A new spring for Four Seasons Matthew Garrahan
Paris. Milan. Budapest. Prague. Isadore Sharp is on a whirlwind European tour to meet employees of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts and tell them how the business is performing.
Although he says it is a “typical tour”, such a schedule, involving multiple flights and hotels, would sound like a nightmare to most people. When you are chairman and chief executive of Four Seasons, though, you can at least be assured of a stay in a decent hotel.
Since it was founded by Mr Sharp in 1961, the Toronto-based group has developed a reputation as the hotelier of the great and the good. In New York, its Four Seasons hotel is where Wall Street's elite like to meet and greet, doing deals over lunch or dinner. In Paris, its George V hotel has a similarly rich clientele.
Like its rivals, Four Seasons endured lean years following the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001. Now, however, conditions in the hotel market are beginning to improve, and Mr Sharp says that the company is embarking on a period of expansion. There will be 70 hotels operating under the Four Seasons banner by the end of the year and Mr Sharp aims to increase the portfolio to more than 100 within five years.
Many Four Seasons hotels are located in international financial centres. But future growth is expected to come mainly from regional markets such as the Middle East, the location for several new Four Seasons properties.
The region is not the first that springs to mind when one considers prospects for luxury hotels. Political uncertainty is rife and many visitors are still avoiding travel in the area. But Mr Sharp is convinced that the area will become a hospitality hot spot and he plans to add hotels in Alexandria, Beirut, Damascus, Qatar and Kuwait. In Egypt, the company has just opened a second hotel in Cairo and another in Sharm El Sheikh, the Red Sea resort.
“The reality is there are 700m people [in the Middle East] and they are on the move,” he says, speaking at George V. He says his hope is that the Four Seasons brand becomes “so dominant in that part of the world that it will also act as a catalyst for all the people in the Middle East who will be using the hotels when they travel elsewhere”.
Four Seasons' expansion, which will include new openings in India and China, comes as the hotel industry emerges from a downturn of unprecedented scope and scale. Exacerbated by the attacks of September 11 2001, the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome and ongoing fears about war and terrorism, the slump affected every corner of the industry. Hotel operators cut jobs, scaled back developments or, like Le Meridien, the upmarket chain, fell into severe financial difficulties.
While other companies have weathered the storm by cutting prices, Mr Sharp says he refused to generate custom in this way. “We have never got business by cutting price. That's not why people come to the Four Seasons they come because of the product,” he says.
This strategy paid off, he says. “In 2000, before the crisis exploded, we had our best year. It was everybody's best year and our average rates were the highest in the industry. At the end of 2003, our average rates were slightly higher than in 2000. People chose to pay a premium even when they knew that they could get a much better deal elsewhere. It really proved that what they got from Four Seasons was what they really wanted.”
Mr Sharp has overseen the company for more than 40 years. In the early 1960s, he ran a solitary motor hotel in Toronto. His next hotel was the Four Seasons in London. After subsequently opening a 1,600-room property in Toronto, he decided smaller properties were a better bet because they could support the sort of luxurious service he wanted to offer.
“The word ‘luxury' might carry the wrong connotation,” he says. “It infers indulgence, things that are really not necessary and I don't think that's what we're offering. We're offering an accommodation that fits people's lifestyles. This is something that serves their purposes, not because of the gold and glitter, but because of the reasons they're there. Nobody comes to Paris because we have a hotel here. They have reasons to come to Paris.”
Like the other hotels in the group, the George V is not owned outright by the company. Mr Sharp says he decided “early on” that management of property, not ownership of it, was the way to proceed. After selling off its property portfolio in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Four Seasons began to transform itself into a management company. “Looking at our earnings, maybe 90 to 95 per cent come from management fees rather than the ownership,” he says.
Although the group continues to have small equity positions in its properties, its business model relies on supportive owners who are willing to invest in redevelopment. Managing the relationship with these investors is critical to Mr Sharp's success.
He has several long-term partners, among them Quinlan Private, the Irish property and investment fund that recently acquired the Savoy Group of hotels. Mr Sharp says that owners have to have “an understanding of what the future holds, what the [property's] future needs are going to be.
“All our owners realise that they have bought or have built a very expensive product. In order to preserve the value of that, you must maintain it.”
One of the group's main property partners also has a substantial stake in the business. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a member of the Saudi royal family, owns about 23 per cent of the group as well as a substantial number of its hotels (see box).
The association between Prince Alwaleed and Mr Sharp an instance of Arab-Jewish harmony has been critical to the group's Middle East drive. “He is building the hotels in Damascus and in Beirut,” says Mr Sharp. “He's an excellent partner. We have a very close personal and business relationship and he's always there if needed.”
After the setbacks of three years ago, Mr Sharp is now confident about the future of the business. “We don't have to diversify into other levels of the industry to have adequate growth for our company,” he says.
At 73, and with a succession plan in place, is he thinking about retirement? “I think the world has changed in terms of people's attitude about when they should step down. It isn't age, it's attitude. I'm in good shape and good health, so for the foreseeable future I will continue in the role.”
四季酒店又一春
巴黎、米兰、布达佩斯、布拉格。伊萨多?夏普(Isadore Sharp)正在欧洲展开旋风之旅，与四季酒店及度假村集团（Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts）的员工们会面，向他们介绍企业的经营状况。
虽然他说这只是一次“普通的旅行”，但这种包含多次航班和多家酒店的时间表，对于多数人来说会是一场恶梦。但当你是四季集团的董事长兼首席执行官时，至少有一点你可以放心：那就是你会在一家体面的酒店下榻。
自1961年夏普先生创建四季以来，这家总部位于多伦多的集团已逐渐赢得了贵族酒店的美誉。在纽约，四季酒店现在是华尔街精英青睐的会面场所 ，可在午饭或晚饭时洽谈生意。在巴黎，该集团旗下的乔治五世(George V)酒店的客户群也同样富有。
与竞争对手一样，在2001年“9?11”恐怖袭击后，四季集团也经受了随后几年的业务低迷时期。但现在酒店市场的情况正开始好转。夏普先生称，公司开始迈入一个拓展期。到今年底，四季集团将拥有70家酒店，而夏普先生的目标是在5年内使旗下的酒店数量突破100家。
许多四季酒店地处国际金融中心，但未来增长预期将主要来自一些区域性市场，如中东地区。四季集团将在中东投资兴建数家酒店。
在考虑豪华酒店的发展前景时，中东并不是跃入人们脑海的首选，因为那个地区的政治很不稳定，许多游客仍然避免去那里旅游。但夏普先生深信，中东将成为旅游的一大热点。他计划在亚历山大（埃及）、贝鲁特、大马士革（叙利亚）、卡塔尔和科威特新建酒店。四季集团刚在埃及开罗开张了第二家酒店，并在红海度假胜地沙姆沙伊赫(Sharm El Sheikh)推出另一家。
“实际上，中东有7亿人口，而且人们在旅行，”他在乔治五世酒店里说。他表示，他希望四季“在中东成为一大强势品牌，进而发挥催化剂的作用，促使所有的中东人在其它地方旅行时也选择四季酒店”。
在酒店业走出规模及范围空前的低迷期之际，四季启动了它的拓展计划，包括在印度、中国新建酒店。2001年的“9?11”恐怖袭击，非典型性肺炎的爆发，战争、恐怖主义的阴云挥之不去，景气低迷曾影响酒店业的每一个角落。酒店经营企业纷纷裁员，缩减开发项目，或像高档连锁酒店集团“艾美酒店”(Le Meridien)一样，陷入严重的财政困境。
尽管其它企业通过降价手段渡过了暴风雨，但夏普先生表示不愿以这种方式创造客源。“我们从来不曾通过降价提高营业额。这并不是人们选择四季的原因。他们来这里是因为四季的产品，”他说。
他说，这一策略获得了成功。“在酒店业爆发危机以前，2000年是我们业绩最好的一年，也是所有酒店表现最好的一年，我们的平均房价在业内排名第一。2003年底，我们的平均房价比2000年略高。顾客明知其它地方的房价低得多，但他们仍然选择多花钱入住四季，证明他们的确从四季这里获得了自己真正想要的东西。”
夏普先生经营四季集团已超过40年。60年代初期，他在多伦多经营一家孤零零的汽车旅馆。他的第二家酒店是位于伦敦的四季。随后，他在多伦多开张了一家拥有1600间房间的酒店。此后他发现，规模较小的酒店是一种更好的投资，因为它们更适于他想要提供的那种豪华服务。
“‘豪华’（luxury）一词可能带有错误的内涵，”他说，“它暗指穷奢极侈，使人联想到那些没有真正必要的东西，但我认为这并不是我们所提供的。我们提供的是与人们的生活方式相称的住宿。我们的服务之所以能满足他们的需要，不是因为金碧辉煌，而是因为我们的服务能迎合他们在这个城市的原因。没有人来巴黎是因为我们在巴黎有一家酒店，他们自有来巴黎的原因。”
与四季集团的其它酒店一样，乔治五世并不完全归该集团所有。夏普先生说，他在“很早以前”就发现，酒店业的出路在于物业管理，而不在乎所有权。80年代末至90年代初，在出售了其物业投资组合后，四季开始将自己转变为一家管理公司。“从我们的收入来看，约有90%到95%来自管理费，而不是物业所有权，”他说。
尽管四季集团仍在其旗下的物业中拥有少数股份，但它的商业模式依赖业主的支持，尤其是业主愿意为再开发投资。如何处理与这些投资者的关系，对于夏普先生的成功十分关键。
他有几家长期合伙人，包括最近收购了萨沃依酒店集团(Savoy Group)的爱尔兰物业及投资基金Quinlan Private。夏普先生表示，业主们必须“了解未来是怎样的，（相关物业的）未来需求将是什么”。
“我们所有的业主都意识到，他们购买或建造了一种非常昂贵的产品。为了保持这种产品的价值，你必须好好地呵护它。”
四季集团的一家主要房地产合伙人也在公司占有相当大的股份。沙特阿拉伯王室成员阿尔瓦利德?本?塔拉尔王子 (Prince Alwaleed bin Talal)拥有大约23%的集团股份，还拥有四季旗下的多家酒店。
阿尔瓦利德王子和夏普先生的关系是阿拉伯人和犹太人和睦相处的一个典范，对于四季集团在中东的发展也至关重要。“他正在大马士革和贝鲁特建造酒店，”夏普先生说，“他是一位优秀的合伙人。我们的私交和工作关系都很密切。他总是在需要的时候出现。”
在经历了3年前的挫折后，夏普先生现在对企业的未来很有信心。“我们没有必要为了公司实现充分的增长而进入酒店业的其它层次，”他说。
夏普先生今年73岁，已准备好一份继任计划，那么他是不是考虑退休呢？“我认为，人们对于何时退休这个问题的态度已发生了变化。这和年龄无关，而是态度的问题。现在，我的健康状况良好，因此在可预见的将来，我将继续扮演目前这个角色。”
