How I'm beating the credit crunch

ONE of Plymouth’s best-known hotels has beaten the credit crunch to make its first profits in nine years, its owner has revealed.
Joseph Louie, owner of The Astor Hotel, told The Herald his profits are up 35 per cent this year – despite the global financial crisis which has contributed to the closure of hundreds of pubs, clubs and hotels nationwide.
Mr Louie said the key to his success was offering good value and individual attention to customers, who are feeling the pinch more than businesses.

The Iranian-born hotelier called on other city businesses to “put yourself in the customer’s shoes”, and stop passing rising costs on to consumers.
Mr Louie said: “You can’t be black and white. Obviously you’ve got to make money but be flexible – don’t just say ‘this is my price’.
“It’s about the personal approach and doing deals for people; that way you have a customer for life – and they’ll tell all of their friends, too.
“It’s been just over two years since our prices last went up and for the first year we’ve actually made profits.
“That just goes to show that, if you don’t get greedy, you can do fine in this climate.
“Just put yourself in the consumer’s shoes; if all the businesses in the city did that we’d create a lot more money for everybody.”
On the day Chancellor Alistair Darling’s 2.5 per cent VAT decrease was due to take effect, the hotelier, who was recently elected to sit on the board at the Plymouth Chamber of Commerce, called for heavier, permanent cuts in the tax to help encourage spending.
“I think we should be putting VAT down to five per cent,” said Mr Louie. “But it has to be passed on to the customer.
“Our plan is to keep prices down and do better deals. If we all pull together as businesses and do that then as a result it would do exactly what we need at the moment, which is getting people to spend their money.
“Fifty per cent of income goes out of the city and we should try to change that. If I buy a chair from Plymouth then the money will stay in Plymouth – it’s a cycle.
“We’ve got the best opportunity to make things better now; there’s a lot of things we could do to come out of this mess.
“At the end of the day, the people who are the ones offering a genuine service and good value are the ones who’ll be laughing.”