On June 23, Encore Boston Harbor should have celebrated its second anniversary in business. Instead, it celebrated the end of a statewide mask mandate and the beginning of a wide, slow return to near-normal.
By September 1, the opulent, multibillion-dollar resort on the Mystic River was pretty much back in business, with its hotel, casino, restaurants and other amenities up and running.
Jenny Holaday, who recently succeeded Brian Gullbrants as the property’s president, talked with GGB News about the resort’s growing pains amid the pandemic, and her plans going forward.
GGB: Encore is back open 24/7. When did that happen, and what conditions had to be in place first?
Jenny Holaday: It really was a phased approach. We had a lot of operational impacts due to Covid—we were open 12 hours a day, then we were back to 24 hours with capacity restrictions, etc. The first big moment, when it felt that we were going to be on our way back, would have been when the mask mandate was lifted (on May 29). That was the first big step.
We had as close as possible to a normal summer. There was a lot of post-Covid freedom and euphoria going on here and around the country in those early months, and it was great.
How do you plan to reopen when there’s so much caution among patrons, and you know restrictions may return?
Trying to figure out how to safely reopen how to and take care of employees and how to create a safe environment for the guests—there was no blueprint for what we all had to figure out. The good news is this market is so big and dynamic, we usually knew when we got it right. We were able to pivot and adjust very quickly as we figured out what reopening would look like.
After the mask mandate was lifted, we closely watched customer demand to see when it made sense to start to bring back more of our outlets—our restaurants, our salon, our spa, our fitness center, our business center—and when to bring the hotel back seven days a week. We just went back to full resort operations on September 1.
Where does the resort draw from in terms of customer base?
We’re really not mature enough to answer that question. We like to think we’re at least a draw for New England, but for the whole East Coast? It’s hard to tell. That was the early assumption, but in the post-Covid world, none of that business has really returned en masse. We’ve been living and surviving and connecting with our most immediate customer base in the Greater Boston area. And that’s true of most regional operators.
Boston is a world-class city and we’re definitely a world-class resort, but I like to remind everybody that this property, which opened over two years ago, only has been fully operational for eight months. I’ll give you a fun fact. Just a couple months ago, the last second quarter was our first-ever second quarter. And frankly, that isn’t much of a measurement either, because the vast majority of that quarter was before the mask mandate was lifted. So yeah, it’s crazy, but we’re basically brand new.
The Everett Independent said your predecessor, Brian Gullbrants, “was able to better-tailor Encore to the Greater Boston market.” What does that mean, and how will you keep the momentum going?
When we first opened, the expectations were so incredibly high. And there’s always some trial and error opening any new resort, especially one this size. There were some early adjustments that Brian and I were able to identify and execute together. For example, we didn’t open with any fast-casual (dining) options. So we put some food trucks on the casino floor, which other regionals have done. Among all those F&B options, we made sure there were all kinds of price points for different budgets and dining experiences.
Same thing with the casino experience—we make sure we had enough games at enough acceptable limits so everybody could come and enjoy us. A lot of people think you’re really lucky when you’re the only casino in town, but the downside is, you have to make sure you’ve got something for every customer segment.
Brian and I were really a dynamic duo; we figured out a lot together. And just as we were starting to gain momentum and get some of those strategies in place, Covid hit. On a personal note, I’m bummed that Brian—who was such a great mentor and friend and partner for me—left and took all his fantastic leadership skills to our sister properties in Las Vegas. But it’s exciting to reset now and see what this property can do.
Have you encountered the kind of labor shortages that have affected some other properties, especially in food service?
That F&B piece has been one of the hardest to recruit back and retain. We have 15 food and beverage outlets, and getting all of those back open and up to speed has been really challenging. We’re definitely managing our operating hours based on the staffing levels.
Have you had to entice new hires with bonuses and so on?
We’ve been lucky, we did a referral program that worked out well, and a lot of the employees—from Day 1 and even newer team members—really like working here. The resort creates a lot of pride, it’s a beautiful facility, and the management is very engaged. That generates a lot of job satisfaction here—that’s your best recruiting tool, and so far, we haven’t had to go out with the Amazon-style hiring bonuses, knock on wood.
Can you talk about your leadership style?
The question to ask is, ‘Are you teaching people to do their job?’ My mom used to tell me, if you can leave your job and it can run without you, you’ve done your job. That’s always been my yardstick for success.
Massachusetts is really ready for sports betting. How have you prepared?
Boston is a Big 4 sports town, and a there are a lot of avid, excited sports fans who cannot wait to participate. It’s anybody’s guess when it will happen, but we’ll definitely be prepared. We have a wonderful sportsbook app, WynnBet in six markets, so we’ve got the mobile product in place. We’ve just completed a $28 million, absolutely gorgeous WynnBet sports bar here. So if and when sports betting is approved, we’ll have the physical space.
You became president of the property at an extraordinarily challenging time. How does it feel to be coming out of it?
The silver lining of this incredibly tragic pandemic has been the camaraderie and the bonding that’s happened. In many ways, I think our relationship with our customers and certainly our standing and relationship with the community has changed for the better.
Before the pandemic, there were some things we could have done better and differently—we had a lot of critics. Now, going through these challenges has given everybody the opportunity to reflect on what they think is important and what matters to them. I feel we’ve accelerated our growth and connection as a team at this property and especially with the community in the Greater Boston area.
We’re really lucky to be in Massachusetts. I was reading that 76 percent of our citizens are fully vaccinated—we got hit hard very early on, so as a city, as a state, as a commonwealth, we took it very seriously. You never really felt you were infringing too much on the citizenry; everybody was down for cooperation because again we got hit so hard so fast.
Hopefully, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, we’ll get past this delta variant, we’ll get to 90 percent vaccinated, and we’ll have some normalcy come back to our lives.
