and Doran Twer, Contributing Editor
LaCosta Resort & Spa At A Glance
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Treatments at La Costa’s famous spa aren’t “pay by the hour” arrangements, but instead marketed as full-day—and sometime even night—experiences. Resort management is now working to extend that same sense of value to golf, F&B, and other activities— for guests, groups, and members alike. |
“You go first” can frequently be heard poolside at clubs and resorts, issued as a half-dare, half-plea by kids who aren’t quite sure about the warmth of the water or the perils of the diving board. And in the adult world of club and resort management, “you go first” is often a guiding principle, too, as many won’t jump into new types of offers or operations without first watching someone else take the plunge, to see if they survive.
When it opened in 1965, La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. (just north of San Diego) quickly made its mark as a property that didn’t need any coaxing to immerse itself in yetuncharted aspects of the club and resort business, such as full-service spas, aggressive pursuit of conference and group bookings, expanded retail operations, and hosting a PGA tournament annually.
But by the end of the century, after ownership and management had grown complacent about upgrading both its offers and its facilities, the buzz among clients and competitors was that La Costa had become “tired” and was no longer a trend-setter—and in fact had become highly vulnerable to the many other resort properties that had not only followed, but improved upon, its lead.
It wasn’t quite yet time, though, for La Costa to climb out and shiver on the side of the pool while everyone else had all the fun. A new owner, KSL Resorts—which has been aggressively acquiring and improving properties since 1992, including La Quinta Resort & Club in California, Doral Golf Resort & Spa near Miami, and the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa in Phoenix—came along in 2003, attracted by what it felt was the still-strong power of the La Costa brand and the still-vivid appeal of its location and physical property.
A couple of years and a $100 million or so worth of renovations later, La Costa is definitely intent on making a splash again. In fact, the new La Costa management team assembled by KSL does not even appear to be traumatized by the fact that 2007 will be the first year in the resort’s history that it won’t host a major PGA event (Accenture, sponsor of the Match Play Championship that La Costa had hosted from 1999 through 2006, will move that event to Arizona next year).
Having the plug pulled on the annual TV exposure that has burned the La Costa brand into the national consciousness won’t have a chilling effect, the resort’s new management team insists. Instead, they now see an opportunity to once again “go first” and guide the property into a bold new phase of its life as it turns 40.
“Sure, we’ve always enjoyed having a tournament and in some ways are sorry to see that end,” says Director of Membership Bill Meyer. “But there aren’t too many places that have had tournaments for 39 straight years, so you have to see that as a sign that it’s certainly possible to live without them.
“And [not having a tournament] also presents a lot of new opportunities to use and market the property differently,” Meyer adds. “On the golf courses, for example, we can change our agronomy practices [to not focus on reaching peak conditions for a February tournament] and really open up the summer months.”
Desi Howe, Director of Golf Best of Both Worlds |
In conversations with the heads of all of the various aspects of the La Costa operation, a similar theme emerges. Instead of bemoaning the loss of tournament exposure, there is strong confidence that the enduring appeal of the brand can now be combined with the allure of the physical makeover, and the excitement of the new activities now being offered, to achieve a whole new level of success.
“It truly is a new La Costa,” says Desi Howe, who arrived a year ago as the resort’s Director of Golf, after holding similar positions at La Quinta and Doral. “[Without a tournament}, we can focus on achieving year-round consistency of course conditions, and we’ll also have the opportunity to be much more flexible for the different segments of our golf business—resort play, outside play, and member play.”
For all three of those segments, Howe is counting on one of the final pieces of the overall renovation—a $1.6 million practice range overhaul and expansion that will be completed this spring (see rendering below)—to have a major impact on establishing La Costa as a world-class facility, even without the PGA. Another major attraction is the resort’s new affiliation with golf flexibility and conditioning guru Roger Fredericks.
Somewhat ironically, golf has been the last part of the property to be upgraded through the KSL-funded renovation. Fittingly, the La Costa spa was the first part, as the resort pretty much invented the modern-day concept on domestic soil, claiming to be the first U.S. resort with a full-service spa when it opened in 1965.
But Spa Director Jeremy McCarthy—brought in two and a half years ago from the Four Seasons in Maui, and with a total of 14 years of spa management experience—says that outside of occupying roughly the same footprint on the property, the new La Costa spa bears very little resemblance to the original.
“The spa industry has changed so much in the last 10 years, we decided to pretty much wipe the slate clean and start from zero,” McCarthy reports. And here, too, in rethinking its spa offer, La Costa found plenty of new ways to be leading-edge.
“There are so many spas now, especially in Southern California, that we really thought hard about how to position ourselves as once again being unique,” McCarthy says. “We decided that the best approach would be to get away from the ‘hourly treatment’ feeling and instead
focus on what the guest’s intention is when coming to a spa, and then creating an ambiance and environment that would help them achieve how they wanted to feel.”
Spa Director Jeremy McCarthy |
The “traditional” spa offer at the new La Costa now offers 42 treatment rooms in 28,000 sq. ft. of indoor space, plus an additional 15,000 sq. ft. outdoor courtyard. A full-service salon is offered as an additional amenity, and those who want to concentrate on “mind/body healing and transformation” can access the on-site Chopra Center at La Costa.
“We now have a menu that allows guests to choose products and services for any of three intentions: indulge, invigorate and inspire,” McCarthy says. “And in all cases, we encourage them to spend as much of the day here as they can, which we think translates to a much greater value.” That ‘day’ often extends into night, through a summer “Spa Under the Stars” program held in the courtyard that includes food and beverage service.
The nighttime option is just one of many special programs La Costa has developed to try to maximize the appeal of the spa to as broad an audience as possible. Drawing on research conducted by KSL (C&RB, March 2006, p. 39), it has also taken the lead in marketing spa services to men, and follows those efforts up with special programs such as “Bring Your Beau,” or results-oriented treatments for specific sports-related ailments. The resort has also developed a “Spa 101” primer, designed to help newcomers of all ages and sexes feel more comfortable about the experience, that provides answers to common questions about what visiting a spa is all about.
All of these efforts have paid off, McCarthy reports, with spa business levels more than doubling since the reopening two years ago. About half of the current business comes from locals who live in the area, he says, and about 10% of that half represents business from people who have taken out spa memberships. The other half is resort guest and group business; “bridal and bachelorette parties, and just groups of women or young girls, are a big part of our business,” he says. “We set them up in their own venues and include a private lunch.”
Herb-Crusted Rack of Lamb
Food and beverage, in fact, is now a big tie-in with all aspects of the La Costa offer, thanks to the upgraded operation headed by Executive Chef Hans Wiegand, who doesn’t mince any words when describing what he had to fix after coming to Carlsbad two years ago from the Claremont Resort and Spa in Berkeley, Calif. “There was bad kitchen construction, rundown equipment, and inconsistent food and service,” says Wiegand. “Everything was riding on the reputation of the old, grand La Costa. We had to rewrite every single menu, for banquets as well as the restaurants. And we spent $1 million on equipment for a brand new kitchen, and created a totally separate banquet kitchen.” Wiegand also drew inspiration from the creation of the new, 324-seat BlueFire Grill (see photo), which includes a large outdoor seating area (see photo at right) overlooking the property’s main plaza area. “It’s a fun place with a lot of energy,” says Wiegand—and also a lot of business, with as many as 220 dinners now being served on weekend nights. The breakdown of clientele at BlueFire, he adds, is about 20%-25% members, 25%-35% locals, and the rest resort guests.
Chefs Scott Diehl (left) and Hans Wiegand now have a new kitchen and tony new restaurant setting to befit their ambitious recipes. |
In reviving F&B at La Costa, Wiegand has emphasized serving “everything fresh, nothing out of the can”—and that goes for the property’s extensive banquet business, too. He sees nothing daunting about being able to pull off banquets of 900 to 1000 that serve “as close to restaurant food as possible.
“It’s all in the planning, and ordering the right food far enough in advance,” he says. “The execution is the easy part.”
Another area where La Costa has made extensive advances through a focus on planning and execution is its retailing operation. After taking the unusual step of creating a Director of Retail position, the resort brought in a specialty retailing veteran, Steve Shain, to direct the operation. Beyond its golf, tennis and spa shops, La Costa also offers boutique shopping in its plaza area, and does the buying for all of its shops through a central purchasing office.
“We have ‘trunk’ and art shows on the plaza, and tie in brunches to help attract and keep people around,” says Shain. “It creates a festive feel and is another way to have activities that can show off our beautiful property. We really think we can offer a great overall shopping alternative to the outlets and malls in the area, with a lot less of the hassles.”
Combining the New and the Old
As the existing department heads at La Costa continue to seek new ways to establish leadership positions in their various areas, new operating venues for the resort are also set to come on stream. Kids’ camps, teen facilities, infant care, an in-house theater, and a renovated pool area with water slides are just some of the new features planned for the near future—all in the interest, says Director of Marketing Denise Chapman, of creating more “family-friendly spaces that can be segregated from other activities on the property.”
“Every day, competing resorts pop up, and we know that even with all of the capital improvements we’ve now made, we can’t allow ourselves to sit back and think our work is done,” says Chapman. “The good news is that it’s clear, even with the period where the property didn’t keep up with the times, that our reputation is still intact. The brand recognition and cachet of our golf courses and spa are clearly still there. It’s amazing, in fact, how many times we hear, when talking to prospective guests, ‘Oh my gosh, I remember when my parents or grandparents brought me there—I loved that place.’
Roger Fredericks |
“The next generation of travelers can go anywhere,” Chapman adds. “But we think we have an edge by appealing to them to come back to those roots. And with our plaza area and all the things that it contains, we also think we can differentiate ourselves by creating a real village atmosphere that can be a central gathering place for both resort guests, and locals.”
KSL’s ultimate goal of the new La Costa, says Vice President/General Manager April Shute, is what it tries to instill in all of its resort properties: making everyone, be they a guest or a member, “a customer for life.” And in the case of La Costa, Shute adds, this is looking as though it will be easier than expected, because of the value of its still-intact reputation.
“We assumed we’d really have an uphill battle here because of how much it had fallen on hard times and been allowed to get run down in the mid- to late ‘90s,” says Shute. “But that’s proved not to be the case. The general reaction has tended to be, ‘I knew somebody would put money into it; it was too great a pla
ce for that not to happen.’
“And now that we can send out pictures that show how we’ve gotten rid of the ‘Pepto-Bismol pink’ and made such a dramatic transformation, it’s become pretty clear that we’re going to ‘survive’ quite nicely,” she adds. “this property has never seen this level of consistent interest, even in its original heyday.” C&RB
La Costa’s new practice layout will be the last piece of a total golf revamp that’s brought in Howe and Fredericks to maximize the appeal of the course’s deep bunkers and other signature features. |
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