What he has said is very true, and really shows when I visited the Grace Hotel in Santorini (one of the hotels he has founded), the hotel and staff made it a really special trip. The reception team were a great example of everything we discuss in our course, and it made it a really memorable trip. Hoping to go back there soon in the future!
A hotel holds the promise every day of adventure and romance, intrigue, mystery, betrayal, affairs of the heart, dangerous liaisons. Where else can you find that but in fiction or in film? Today, I want to speak to you about the challenge of creating a hotel that has both Life and adventure, and also is a place with a soul. I think we've all been to a hotel that didn't have a soul. It may have been a hellish experience. Or it may have been that, perhaps, it just didn't live up to the expectations you had for this wonderful getaway, and you were disappointed. I've been a part of building a hotel that didn't have a soul. It's no longer part of our collection, but it wasn't for a lack of effort, but things happened in the process, during the design, during the development we made compromises, and at the end, the hotel just didn't capture the imagination and the magic of the setting, and I was bitterly disappointed. Taking that to heart, I've become a student of hotels. I vowed that would never happen again, if at all possible. I've grown up around hotels, and we've built a number of hotels from the ground up - by that I mean from the very first idea of what a hotel might become - through design, through construction, through openin9 and operation. Today, I'd like to share those ideas with you about how to create a hotel with a soul. A soul is defined as something intangible, not physical. It also suggests a connection to a greater spirit. So if a hotel has a soul, it would have to have a life beyond its physical walls. Let's call that soulfulness. We've identified four elements of soulfulness: great design; a sense of place; a connection or being a part of the commuity in which the hotel is located; and most importantly, that the hotel inspires great affection or love through and for the people working there. What do we mean by great design? Great design can be big, it can be small. It can be luxury, not luxury, In the best of possible worlds, the hotel fits in with the surroundings. It lives in concert with a natural landscape or the cityscape; it feels like it belongs there. A hotel that feels like it belongs in its surroundings also typically would feel that has qualities that are almost human-like. It can be charming, it can be intimate, it can be charismatic. Those things are the things that make it feel a part of the destination, like it belongs there. When we did our first hotel from the ground up, we were in Los Cabos, Mexico, and I stood on this piece of ground overlooking the ocean. You could see the fish swimming down and the tropical fish swimming below and the reef. The seabirds were circling overhead. My first thought was, "Please, can't mess this up." How to enhance the natural setting here to make this hotel feel Like it belongs here? They say that the door handle is like the handshake of a building. We naturally gravitate to those hotels that have a human scale, that feel like they embrace you, that sometimes you feel at home, but other times not at home. Because you can leave your worries and your checklist behind you. Ideally, think about the possibilities. Think about changes you may want to make in your life. Think about how you might become a better person. All that's inspired by the warmth, the beauty, the character of the hotel in its surroundings. In an ideal setting, a hotel also is efficient. The designer Philippe Starck said, "A great hotel combines intelligence, culture, efficiency, comfort, and always a touch of poetry." Hemingway famously started, "The requirement for a great hotel is a bar somewhere on the premises." Our next topic is sense of place. What do we mean by it? That the hotel becomes somehow identified with the culture, the region or the city. Take for example the Pitz in Paris, the Oriental in Bangkok, the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong. These are hotels that in their grandeur command your attention and have defined luxury at the highest level in those destinations, in these cities. Or it may be a tree house lodge in Costa Rica that brings you. closer to one of the richest and most diverse ecosystems on the planet. Today, one of the most talked about trends in travel is immersion into the destination, into the culture, into the environment. The role of the hotel has really been transformed into that of a guide to the destination. In the best instances, the hotel staff curates and creates unique experiences that bring the guests closer to the destination and closer to themselves. I have an example from our property in Costa Rica. There we have a number of adventures and activities, including flying in an ultralight over the mountains and the ocean, taking a horseback ride up to an organic coffee cooperative in the mountains, hiking in a nature preserve along a pristine stream, or picking produce from an organic farm. When I rode in this ultralight, we're skimming over the tops of the waves on the ocean and coming back up to the hacienda up in the mountains, the pilot of the plane, Don Alberto, the owner of the hotel, pointed out these little tufts of clouds in the distance, and you're in open-air cockpit, and he says, "Mark, reach out and touch those clouds." What do we mean by a hotel becoming a part of the community? Today, building hotels can be about building community, in much the same way that hotels in the past were traditionally places for gathering, for work and for play. Today - that paradox of digital connectivity - we're becoming and more disconnected. Hotels offer a space to connect us all. In some cases, the most innovative and urban hotels have begun to define their neighborhoods. They've woven into the social fabric and the local community. In the best instances, they bring people together through art, through music, and through content. We had an opportunity in Aspen, Colorado, to rehovate the hotel Jerome several years ago. The hotel was originally built in 1889, and it needed a renovation. We were fortunate enough to be tasked with doing that. In the process of doing that, we took this hotel, which was built in the height of Aspen's silver boom, it opened in 1889 and had become an important part of the business and social life of the community. We went back to every period of the hotel's history. We took artifacts and photographs and flags and objects, even a whiskey flask from Hunter S. Thompson, who was the sheriff in Aspen in its wilder days, and combined all those things in sort of a modern, contemporary environment that we loved because it brought back the characten. What was most exciting was that we were in a position where the town embraced our revival of this landmark and said, "Thank you for bringing back periods of the hotel's history and important periods of the town's history as well." The hotel Jerome was a wonderful experience, and what the most important element of Creating a hotel with soul will always be is having a staff that creates those stories that bring you closer to the destination and create the moments that connect all of us. Use natural resources and use local resources, Local artisans. But above all, create this culture of possibility for the staff, for the people who work for you, and allow them to create the stories that brings us closer together. Why shouldn't all places of business strive to be soulful?
I read it all and it feels like a book. Nice comment. I just get a job as receptionist in a hotel... so I took everything that can help me in this and do my best lol I read comments before watch the video
Ive been doing restaurant and cell phone stores for about 10 years now. Ive grown to the point where these businesses are just not big enough for me. Im finally looking for bigger businesses. Im proud of myself. Im very into the hotel business. I wish i could meet someone who is just as interested as well. I prefer to partner up with someone more experienced. Wish i had some indian friends. Im not chirismatic enough to build a team. Ill have to go at it alone. Im talking to myself. This is why i have no friends.
I work in the best hotel in switzerland since I am 15 years old. Now my hotel education is finished and I know how to operate a hotel. I will be 19 years old this year. I you have a project and need a partner knowing the operations of an excellent hotel I would be delightet to help you.
What he has said is very true, and really shows when I visited the Grace Hotel in Santorini (one of the hotels he has founded), the hotel and staff made it a really special trip. The reception team were a great example of everything we discuss in our course, and it made it a really memorable trip. Hoping to go back there soon in the future!
Epic words: Hire for passion and commitment
i love this talk, he is such a charmer
A hotel holds the promise every day of adventure and romance, intrigue, mystery, betrayal, affairs of the heart, dangerous liaisons. Where else can you find that but in fiction or in film? Today, I want to speak to you about the challenge of creating a hotel that has both Life and adventure, and also is a place with a soul. I think we've all been to a hotel that didn't have a soul. It may have been a hellish experience. Or it may have been that, perhaps, it just didn't live up to the expectations you had for this wonderful getaway, and you were disappointed. I've been a part of building a hotel that didn't have a soul. It's no longer part of our collection, but it wasn't for a lack of effort, but things happened in the process, during the design, during the development we made compromises, and at the end, the hotel just didn't capture the imagination and the magic of the setting, and I was bitterly disappointed. Taking that to heart, I've become a student of hotels. I vowed that would never happen again, if at all possible. I've grown up around hotels, and we've built a number of hotels from the ground up - by that I mean from the very first idea of what a hotel might become - through design, through construction, through openin9 and operation. Today, I'd like to share those ideas with you about how to create a hotel with a soul. A soul is defined as something intangible, not physical. It also suggests a connection to a greater spirit. So if a hotel has a soul, it would have to have a life beyond its physical walls. Let's call that soulfulness. We've identified four elements of soulfulness: great design; a sense of place; a connection or being a part of the commuity in which the hotel is located; and most importantly, that the hotel inspires great affection or love through and for the people working there. What do we mean by great design? Great design can be big, it can be small. It can be luxury, not luxury, In the best of possible worlds, the hotel fits in with the surroundings. It lives in concert with a natural landscape or the cityscape; it feels like it belongs there. A hotel that feels like it belongs in its surroundings also typically would feel that has qualities that are almost human-like. It can be charming, it can be intimate, it can be charismatic. Those things are the things that make it feel a part of the destination, like it belongs there. When we did our first hotel from the ground up, we were in Los Cabos, Mexico, and I stood on this piece of ground overlooking the ocean. You could see the fish swimming down and the tropical fish swimming below and the reef. The seabirds were circling overhead. My first thought was, "Please, can't mess this up." How to enhance the natural setting here to make this hotel feel Like it belongs here? They say that the door handle is like the handshake of a building. We naturally gravitate to those hotels that have a human scale, that feel like they embrace you, that sometimes you feel at home, but other times not at home. Because you can leave your worries and your checklist behind you. Ideally, think about the possibilities. Think about changes you may want to make in your life. Think about how you might become a better person. All that's inspired by the warmth, the beauty, the character of the hotel in its surroundings. In an ideal setting, a hotel also is efficient. The designer Philippe Starck said, "A great hotel combines intelligence, culture, efficiency, comfort, and always a touch of poetry." Hemingway famously started, "The requirement for a great hotel is a bar somewhere on the premises." Our next topic is sense of place. What do we mean by it? That the hotel becomes somehow identified with the culture, the region or the city. Take for example the Pitz in Paris, the Oriental in Bangkok, the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong. These are hotels that in their grandeur command your attention and have defined luxury at the highest level in those destinations, in these cities. Or it may be a tree house lodge in Costa Rica that brings you. closer to one of the richest and most diverse ecosystems on the planet. Today, one of the most talked about trends in travel is immersion into the destination, into the culture, into the environment. The role of the hotel has really been transformed into that of a guide to the destination. In the best instances, the hotel staff curates and creates unique experiences that bring the guests closer to the destination and closer to themselves. I have an example from our property in Costa Rica. There we have a number of adventures and activities, including flying in an ultralight over the mountains and the ocean, taking a horseback ride up to an organic coffee cooperative in the mountains, hiking in a nature preserve along a pristine stream, or picking produce from an organic farm. When I rode in this ultralight, we're skimming over the tops of the waves on the ocean and coming back up to the hacienda up in the mountains, the pilot of the plane, Don Alberto, the owner of the hotel, pointed out these little tufts of clouds in the distance, and you're in open-air cockpit, and he says, "Mark, reach out and touch those clouds." What do we mean by a hotel becoming a part of the community? Today, building hotels can be about building community, in much the same way that hotels in the past were traditionally places for gathering, for work and for play. Today - that paradox of digital connectivity - we're becoming and more disconnected. Hotels offer a space to connect us all. In some cases, the most innovative and urban hotels have begun to define their neighborhoods. They've woven into the social fabric and the local community. In the best instances, they bring people together through art, through music, and through content. We had an opportunity in Aspen, Colorado, to rehovate the hotel Jerome several years ago. The hotel was originally built in 1889, and it needed a renovation. We were fortunate enough to be tasked with doing that. In the process of doing that, we took this hotel, which was built in the height of Aspen's silver boom, it opened in 1889 and had become an important part of the business and social life of the community. We went back to every period of the hotel's history. We took artifacts and photographs and flags and objects, even a whiskey flask from Hunter S. Thompson, who was the sheriff in Aspen in its wilder days, and combined all those things in sort of a modern, contemporary environment that we loved because it brought back the characten. What was most exciting was that we were in a position where the town embraced our revival of this landmark and said, "Thank you for bringing back periods of the hotel's history and important periods of the town's history as well." The hotel Jerome was a wonderful experience, and what the most important element of Creating a hotel with soul will always be is having a staff that creates those stories that bring you closer to the destination and create the moments that connect all of us. Use natural resources and use local resources, Local artisans. But above all, create this culture of possibility for the staff, for the people who work for you, and allow them to create the stories that brings us closer together. Why shouldn't all places of business strive to be soulful?
дай боже тобі здоровля !
Lets design and build an hotel.
Im finishing mine for 2022.
Brilliant!!
I read it all and it feels like a book. Nice comment.
I just get a job as receptionist in a hotel... so I took everything that can help me in this and do my best lol
I read comments before watch the video
Brilliant!
Beautiful amazing impressive soul . Interesting n informative talk. Thank you, bless you. All your dreams come true.
Nayara in Costa Rica, woow an amaizing experience, with a soul.
Ive been doing restaurant and cell phone stores for about 10 years now. Ive grown to the point where these businesses are just not big enough for me. Im finally looking for bigger businesses. Im proud of myself. Im very into the hotel business. I wish i could meet someone who is just as interested as well. I prefer to partner up with someone more experienced. Wish i had some indian friends. Im not chirismatic enough to build a team. Ill have to go at it alone. Im talking to myself. This is why i have no friends.
I am in kind of similar situation .. did u presue your dream?
I work in the best hotel in switzerland since I am 15 years old. Now my hotel education is finished and I know how to operate a hotel. I will be 19 years old this year. I you have a project and need a partner knowing the operations of an excellent hotel I would be delightet to help you.
Really inspiring and challenging at the same time!
I love this man
this is very helpful as am looking for an opportunity to do a franchise and what he talked about is very true
Great design is most important
Thank you for this video!!!
hotel
trivago
SW from
11:59
This is not the mark Harmon I was looking for
Joshua Horvath 😂 I was duped!!
Sexiest man alive 1986! not sure I buy it...
am i watching michael bolton?
Staff??? They are your business leaders, and why dont you pay goood?
What a terrible presentation
Why?