Kip in a Ship: Repositioning an Experience to Improve Value and Sustainability
Kip in a Ship at HMS Belfast was a long-running event with consistent demand - but it was significantly underperforming in both engagement and value.
© IWM
The challenge
Guests were booking the experience at around £45 per person, but behaviour on the night revealed a deeper problem.
Rather than engaging with HMS Belfast itself, many visitors were leaving the ship to spend the evening elsewhere in London, returning only to sleep and order takeaway. The ship was effectively being used as low-cost accommodation, doing a disservice to both the experience and the collection.
The key challenges were:
Minimal engagement with the ship’s history and narrative
Poor alignment between price, experience, and perceived value
Missed opportunities to generate income in a high-profile location
An offer that undervalued one of the museum’s most significant assets
The approach
I set the strategic direction for the redevelopment and led my team through a full review of the experience, focusing on visitor behaviour, value perception, and commercial performance.
Together, we assessed:
How guests were using the space
Where engagement dropped away
What the existing offer was telling us about value
Rather than pursuing incremental fixes, I guided the team to rethink the experience as a whole. This ensured that creative decisions, pricing strategy, and operational delivery were aligned from the outset.
This approach reflects how I work as a Museum Consultant and Business Coach: setting clear direction, supporting teams to do their best thinking, and ensuring decisions are grounded in both audience insight and commercial reality.
The solution
Under my leadership, the team remodelled Kip in a Ship from a basic overnight stay into a fully designed experience.
Key developments included:
Introducing three-tiered packages at different price points
Designing immersive activities that encouraged meaningful engagement with the ship’s history
Including breakfast as standard to improve flow, value, and experience
The tiered structure ensured accessibility while allowing guests to choose how deeply they wanted to engage and how much they wanted to spend. Activities were deliberately designed to keep guests on board and actively involved with the space, rather than treating it as accommodation only.
The impact
First months sold out at the highest-priced package, demonstrating demand for a premium experience
Lower-priced options ensured the event remained accessible
Stronger alignment between the event and the ship’s historical narrative
Improved audience perception of value
Increased profitability and a stabilised bottom line
Solutions & Results
Working together
I support museums through consultancy, events consultancy, and business coaching, helping leaders set direction, support their teams, and make confident decisions about experience design, pricing, and income generation.
If you’re responsible for an established offer that’s underperforming - and want to lead change without destabilising delivery - you’re welcome to book a discovery call to explore how I could support your organisation.