OWNERS and managers of the Maybourne Hotel Group, which include The Berkeley, Claridge's and The Connaught, are looking towards the Middle East. TTN’s publisher Kim Thomson caught up with Stephen Alden, Maybourne Hotel Group’s chief executive officer.
“I don’t think that an international hotel today can put its strategic plan together without looking at the Middle East market very seriously. Here in London we have developed a good base of loyal customers from the Middle East whom we value and with whom we have developed a very strong relationship over the years,” said Alden.
“Today it is probably only about 12 per cent of our business. I think it has the capacity to increase by another 50 per cent this year; we need to work very hard at that but we are confident that we will reach that goal.”
He expected to see the Middle East contributing around15 to 20 per cent of their business over the next few years across the three hotels as its travel market was developing into a year round business focus and not just for leisure over the summer.
The group has many international properties, and Alden believed the strategic locations of Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Dubai or Doha were important cities to have a presence in. Although they were focusing on their London portfolio he was confident to be announcing the next project before the end of the year.
“There are a number of discussions taking place as we speak but I cannot divulge the details. The goal is to grow to about 25 hotels over the next 10 years. The good thing is that the industry leading performance we are able to achieve here in London has attracted a number of investors or developers who would like to see Maybourne associated with their hotels, so there is no shortage of interest and that is very positive.”
The group will be taking a road show to the Middle East as part of the strategy to grow the Middle East market but also to build a higher profile for Maybourne as a hotel group interested in development and growth.
“Most people are very familiar with our hotels individually but aren’t necessarily aware that Maybourne Hotel Group is behind Claridge’s, Connaught and The Berkeley and I would like to think that the £70 million ($100 million) renovation we have just undertaken at the Connaught is very good first expression of what Maybourne is capable of,” said Alden.
The GCC road show to Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha is being planned for April, and in November the group will tour an additional four cities.
Regarding the influx of luxury properties in the Middle East, he believed that the global brands and the hotels to weather the storm best were those with strong and high levels of differentiation from their competitors, take bold design decisions and investing in training and loyalty of their staff. “Finding and retaining talent will be key,” he said.
He was confident that the Maybourne group would emerge as the “next truly luxury brand”, and were targeting 20 to 25 hotels over the next 10 years.
Maybourne was formally launched in January 2005, although there is a tradition of hospitality that dates back hundreds of years to the original Savoy Hotel Group. Maybourne’s values are centered around a strong sense of preserving authenticity in all aspects - renovation projects, research or marketing.
He was proud to admit that at 29 per cent they had one of the lowest turnover rates anywhere. “With 1,000 employees across the three hotels and our Mayfair head office, that is a very impressive number.” He said. Another company strategy was to view each project and hotel individually yet benefit from common group values, ideas and best practices.
“I think it is the underlying values of the group that are important and should drive decision making. Our service style is intuitive, I think it is the next generation of service, more in line with what customers want today,” said Alden.
“They don’t want stuffiness or formality; they want something which is more genuine, more natural and much more friendly. Achieving our “intuitiveness” comes as a direct result of having recruited well and having trained well.”
He defined the three London properties as being different but carrying the same group values. The Connaught has a “discreet elegance”, Claridge’s is about a sense of ‘timeless glamour” whilst the Berkeley is more contemporary and about “exquisite innovation”.
“Proof of that is that we have less than a five per cent cross over amongst our guests between the three hotels. So that means that the hotels aren’t cannibalising each other’s business, each one has it own very loyal customer base.”