Luxury Travel Advisor - July 2008 - (Page 43)

A Gentleman’s Touch Sir Rocco Forte resets the bar for European elegance here was little doubt of Sir Rocco Forte becoming a hotelier. After all, his father, Lord Charles Forte, parlayed a milk bar he set up in 1935 into a group of differentiated hotel properties, which, at its height, comprised more than 800 hotels, mostly in the United Kingdom. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree. “Working in the hotel industry has always been something I wanted to do,” says the 63-year-old Forte, whose full head of dark hair and triathlete’s physique belie his age. “My father was quite clever in exposing me to it at a young age, so I couldn’t wait to get into the business.” He didn’t have to wait long: By the age of 14 he was already working for his father, and in 1992, at the age of 47, the senior Forte gave his son full control of the Forte Group PLC. Forte helped up the hotel group’s international presence, adding such properties as Sandy Lane in Barbados and New York’s Plaza Athénée. Only four years after taking the helm of his father’s creation, the group was sold in a hostile take-over bid to Granada, a former British media and catering conglomerate. Contrary to expectations, the father displayed no rancor toward the son. The elder Forte passed away this past year at the age of 98, but not before seeing his son recast himself, rising like a phoenix to restore the family name. Fittingly, one of Lord Forte’s most poignant lines was, “If you lose T your good name, you lose everything.” That might have affected Sir Rocco, stirring the son to reclaim the family name. The same year that Forte Group PLC was sold, The Rocco Forte Collection was born, with Sir Rocco, who was knighted in 1994 for services to the UK tourism industry, as its chairman and CEO. Although the former collection of hotels was a mix of different price points, The Rocco Forte Collection is pure luxury. Currently composed of 11 hotels strewn throughout Europe, five more are set to be added by 2010 in global destinations including the Middle East. Starting Time The Balmoral in Edinburgh was the first hotel to be purchased and folded into the collection. Like most of Forte’s properties, it has fewer than 200 rooms and, similar to the rest, is based on Forte’s premise of “The Art of Simple Luxury.” That, he says, describes the collection’s approach—far from stuffy, and offering comfortable, modern design and, above all, friendly but professional service. It’s fair to say that Forte is a latter-day fixer-upper. He scouts properties, finds those that inspire him and then gets to the business of fully redesigning and refining them to fit his tastes. (Of the 11 properties now in the collection, only The Charles Hotel in Munich and The Lowry Hotel in Manchester are new builds; four are owned by The Rocco Forte Collection, including The Balmoral, Hotel de Rome, Hotel de Russie and Hotel Savoy.) Until now, the brand has stuck to the European continent, and while Forte is expanding, he still hasn’t conquered Europe. “Nobody has a complete position here,” he says. “You have to always be on the lookout for opportunity.” He lists Milan, Paris, Madrid, Amsterdam, Moscow, Venice and Barcelona as cities he’d like to incorporate into the collection. Europe may be his home, but Forte is now in a position where he can look beyond. THE ROCCO FORTE COLLECTION Headquarters: London Worldwide Sales Offices: New York, Los Angeles, Madrid, Frankfurt, Rome and Moscow Properties: Hotel de Russie, Rome; Hotel Savoy, Florence; The Balmoral, Edinburgh; The Lowry Hotel, Manchester; Hotel Astoria, St. Petersburg; Hotel Amigo, Brussels; Brown’s Hotel, London; Villa Kennedy, Frankfurt; Hotel de Rome, Berlin; Le Richemond, Geneva; The Charles Hotel, Munich Future Openings: The Augustine, Prague: Fall 2008; Verdura Golf & Spa Resort, Sicily: May 2009; Marrakech: 2010; Abu Dhabi: 2010; Jeddah: 2010 Sales: More than $300 million this year GDS Code: FC Website: www.roccofortecollection. com BY DAVID EISEN www.luxuryta.com July 2008 | LUXURY TRAVEL ADVISOR 43 http://www.roccofortecollection.com http://www.roccofortecollection.com http://www.luxuryta.com

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

Luxury Travel Advisor - July 2008 Contents Publisher's Letter Editor's Letter California Coast Tuscan Villas Ranch Vacations Gansevoort South Rancho Las Cruces Reserva Conchal Spas of the Maldives St. Lucia A Gentleman's Touch The Pulse Just Back Sightings Source List

Luxury Travel Advisor - July 2008

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