What are the innovative business models in family-owned heritage

houses.

Dr. Jurgen Tack

Manager K&DM

Scientific Director European Landowners’ Organization

Size matters

• Size of the house – size of the land • Family-owned heritage houses up to 50 ha: gardens, parks • Family-owned heritage houses between 50 and 250 ha: agriculture driven • Family-owned heritage houses above 250 ha: increasing procentual

importance of forestry • Growing interest in nature conservation with an increasing size of

surrounding land • Total floor area of the house & total size of surrounding land: main

components of the value of the house

Numbers matter

Total number of visitors/year attracted by individual family-owned heritage houses

Most entry fees: under 10 €

Present activities • Guided tours – 59%

• Concerts, theatre – 49% • Weddings – 44%

• Conferences/business meetings – 44%

• Accommodation – 40%

• Film or TV location – 39%

• Location for commercial photography – 35%

• Open-garden days – 29%

Most of the activities are organised in medium to large sized houses on smaller plots. They have the most urgent need to generate additional income to restore and maintain the house.

• Renting part of the heritage house – 27%

• Catering – 24%

• Shop – 12%

• Horse riding – 7%

• Renting the whole heritage house – 6%

• Vineyard – 6%

• School – 3%

• Golf course – 2%

Turnover

Number of family-owned heritage houses and their total turnover on a yearly basis.

Costs

Number of family-owned heritage houses making a total yearly turnover in function of the total yearly costs.

Do we have a problem?

• Number of visitors

• Turnover

• Costs

Yes

What do we need?

• Need for innovative business models for family-owned heritage houses: • Need for a clear business model

• Need for innovation

• Innovators: houses with less than 50 ha of surrounding land

Business strategy

• Operational excellence as a competitive strategy

• Customer intimacy as a competitive strategy

• Product leadership as a competitive strategy

To pick the most suitable business strategy for your heritage house, use the online toolkit on:

https://www.europeanlandowners.org/heritage-houses-for-europe/innovate/ and read the study’s support document 2 :

Illustrative Practices on innovative business model cases.

Number of family-owned heritage houses per business strategy in function of the number of yearly visitors

Business strategy

Business strategy

Improve your business model

• Anchorage in local community & economy

• Through employment, use of volunteers and immersion in the local community, heritage houses can build strong and rewarding relationships, creating opportunities for both the local economy and the family. Local engagement is an excellent source of recognition and marketing.

Improve your business model

• Focus on uniqueness and story-telling

• Having a story to tell is a unique feature shared by all those houses. Organising activities around this uniqueness has become a successful approach. The transformation from static to dynamic and often interactive storytelling is innovative and can be used in heritage houses. Yet, digitalization is not the only option. Escape rooms in the house as well as discovery and adventure trails in the garden or park are popular examples.

Improve your business model

• Contributing to wellbeing

• Access to open space and reconnection with nature impact positively our health. Heritage houses situated in rural areas therefore have the potential to host a wide range of activities contributing to both mental and physical wellbeing.

Improve your business model

• Use of digital tools

• The overall usage of digital tools remains extremely low among heritage houses owners. But they do use digital solutions for more operational actions such as reservation systems, which has improved their communication with visitors. Given the investment that “digital shift” can represents, sector support organisations could guide their members in facilitating online ticketing, digital marketing and online communication.

Improve your business model

• Anchorage in local community & economy

• Through employment, use of volunteers and immersion in the local community, heritage houses can build strong and rewarding relationships, creating opportunities for both the local economy and the family. Local engagement is an excellent source of recognition and marketing.

Improve your business model

• Networking of heritage houses

• Owners share a common set of challenges. Whether through associations, partnerships, at local level or even in consortium at EU level, increased cooperation through networks is a crucial path to find, share and implement innovation.

Improve your business model

• Diversification of financing mix

• Non-traditional mechanisms to raise additional funds can support owners in developing innovative projects. Micro-contributions, public-private partnerships and market-based financial transactions, including crowdfunding, might lead to sustainable and innovative heritage houses.

Improve your business model

• Multifunctionality

• While in the past, houses on large plots of land were mainly involved in a single activity such as agriculture or forestry, nowadays those estates have the tendency to develop additional activities, turning multifunctional. By diversifying the sources of income, they are able to neutralize income fluctuations due to market circumstances or weather/climate related problems.

Improve your business model

• Sustainability

• Climate change and biodiversity loss are pressing global issues. An increasing amount of people want to act. By promoting eco-friendly activities, using sustainable materials, installing sustainable energy sources, etc. heritage houses owners can attract a new segment of customers.

Learn from other owners!

The online business model toolkit is available to guide and inspire owners. Use it on:

https://www.europeanlandowners.org/heritage-houses-for-europe/innovate/

What are the innovative business models in family-

owned heritage houses.

Lancelot GUYOT, Château de la Ferté Saint Aubin (France)

Jan de MAERE, Flanderhof (Romania)

Simon de MERODE, de Merode Castle, Westerlo (Belgium)

Lancelot GUYOT, Château de la Ferté Saint Aubin (France)

Jan de MAERE, Flanderhof (Romania)

Simon de MERODE, de Merode Castle, Westerlo (Belgium)