|
 14. Jun . 2008
AAG activities &
prominent Alumni
Posted by: AAg Office
Expanding a 'fellowship' of fine living
By Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop
The New York Times Media Group
14 June 2008
International Herald Tribune
SINGAPORE -- In 1954, eight hotel and restaurant
operators situated along the highway from Paris to Nice
decided to market their properties together.
They published a four-page leaflet entitled ''Route du
Bonheur,'' or Road of Happiness, and stated on the cover
that it would one day go around the world.
The Route du Bonheur became Relais & Chateaux, a
self-styled ''fellowship'' of boutique hotels and
gourmet restaurants, and it does indeed now span the
globe, with 475 members in 55 countries.
The not-for-profit association's most recent push has
been in Asia, with additions that include hotels in
Cambodia (Heritage Suites Hotel in Siem Reap) and India
(the Malabar House in Kerala, Mahua Kothi in the
Bandhavgarh National Park and Le Dupleix in
Pondicherry).
''We used to have about 10 members in Asia, all in
Japan. Now we have 35, and I bet you that in four or
five years we'll have about a hundred in the region,''
said Jaume Tàpies, the 40-year-old Spaniard who is
president of international operations at Relais & Ch‰teaux,
on a recent trip to Singapore.
Being part of the fellowship does not come cheaply.
Membership costs on average €14,000, or $21,500, a year,
depending on the size of the property.
For that, members are promoted in the annual guidebook
and on the association's Web site, which offers a
centralized information and reservation system.
Together the members of the association had annual sales
of €1.4 billion in 2007, and Tàpies estimated that about
13 percent of its revenue was generated by memberships.
In 2008, Tàpies said, the chain will generate €45
million from the central reservation system and another
€19 million in sales of gift certificates.
Tàpies, who said with a laugh that he would ''pay'' to
do his job because of the access it affords him to the
world's best properties, seems to have prepared all his
life for it. A 1989 graduate of the renowned Hotel
Management School in Glion, Switzerland, he was deputy
general manager of the Chewton Glen hotel in England
until 1992, when he took over the family business: the
hotel El Castell de Ciutat in La Seu d'Urgell, Spain,
which he runs with his wife.
He became a director of the Relais chain in 1993 and
secretary general in 1997 before assuming his current
post in 2005. He is also a three-time Spanish champion
of cross-country skiing, and a private pilot.
Relais & Chateaux aims to be a fairly exclusive club,
Tàpies said, with new members vetted by a team of
undercover inspectors. While the association does not
''prospect'' in Europe and the United States, he said,
because too many potential members already apply to
join, Relais & Ch‰teaux has had to take on a more
proactive stance in Asia, where it is still fairly
unknown:
For the first time last year it approached potential
members.
Still, only about 10 percent of applications are
accepted each year and membership is not for life:
Members are frequently inspected and each year about 20
to 30 members are dropped, having been found below
Relais standards.
''Last year, we visited 157 properties in Asia,
including 50 properties in Australia and New Zealand,
and only 11 were contracted,'' Tàpies said.
But while its competitor chains like Small Luxury Hotels
of the World and Leading Small Hotels of the World focus
solely on luxury boutique hotels, Relais & Ch‰teaux,
true to its roots, casts the net wider to include
stand-alone restaurants. That policy has its drawbacks.
''They are less
focused, so there is a risk of diluting the brand,''
said Milton Pedraza, chief executive of the Luxury
Institute, a market research firm in New York.
And, like all brands, Relais & Ch‰teaux depends on
building name recognition - an area where Pedraza said
the chain was suffering in certain parts of the world,
even in the United States, where it has 45 members. The
institute's recent Luxury Brand Status index of 23 hotel
and resort brands in the United States did not include
the Relais brand because not enough of the wealthy
respondents were familiar with it. Small Luxury Hotels
of the World ranked first.
The chain is planning to increase its profile in large
international cities like Barcelona, Milan and Tokyo by
opening one-stop shops they call Maisons.
Similar Maisons, where customers can browse books and
brochures, book tickets and buy gift certificates,
recently opened in London and New York, at a cost of
$1.5 million.
''Even though they're a highly respected brand, they're
extremely 'boutique,''' Pedraza said. ''But because
French luxury has such high credibility, they have a
wonderful opportunity in Asia.''
|
