotels are now run by a female-led management team, including Martina Barth as Group Sales Manager.

Using CRM instead of spreadsheets

When Martina joined 3 years ago, they already had Maximizer in place for sales.

Previously the hotel was managing their tour operator lists with Excel. Martina points out with Maximizer, “It’s easier to add in new contacts, particularly with the Outlook integration.” Especially after trade shows, they have to import a lot of new contacts, which is harder to maintain with spreadsheets. Now everything is centralized and accurate and they don’t have to worry about spreadsheet version control.

Before Martina joined, the database was quite messy. Nelia and the team at Camsoft Solutions provide them with local support to keep things tidy and accurate. “She is always quick to respond, if not immediately, usually within a few minutes.”

Everything in one place

Martina Barth works closely with Nicole Tunmer as Co-Group Sales Managers, and they use Maximizer with tour operators, corporate, and event organizers. While they have loyal guests that come back yearly, their biggest aspect of repeat business comes from the tour operators.

For now, they use Maximizer as a centralized database, that they both access remotely. Martina explains,

This centralized access to data allows Martina and Nicole to segment the contacts by corporate, conferencing, or leisure. Then by geography. They then use these segmented lists to create a specific campaign for various markets, which they send through Mailchimp.

Looking forward, they are excited to do more face-to-face meetings and trade shows again. For them, selling experiences cannot be done by email alone. It’s about fostering human interactions with people that have the same passion for travel, food, and living.