Dubai: Warwick, a privately owned collection of hotels in the upper tier, wants to put its individual stamp on the Dubai market and beyond.
The group, owned by Hong Kong-born businessman Richard Chiu, started out 30 years ago acquiring the famous Warwick New York Hotel and has since grown its collection to 40 globally.
The group's properties include a mix of historic and contemporary buildings dotted in major cities around Europe and the US as well as spa resorts as far flung as the South Pacific islands.
Around 44 are either managed by the group or affiliated and 17 fully-owned, said Jean-Francois Garnier, director of group development, Warwick International Hotels.
"We love restoring old buildings. Our hotels are not standardised but adapted to each location. The service standard and quality is the same, four-star-plus, but it is like you walk into a different place every time," he added.
In this spirit the group retains prominent names like the Hotel Westminster in Paris after acquisitions are made instead of re-branding. It simply becomes part of the Warwick Collection.
It is its individuality, which Garnier believes will let the group easily compete in Dubai despite the numerous hotels coming online here.
"I believe we would be competing with brands along the lines of The Address," he added.
The other reason why Garnier is confident of success in Dubai is demand from the group's existing clientele, the reason why he was prompted to look here in the first place.
"We have large corporate clients asking for Dubai as a venue. And a large proportion of our summer guests in Paris, Geneva, London, New York are from the Middle East — the GCC, Lebanon — and they are asking as why we don't have a hotel here," Garnier explained.
The more immediate step is to open a sales office in Dubai. However, the group is equally ready to sign up with an owner once an understanding is reached for a hotel here, Abu Dhabi, the GCC or in the wider Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region, Garnier added.
"I would also love to be in Beirut and Marrakech but we're still in the early stages of finding an owner or are even looking at an affiliation with other independent likeminded hotels," Garnier said.
American business model
The philosophy of taking on a private niche operator rather than a listed hotel management company is not unique to the region, the Rocco Forte group is already present in Abu Dhabi and Louis Vuitton for its Cheval Blanc brand is also looking.
Warwick would take on new-built or conversion properties. Chiu's son is an architect. But the European group follows an American business model and has no interest in over-investing. The smallest hotel in its collection has 72 rooms and the largest 450, but Garnier said the ideal size is 150 to 180. "You should not go below 120 as that is where the fixed costs get covered and the cash flow starts. We are very careful about benchmarking our properties and never sold one hotel," he added.
And business has picked up again, although he conceded lower occupancies in locations like Brussels, Madrid, San Francisco, Seattle and Malaga were felt but more resilient places like London, Paris, Rome and New York balanced the books.
In addition, the group's resorts in the South Pacific that Chiu sees as the last frontier proved resistant to the crisis thanks to mainly Japanese, Kiwi and Australian visitors.
