Luxury Travel Advisor - March 2008 - (Page 47)

nature into the room. That creates a sense of place in the Riviera Maya, of being one with nature.” This practice may seem ambitious—especially since Rosewood’s planned new properties include Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Costa Carmel, Costa Rica; Dubai; and Telluride, CO, but Boulogne insists the company will adhere to it. “I want a customer to walk into one of our hotels and say, ‘This feels like a Rosewood‚’ as opposed to ‘This looks like a Rosewood.’ I don’t want all of our hotels to start to look the same,” he says. “If you go into the bathrooms at the hotels of some of our competitors, you’ll notice they are all the same. That’s because they’ve designed a great bathroom that’s functional, so it’s easier that way. We create a new bathroom for each new property we open.” Boulogne points out that Rosewood’s wealthy customers have five-fixture bathrooms in their own homes, so seeing those in a hotel won’t necessarily impress them. “That is when you create opportunities, like outdoor showers and steam showers and tubs that are set so that candles can be lit around them to surprise the guests when they come back into the room…these are things they haven’t thought of doing at home.” Exercising this philosophy is a fairly impressive undertaking for a company that is a pure management play, for Rosewood actually doesn’t own any of the hotels that carry its name. Because it is so passionate about the properties that carry its moniker, however, Rosewood contractually negotiates the right to have tremendous input during the entire development process. In fact, Rosewood employs its own in-house architectural and design team which works hand in hand with the developer’s architects “to make sure it has a sense of place and is befitting of the Rosewood brand,” says Boulogne. “Many times, a developer will come to us with a recommendation for a designer. Sometimes we’ll have two or three that they can select from. We’re not opposed to working with a new designer with whom the developer has a great relationship as long as they have the BOB BOULOGNE, COO of Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, shown at the Rosewood Mayakoba, where the company just hosted its new Rosewood Elite travel agency group. ability to execute our vision,” he says. Boulogne also has a hand in determining what will make a good Rosewood property, a task that sometimes entails gazing at a simple mass of land. “When you see it, you know it,” he says, citing as an example 18 acres in the middle of San Miguel de Allende (Mexico) that in 2009 will be home to a new Rosewood. “When I went and stood there I just knew it was a great site.” Rosewood, in fact, is always scouring the globe for new locations. The company is in very serious talks for a property in Abu Dhabi and Punta Mita, Mexico, among others. Other locales on the company’s wish list? “We very much want to be in Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Rome, Singapore, Beijing and Hong Kong,” says Boulogne. “We need to fill in these major key gateway cities. It’s tough to get things built in cities like Rome and Paris, so you have to be www.luxuryta.com March 2008 | LUXURY TRAVEL ADVISOR 47 http://www.luxuryta.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Luxury Travel Advisor - March 2008

Luxury Travel Advisor - March 2008 Contents Editor's Letter Dublin: We Tour the Irish Capital’s Top Offerings Puglia, Italy: Where to go for Complete Tranquility Small Meetings: Inspiring Settings for your Corporate Client The Thompson Beverly Hills: Bold New Style Arrives in Southern California US Grant: Unabashed Luxury in Downtown San Diego Sailing the Danube: Low-Key Luxury on River Cloud II Sin City Spas: The Latest From Some of our Favorite Las Vegas Retreats Bob Boulogne: Rosewood Hotels & Resorts' COO Targets Elite Travel Advisors The Pulse Exotic Car Rental Jetset Report Sightings Source List

Luxury Travel Advisor - March 2008

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