Luxury Hotelier - September 2007 - (Page 22)

22| Personalities Four Seasons plans to double portfolio F our Seasons Hotels & Resorts is on a mission. Isadore Sharp, the company’s founder, chairman and chief executive officer, says the company will double the number of hotels in its portfolio during the next 10 years. Four Seasons is a hotel management company with 74 properties comprising about 17,600 guestrooms worldwide. “As a company, we’ll double in size,” Mr. Sharp says. “As we get bigger, we’ll continue to get better at what we do, because that has been the history. If you look back to where we were 20 years ago, 15, 10, five, we have slowly gotten bigger and slowly gotten better.” the end of it.” “I remember asking Issy Sharp in the late ’70s what was going to happen now that we’re going to be bigger,” says Jim FitzGibbon, president of worldwide hotel operations, who has been with Four Seasons for 31 years. “He said, ‘As long as we do the proper job in one hotel, the next one will be fine.’” Around the world Mr. FitzGibbon says the sky is the limit for growth at this time. “The amount of opportunities is somewhat endless at the moment,” he says. “This generation is moving to appreciate quality and the kind of service that we offer.” The company is experiencing tremendous growth outside North America with a robust pipeline in the Asia Pacific region, says Scott Woroch, executive vice president of worldwide development. It will open its first hotel in India later this year, and has five hotels under construction in China. “Owners there tend to be less institutional than in North America,” Mr. Woroch says. It also is developing a property in Dubai, which he says is a rare lodging market. “It continues to absorb all of the new supply, which is pretty amazing,” Mr. Woroch says. Europe provides one of the company’s biggest opportunities, according to Mr. Woroch, although new construction is more or less out of the question there. That means expansion might take longer because rehabilitating existing buildings into Four Seasons properties takes more time than new construction. As for North America, Mr. Woroch says the company is filling in the markets where it doesn’t have enough representation. “We’re looking for cities that can handle more than one Four Seasons [such as New York City],” he says. Mr. FitzGibbon says Four Seasons will in time have more development in Africa and South America. “[South America] has a wonderful opportunity for North American travel because of the ease of time change,” he says. Seventy-five percent of Four Seasons properties are built by developers who previously had not developed a luxury hotel, says John MacKinnon, senior vice president of design and construction. “It’s up to us to teach them,” he says. And what does the management team do when times get tough during contract negotiations or the construction process? “We think, ‘What would Issy do?’” Mr. MacKinnon says. “No matter what, we always take the high road.” Mr. Sharp participates in all development deals. He looks at every project in the pipeline from the time it is conceived. “Most owners wouldn’t appreciate how much he’s on their side and how he is fighting for what’s right for them,” Mr. MacKinnon says. “He’s very sensitive to the cost of construction.” The restaurant revolution Mr. MacKinnon says the trend in Four Seasons’ new properties is to enhance the dining experience. “Restaurants and spas have changed significantly in the last 10 years,” he says. “The design philosophy for restaurants is about a restaurant that just happens to be in a hotel. “We’ve started to use food-and-beverage design to create a buzz,” he adds. “We want to make hotel guests want to go as well as local people.” “Restaurants and hotels have changed in the last 20 years with the branding, chefs and concepts of restaurants,” Mr. Sharp says. “We, as a hotel company, are moving into that sphere. The higher specialty restaurant designers give it their touch.” That approach also is being used throughout Four Seasons properties, says Mr. MacKinnon, who adds that the average age of guests at Four Seasons has remained steady between 42 and 44. “The age hasn’t changed,” he says. “The way that this age group acts has changed. They still want to feel young, hip and part of the buzz. Mr. Sharp has adapted to that.” --J.H. Four Seasons has four properties in Thailand, including its Koh Samui resort shown here. Properties in India and China are next up in the Asia Pacific. For years, the company has faced the question of: How big can it get? “When we had five or six hotels, a question was asked: How many more can you do and still have this fanatical attention to detail and concern for the customer?” Mr. Sharp says. “I said, ‘I don’t know.’ But if the last hotel we build in Rome doesn’t embody everything we’ve learned, and therefore should at least be better because we’ve gotten more experience and more knowledge, then that will be Luxury Hotelier | September 2007 | www.LuxuryHotelier.com http://www.LuxuryHotelier.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Luxury Hotelier - September 2007

EDITOR’S LETTER PUBLISHER’S LETTER INFORM NETWORK PERSONALITIES INSIGHT INSIGHT PROPERTIES ROPERTIES INSPIRE DELIVER PROTOCOLS INSIGHT INNOVATE DEVELOPMENT INDULGE INSIGHT CONNECT UPDATE DOSSIER

Luxury Hotelier - September 2007

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