Latest / Hawaii Travel Podcast by Hawaii’s Best: Plan a Better Hawaii Vacation / Rebranding of Shoreline Hotel - Where Nature Meets Neon in the Heart of Waikiki

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Rebranding of Shoreline Hotel - Where Nature Meets Neon in the Heart of Waikiki · Hawaii Travel Podcast by Hawaii’s Best: Plan a Better Hawaii Vacation

• 0:00
  Bryan Murphy: When you do something completely different from the market, and you don't know how people are gonna respond, it's very, it's a risky thing. It's very scary, right?
• 0:08
  Bryan Murphy: So I remember one lady and her team at the shoreline Hotel in Waikiki, recently, within the last couple years took a huge risk in the rebranding and redesign of the hotel. So today, we get to hear more about everything that went into the packaging, the branding of it. But more importantly, we get to hear a little bit about the story behind the shoreline and what they offer within the heart of Waikiki. So stay tuned.
• 0:33
  Bryan Murphy: Let's do
• 0:37
  Hawaii's Best: Hello, hello.
• 0:37
  Hawaii's Best: Welcome to Hawaii's Best podcast. Learn the story behind Hawaii's Best experiences, influencers and businesses.
• 0:44
  Hawaii's Best: Discover everything that makes Hawaii the Aloha state. And now your host,
• 0:52
  Bryan Murphy: Brian Murphy.
• 0:52
  Bryan Murphy: Aloha and welcome back to another episode of Hawaii's Best you got Episode 11. If this is your first time joining us welcome, go ahead and hit that subscribe button so you stay up to date on future episodes. And if you've been hanging out with us for a little bit, go ahead and drop a review. Let us know what you're thinking of the podcast. We'd love to hear your feedback. And also if you're on Instagram, you can find us at the Hawaii's Best. Once you're over there, hit the Follow button and shoot me a DM we'd love to connect with you and answer any questions you might have about Hawaii. And we'd love to hear more about what you love about Hawaii. So without further ado, let's go in and talk story with alveta and her team at Shoreline hotel Waikiki.
• 1:42
  Bryan Murphy: All right, I'll be there. Thank you so much for joining us today on Hawaii's Best How is everything going on at Shoreline? And who do you have joining us today?
• 1:51
  Alvida Surpia-Jones: All right.
• 1:51
  Alvida Surpia-Jones: Good morning, Brian. Thank you.
• 1:54
  Alvida Surpia-Jones: We're I'm very excited to be here with you. I have brought two people with me. I have makeup of Watson. She's the director of revenue. And then I have Josephine Tetro, who is the director of sales for the shoreline hotel Waikiki? Hello.
• 2:10
  Alvida Surpia-Jones: Hi, Brian.
• 2:11
  Bryan Murphy: Thanks for joining us. Tell us a little bit about shoreline when it is open. And what's kind of the history behind that?
• 2:19
  Alvida Surpia-Jones: Well, let's see. Well, we relaunched the shoreline back July 2018, so last year, and that's when we really rebranded it. But the history of this hotel, it was originally owned by United Airlines, and then bar ownership purchased it back in 2012. So we did a whole renovation a complete renovation right after we took over back in 2012. But as years went by, we realized the market was totally changing.
• 2:49
  Alvida Surpia-Jones: And what we did back in 2012, wasn't, we felt that it was no longer up to par, we needed to do something different. We had so many hotels that came into the market around 2017, that had very unique experiences. And so what we had to do as a small hotel was how do we compete? And how do we get people to stay with us? And how do we become different? So we decided to exploring the idea of completely changing a brand and we wanted something that's definitely different from what you have seen in Waikiki. So we connected with an a design agency in New York. And basically, they came up with this vision of nature meets neon. But also our end goal for this hotel was, was to become the most instagrammable Hotel, knowing that now the travelers are all about the experience, and what they can share and you know, just how they feel. So really, it's creating more of an experiential touch points when they arrive at the hotel versus what do you have in the guest room. So really, we really thought at that time after six years of being open, because he was a private hotel. Before, we really thought it was time to refresh the shoreline brand and amplify our offerings, the amenities and programming to ensure that we continue to provide our guests with unforgettable experience, the design company agency that we worked with, they came up with a vision to create a colorful, unique experience for the travelers that really focuses on bold colors, and still have Hawaiian influences.
• 4:26
  Alvida Surpia-Jones: So that's how the concept of how nature meets neon came up with the bold colors and Hawaiian influences. So the concept was bringing the dramatic landscape and the sunset of Hawaii with a contemporary twist.
• 4:43
  Bryan Murphy: I love that and I think you're absolutely right.
• 4:46
  Bryan Murphy: It is definitely one of the most instagrammable hotels out there just kind of scrolling through feed your guys's content just pops in I love the colors and I love that concept of neon meets nature. It's so apparent and I think that really sums up your guys's Bran, one of the things in you know, you stay at a place or you experience something, I think it's important to know, kind of the people behind the brand. And I'm glad you guys are here today to hear a little bit more about how you guys got into where you're currently at in your roles. So maybe speak into what your current roles are. And then maybe a little bit of history and how what led you to shoreline?
• 5:25
  Alvida Surpia-Jones: Yeah, definitely. Well, for myself, belvita here. I actually, originally, I'm from San Francisco. Well, I grew up in Southern California, LA, and then I moved to San Francisco.
• 5:38
  Alvida Surpia-Jones: While I was gone to school there. I had a friend who asked me if I wanted to work at a hotel, but I wasn't sure what it was yet. And so when I told him I was interested, it was actually to be a valet at Marriott, which is great. So like, I jumped at the opportunity. And just I never worked in hotel, so I didn't know what to expect, but the amount of people you need and the different people from all over the world. It was just such an exciting opportunity and experience. And I wanted to continue with that. So from there being a valet driver, we used to park Oh my God, I think the Marriott was 1200 rooms. So we used to park over 300 cars a night, you really had to learn how to park pretty well, especially in San Francisco, those tight garages but the people that came in really I think that's what grabbed me and just the different you know who you're meeting every day, it's never the same. So that really made me want to know more about the hotel industry. So I ended up wanting moved up to the different position. Try the different departments within the hotel industry. As you know, there's so many there's sales, there is the revenue aspect.
• 6:52
  Alvida Surpia-Jones: There's operations, there's the accounting, there's restaurants, food and beverage, there's so many different areas of hotel, you just have to really figure out what, what you're excited about. And for me, I was really excited about operations I love being hands on. So being part of Operation, I really wanted to know what it took to run a hotel. You know, in order to do that you had to try housekeeping, you had to do front desk, you have to do maintenance, you just have to try all aspects just to understand how do you do this every day. And I fell in love with that. So with that I just kept going and I did try other areas of the hotel, and I realized my passion was more in operations the day to day and just meeting the people and just seeing how the hotel comes to live every day. I love that maybe Josephine about her
• 7:48
  Unknown: sales and marketing my story. Well, I'm from my and I came from the Philippines. I just moved here, here in Ireland in 2015. And I had a lot of experiences with different hotel setups when I was in my home country or Philippines. The last foods that I had was a director of sales of one of the big chains in the country. And then when I arrived here in in Hawaii, I was able to get a job with Can you say Hilton properties?
• 8:26
  Unknown: Yeah, I'm not sure if I and I was with catering and events and after two years, I was given an opportunity to go back to selling I was really glad glad to a Director of Sales and Marketing role for both properties handling, shoreline hotel with Kiki and coconut Waikiki hotel. It's really exciting to sell a new brand specially shoreline hotel Waikiki, because whenever I go out to attend trade shows and exhibitions, you would see the excitement from the people that I had been dealing with, especially you know, when you say how, why they know that Hawaii can offer a lot of things, be water adventures or lead adventures, you know how white itself is already a bliss, especially when they see our hotel and our design and our concept is to be the backdrop to an already exciting Why get away. So for our guests and community to share memories of their visit. And it's really very important that we are giving this excitement to our clientele and their guests as well. So yeah, I'm really happy to you know, to have this position and booster. You know, my expertise in specific specifically in selling.
• 9:46
  Unknown: Yeah, and I know we have main she's the revenue person. So you know, those are the ones that decide what how are they going to solve the hotel, what rates are we going to sell the hotel, we have control of it. Hi, good morning. Hey, good. So with me, I mean, similar to a lot of the stories, you go into the hotel industry not knowing what you want to do, you start off at the front desk, and you try to figure out exactly if you can, if you have sales is going to be your passion or revenue or operations. And initially, my goal was to be an operations. So I did what everyone else do is work on different departments.
• 10:26
  Unknown: But one day, I had my director of revenue come up to me and asked me if I was interested in doing revenue, and I honestly, was not aware about revenue and what they what they did. So she showed me a couple of things.
• 10:36
  Unknown: And I completely fell in love with it, because it had made me realize that this is something that I wanted to do because they had results you can do you want, you can try to do something to see what the results are, and how it affects the hotel and looking at the strategy and what you do, Will it work? Well not so and always having, being able to try and do different things.
• 10:59
  Unknown: It just made me realize that, wow, this is something I really enjoyed. And I kind of veer towards more revenue than operations. And I've been in revenue for a while. And it's just, I love sitting in front of a computer and looking at spreadsheets and knowing that coming up with new formulas and looking at result and having that result and expect and knowing that you can see the result and expecting maybe a different one, maybe that's the same one. But it's always something to where there's that satisfactory to work. Oh my gosh, this is what I wanted to see happen. This is exactly where I wanted to hotel to go to so. And that's been my passion for until now. And then that's why I'm in this position.
• 11:46
  Bryan Murphy: That's great. I wonder we can go back to 2018?
• 11:49
  Bryan Murphy: Because that wasn't that long ago. And I'm curious about the the relaunch the rebrand, and I'm sure there is you know, before, I'm sure you guys did all your your research and all your you know, all this stuff that you needed to do. But I'm sure there was a little bit of tension in that relaunch. So I want to maybe if we walk back there, what was that relaunch like? And then what has been the general consensus of how the relaunch went from maybe from the customers view or from maybe staff?
• 13:16
  Bryan Murphy: Sure, yeah, I would love to talk about that. So again, like I said, knowing there's all these new hotels coming on to the market, and there's so different. What do we do? So we did our research, we looked around, and you typically see the same thing. And a lot of hotels, very, you know, similar designs. But what we did notice is many more hotels, we're going in a direction of a lot of activities, experiences at the property at the hotel, and what the guests are able to do there rather than just getting our hotel room, they now what do they do at the hotel they're staying at? So I just remember this, there was definitely I don't know if you want to call attention, but nerves definitely. I just remember, I know, when you do something completely different from the market, and you don't know how people are gonna respond. It's very, it's a risky thing. It's very scary, right? So I remember one day, my, my asset manager and I were walking down seaside after we've gone through different design meetings, calls to see what's going to work we've seen a couple rendering and so on. And we were starting the process, we started seeing the colors and you know, we're walking down the street and he goes to me, did we make a mistake? I got really quiet because honestly, I was probably thinking the same way because you've never seen anything like this, right? So anything that's so different, you just don't know if people are gonna, how they're gonna react to it. So because the concept was so different, and again, I've never seen it so I thought oh my god, I always had I had the same thought in my head. Maybe we did make mistake, but but we knew being 135 room property, and we're surrounded with hotels, we knew we had to do something completely different. And honestly, at the end, it all worked out when everything started coming together. Okay, so when you see a design board and you just have a bunch of colors, it is scary. Like you can't visualize it and this is why I'm not in design, right?
• 15:27
  Bryan Murphy: Because you just see a You don't know how it's all gonna come together. But everything just started to come together. And I can it all kind of worked out the the design agency VHDL came up with this great vision and they really did a good job of putting it together. fantastic job. So they found a way to reinvent shoreline just to create more of that engaging experience for visitors and locals from the moment they arrive. So again, the whole concept is being the most instagrammable so when you walk up, the designers came up with so many different backgrounds that you can just share with, with everyone. When you arrive at the hotel, we've got the Andre. Well, when you first come in, we've got the hat walk, even at the front desk, as you're checking out, we've got that neon aloha sign that they can share. We've got the mural artwork, up in the pool area on the rooftop pool that's designed that was designed by DJ Neff.
• 16:20
  Bryan Murphy: Even our hallways, there are so many different colors, you've got the blue, the red and the green. So it's just, it's all just very bold colors that you would never expect it. So again, it was very scary. But see our guests enjoy it and their excitement to see something completely different. I stand at the lobby sometimes. And when they walk in, they're just in awe, and they start looking around and start taking pictures. And again, that was their ultimate goal. So seeing that happen. That was awesome.
• 16:52
  Bryan Murphy: That's awesome. He talked a little bit about that tension.
• 16:54
  Bryan Murphy: But what was the opening day?
• 16:54
  Bryan Murphy: Like? What was that moment like?
• 16:58
  Alvida Surpia-Jones: Well, we had a lot of people here. So yeah, we're sitting here trying to figure out hopefully they get it, they understand our stuff, and they just don't come and go.
• 17:07
  Alvida Surpia-Jones: Like what is this? You know, you, ya know, if he's seen the picture, you come in, and we got bright yellow chairs, we've got a cage with birds, colorful birds, they're native birds we call they are native birds, we just say they've just up and very colorful outfits, you know, and you've got this long blue chairs, this hot pink area rug.
• 17:25
  Alvida Surpia-Jones: So it's a bunch of colors. So we're standing there going, how are they going to react but as soon as they start coming in, and just the comments that we're getting the feedback you're getting, we knew that was the right decision. You know, it's just so different.
• 17:43
  Unknown: And then also, I'll be down what makes us really stand out from other hotels as well is, aside from the physical, unique features that we are offering to the public, we are also telling them a story.
• 17:57
  Unknown: Correct. And that really excites and stimulates our guests when you tell them the story that from the ombre wall, there is an inspiration behind that wall.
• 18:08
  Unknown: And then when you get inside the lobby, you would see a big jungle wall white wall, I 26 feet, and then the heart wall as a dimension. And then when you go up to the swimming pool area, you would see a colorful mural created by dJ dJ Neff. It's he's a famous California artist. And even in the room, we have this you are here a wall. It's actually a topographic map of the Hawaiian Islands hanging over the beds. So yeah, the story behind our concept it it makes our guests more excited to see our property be right. And not
• 18:48
  Alvida Surpia-Jones: just again, the physical aspect of it, but it's also the what we what we offer at the hotel we know again, I said earlier that it's all about the experience that they encounter at the hotel. So what can we do here so we have also created a lot of different guests activities on side where we have, we call it salty and sweet. So we've got shave eyes with popcorn. We have live music, we have wine tasting, we have Haku lei making we we had hula we had Zumba, we had mythology, mythology, so we are trying different things and we want to bring them into our hotel so our guests can experience the different what you know what it means to stay at Shoreline
• 19:37
  Bryan Murphy: when I was down in Waikiki about a month ago and what I loved and I'm like, oh, their shoreline you guys are kind of this not hidden gem but what I think you guys have done a phenomenal job what I've seen and what I've heard is repurposing a location of building and bringing breathing new life into it. I think that speaks a lot into one respecting just kind of nature right like to just to like tear something down and put something back up what you guys did was repurposed something already there and turn it into something new. I just think that is awesome. And you guys are centrally located.
• 20:16
  Bryan Murphy: Staying at Shoreline is kind of its own little oasis in itself, but then you got the nightlife around around you guys and everything is accessible right there. So I know 2018 is that kind of glow of relaunching? And that that excitement in that maybe that glow is starting to wear off a little bit. I'm just speculating, and maybe you're looking towards what's next.
• 20:39
  Bryan Murphy: Have you had that conversation?
• 20:39
  Bryan Murphy: Or what is the future of shoreline look like in your guys's view?
• 20:44
  Alvida Surpia-Jones: We've had that before we've had that conversation because I know we need to keep it exciting and interesting. And we do. We can't change the the physical aspect or the look of it right away because we did We did that. So what do we do to not become, I guess stale. So. So we we, again, develop this whole guest experience on property always bring in different activities that our guests can join, join in for free, and also get that little that experience of Hawaii still no. We also, it's all about the offerings really, that we have at the hotel. That's what we have to keep up here.
• 21:24
  Alvida Surpia-Jones: Right.
• 21:25
  Bryan Murphy: A lot of maybe we're switching gears a little bit here, but a lot of Hawaii's Best audiences and some of the people that I'm in contact with our influencers, local on Island, but also from around the world. From my view, it looks like you guys have done an amazing job at partnering with some influencers. If somebody wanted to get in contact with you, is that something that is available?
• 21:47
  Alvida Surpia-Jones: Yes, definitely. Um, they can definitely contact us directly, or they can contact our PR agency made society. Okay,
• 21:56
  Bryan Murphy: that's good to know, from your guys's view, living on island for a little bit, if someone's coming to the islands for the first time, this is one of the questions I just love to ask because there's no right or wrong answer. And I think for the people listening and tuning in right now, thing is good too, as they're preparing their trip to Hawaii, from your guys's view, what are some things to be aware of prior to come into it could be a wahoo, Maui Koi, doesn't matter what Island but just coming to the islands, what are some things that you would want people to be aware of, to get the most out of their experience on the islands?
• 22:31
  Alvida Surpia-Jones: I have for me, just because we have, I would say my advice to be aware of to travelers here is utilize the hotel resources, meaning as the front desk war, the, the hidden gems are because we live here. So we kind of know, we go to certain places that a lot of our tours won't go. So I mean, always talk to the people at the hotel, because they will give you some tips on where to go that it's not the typical thing that you see. So you get to really experience Hawaii, you know, or experience living like a local. So I would definitely add, tell them, get to know them talk to them. Because, you know, for instance, people love to talk to our guests, and they like to share all their different ideas and what they do well, you know, while they do what they do here in Ireland,
• 23:26
  Unknown: from my and I would get like what I mentioned earlier, Hawaii has a lot to offer. So I would strongly suggest to all the travelers, especially those who are first timer here in Hawaii, to do our research and to because most of the travelers, they're staying here for like one or four days or six days. Of course we you know, our would advise them to maximize their stay because yeah, there's a lot of things to do from surfing, hiking, and even food exploration. It's you know, everything you can get it here in Hawaii. So I would strongly suggest to research and get information about the things that they really want to do that they're really interested to do and you know, maximize their time while you're in on the island.
• 24:16
  Unknown: I think one thing that everyone needs to be aware of is how to they need to relax, enjoy what Hawaii has to offer. And I guess the big thing is just Just take your time and relax.
• 24:28
  Unknown: Yeah, and enjoy the culture.
• 24:28
  Unknown: Experience.
• 24:33
  Bryan Murphy: Yes, slow down, enjoy the culture, talk to people drive the speed limit don't Honk your horn just like just it's gonna be okay. You're in Hawaii. Is there anything else that you wanted to add on to you want people to know more about shoreline and and your guys's brand new
• 24:52
  Alvida Surpia-Jones: aside from the colors, the design aspect and what we have to offer here, we also do offer a small amenity snack for each guests that arrive at our hotel that staying for two nights or more. And we were we really did a lot of research on our snack to make sure that we're not just putting any just typical snack that you can buy anywhere. So we made sure that our snack tray is consistent. A lot of a lot of local items here.
• 25:21
  Bryan Murphy: That is amazing. I wanted to go there a little bit because a lot of people I talk with businesses, hotels A lot of it is about supporting local and I'm glad you mentioned that maybe you can unpack that a little bit. What does that look like for shoreline?
• 25:36
  Unknown: One of the best examples is that our welcome amenity yes our welcome amenity it has like 13 local Hawaiian products so we're showcasing you know what we you know the unique food or the delicacies here and here in Hawaii is that way it's a combination of You can find macademia knots up with the big chips.
• 26:01
  Alvida Surpia-Jones: We've got the granola bar from Ana on a holiday or Nola bar from what I learned is that I forgot now I think Big Island. We have the Kukui nuts. We've got passion orange juice. And so again, really important to support local businesses here too. So people, again, you come to Hawaii to experience Hawaii, right? So you want to do that.
• 26:27
  Alvida Surpia-Jones: And you did. And by doing so, we again it was very important for us to do the local aspect there with our welcome tray or welcome amenities. We also once a week we do what we call POW ohana.
• 26:39
  Alvida Surpia-Jones: This, you know what, let me know vahana Weekly. And so what we do there, we also offer our local snacks we have the live music, local artists here, it's always great to see like the snacks being in because it's so different. We've got the more chain. We've got former khaki, sorry, arare. And then the dried mango with the leaking. So it's you know, it's it's fun to watch people say, Oh, what's this? You know how you eat? This is just it's very cool to introduce them to something very new.
• 27:13
  Bryan Murphy: That's good. Well, ladies, thank you so much for your time today. How can people find out more about shoreline?
• 27:20
  Bryan Murphy: Where can they go,
• 27:20
  Alvida Surpia-Jones: they can definitely go to our website, the shoreline Hotel waikiki.com, they can also check us out on our Instagram or Facebook. And they can call us directly as well, which is 808-931-2444.
• 27:34
  Bryan Murphy: I just want to thank you, as you're talking, I had a kind of thought popped in my head. And I just want to say thank you for taking a risk. And you could have just played it safe. And you could have been put up a really good hotel, but you took a risk. And I think you're seeing that pay off. And it's a unique experience. And it's an intentional experience.
• 27:56
  Bryan Murphy: It values your guests and it values local culture as well. I know that there's probably a lot of like you mentioned tension lead leading up to the relaunch and the rebrand and all that but where to go with it being an example of just taking a risk and going with your gut.
• 28:11
  Alvida Surpia-Jones: No, thank you so much. Now that we see what it is, it's it was definitely worth it.
• 28:16
  Bryan Murphy: That's great. Well again, thank you so much for your time coming on Hawaii's Best today.
• 28:21
  Unknown: Well, thank you so much, Brian, for having us on.
• 28:24
  Unknown: We really enjoyed this. Thank you, Brian, for the experience.
• 28:27
  Bryan Murphy: Absolutely. Great.
• 28:27
  Bryan Murphy: Thank you. Aloha.
• 28:30
  Unknown: Hello. Well, I
• 28:31
  Bryan Murphy: just want to thank elvina and her team again just for taking the time to come on Hawaii's Best and sharing a little bit more about shoreline and the recent rebrand and what they're up to what the future looks like at this amazing hotel if you're planning on coming to Waikiki definitely consider checking out shoreline and And like I mentioned in our conversation together, if you're an influencer on Instagram, hit them up, send them a DM, send them an email, they're always looking to partner with influencers and spreading their brand spreading awareness of what they're all about. So that could be a cool opportunity for you if that's that kind of fits your your niche. And again, just want to say thanks for hanging out with me today, and I look forward to hanging out again on our next episode of Hawaii's Best until then.
• 29:19
  Hawaii's Best: Thanks for listening to Hawaii's Best podcasts. Stay up to date on future episodes, be sure to hit the subscribe button and follow us on Instagram at Hawaii's Best