_Feb/stayingthecourse.jpg "Staying the Course")
By Rob Carey
With a style that balances tradition and progress, the Beucher family has kept Mission Inn Resort & Club humming in Orlando's golf market for 50 years
In 1964—seven years before Walt Disney World came into existence—Illinois businessman Nick Beucher acquired the Floridian Country Club, a facility located 40 minutes northwest of the sleepy town of Orlando. The centerpiece was a shabbily maintained but topographically unique 1917 layout by George O’Neil and a clubhouse almost as old. With his oldest son, Bob, helping him, Nick went about renovating the course and clubhouse. In 1969, Nick followed through on a vision he had from when he was a young man who rode through much of Mexico on horseback: He built a Spanish Colonial-style inn with restaurants, tennis courts and a marina, and named the 1,200-acre complex Mission Inn Resort.
Today’s Orlando is, shall we say, a bit more robust than it was back then. In fact, the past 12 years alone have seen three golf resorts come online—two with major hotel-chain affiliations—in addition to the countless renovations and upgrades made across the dozens of other destination courses in the region. While all this activity was taking place, the Beuchers’ family-operated property somewhat quietly celebrated its 50th anniversary. Officials are now gearing up for the 2017 centennial celebration of O’Neil’s hilly El Campeon course, the 2009 NGCOA Florida Course of the Year.
Bud Beucher, Nick’s youngest son, oversees Mission Inn as general manager and co-owner with his five siblings, while his sister, Donna Beucher-Line, serves as vice president of golf operations. Together, they’re responsible for maintaining the property’s competitive position versus the many lodging-and-golf facilities that are both newer and closer to Orlando’s theme parks and attractions. According to Beucher, Mission Inn holds its own “through a few things that we have stayed true to since we opened.”
Perhaps not too surprisingly, the golf experience is first on that list. “You can’t move as much earth as God did,” Beucher notes. El Campeon has every other course in the area beat on that count. Sitting on a highland spine that runs north from Orlando through the middle of the state, the layout has elevation changes of up to 85 feet in some spots. What’s more, a recent state initiative created the Florida Historic Golf Trail in part to compete with Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. El Campeon is one of just a handful of resort courses on the inaugural list, for which the state created a logo and other branding elements. El Campeon now features large stone signs at several tee boxes that speak to its history and aspects of the historic trail, making the golf experience stand out versus newer facilities in Orlando.
Atmosphere and service are additional differentiators for Mission Inn. Both the golf and the accommodations appeal to customers who appreciate history and tradition, especially in a region where those attributes are not so common. “The fact that we’re a family operation makes the experience here something you’re not going to get even at the highest-end places in this town,” Beucher notes.
Another element that strongly brands Mission Inn is Nick Beucher’s enduring philosophy from the day it opened: Ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen. “Our approach to service is that every customer is a good friend,” says Bud Beucher. The family trains the staff to initiate genuine and warm interactions akin to “putting an arm around the guest, giving a squeeze, and inviting them back anytime.” In a market with so much competition, Beucher realizes Mission Inn’s mission, if you will, is “to make sure customers have no reason to not buy from us again.”
To keep the property’s golf pedigree where it needs to be, the Beuchers have invested in a series of improvements on El Campeon over the past five years. They’ve rebuilt most tee boxes, re-grassed all greens, modified the irrigation system, and upgraded many cart paths. For 2015, money is allocated to renovate every bunker and replace sand. Beucher says that all work is being done “with an eye toward the course’s centennial.” It’s also generating media attention and should attract more first-time customers leading up to 2017.
Away from the course, a fairly new “entertainment den” with big-screen televisions, pool tables and dartboards has been popular with the four- to 16-player “buddy groups” that are critical to the property, as has the El Presidente meeting room that some larger groups rent out. “[For this customer segment] we promote that if you want seclusion to just relax and bond, this is the place,” Beucher says. “But you can still visit the tourist attractions, too. That’s a unique combination for Orlando.”
Another non-traditional feature is the “member for a month” program, which attracts snowbirds and even international visitors to the 10 villas on property that complement the hotel. Lastly, corporate and association meetings, plus weddings and other social-group business, greatly help Mission Inn fill its 176 hotel rooms and 36 holes of golf.
Despite the array of offerings and a history of success, the Beuchers remain prudent in their spending, particularly on the marketing front. “We know we can’t possibly take out enough magazine ads and media spots to compete with their (larger resorts) ability to create name recognition,” Beucher says. As such, the focus among Mission Inn’s sales team is on existing relationships—people who have been to the property and the contacts to whom they can relay their experience. To do this, Beucher and his team work to stay engaged with customers all year long.
In an unforgiving market such as Orlando, the most important factor to Mission Inn’s success is that the Beucher family and the staff know exactly what they offer. “We don’t try to convince anyone that we’re like the other properties in the region,” Beucher says. “I would rather tell someone that we aren’t the right fit for their needs this time around than to get them here and have them be disappointed. We know who we are and what we have here, and we focus on telling that story.”
Rob Carey is a freelance writer and principal of Meetings & Hospitality Insight.