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Major Operational Changes for 2018

There would probably be lots of angry protests if that were to happen. Just imagine the newspaper (Mail) headline:
"Breaking News! Alton Towers to close down for a year!"

Would be the most sensible thing though. The whole “resort” shut would allow everywhere to be spruced up and focus on either “tlc” or replacing closed things.

Then reopen with an attempt to show we’ve listened and refreshed our offerings.

Of course above would never happen as someone at Merlin would say we aren’t making and money while shut
 
It should be said amongst all of this, I am quite sure the last thing the ATR management actually want to cut - is the rides.

Sorry, but I disagree. If they didn’t want to make cuts to rides, they wouldn’t. How do they get around it? Well, run the park at it’s optimum level, including all assets that are available, and if they take up costs exceeding Merlin’s target operating model, then Merlin will be forced to take action.

That action would likely be change of AT management, or dispose of the poorer performing asset - Alton Towers.

There *is* flexibility in this. Alton Towers are too afraid to face up to Merlin however. Merlin are not going to pull the plug, and Merlin are also liable for what debts Alton Towers rack up. So it seems to me the Alton Towers management are in fear of their jobs, and are sacrificing the whole park operations to appease them.



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Asset-stripping to fund their expansions of midways, maybe?

Yes I thought that but it’s not logical - you would want your assets to be worth more - banks and investors more likely to lend then.

It’s very odd indeed
 
Sorry, but I disagree. If they didn’t want to make cuts to rides, they wouldn’t. How do they get around it? Well, run the park at it’s optimum level, including all assets that are available, and if they take up costs exceeding Merlin’s target operating model, then Merlin will be forced to take action.

That action would likely be change of AT management, or dispose of the poorer performing asset - Alton Towers.

There *is* flexibility in this. Alton Towers are too afraid to face up to Merlin however. Merlin are not going to pull the plug, and Merlin are also liable for what debts Alton Towers rack up. So it seems to me the Alton Towers management are in fear of their jobs, and are sacrificing the whole park operations to appease them.



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The most likely would be a management replacement, seeing as they would see it as the management that have defied them.

Management love Towers I am sure. But people also have familys to support, mortgages to pay and mouths to feed. I am sure that would come above potentially loosing their jobs to revive the park for a season at max. They love Towers, pretty sure they would love their familys more, though.
 
I would add that if Merlin really have issued an ultimatum, then management are placing their own position above the very staff that run the place at ground level for them, and will be hardest hit by the cuts. If they were really passionate about running a theme park as an experience to rival the big boys, they would offer their resignation over making these cuts. It would be easier for them to find a job elsewhere (although admittedly the market is saturated by Merlin...) than for the hard-working, minimum wage staff at the lowest levels.

And if Merlin haven’t issued an ultimatum, then they would run the park with the higher operational costs and Merlin will have to stretch the funding.


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Merlin do not care for the RTP's other than Legoland, it's as simple as that. They are adamant their future is in Midways and will continue to significantly expand their Midway and Legoland offerings, all at the expense of the non branded RTP's.
 
Personally, my thought is that if they want to save money then shut ALL the hotels for a year. They are overpriced, poor quality, poor value for money, and probably costing Merlin a lot of money to run as I would assume bed occupancy rates are actually quite low. Shut them all, except maybe 2 months in the summer and for fireworks/scarefest. There are plenty of local B&Bs and hotels which are better than the AT hotels which could cope for the year.

The money saved on cleaning, heating, water, restaurants, staffing etc should be enough to allow the park to open properly.

Merlin seem to be forgetting its not the "resort" or the hotels which made Alton Towers what it is - it was the theme park and maintaining that is crucial if they want to see this through.
 
Merlin do not care for the RTP's other than Legoland, it's as simple as that. They are adamant their future is in Midways and will continue to significantly expand their Midway and Legoland offerings, all at the expense of the non branded RTP's.

Spot on probably a better ROI
 
They need a good strike!
It's a shame that most workers there are not in a union. I believe Towers used to make it very hard to join one, not sure of the situation now.

I Wonder what would happen if all the staff fell ill on the same day? ;)

I'm with @EuroSatch Ideally the park managers would run the park as it should be, show a rising in profits and then when they run out of budget they may have a case to prove they need more money. Very risky though as mentioned jobwise.
 
Personally, my thought is that if they want to save money then shut ALL the hotels for a year. They are overpriced, poor quality, poor value for money, and probably costing Merlin a lot of money to run as I would assume bed occupancy rates are actually quite low. Shut them all, except maybe 2 months in the summer and for fireworks/scarefest. There are plenty of local B&Bs and hotels which are better than the AT hotels which could cope for the year. .

They should never have spent the money on a new CBeebies hotel when they could have saved money by re-theming rooms in the other 2 hotels and maybe changed some of the theming in the main AT Hotel, would love to know what % of rooms are actually filled across the resort at any one time

and I don't even wanna get started on the Enchanted Village
 
Would love to know what % of rooms are actually filled across the resort at any one time
It's a shame they hide the accounts as they do and don't have nice descriptive directors' reports on the filed accounts. One thing I like about the way BPB is structured - yes each part (park/hotel/random other stuff) are separate companies underneath one holding company, but they show the results for each part clearly rather than saying "AT Operations is an agent for Merlin, doesn't spend any money and just gets a fee from Merlin".
With so many hotels at AT, and the prices they charge, they're either high occupancy (hence can justify the costs on "it's what people will pay") or they're low, I doubt they are anywhere inbetween really.
 
This is Alton standard copy and paste response to the situation, as far as they are concern, the staggard ride opening is no different to the past years :rolleyes:

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They should never have spent the money on a new CBeebies hotel when they could have saved money by re-theming rooms in the other 2 hotels and maybe changed some of the theming in the main AT Hotel, would love to know what % of rooms are actually filled across the resort at any one time

and I don't even wanna get started on the Enchanted Village
I second this, if anyone has any knowledge of the occupancy rates please shout up
 
The truth is very likely that Alton Towers are perfectly profitable, but not to the margins desired by Merlin.

Merlin will have spent a lot of money on business consultancy to develop a target operating model for all RTPs; an objective, streamlined, cost efficient model. It won’t factor in any variables for individual parks, because why? It’s a theory, it works on paper, and will be calculated based on square footage, guest numbers, number of assets etc etc and will demonstrate exactly how much funding a park needs to operate based on its size. It’s then down to Alton Towers to make it fit.

And what happens if it doesn’t work, if a park doesn’t perform to the margins set by Merlin’s Magic Spreadsheet? Merlin aren’t going to pull funding, and they won’t allow a park to become illiquid. So the fall comes to the management to conform, or get out. And then it’s down to another team to meet these demands. So two sets of people need to make a decision.
A) are the demands being placed in my role unreasonable, and can I justify putting these demands in place for the business I operate, or
B) are these parks worth the profit we’re receiving to keep in our group.

Until the latter is decided by Merlin, they will continue to place these demands on Alton Towers, and it’s down to them to prove to Merlin that the demands are unreasonable, be it by refusing to conform to them, or by offering resignation.

I’m not calling for the resignation of any staff. I understand that walking away from a position you were the most passionate about until recently is not a light decision, and has severe consequences for personal lives too. But I am questioning how much management care for the place if they continue to obey Merlin’s demands


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If that's the case Merlin need to stop paying consultants to tell them how to run their business and get back to what they know and were good at once upon a time, I.e. running their parks successfully.

Many moons ago I had a friend who, against his better judgement but at the behest of consultants, took his business public, he said to his dying day that was the worst decision he ever made.
 
I don’t know this, but it’s my assumption based on my experience of what I do day in day out for work (not business consultancy I would add)


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I very much doubt the hotels are very well occupied. Weekends in the summer, special events, yes, probably. Weekdays, winter, closed days etc, prob very quiet. I question if the hotels are actually making money now.

Cbeebies must cost a fortune in terms of the number of staff needed to run the entertainments

Splash must be expensive in terms of running the waterpark, heating the water and the pumps isnt cheap,heaters etc, although the water temp seems to get colder year upon year

Enchanted Village again cant be cheap with the individual heating within each "hut".

I would say probably, the only hotel which could cover its investment is the original ATH.


I think Merlin have built the extra hotels not due to demand, but as an investment in preparation to sell the place off, which, may happen in the future given the neglect they are showing the place.
 
I've only got one hotel to compare against, that's Big Blue at BPB - 61% occupancy and just under £1m profit (before tax) in the last accounts. So since we have neither figure for the AT hotels... who knows, just guesswork
 
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