Six Senses is the brand that pioneered the category of wellness hospitality. You joined in 2012, and you scaled the brand from eight resorts to 27. What was your vision of wellness hospitality at the time, and what parts of that have or haven’t come true?

When New York private equity group Pegasus Capital bought the company in 2012 from the founders, it was particularly known for very good spas but wasn’t really doing any wellness. At the time, the company had probably 30 spas sitting in other people’s hotels, not their own. The hotel industry mostly had no idea about that stuff, so it was much easier to let someone else take the spa reins.

The brand is 30 years old now, so we owned it for half of its life. When we bought it, we had four specific goals. One was to take it out of being a resort brand on a beach in Southeast Asia — which is what it was, apart from one property in Oman. Two was to create a few very selective expressions of the brand in gateway cities. Three was to evolve the design ethos, which hadn’t moved much in the 15 years the brand had been alive. It was created with a focus on “barefoot luxury” back then — very Robinson Crusoe. It wasn’t particularly designed. A chair was four pieces of wood, a bag of nails, and a hammer. Back then that was the thing, it was cool. So, we felt strongly there needed to be some real design that respected the values of the company and the sustainability around materiality. We didn’t want to change that piece — we wanted to design it, to finish things off. The furniture needed to be a little more refined, without moving into polished marble and crystal chandeliers.

Lastly, we wanted to roll out a real wellness agenda, and to continue the conversation around sustainability in a very meaningful way. Those were the goals. The wellness piece, we believe, was a huge driver of the brand’s success over the last 15 years. Six Senses was the only brand with any scale that managed to do that. You said 27 — today it’s 29, with 20 more under development. Don’t get me wrong, there are some great independents that do it well. But we never wanted to be a destination spa. We never aspired to be a Lanserhof or a Canyon Ranch — that’s a completely different model. So, I’m proud of how we, and the big wellness team we had, were able to drive that agenda forward.

You said in a previous interview that you dislike the word luxury. Tell me more about that.

This is controversial. We had two words that were taboo: one was luxury, and one was exclusivity. We’d tell the team, whenever you’re naturally going to use that word, stop and think of something else. The word luxury carries a certain connotation — that it is not for everybody, that you’ve got to be in a certain socioeconomic group and be ready to spend $1,500 a night or more for a room, which is where the high-end industry sits today. We had such purity of intent with our wellness and sustainability platforms that I didn’t want marketing to say: this is just for us special people who have lots of money.

That said, that’s the market we played in. So, goodness, am I being hypocritical or not? But I said, let’s just not use the word. Let’s talk about quality, natural beauty, and the things that describe it, without that connotation.

It’s the “show, don’t tell.”

I think so. We were very understated as a brand, and very mindful about what we talked about publicly. I always used to get into trouble — the communications people would check with me before every interview: don’t say this, don’t say that. And I’d go, okay, okay. And then I’d say it. Because there are no secrets, really. And the integrity of the brand was very important to us.

Before Six Senses, you were at Four Seasons from 1994 to 2008. How did the hotel business evolve throughout all those market cycles, and what are the patterns you’re seeing unfold today?

What has happened over the years is that there’s much more storytelling now. We suffer from so many brands, so many hotels, and it’s harder to distinguish between the — I can say luxury now — the upper-luxury products out there, because they’re all pretty much the same, with the greatest respect to everybody. I think Four Seasons still has the best service culture of any company in the world. But at that level of the market, it’s got to be so much more than great service, great food, and a comfortable bed. If you don’t have those, you’re not even in the game.

The successful groups — and the startups that break through — are those with a very, very clear narrative. You can’t be everything to everybody, and that’s what most of these brands attempt to be.

Agreed.

And hence they end up a bit vanilla. Whereas brands with a distinct attitude and narrative will not appeal to everybody — and that’s fine. Six Senses did not appeal to everybody. People would go there and say, that’s a bit too rough for me, a bit too rustic. But there were enough people that loved it. The really successful brands have a very distinct story, well-articulated, because it’s such a crowded market. Unless you can differentiate in some way, you’re just going to be middle.

You’re always around people that are making a lot of big decisions in the hotel world — both operators and capital. Why do you think these people are so afraid to take risks and truly differentiate themselves?

Why? Because it’s kind of a vanilla world. On the capital side, VC investors will perhaps go into something unproven, but most capital sources in hospitality don’t have the stomach for that — particularly once you’re talking to sovereign funds or institutional money. There’s the odd exception, like our friends at Cain, who are very serious and very disciplined, but if something resonates, they’ll say, let’s give it a shot. And they’re a bit different because they’re happy to be in both the brand and the real estate — you don’t find many investment groups that also want a piece of brands.

You joined Starwood in 2008 to build the Baccarat and 1 Hotels brands. As Starwood is a different type of owner in the way they’re capitalized, what lessons did you learn about building hotels to return capital within a relatively short time frame?

I probably learned more at Starwood Capital in four or five years than I did in 14 years with Four Seasons — about PE and the transactional side of the business. That was in fact why I left Four Seasons. I was in Singapore running Four Seasons Asia Pacific, and everyone I knew was a banker. And I said, I want to be a banker — everyone I know is a banker. So, I ended up with Barry at an interesting time in the world. I showed up at the beginning of 2008, and a week after I arrived, Bear Stearns and Lehman went up, and everybody was going out of business.

I went there ostensibly to develop Baccarat and 1 Hotels, but because of what happened, I ended up moving to Paris with Concorde, a small luxury group he owned. He ended up with Baccarat purely by accident. He’d bought the assets of Taittinger, the champagne house, because they had 700 limited-service hotels — that was the platform he was after. But they also owned Baccarat crystal. So, he ends up with the crystal brand. What am I going to do with this? I don’t know — let’s create a hotel brand around it. So that’s what we did.

The private equity experience has you looking at completely different metrics. It was like doing a finance degree — most hotel guys don’t have that kind of background. It was interesting to me that before you make the investment, you plan the exit. I’m going, what’s that all about? We’re not going to invest in anything until we know how we’re going to get out of it? Interesting concept. And IRRs are always dependent on cap rates when you sell — all this stuff. It was a completely different vocabulary. Even as builders, when we financed hotels, we never really thought much about the way out — I was fundamentally an operator. So, I learned a lot, and I’m very, very grateful for Starwood Capital. That said, it’s not an environment I would have chosen to spend my life in.

Why?

I think hotel people are fundamentally caregivers. We spend our lives looking after people. PE guys don’t care about stuff like that.

They truly don’t care if you live or die.

There’s less team spirit, because they make their money on their deals. Don’t screw with my deal, you know? So, it can get toxic. And Barry has a huge reputation. There were a lot of young Harvard graduates at the firm who thought he was a rock star. And he is a rock star. Just look at what he has created over the years. The ability to raise huge capital and produce stellar results consistently.

We lasted four and a half, five years, and people said that’s a long time. He’s brilliant. He’s one of the rare people in his business with an equally developed right brain and left brain. He’s as comfortable in a design studio as he is funding the deal. In fact, the design part, the creative part, is his recreation.

He played a huge role in institutional capital flowing into boutique hotels. That was his thing.

For sure. But he’d already created Starwood Hotels — people don’t realize it started with Starwood Capital. Starwood Hotels was called Starwood Hotels because of Starwood Capital. And W was Barry and his wife Mimi, at their kitchen table in Greenwich. He didn’t include Starwood Hotels in that process — he was the first to say this brand is going to be run separately, I’m not going to put it into a big public company. So, it had its own team, its own creative team — everything was dedicated to W, much to the upset of the rest of Starwood.

It was the same with Six Senses for four or five years after we sold it — it was kept very separate from IHG. There was a CEO at the time that understood the dynamic: you buy these boutique companies because they’re fun and cool and entrepreneurial, and then most companies proceed to suck them into the system and wonder why they lose their soul. For the first five years, we had a CEO at IHG that totally got that — much to the upset of many within IHG, because they weren’t allowed to touch it. But that’s how it kept its identity.

Are there any similarities between the market at that time — 2008 — and today?

Read more

When I started The Stanza three years ago, I didn’t anticipate the number of hospitality nerds that I would connect with over the internet. The Stanza has grown to a cumulative audience of 285,000+ across platforms, and it has been the greatest privilege to share my perspective and passion for hospitality with you all.

A couple winters ago, I had a ski instructor tell me to pause on the way down a particularly challenging slope. “Look up behind you and see how far you’ve come.” It ended up being a useful metaphor for life. Over the course of the journey, when you’re so focused on what’s directly in front of you, it’s often helpful to zoom out for perspective. So on the third anniversary of The Stanza, I find myself pausing on the slope and looking back up the hypothetical mountain.

When I started posting on social media three years ago, the business of hospitality wasn’t yet a “trending topic”. And, throughout my entire employed career I had been bound by the restriction of working for SEC-registered advisors and thus never had a public social media profile. Therefore, posting videos of myself talking to the camera and writing a newsletter felt massively cringe! I remember feeling my stomach sinking whenever I heard that an old colleague was gossiping about me behind my back or when I would receive hateful comments. If I could tell anything to my former self in those moments, it would be this: “It’s cringe until you’re successful.”

Having the humility to be a beginner at thirty, and to risk failing in public as an entrepreneur, means climbing cringe mountain, that steep learning curve at the start of anything new. It was the only way to find out where my potential could take me. Three years in, I would not yet call myself “successful”; I am still somewhere on the mountain, and some days I still feel the cringe. But I can say with confidence that starting The Stanza, sharing my insights on hospitality, and learning to become a storyteller, was the best decision of my life.

Today, I feel immense gratitude to have connected with you all through a shared passion not just for hospitality, but also for all the wonderful aspects of life that hospitality touches: the art of taking care of others, immersing oneself in beauty, and an insatiable curiosity for new places and people.

Thank you for being part of The Stanza,

Nadine

Read previous issues of The Stanza here.

SEEKING BOUTIQUE HOTEL OPERATOR, ZELL AM SEE, AUSTRIA

Schloss Prielau is a historic castle hotel with 10 keys on the shores of Lake Zell in Austria’s Salzburg region — one of the few genuinely rare assets in the alpine luxury market that is available to operate right now.

The property is fully permitted and operational, with an adjacent restaurant, and is available under a lease arrangement. There is no construction timeline, no planning process, and no repositioning required from the ground up. If you’ve been wanting to operate a boutique hotel, this would be a direct path into one of Austria’s most compelling leisure destinations — a market that draws demand year-round across ski season, summer hiking, and various cultural events such as the International Porsche Days and the FAT Ice Race.

The owner is looking for an independent operator or boutique hotel group with the appetite and capability to take on a property of this character.

Asking lease: €15,000 net / monthly

Target room rates: between €300 - €700 contingent on room type and season.

Room mix:

• 1 Suite with 3 bedrooms (one whole floor)

• 1 Suite with 2 bedrooms

• 7 double rooms (differing in size due to the layout of the old house)

• 1 small extra hut with a double bed

To see photos and inquire, click here.

Advertise with The Stanza Classifieds: via classifieds@thestanzamedia.com.

I’m taking a short break from writing this week to think about the rest of 2026. If you’re new here or if you’d like to catch up on previous letters & interviews, here are some recent crowd favorites:

Podcasts

Gilda Perez-Alvarado: CEO of Orient Express and Group CSO of Accor

A look into reviving a heritage hospitality brand in partnership with LVMH and Accor, and what it means to build a multi-modal travel business today.

Anne-Laure Ollagnon: CEO of Airelles Group

If you know me in person, you’ll know that I absolutely love Airelles and their approach to hospitality. In Anne-Laure’s first ever podcast interview, we talked about how Airelles’ family office ownership allows them to create a true ultra-luxury guest experience.

Jonathan Goldstein: Founder & CEO of Cain

A very special and full circle moment for me, as a lot of the experience and insights from my time at Cain is the foundation for The Stanza’s voice. While Cain is known for their investment in Aman Group, Jonathan is an excellent storyteller and real estate entrepreneur. Anyone can learn from this episode.

Newsletters

The Business of “Eurosummer”: Is seasonal luxury hospitality a durable business?

The economics of seasonal beach restaurants, with input from Alexandre Rossoz at Loulou Restaurants and Marc Lotenberg of Dorsia.

Not everyone can nor should do luxury hospitality: Saying what everyone is thinking but won’t say out loud.

In the context of “K-shaped hospitality” what are the crucial inputs that go into creating a true ultra-luxury hotel?

The most underutilized tool in guest curation: “Who is this hotel for?”

The case for thoughtfully curating your guest mix.

The soft power behind the world’s most booked hotels: Capital ‘D’ distribution

Similarly, the case for selective distribution and long-term thinking.

“Doing hotels” vs “doing hospitality”: What’s the difference and why does it matter?

In the midst of “hotel mania”, what distinguishes the players who are in it for the right reasons?

Thanks for reading. For more of The Stanza, follow on Instagram here.

Thank you for your feedback on July’s podcast episode featuring Gilda Perez-Alvarado, CEO of the new darling on the hospitality scene, Orient Express. She’s also the Group Chief Strategy Officer of Accor, with a hotel real estate background, and therefore brings a unique perspective to the development of the Orient Express brand. If you’ve stayed at an OE property or have gone on the yacht or train, I’d be interested in hearing about your experience. Feel free to DM me on Instagram or direct reply to this email.

Today’s letter is written in collaboration with Dorsia, a long-time partner of The Stanza. While Dorsia is known as the app that gets you access to impossible tables and events, what’s interesting is the tech they’re building to support restaurants and members clubs. As Dorsia partners with several successful venues in key markets around the world, one could say that they have access to interesting data and insights worth nerding out over.

Enjoy,

Nadine

In today’s newsletter:

• What’s the key to running a profitable beach club business that has guests returning every summer? Alexandre Rossoz of Loulou Restaurants shares insights from the successful Loulou Ramatuelle

• What makes a resort market sticky? Marc Lotenberg of Dorsia discusses the common thread between resort markets that maintain durability

Read previous issues of The Stanza here.

SEEKING BOUTIQUE HOTEL OPERATOR, ZELL AM SEE, AUSTRIA

Schloss Prielau is a historic castle hotel with 10 keys on the shores of Lake Zell in Austria’s Salzburg region — one of the few genuinely rare assets in the alpine luxury market that is available to operate right now.

The property is fully permitted and operational, with an adjacent restaurant, and is available under a lease arrangement. There is no construction timeline, no planning process, and no repositioning required from the ground up. If you’ve been wanting to operate a boutique hotel, this would be a direct path into one of Austria’s most compelling leisure destinations — a market that draws demand year-round across ski season, summer hiking, and various cultural events such as the International Porsche Days and the FAT Ice Race.

The owner is looking for an independent operator or boutique hotel group with the appetite and capability to take on a property of this character.

Asking lease: €15,000 net / monthly

Target room rates: between €300 - €700 contingent on room type and season.

Room mix:

• 1 Suite with 3 bedrooms (one whole floor)

• 1 Suite with 2 bedrooms

• 7 double rooms (differing in size due to the layout of the old house)

• 1 small extra hut with a double bed

To see photos and inquire, click here.

Advertise with The Stanza Classifieds: via classifieds@thestanzamedia.com.

For today’s letter, I spoke to Marc Lotenberg, founder of Dorsia, and Alexandre Rossoz, Group Managing Director of Loulou Restaurants. (And yes, you can book Loulou Ramatuelle on Dorsia — use code THESTANZA to access.)

I hope you enjoy this letter somewhere at the beach.

The Business of “Eurosummer”

One of the best perks of going to university in London as an American was experiencing pre-Brexit “Eurosummer”. It wasn’t even called that back then, but essentially it was the same act of cycling through the usual Mediterranean resort destinations, and basking in long rosé-fueled lunches by the sea accompanied with incredible people watching (always bring opaque sunglasses so no one catches you staring). Back then, social media and “content” weren’t the modus operandi and therefore the “Eurosummer” tradition was much less of a status symbol than it is today. It was simply just the feeling of freedom and relief after exams were over. Now, in a post-pandemic world where revenge travel has yet to slow down, the beach restaurants that anchor the “Eurosummer” tradition have become cultural institutions seemingly taken over by (mostly) Americans who refuse to skip a Mediterranean summer at all costs.

As an adult with a fully developed pre-frontal cortex, every time I’m at one of these places, I find myself doing the mental math to figure out how much they’re making per day. I always come to the same conclusion, that these hotspots must be making quite a bit, even if people are generally drinking less these days. I’ve also concluded that the reason why “Eurosummer” continues to gain popularity as an annual tradition is the feeling of leisure people get from it: who doesn’t love long lunches by the glittering turquoise sea with friends and family?

“Eurosummer” is now practically half the year

Most people misread the demand side of seasonal luxury and assume that a summer market is a race to fill a three-month window. What Marc sees in the data says otherwise: “The durable markets are the ones outgrowing their season,” he told me, and the case study he reaches for is Ibiza. It used to trade June through August, then May to September, and now April to October, with a resident cohort staying year-round. With the rise of flexible lifestyles post pandemic, several leisure markets that were once operating during a short window have dissolved the notion of a fixed season.

Cultural tentpoles do a lot of the work of stretching the calendar and locking in repeat demand. Monaco has the Grand Prix and the Yacht Show. Cannes has the film festival, AmfAR, and Lions. Dorsia’s members plan around that calendar, and the same names come back for the same moments year after year. Seasonality, then, isn’t the fixed constraint it’s taken to be. In the strongest markets it’s a variable that the best operators and the smartest municipalities are actively lengthening.

It may seem counterintuitive that in the “Eurosummer” game, longevity is earned through restraint

Marc’s account of why some markets keep their guests and others lose them has nothing to do with product and everything to do with restraint. “Long-term success comes from consistency, not gouging,” he said. He watched Mykonos and Saint-Tropez both go through the same cycle years ago, prices creeping up as the markets got busier, guests starting to feel taken for granted, and a slice of them simply leaving for somewhere that hadn’t yet learned to overcharge. Both markets, in his telling, “sobered up.” Ibiza, he thinks, is on the edge of that same test now.

Alexandre runs the site-level version of exactly this discipline. Loulou has spent two years resisting price inflation on Pampelonne, where most operators charge what the market will bear. There is no minimum spend. "Forcing spend is the fastest way to kill the energy and atmosphere we're actually chasing," he said. While a growing share of the beach leans into pure spectacle, Loulou stayed what he calls restaurateurs first. His line for it is one I keep coming back to: "The party should happen because people had a great meal, not instead of one." That shows up in who fills the tables. The first seating is casual and busy and includes families, and the second eases into something more festive as lunch winds down. The payoff isn't sentimental — refusing the squeeze is what has given Loulou a rock-solid first seating and strong shoulder-season months, the exact stretches where less patient operators are already half-empty.

The venues that compound are the ones that decline to charge everything they could. Restraint isn’t a brand value here. It’s the reason that a market or an operator is built to last more than a handful of summers.

What makes a beach restaurant profitable within weeks?

Ask a generalist why they’d steer clear of a seasonal restaurant and they’ll say the short season, the weather, or the risk of a business that only breathes for a quarter of the year. However, the unit economics don’t always corroborate that concern. “A seasonal site and a year-round Paris restaurant actually land at roughly the same EBITDA margin,” Alexandre told me, and Loulou’s seasonal margin is sometimes slightly higher. That surprises people, but it shouldn’t once you see how the cost base is built.

Two things make it work. The first is that Loulou has a nearly zero fixed cost base prior to opening such that all costs are variable. Suppliers in Ramatuelle and Monaco are themselves seasonal, so the costs that would sit on a year-round P&L simply don’t exist out of season. What Loulou carries through the winter is minimal, some storage and some maintenance, which is why, in Alexandre’s words, Loulou Ramatuelle “becomes profitable within the first few weeks of opening.” The second is the real estate. A Pampelonne beachfront site isn’t bought or leased in the way a Paris address is. Loulou operates it as a concession granted by the Ramatuelle townhall, which means the business isn’t carrying a large acquisition or lease outflow against a seasonal trading window. The capital at risk going into a season is a fraction of what the same revenue would demand from a permanent site, and that is a large part of why the returns hold up.

Loulou Ramatuelle is lunch-only and turns roughly 550 covers in the restaurant on a strong day, plus another 100 on the beach sunbeds, with about 85 people working across the floor, kitchen, shop, valet, and boat on any given day. Additionally, one of the bigger line items, unsurprisingly, is maintenance capex on the building as its proximity to the sea causes saltwater corrosion.

Alexandre quotes James Sherwood, who built what became Belmond, on the wisdom of betting on sunny destinations where weather isn’t a variable. The South of France delivers a low and consistent count of rainy days, so over a short season it barely moves the needle. Courchevel, he notes, is a different story. But for the Mediterranean sites, weather is not the thing that keeps him up at night.

Staffing is a challenge for every hospitality operator, but seasonality adds a layer of complexity

What keeps him up is staff. “The season starts fast and there’s no real warm-up period,” Alexandre said. The team has to be at full standard within a couple of weeks, with no gentle ramp to get service right, which is why Loulou has spent years investing in staff loyalty. A large share of the team returns season after season, guests recognize the faces, and the group can open and close a seasonal restaurant in a matter of days because the choreography lives in people who’ve done it before. Staff accommodation goes into the model as a cost and a piece of operational complexity that a Paris restaurant never has to price.

Marc, coming at it from the market level, points at the identical line item. When he lists what actually makes a location durable, past the transportation accessibility, the anchor venues and the good hospitality, he lands on one of the most critical aspects for any seasonal business: housing for staff. “If staff can’t afford to live there, the cost of labor goes up, then prices go up, and customers feel abused.” The housing you provide for your people and the value your guests feel they’re getting are therefore the same problem to solve.

Mediterranean beach restaurants are compelling and durable businesses…if they resist the temptation to sell out

So the answer to the question the season poses, whether this is a solid business or a bet on short-term demand, is that it is durable, but the durability is a discipline rather than a location. The markets that last are the ones extending the three-month window. The operators that last are the ones who refuse to charge the absolute most people are willing to pay while delivering less value. And the thing that decides both, sitting under the margin and the guest experience alike, is whether you can properly incentivize the people who make everything work.

What compounds, in the end, is a mindset more than a market. Alexandre keeps returning to the word institution: places that, as he puts it, “feel like they’ve always been there, that can pass the test of time.” That’s the opposite of the reflex he sees spreading, operators leaning into artifice, “decor built for photos, music played too loud, lighting dimmed to hide rather than flatter,” and treating one good restaurant as a reason to expand. His position is that a great restaurant, however successful, isn’t automatically a brand, and that some of the best places are special because they’re local and were never meant to travel at all. The operators who last stay focused on the essence of good hospitality: how you welcome a guest and how well you serve them. In a market that sells a hot new opening every May, the most durable position in “Eurosummer” is held by the people building for decades rather than for the season in front of them.

Thanks for reading. For more of The Stanza, follow on Instagram here.

July’s podcast episode is a very timely one for both the hospitality industry and travel enthusiasts. Orient Express has emerged in crescendo form — from the launch of its train, La Dolce Vita and its first hotel, La Minerva Rome, both in 2025, to the seemingly ubiquitous Orient Express Venezia and the impossible-to-ignore launch of The Corinthian yacht just a couple months ago. The revamped heritage brand has just begun trading, and yet well-heeled and savvy travelers already recognize the brand’s art deco codes and storytelling on multi-modal travel.

Last summer, I was introduced to Orient Express CEO Gilda Perez-Alvarado through one of my old bosses at Cain (shout out to Ellen!) and wanted to know how Accor, in partnership with LVMH, is planning to create a new niche within luxury travel. While we are seeing other brands building their own multi-modal travel universes, Orient Express is distinct in that it’s a trademark being repositioned and it’s establishing all three modes - hotels, yachts, trains - contemporaneously and through various partnership structures. The hotels and trains are structured as management agreements as per Accor’s asset-light model, while the yacht cruise business is capitalized in partnership with Swiss investor Millenium.

My conversation with Gilda is a rare look at a heritage brand being rebuilt as an operating business in real time, from the person running it.

I hope you enjoy the episode and as always, feel free to write to me with your thoughts.

Best

Nadine

Watch on Spotify or Youtube

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Part I: The Operating System for Culture with Marc Lotenberg, founder of Dorsia

Dorsia is building the operating system for private members’ clubs: a first-party, end-to-end technology platform designed to replace the legacy software and disconnected third-party integrations that most clubs still run on today. Marc Lotenberg, founder of Dorsia, argues that the gap between what the most discerning members expect and what the average club can actually deliver comes down to a failure of infrastructure, not hospitality intent.

In Part I of this episode, Marc makes the case for why genuine personalization at the club level has to be built on first-party data sovereignty, what it actually costs to build compliant, frictionless hospitality technology at scale, and why he believes that pretending every prospective member is your customer is the fastest way to end up with none.

Thank you Dorsia for making this episode possible.

To learn more about Dorsia’s hospitality tech, get in touch: melissa@dorsia.com

Download Dorsia to get access to impossible tables and events here (code: THESTANZA)

Follow Dorsia on Instagram here

Part II: Heritage at Scale: Building the Orient Express Universe Across Trains, Yachts, and Hotels with Gilda Perez-Alvarado, CEO Orient Express

Episode starts at 13:26

Gilda Perez-Alvarado is CEO of Orient Express and Chief Strategy Officer at Accor, where she oversees the brand’s expansion across hotels, luxury trains, and yachts. Orient Express operates as a strategic joint venture between Accor and LVMH, combining Accor’s decades of global hospitality infrastructure with LVMH’s expertise in luxury consumer goods and brand stewardship. Gilda joined Accor in late 2023 after two decades at JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group, where she rose to Global CEO of the practice, advising owners and investors on hospitality transactions across real estate and capital markets worldwide.

Today, Orient Express spans two open hotels in Rome and Venice, the La Dolce Vita luxury train operating on Italy’s historic tourist rail network, a second train, L’Orient Express set for 2027, and the Corinthian yacht that launched in May 2026, with the Olympian to follow in 2027. Every asset is designed to be privatizable, capped in room count to protect scarcity, and sourced through a combination of third-party owner relationships and direct joint venture capital. The Italian portfolio is developed in partnership with Arsenale, who first approached Accor ahead of the pandemic with a proposal to flag the La Dolce Vita train as Orient Express.

Orient Express is ultimately building what Gilda describes as a multi-modal travel business, designing itineraries that sequence hotels, trains, and yachts into a single continuous guest journey rather than a collection of standalone bookings.

In this episode, Nadine sits down with Gilda to explore what it really takes to relaunch one of the world’s most recognized travel brands spanning real estate, rail, and maritime operations, while satisfying the competing demands of two publicly-oriented parent companies and a long-term brand mandate that has to hold for at least another century.

INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS

• How the Accor-LVMH joint venture divides responsibility, and what each parent company brings to the table beyond equity

• The investment logic of the Arsenale partnership, and how its approach to luxury train inventory shaped the Italian portfolio’s hotel and rail strategy

• The site selection framework Orient Express applies to new hotel assets, including the role of an in-house historian

• Why Orient Express capped its hotel room counts and built every asset to be privatizable, and how that constraint shapes owner conversations and pricing strategy

• Gilda’s view on how distribution and guest acquisition has evolved beyond traditional means

• The open question on the Corinthian yacht’s revenue model: whether Orient Express becomes primarily a transient product or a private charter business, and what the early demand signals suggest

• How Orient Express is approaching guest curation on trains and yachts, and why Gilda frames it as one of the most consequential and least controllable variables in the business

• The tension between short-term shareholder reporting obligations as part of a publicly traded parent and a brand mandate framed explicitly around a 143-year time horizon

• What Gilda learned from LVMH’s approach to scarcity and brand stewardship, and how she is applying that framework to a hospitality product that did not previously operate at this price point

Learn more about Orient Express here

Follow Orient Express on Instagram

Last week I was curious to know if you would buy a branded residence. 67% of you who responded to the poll voted no, which leaves a third who would buy one.

I’ve discussed branded residences on The Stanza over the years and surprisingly found that the general audience sentiment behind them was lukewarm, especially when compared to that of hotels or members clubs. But, the idea behind branded resi makes practical sense - both from the developer’s and the buyer’s perspective. For developers (particularly in the US), condo sales in theory fund the construction of the hotel, while for buyers who spend less than 183 days in the calendar year in certain jurisdictions would appreciate the convenience of the “lock and leave” lifestyle. That being said, the bigger question mark for me is: what is the intellectually honest way to size the

demand to pay a brand premium above comparable condos, likely with similar quality finishes? Some will point to the increasing wealth accumulation in the US alongside more wealthy people choosing to live an untethered lifestyle. But those are macro tailwinds that don’t necessarily translate cleanly to branded resi demand.

In reality, even if you rent out your residence while you’re gone, you’re still paying a management fee to the brand for that service. To me, this is the only real marginal benefit and convenience factor. I’d also posit that very few brands even merit a use case for branded resi - Aman and Four Seasons being the only two I’d personally consider as a buyer prioritizing hard product and service quality.

If you’re new here, or want to catch up on the best of The Stanza, I’d recommend that you start here.

In today’s newsletter:

• A ship at year ten has no land under it, no comp set, and no obvious buyer, so what’s the liquidity play?

• Why does the smallest ship in the category cost the most per bed to build?

• If ships are not technically finite assets, what actually protects this category from competition?

Read previous issues of The Stanza here.

For all live listings & inquiries (hotels for sale, investment opportunities, open job roles), click here.

Advertise with The Stanza Classifieds: via classifieds@thestanzamedia.com.

Three weeks ago, I wrote about the emerging category of yacht cruises — where the guest demand comes from and what’s the long term value creation opportunity for investors. The most common follow-up questions centered around what it takes to actually build these ships and how to contextualize the business. The instincts that serve a hotel investor, such as per key build costs or exit comps, either don't transfer to a ship or transfer in ways that mislead. For example, a vessel that costs more per key than any hotel ever traded can still be rationally built. This week’s letter serves as a primer: what a ship costs to build and why, which of your land instincts to keep and which to retire, and what the people writing these checks are actually underwriting.

“Per-key” doesn’t translate from hotels to ships

Orient Express spent roughly €500M building The Corinthian, a ship with 54 suites. That’s over €9M per key, several multiples of what some of the most expensive hotel transactions on record have traded at.

Read more

Happy Friday.

Eurosummer is in full swing. This year, I’m looking forwards to returning to my tried and true classic: lunch at Jondal Ibiza for their unreal king crab legs and tomato salad, followed by a relaxing afternoon on one of their sun loungers (but more importantly, for the people watching)! I’m also excited to try the new Jais Ibiza, which just opened this season after hit restaurants in Ramatuelle and Paris. You can book Jondal and Jais on Dorsia (and many more fantastic spots in the Med) and avoid the burden of asking friends & acquaintances for reservation favors. Download the app here and use THESTANZA for access.

Branded residences have been trending for a long time, and I’m curious what would-be buyers actually think of them. If you wouldn’t mind…

If you would buy one of these residences, is there a specific brand you’re most interested in? I welcome to hear your thoughts on branded residences - just direct reply to this email.

If you’re new here, or want to catch up on the best of The Stanza, I’d recommend that you start here.

In today’s newsletter:

• Everyone’s crowding the same trade in luxury hospitality. What’s the catch they’re all skipping?

• Where is the next big market opportunity for hotels? (It’s more obvious than you think.)

• How will debt & equity investors respond to an increasingly competitive market for compelling hospitality real estate?

Read previous issues of The Stanza here.

Current listings:

• For Weekly Rent: Villa Bagatelle, St. Tropez (From €176,000 per week including staff)

• For sale: Fully-entitled hospitality site in West Hollywood $6M

For all live listings & inquiries (hotels for sale, investment opportunities, open job roles), click here.

Advertise with The Stanza Classifieds: via classifieds@thestanzamedia.com.

Hospitality capital markets: mid-year temperature check

As 2026 unfolds and the worlds of hospitality and travel continue on their bull run, I’ve been reflecting on what got us here and what will happen in the next cycle, particularly as I field the same question from several people recently: what’s your read on hospitality right now? The question is usually prefaced by a reference to “hotel opening mania”, which we are currently in the thick of. I remind them that hotels don’t just sprout out of nowhere — the projects we are seeing now are a result of years of planning and building, and more importantly, cheaper / easier debt coming out of the pandemic. As the hotel capital markets tend to disperse the tea leaves long before the story comes to fruition, now would be a good time to pause and delineate the key market trends.

Read more

Today’s letter is very long, but packed with stories and insights that I hope you find valuable and interesting. If this message is truncated on your inbox, you may read it on the Substack app or web browser.

Enjoy,

N

When Alex Ohebshalom’s father bought 250 Fifth Avenue in 1978, New York was a city most investors were leaving. The building sat as commercial space for the better part of four decades before Alex became, in his own words, obsessed with the idea that it could be something more than a real estate play. The Fifth Avenue Hotel opened at the end of 2023 as a fully independent luxury property, and within two years it had collected two Michelin Keys, and places on North America’s 50 Best for both Café Carmellini and The Portrait Bar.

What follows is the part of the story that doesn’t usually make it into the design features and awards: the brands that came knocking before he chose independence, a capital structure his family carried with cash equity to topping out, and the decision to hold a four-figure rate at barely half occupancy for eighteen months on the conviction that the flywheel would eventually turn.

I. The Redevelopment

What’s the story behind your father acquiring the building, and what was happening at the time when you decided to convert it into a hotel?

My father, Fred Ohebshalom, deserves all the credit. He had an exceptional level of foresight, and really just instinct. Picture New York in the 1970s. The city was on the brink of bankruptcy and it was a difficult place to live at the time. For whatever reason that I still don’t fully comprehend, he saw something else. He and his brothers were immigrants who came from Iran in the late 1960s, a real rags to riches story. They took the trade they knew, importing oriental rugs, built an exceptional business out of it, and reinvested those profits into distressed but extremely well-positioned trophy Fifth Avenue real estate that was very, very cheap at the time.

In 1978 he gets a call from his banker, who asked him to come to the bank on Fifth Avenue at 28th Street and tells him the building is being auctioned by silent bid. He says: “Great, I’m buying Fifth Avenue real estate. Let’s bid.” They put in a bid for $1 million and won, and found out after the fact that they’d overbid by something like $250,000 to $360,000. He still says it often: I’m buying and building for my grandkids and my great-grandkids, this is generational real estate, I’ll buy at low cap rates and hold for the long term.

The conversion came much later, as NoMad began to turn. We saw the Ace Hotel, the NoMad Hotel, all these new buildings going up in a beautiful, architecturally landmarked area, and we had air rights behind the mansion. Once we uncovered all the historical attributes of the property, it became clear that the best and highest use for this asset was a hotel. It deserved a more public, emotional, experiential use than a conventional office play. I became obsessed with the possibility that it could be something more than a real estate play, that it could be a cultural and emotional vessel for a business, which is what a hotel ultimately is.

When you looked at the floor plates of a landmarked building, where you can’t simply repartition walls, did you see something that worked as a hotel, or was it purely the architecture? And what did the landmark constraint end up costing you?

Many of the architectural elements made the case. The floor heights were dramatic. You had nearly thirty-foot ceilings in the original mansion hall coming off Fifth Avenue, which lent itself to the theatrical food and beverage space that’s now Café Carmellini. The Juliet balconies carried romance and drama, and we repurposed them, through a very expensive refabrication, into a multi-level space. I don’t think I’d have had the same response to a cookie-cutter ground-up building that ended up with nine-foot-two ceilings.

We had to take out a great deal of steelwork to make room for mechanical space, because we were capped on square footage and couldn’t go any higher. So we excavated two levels below grade to create back-of-house space, which gave us a 3,500-square-foot production kitchen, fitness facilities, and meeting rooms. And behind any wall, you’re opening up a whole world of madness. A hundred-plus years of everything is back there, old mechanicals, electrical, plumbing, layers and layers of paint over a facade that had deteriorated badly over time. The facade restoration of the mansion alone was roughly a $40 to $50 million project. We fabricated an entirely new cornice, 150 feet of original terracotta, and there were only two true terracotta producers in the United States at the time, one in California and one in Boston, which affected the pricing significantly. Landmarks governed everything down to paint and grout colors, particularly for the new tower and how its materials would complement the mansion facade.

There’s an argument that ground-up development in New York is more accessible and more marketable than working with a landmark. The case for the landmark is storytelling, which is central to hospitality. Yet on an STR report a landmark doesn’t show up as differentiated. A lender or equity investor looks at the comp set and resists the premium you believe the building deserves. You take the landmark because it’s a different product.

I’m a big believer in the power of constraints and how they force you to make tough decisions. You work with what you have, and those constraints become your soul in a way. They prevent the hotel from looking generic, which is huge.

The bones of the building informed the design. The fourteen-foot ceilings in the mansion let Martin Brudnizki play with the arch, that architectural element in the center of the mansion guest suite that won us the awards and put us on the map editorially. We never could have played with something like that without those landmark ceilings. The original mansion hall that became Café Carmellini, with its Juliet balconies, enabled all the drama of the space. Ultimately it’s about storytelling. It’s special to stay or dine in a Gilded Age mansion on Fifth Avenue. Not many people can make that claim. We wanted that to feel special and original, never contrived or cookie-cutter, and that’s where we layered in the entire narrative around the Flâneur, with a dare-to-be-great team that each put their own signature on the design, the programming, the story, and the service.

Can you share the capital stack behind the redevelopment, and how you thought about seeding the enterprise itself, separate from the real estate?

The capital stack is quite simple. My family funded the entire mansion redevelopment and the tower construction up to topping out of the superstructure, which we reached in August 2019, with our own family cash equity. Only then did we bring on more traditional construction financing, starting with a very modest senior piece. As the delays and budget overruns came, we took on a modest mezzanine loan to finish the project, and the family continued to fund as needed.

I’d add that hotels aren’t passive real estate. They’re operating businesses attached to complicated capital stacks. One of the biggest learnings from this whole experience is that the capital structure has to be designed for volatility, because any development cycle will almost always be longer and more expensive than any model can suggest. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred it doesn’t play out according to the paper. You need real holding power and staying power, and the family was geared for that.

II. Operating Independently

You’ve described the redevelopment as a decade-long journey that straddled the pandemic. What are the lessons you’d carry into the next hotel?

Conviction is very cheap at the beginning of a development and becomes much more expensive in the middle. The pandemic tested everything: my mental fortitude, the financing, construction, supply chain, labor, demand assumptions. It put me through the wringer.

There’s an old saying I love, that a founder has to be near delusional to see the vision through. I think it’s true. You can stare at a big plot of dirt for years, and that’s what I did. It almost brings me to tears to remember it. Long nights standing in a decrepit mansion, looking at a demolished plot of land, with so many things out of my control. You need the conviction, the endurance, the foresight, the resilience, and the somewhat delusional belief that the thing will get built.

The silver lining is that, in hindsight, the delays worked in our favor. They forced us to take more time to think, edit, refine, and obsess over the details, and to finesse the story so everything felt more layered. We trained for a full year. I had the whole team on board, starting with Olivier (Lordonnois, of Hotel de Crillon and Ritz Paris) and everyone below him. We built an entire offsite training facility with model rooms finished to the last centimeter, and we trained every day, morning to night, to build the service model. We wanted to be one of one. That gave us a real head start when we opened.

There are many stories inside that decade. A lot of people don’t know this, but before we decided to go fully independent, we were approached by all the major brands. We got very close with one initially. It was supposed to be a soft-branded property, a Thompson Hotel, much like what The Beekman is downtown today. Various groups came in with key money and wanted to do different one-offs. Then we hit a couple of delays, things fell out, and it gave me the space to look in the mirror and ask whether I had a strong enough brand value proposition to make a compelling case for a true iconic independent.

That’s where I had the audacity to go to my team with the idea behind Flâneur Hospitality, the story I wanted to tell, the philosophy I wanted to share with the luxury consumer. Everyone received it with open arms. We believed in the idea of patient, present, attention to detail. Then I had to go to Martin (Brudnizki) and tell him we were throwing all the design out the window and starting from scratch. That set the timeline back and added enormously to the budget. We probably lost another one to two years on a redesign around Flâneur, and it coincided with the financial pressures of COVID and rising interest rates. Then we brought in our food and beverage partner and had to redesign all the kitchens and mechanicals to support their venues. Everything went from four-star execution to five-star, and to whatever five-and-a-half-star means today.

For an owner weighing the same decision, how do you frame the choice between taking a flag and going independent?

It comes down to risk tolerance. Safety and comfort against capturing all the upside. Capped rates against uncapped potential. The certainty of automatic distribution on day one against building your own flywheel of distribution and awareness, which you have to invest in. It takes discipline, mental fortitude, and a lot of guts. You have to be hell-bent on your ability to execute, to time the market, to build a one-of-one product, and to outlast the headwinds that will inevitably appear. It’s not for the faint of heart. It’s an entrepreneurial effort through and through.

What’s the true cost of launching a management company alongside your first hotel?

The broad strokes come back to lean methods. Do as much as you can with as little as possible. My initial objective was to hire the best leadership at the executive level, top generalists with enough experience, pedigree, and expertise to be dangerous across every discipline of hospitality. That starts with an exceptional general manager and managing director and trickles down into sales, marketing, revenue management, the design team, and the brand team, which is all in-house.

The majority of the initial expense was branding and marketing: creating the visual identity, all the touchpoints, the collateral, the training, and all the small things people observe in the property and away from it, physically and digitally, that build awareness of the brand. We also outsourced strategically wherever it made sense, which gave us a real advantage. The big ones are design, with Martin Brudnizki, and food and beverage, with NoHo Hospitality and Andrew Carmellini. We outsourced some functions like revenue management, at least partially.

Over time we’ve brought a lot of it back in-house. External agencies once handled our graphics, our website, and our backend digital marketing, and we’ve since built that capability internally. I now have a new director of marketing and full control over our social and digital presence. I want to control more and more of the brand touchpoints.

Café Carmellini and The Portrait Bar landed on North America’s 50 Best lists. Both are remarkable for a hotel, where food and beverage is notoriously difficult to execute well, especially in a city like New York where you get to be part of the fabric, with public spaces inside a private building. What’s your approach to urban placemaking within hotel food and beverage?

It starts with the conviction that hotel food and beverage outlets can’t be a hotel amenity. They have to stand on their own, designed and programmed and branded and operated and acknowledged across the market as one-of-one, best-in-class venues that happen to coexist within a one-of-one luxury hotel. That’s the philosophy behind each of these spaces.

I say this with humility, but I’m proud of it. Last year I believe we were the only hotel in the world to be awarded 50 Best recognition for the hotel, the restaurant, and the bar. That speaks to the willingness to go further, to refuse to build just another lobby bar. We could have done the model where the bar is a reliable revenue maker but you wonder about its longevity. I’m a believer that the standards have to be set very high. These venues are the emotional engines of the hotel. They’re the melting pot, the center of gravity, where the personality of the brand gets expressed. It was very important to me that both Café Carmellini and The Portrait Bar be recognized globally in that light.

Do you believe these awards drive revenue?

Michelin and 50 Best are becoming more of the moment and more widely regarded, and at the independent level they’re non-negotiable. They drive credibility, conversation, and pricing confidence. They matter enormously to the travel advisor community, to PR, and to the team, who get that much more excited having something to work toward. They don’t replace operational excellence, but they drive morale, and that can’t be overlooked.

I see people with no real interest in hotels talking conversationally about Michelin Keys, which is suddenly a thing. Anecdotally, when people ask me for travel advice, they reference the 50 Best list. I’ll stand outside Café Carmellini and watch passersby admire the facade and the landscaping, then notice the 50 Best plaque on the wall, look at each other, and decide to go in. That’s organic marketing at its core, and I’ll play into it for as long as it’s relevant and be a steward of those institutions. Awards don’t create demand out of thin air, but they reduce doubt in the luxury market. They help a guest feel safer choosing something independent rather than defaulting to a big brand and their loyalty points.

Independent hotels live and die by distribution in a way flagged properties don’t. Walk me through how a guest books a room at The Fifth Avenue Hotel, and what has worked to drive that demand directly?

We push the funnel and the sales channels as hard as we can toward direct bookings, because direct to the website is the highest-quality point of sale we can ask for. The OTAs have a role, particularly in discovery, but they can’t be the backbone of a true luxury hotel. At the luxury level the healthiest demand is direct, repeat, consortia, travel advisor, corporate, and group, and for longevity I want it to be organic. Marketing follows brand, so I put a great deal into brand awareness.

From the genesis of the project we had a relentless PR strategy, bringing the best editors and tastemakers, people like you, through the property pre-opening to stay, eat, and tell the story. We hosted the Oscar de la Renta New York Fashion Week show in the ballroom and in Café Carmellini right before we opened, and it led to a full-page Vogue feature dedicated to the hotel. We opened with Sarah Jessica Parker at the Juliet balcony pouring champagne over a cascade of glasses, which led to more full-page features in major publications. That was the beginning of the flywheel. We were inducted into Leading Hotels of the World before opening, which gave us early exposure into the Leaders Club, and Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts, which not everyone is accepted into, opens the funnel further. We built a best-in-class in-house marketing team and strategically built a base of corporate and group business without diminishing the brand or the rate positioning.

Ultimately the product has to speak for itself. We under-promise and over-deliver, with a full team of onsite butlers, an exceptional gifting program, and personalized, anticipatory, invisible service. I’ll be honest that it didn’t start with a huge ramp. It took a good year and a half to build to this level of distribution. We operated at mid-fifties to low-sixties occupancy for the first year and a half, and we’re now ramping into the high seventies and low eighties. That was a deliberate strategy. We held the rate and trusted that the flywheel would eventually take us to stabilized occupancy.

How did you think about pricing a new hotel and a new brand, and how has your view of rate changed as the accolades have accumulated?

This was a very tough one that we debated for months before opening. The conventional wisdom at the independent level is that you set the rate and hold it as long as you possibly can until you have proof of concept, and that momentum will eventually build. That requires real holding power, patience, and deep conviction that you can execute and quickly gain guest confidence and travel advisor trust. Everything has to go better than planned, from PR and marketing to the macro environment.

It was painful, but the minute you give relief on the rate, it’s extremely difficult to claw your way back up. So we preempted the reality that we’d have to hold a $1,000-plus rate for a year to eighteen months at low occupancy, with a high degree of confidence that it would ramp and stabilize.

III. The Flâneur Philosophy

You’ve been open for about two and a half years. How has the philosophy behind Flâneur evolved?

Flâneur is about magical luxury, about curiosity and cultural authorship. It’s built on the belief that the best hotels aren’t standardized products. They’re emotional and cultural vessels that help you see a city differently and remind you of your own uniqueness. We’re not trying to make every property look the same. We’re building an iconic collection with a recognizable intelligence, a shared standard of taste, generosity, and emotional detail. It’s a feeling and a felt brand.

The hard part is translating emotion into the physical world and keeping it relevant without ever feeling stiff, theatrical, or scripted. That’s why I hire for the highest levels of emotional intelligence. I don’t want anyone operating from a script. I want them present, listening intently, asking what the guest needs and how to deliver it before the guest even knows they need it, so the next time they think about New York they want to come back.

Martin Brudnizki has a distinct, maximalist style that some find polarizing. Were there moments when you had to pull him back, and moments when he pushed you somewhere you were unsure of that turned out to be right?

I love this question, and I love talking about Martin, because he’s such a partner. He’s the master of the grand modern fantasy. He’s of the moment and yet a classic, and his designs will hopefully live forever.

He’s as audacious and courageous as they come, with a clear and pointed point of view that could be read as polarizing. That’s exactly what we wanted. I wanted to take a hard line and come out with something ambitious and exciting that not everybody would love at first look, but that the right tastemakers would fall in love with, and they did. From there it spread organically and became more widely embraced over time. That tension was absolutely critical.

The real magic is in the tension between fantasy and function. I had a big vision for what the hotel should be, and the challenge was making it functional, practical, accessible, manageable, and cost-effective. Martin understood that the building could carry romance, color, pattern, and theatrics, and I challenged him to lean more deeply into the Flâneur narrative, that collection of beautiful objects, antiquities, furniture, and artwork from all over the world. It still feels like a Martin project, but a little more unique than the typical one. In the guest rooms everything is perfectly positioned, low-touch and high-tech, with outlets in all the right places, DigiValet, and Lutron systems controlling the lighting and shades. It was designed smartly, but with the grandiosity and romanticism that Martin brings.

You once said in an interview that the problem you wanted to solve was walking into a lobby and seeing everyone on their phones. What did you design or program into the hotel to make the lobby a place people inhabit rather than pass through?

I was quoted on that before we opened, and it was taken a little out of context. The writer at the time almost suggested we were building dead zones where phones wouldn’t work, which was far too literal. The real point is to create rooms, rituals, and moments that make the phone feel less interesting. There’s so much more to be felt, seen, and discovered in the human experience than in the digital one.

As much as I’m a proponent of AI, and we use these technologies across all my businesses to reduce friction and cost, I’m fundamentally all in on the human experience, and I believe we have an obligation to bring people back into it. The only way to pull someone off their phone is to give them something better to look at, taste, overhear, discover, or feel. So we curated the artwork to provoke curiosity and closer inspection. The Portrait Bar has a handpicked collection of literature and portraiture. You enter into a grand, intimate, romantic lobby, and the first thing you see is an extraordinary tapestry that provokes the question of what it is and where it came from. Only by asking do you learn it’s a hand-created work that took three years, made by a renowned museum artist, and at every corner of that twelve-foot piece you notice something different.

Then there are the rituals. Someone knocks on your door at 5:05 on a Tuesday with the most beautiful assortment of accoutrements for a martini ceremony. We’ve expanded that into book culture, matcha culture, and wine culture, with a 17,000-bottle collection in the cellar. How do you invite people into that and teach them something they didn’t know they loved? How do you bring them into the kitchen to explore? There’s so much in this vessel that should take you off your phone and create a deeper sense of connection, with the city and with yourself.

I want to close on the greats of New York. You’ve spoken about wanting The Fifth Avenue Hotel to earn its place among institutions that have decades of mythology behind them. What does it take for a new hotel to earn that kind of cultural weight?

It’s a huge undertaking. The traveler has grown enormously more sophisticated, and it takes far more to impress them now. You can’t get away with what you once could. Lasting cultural weight comes from consistency, from taste that can’t be bought or replicated, from service, from best-in-class food and beverage, and from mythology and storytelling. You can’t buy it through PR. You have to deliver on the promises.

Most of all, it comes down to time. Time is your greatest weapon and also the greatest force against you. Many of the greats weren’t immediate successes. I can point to examples I know firsthand. The Greenwich, The Crosby, and The Mark all struggled in their early years, financially and in terms of awareness. It took years to build momentum, and it took real holding power. After five or ten years they looked like overnight successes and became classics. That’s a testament to their conviction, their belief in the product, and their consistency across every discipline.

Cultural weight is earned when a hotel becomes useful to the city, not just impressive to travelers. Geographically we filled a real void at the top of the true Midtown luxury market for an independent, between the 50s and downtown. We added to the fabric of the city. It’s earned when people start using you as a reference point, when they say meet me there. So many people have fallen in love with The Portrait Bar and treat it as a city institution, and that adds to the mythology and the flywheel. It becomes an ecosystem, a constellation of great venues that together make a one-of-one asset. You have to come and feel it to really know it.

Thanks for reading this interview. For more of The Stanza, subscribe to the weekly digest and follow on Instagram.

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June’s podcast interview features David Zisser, founder of Omnam Group and a real estate & hospitality entrepreneur who has achieved impressive scale in Europe through his opportunistic hotel repositioning strategy.

I first heard of Omnam when they acquired the Hotel Bauer in Venice alongside Mohari Hospitality in 2024. (Mohari Hospitality is the family office investing in hospitality businesses such as Tao Group and the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, which had a splashy celeb-filled debut last summer.) Beyond the Hotel Bauer, I’m excited to see the completion of the Park Hyatt Taormina, Four Seasons Puglia, Baccarat Florence, and the creation of their new hotel brand in partnership with Pharrell Williams in Paris.

As an entrepreneur, and not part of an institutional group, David is one of the most prolific hotel developers in Europe. Over the years on The Stanza, I’ve mentioned that one of the best parts of being in real estate is that you could be a single entrepreneur competing in the institutional arena. David is a good example of that, with Bain Capital as one of his LP’s. Therefore, I was interested in knowing more about how he built his portfolio and the lessons he learned along the way. I left this conversation with several insights on the developer’s perspective on the hotel business, which I hope you’ll find equally fascinating.

As always, you’re welcome to write to me with your thoughts.

Best

Nadine

Watch on Spotify or Youtube

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Part I: The Architecture of the Guest Experience

La Bottega Collective designs and produces the physical and sensory touchpoints of the luxury hotel stay, from bathroom formulations and textiles to amenities, gifting, and retail, working with 15,000 properties across 117 countries, from the world’s most recognized hotel groups such as Aman and Four Seasons, to the finest independent properties such as Passalacqua and Il San Pietro di Positano. Tommaso Pacini, CEO of La Bottega Collective, argues that the guest experience is not a collection of amenities but a coherent sensory language, and that the hotels who understand this are the ones building something guests cannot find, replicate, or buy anywhere else.

In Part I of this episode, Tommaso walks through how La Bottega Collective reads a property before designing a single touchpoint, why the choice between licensed and fully custom product programs is ultimately a question of time and conviction rather than budget, and how the most effective guest experience artifacts extend the emotional memory of a stay well beyond checkout.

Thank you La Bottega Collective for making this episode possible.

Learn more and get in touch with La Bottega Collective here.

Follow La Bottega Collective on Instagram here.

Part II: The Developer’s Playbook: Building a €3B European Lifestyle & Luxury Hotel Portfolio with David Zisser

David Zisser is the founder of Omnam, a €3 billion European hotel development and investment platform with a portfolio concentrated in lifestyle and luxury assets across Italy and key European markets. His recent projects include the Edition Lake Como, W Rome, which he credits with catalyzing what W Hotels internally called its 2.0 positioning, and the Hotel Bauer Venice, acquired out of a bankruptcy process in partnership with Mohari Hospitality and flagged with Rosewood. He is currently developing a proprietary hotel brand, with a Paris property featuring Pharrell Williams as creative director serving as its first expression.

Omnam operates across the full development stack, from site identification and capital structuring through to brand selection, design intent, and operational oversight. Omnam’s LPs include institutional investor Bain Capital, and Mohari Hospitality, with whom Zisser has built a partnership center on a shared conviction about where luxury hospitality is heading. Omnam has worked with several major third party operators, and that breadth of exposure now informs both its underwriting discipline and its decision to build its own brand from a position of genuine industry knowledge rather than ego.

In this episode, I sat down with David to explore what it really takes to build a multi-billion euro development platform in luxury hospitality, from navigating fundraising from institutional capital and large family offices to acquiring one of Venice’s most storied hotels out of bankruptcy.

INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS

• David’s deal framework, and why any project where success is contingent on factors outside Omnam’s control is a pass

• How the Hotel Bauer acquisition came together out of a bankruptcy process, with competing global bidders, layered political dynamics, and a timeline that tested everyone involved

• Ultra-luxury brand dilution, and which operators are most exposed as generational wealth transfer accelerates

• David’s view on ADR stabilization, total in-hotel spend capture, and why the P&L conversation that matters most is not the one most investors are having

• Why David believes hotel operators should exit F&B operations, and what a properly aligned fee structure looks like from an owner’s perspective

• The tension at the center of building a scalable brand from a singular, heritage-driven flagship asset

• What David learned from managing institutional capital

Learn more about Omnam’s portfolio here.

Follow Omnam on Instagram here.

Happy Friday.

Summer holiday content is in full force, and thanks to a handful of hospitality brands, you’ll be seeing a lot more of these “yacht cruises” on your feed or in the Med. Today’s letter will be the first of many that attempt to understand the yacht cruise business. If you have any questions, feel free to share by direct replying to this email.

Best,

Nadine

If you’re new here, or want to catch up on the best of The Stanza, I’d recommend that you start here.

In today’s newsletter:

• Everyone asks me whether yacht cruises will work. The better question at this stage is: what is the true guest acquisition cost? Erina Pindar, COO of $1B luxury travel advisory shares some interesting data points on 2026 booking patterns.

• Two C-suite Aman alumni are now running yacht cruise businesses with opposite playbooks. One holds rate and builds six ships, while the other stays under 100 suites and unbundles the fare. Both told me how they're thinking about it.

• A ship is a depreciating asset with no land underneath it. So what are Four Seasons, Aman, and Orient Express actually underwriting when they put their names on hulls?

Read previous issues of The Stanza here.

Wood Fire Cooking and Open Kitchens - F&B Consultant

Stefano Gallizio cut his teeth cooking over open fire under Francis Mallmann in the south of France before taking that philosophy around the world. He went on to help build Osborn’s Fire Kitchen in Australia’s Southern Highlands, widely credited as Australia’s first outdoor fire-cooking restaurant, and later served as Executive Chef at Ember in Byron Bay.

His work sits at the intersection of sensory experience and operational discipline: the kind of food that guests can see being made and remember long after the meal. He now partners with hospitality venues, wineries, hotel groups, and investors to develop restaurant concepts from the ground up.

If you are building a restaurant concept that highlights wood fire cooking and are seeking advice, reach him at stefanoggallizio@gmail.com.

The Stanza is considering an expansion to the Middle East and Asia. If you’re interested in contributing, I’d love to hear from you. The ideal person is:

• Based in Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, or Abu Dhabi (at least part time)

• Has institutional hotel real estate / development / operational experience and therefore credibility and an insider’s view on the industry

• Understands the voice and perspective of The Stanza

Submit your interest here. Due to the volume of inquiries, only those that satisfy all three points above will be contacted.

Current listings:

• For Weekly Rent: Villa Epavli, Corfu, Greece (July availability, from €40,000 per week including staff)

• For Weekly Rent: Villa Bagatelle, St. Tropez (From €176,000 per week including staff)

• For sale: Fully-entitled hospitality site in West Hollywood $6M

• For sale: Beachfront 5-Star Boutique Hotel in Mykonos

For all live listings & inquiries (hotels for sale, investment opportunities, open job roles), click here.

Advertise with The Stanza Classifieds: via classifieds@thestanzamedia.com.

Pages from the guest book of Munich innkeeper Hedwig Sonnenschmidt include illustrations from the artists of Simplicissimus, a German weekly magazine (1896–1967) that published political and social satire. The guestbook was auctioned today at Karl & Faber (Lot 738).

“What’s up with yacht cruises?”

There’s a lot of chatter about the yacht cruise business, and lately I’ve been fielding the same question from a lot of people around the viability of this emerging category: “Do you think they’ll work?”

The way I like to look at that question is more: what problem are they solving, and where is the demand coming from? What is the true “guest acquisition cost” for these brands, as the type of person who goes on these cruises is likely spending money that would otherwise be allocated for hotels on a yacht cruise? And as for the investor’s perspective: what’s the long term value creation opportunity? Hotels are on land, which is a finite resource. Typically, a lot of value in hotels comes from the real estate itself for this reason (note: see my previous newsletter on irreplaceable assets). If you can, in theory, build a million luxury cruise ships, and if ships are by definition, depreciating assets, how do you underwrite the terminal value? Or are these ships seen as tax efficient cash flowing assets?

The comp set

Five luxury brands, four of which are hotel operators, now have ships in the water or under construction, and the fleet sizes tell you a lot about each one's bet:

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Happy Friday. Today’s letter is a continuation of previous letters: an exploration into less considered aspects of the hospitality business that have impactful potential. It’s also a very Italian letter! As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to direct reply to this email.

If you’re in Monaco for F1 this weekend and need help booking last minute reservations, download Dorsia using code THESTANZA. You can also get access to fun events such as the HEAVENSAKE party.

Best,

N

If you’re new here, or want to catch up on the best of The Stanza, I’d recommend that you start here.

The latest podcast episode with Anne-Laure Ollagnon, CEO of Airelles, can be found here. Next podcast episode will be published next week.

In today’s newsletter:

• Marie-Louise Sciò’s philosophy on hotel retail is a big part of the reason why Il Pellicano is consistently booked through the summer season

• Carolina Fumagalli is building a new hotel retail operating model that appeals to sophisticated travelers seeking to experience niche Italian craftsmanship

Read previous issues of The Stanza here.

The Stanza is considering an expansion to the Middle East and Asia. If you’re interested in contributing, I’d love to hear from you. The ideal person is:

• Based in Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, or Abu Dhabi (at least part time)

• Has institutional hotel real estate / development / operational experience and therefore credibility and an insider’s view on the industry

• Understands the voice and perspective of The Stanza

Submit your interest here. Due to the volume of inquiries, only those that satisfy all three points above will be contacted.

Current listings:

• For Weekly Rent: Villa Epavli, Corfu, Greece (July availability, from €40,000 per week including staff)

• For Weekly Rent: Villa Bagatelle, St. Tropez (From €176,000 per week including staff)

• For sale: Fully-entitled hospitality site in West Hollywood $6M

• For sale: Beachfront 5-Star Boutique Hotel in Mykonos

For all live listings & inquiries (hotels for sale, investment opportunities, open job roles), click here.

Advertise with The Stanza Classifieds: via classifieds@thestanzamedia.com.

What’s the point of hotel retail?

When you think of hotel retail, what comes to mind?

From my personal experience, most hotel retail I’ve seen feels random. Traditionally, hotel retail has been categorized as ancillary revenue. And while that might always technically be the case, the point won’t be about generating substantial revenue from hotel retail (although I’ve seen examples that completely disprove that notion). It’ll be about emphasizing who your hotel is for.

The hotels with the strongest positioning are not selling rooms, because rooms are a commodity. They’re selling proximity to a world the guest wants to associate themselves with, and the rooms are the venue in which the association gets transacted. Typically, travelers and operators have focused on the most obvious outer-facing aspect of world-building, which is the architecture and interior design of a hotel. However, in recent years, smart operators have been increasingly focused on retail as a lever in the exercise of world-building both as a means of expression and of differentiation. As hospitality grows more competitive, the effectiveness of the “world” in selling rooms will be priced into brand value, and therefore hotel retail will transition from an afterthought into a powerful tool to help execute said exercise.

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Happy Saturday. Curious to hear what you all think on the topic of guest curation. I welcome your thoughts - just reply to this email directly.

Best,

N

If you’re new here, or want to catch up on the best of The Stanza, I’d recommend that you start here.

The latest podcast episode with Anne-Laure Ollagnon, CEO of Airelles, can be found here.

In today’s newsletter:

• If a members club can curate its social environment through a membership process, what’s the hotel industry’s equivalent mechanism, and why is almost nobody using it?

• Why the most underrated variable in the guest experience has nothing to do with service, design, or F&B — and everything to do with a specific decision made before the hotel opened.

Read previous issues of The Stanza here.

For Weekly Rent: Villa Epavli, Corfu, Greece

Villa Epavli features direct + private sea access, an infinity pool overlooking the sea, 6 bedrooms (sleeps 12), and comes with a private chef and villa manager. Availability below:

1 - 15 June: €12,500 per week (last minute deal)

6 - 13 July: €40,000 per week

20 - 27 July: €45,000 per week

For more information & to book, email Sabaya: info@isaya.co.uk

For Weekly Rent: Villa Bagatelle, St. Tropez

This beautiful estate spans 4.7 acres comprising 5 independent villas, a padel & tennis court, Technogym fitness studio, sauna, hammam, a cold plunge, an outdoor pool, cinema room, and a panoramic view of the sea. Villa Bagatelle is conveniently located by Pampelonne Beach and St. Tropez town center.

Rates start at €176,000 per week (1 week minimum stay)

For more information & to book, email Sabaya: info@isaya.co.uk

Thank you for your interest in contributing to The Stanza’s potential expansion to Asia and the Middle East. The ideal person is:

• Based in Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, or Abu Dhabi (at least part time)

• Has institutional hotel real estate / development / operational experience and therefore credibility and an insider’s view on the industry

• Understands the voice and perspective of The Stanza

Submit your interest here. Due to the volume of inquiries, only those that satisfy all three points above will be contacted.

Current listings:

• For sale: Fully-entitled hospitality site in West Hollywood $6M

• For sale: Beachfront 5-Star Boutique Hotel in Mykonos

For all live listings & inquiries (hotels for sale, investment opportunities, open job roles), click here.

Advertise with The Stanza Classifieds: via classifieds@thestanzamedia.com.

Jacques Garcia acquired the Château du Champ de Bataille in Normandy and undertook a lengthy and costly renovation to revive a masterpiece. Unfortunately it’s not a hotel nor can you rent it for an overnight stay, but it is absolute perfection. Photo from AD France.

The true barometer of hotel perception is not industry press nor opinions from people who do hospitality professionally, but the opinions of guests who have stayed at these hotels and are well-traveled and incredibly savvy. In my recent conversations with friends whom I’d categorize as such, the most interesting question when relaying feedback was always less about service, design, or F&B, but increasingly: “what was the crowd like?” If the answer was negative, I’ve noticed that it disproportionately tainted the person’s view of their experience, regardless of whether or not the other elements of the experience were good. By now, the baseline for any hotel charging €2,000+ ADRs is functional and beautiful design, excellent service, and edible food. Most of the time, these hotels tend to be smaller in key size or have several well-appointed common spaces, and so if the crowd is uninteresting or worse, gauche and rude, it’ll be quite clear and will impact the overall guest experience.

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As the age of information accelerates, we are constantly inundated with content from all directions. The amount of information that has been made accessible by the internet and social media is truly incredible, but I also think it’s important to have a critical eye on the media we consume.

I frequently get asked which writers in the travel space I follow regularly, and here’s my criteria for what I allow in my media diet:

• Originality and uniqueness: The original is always better than the dupe.

• Depth and credibility: I want to know the how and the why, not just the what.

• Devotion to a mastery of their craft: I want to learn from those who strive for excellence.

That being said, here are my current picks:

has been writing about travel (and the business of) for over a decade. He has a sharp column on Skift that often parallels what I write about on The Stanza. His work is read by C-suite at major hospitality groups and I appreciate the honesty and quality of analysis in his writing.

David Prior has an incredible eye for experiences and is able to translate that into beautiful, creative storytelling. I love opening his newsletters to see what destinations are on his radar, and how he would piece together a memorable itinerary.

’s taste particularly resonates with me, and that could be because she started in fashion media. I appreciate how she articulates why hotels and destinations are worth visiting with clarity.

might know every single cool or interesting hotel in Italy. The depth of her knowledge and passion for Italy is truly astounding.

doesn’t need much of an introduction amongst hospitality industry professionals and enthusiasts — she’s been a travel editor at FT HTSI for a while. What makes her work stand out is her unique editorial perspective on places that are less obvious, and her taste which has been developed through lived experience traveling to the places she writes about.

Best,

N

If you’re new here, or want to catch up on the best of The Stanza, I’d recommend that you start here.

The latest podcast episode with Anne-Laure Ollagnon, CEO of Airelles, can be found here.

In today’s newsletter:

• €2,000 is the new €800. New supply is coming. And the ultra-luxury guest has a longer memory than the industry gives them credit for. This week, a direct question for every hotel owner and operator reading this: are you doing hotels, or doing hospitality? The difference matters more now than it ever has.

Read previous issues of The Stanza here.

• I’m thinking of expanding The Stanza to Asia and/or the Middle East. If you are based in either of these regions, passionate about hospitality, and have an insider’s view, please reply to this email and introduce yourself. Institutional investing experience is a must.

• I’m opening the Classifieds section to share sales of properties and fundraises on a complimentary basis for deals that make absolute sense for The Stanza’s audience. No brokers or placement agents please. Happy to share on an anonymous basis as well. Email classifieds@thestanzamedia.com.

Current listings:

• For sale: Fully-entitled hospitality site in West Hollywood $6M

• For sale: Beachfront 5-Star Boutique Hotel in Mykonos

For all live listings & inquiries (hotels for sale, investment opportunities, open job roles), click here.

Advertise with The Stanza Classifieds: via classifieds@thestanzamedia.com.

“Doing hotels” vs “doing hospitality”: what’s the difference?

Hotel owners and operators love talking about “emotional connection” in hospitality, but actually very few realize emotional connection is earned after making the guest feel cared for. That feeling is the emotion, not the emotion created from good branding or good design.

I’ve been reflecting on the delta between perception and reality as it relates to the guest experience at all the hotels I’ve stayed at over the last handful of years. I’m arriving at the conclusion that the greater the delta, the more powerful the PR/marketing engine behind it tends to be. We’re currently in a bull market cycle for hotels, but obviously cycles don’t last forever (even if the general trending long-term pattern is up). At the same time, there is a lot of new supply, both coming online this year and in the near-term, €2,000 is the new €800, and there’s a growing sentiment of disappointment at hotels perceived to be “amazing”.

It really boils down to one question: is ownership “doing hotels” or “doing hospitality”? The former is there to clip a fee, earn a yield, or satisfy an ego desire to own a hotel. The latter genuinely cares about making every guest’s stay special and goes the extra mile, even when they don’t have to. You might immediately start thinking of capital structure, as there’s a common notion that family-owned and independent hotels are always better than flagged or private equity-owned. However, I don’t think the capital structure is the number one factor in answering this week’s question.

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Apologies for the late letter, but it’s another long read and hopefully insightful for you.

Thank you for all your notes on this week’s In The Room featuring Tommaso Pacini at La Bottega Collective.

Some important announcements:

• I’m thinking of expanding The Stanza to Asia and/or the Middle East. If you are based in either of these regions, passionate about hospitality, and have an insider’s view, please reply to this email and introduce yourself. Institutional investing experience is a must.

• I’m opening the Classifieds section to share sales of properties and fundraises on a complimentary basis for deals that make absolute sense for The Stanza’s audience. No brokers or placement agents please. Happy to share on an anonymous basis as well. Email classifieds@thestanzamedia.com.

Best,

N

If you’re new here, or want to catch up on the best of The Stanza, I’d recommend that you start here.

The latest podcast episode with Anne-Laure Ollagnon, CEO of Airelles, can be found here.

In today’s newsletter:

• Why programming return is one of the most misunderstood aspects of operating a hotel, and how the operators getting it right are measuring it instead

• How strong programming self-selects the guest, and why that is the most underrated tool an owner has for protecting long-term rate integrity

• Andrea Franchini, Global Brand Director of Culture and Entertainment at Edition and W Hotels, on the advice he gives to hotel owners and operators who want to build cultural relevance

• Richard Leuenberger, Managing Director of Badrutt's Palace in St. Moritz, on how intentional programming has supported a more than 300% increase in EBITDA over the last decade

Read previous issues of The Stanza here.

Current listings:

• For sale: Fully-entitled hospitality site in West Hollywood $6M

• For sale: Beachfront 5-Star Boutique Hotel in Mykonos

For all live listings & inquiries (hotels for sale, investment opportunities, open job roles), click here.

Advertise with The Stanza Classifieds: via classifieds@thestanzamedia.com.

Does hotel programming move the needle?

As a follow up to last week’s newsletter on relationships as the soft power behind distribution, I’ve been reflecting on my personal experience with another soft power driving hotel retention: programming. It’s a big part of the guest experience that isn’t considered enough by the people capitalizing hotels, even though it can be a powerful tool to create emotional resonance, and therefore drive ADR and room night growth. The flipside is that it requires significant resources to execute thoughtfully.

I had my first horseback riding lesson at Castello di Reschio. It was a sunny, crisp autumn day and I’ll never forget it. The horses at Reschio are purebred Spanish horses; calm, elegant, and majestic. My instructor taught me how to trot in the Teatro Equestre, then we proceeded to ride around the grounds. A couple weeks ago, I shared my horseback riding experience in the gardens of Versailles while staying at Airelles Le Grand Controle. Here, I graduated from the trot to a gallop, and now I’m planning to learn more about my new hobby at these places again, to chase the feeling of being completely in the present moment surrounded by beauty. It’s one example of how hotel programming creates stickiness by facilitating positive memories and emotions. While I know that not every hotel can offer horseback riding lessons, there are versions of programming that can create a parallel stickiness that is accretive to the long-term performance of the hotel.

Now back to the original question: does programming move the needle, and if so, to what magnitude? The answer depends on what kind of hotel you’re operating and what you’re trying to achieve. The mechanism looks different at a lifestyle brand with a global footprint than it does at an independent ultra-luxury property where the hotel's identity is rooted in its destination. I spoke with two operators who sit at opposite ends of that spectrum, and even though there’s an obvious contrast in approach, there’s also a clear fil rouge: the goal of captivating human emotion.

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Tommaso Pacini may have one of the coolest jobs in hospitality. He’s the CEO of La Bottega Collective, which produces and distributes luxury products at most of the world’s best hotels — bathroom kits, robes, slippers, candles, textiles, and everything else that makes the difference between a room and an experience. The next time you stay at a luxury hotel, take a look at the fine print on the bottle of shampoo. Nine times out of ten, it was produced and distributed by La Bottega SpA.

What began in 1981 as a small neighborhood shop founded by Tommaso’s father, Umberto Pacini, has grown into one of the most influential companies in the luxury hospitality world. Today, La Bottega Collective is a group of five specialized subsidiaries operating under one roof — covering beauty essentials, textiles and linens, OS&E, and design consulting — with 20 offices, more than 900 employees, and 15,000 clients across 117 countries. Their portfolio reads like a checklist of the world’s most coveted hotels: Aman, Bulgari, Four Seasons, The Peninsula, Raffles, Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, and Orient Express, among many others.

What sets La Bottega Collective apart from a conventional supplier is the depth and intentionality of what they do, rooted in a distinctly Italian passion for craftsmanship and quality. Founded in the country that invented the concept of il saper fare — the intuitive mastery of making things well — La Bottega Collective brings that sensibility to every object that leaves their ateliers, whether a signature fragrance developed with a master perfumer, a linen woven from an Italian fiber, or a bespoke slipper embroidered with a hotel’s crest. Each piece is designed to communicate something specific about the property it represents. In Tommaso’s world, the amenity set is not a commodity. It is the physical expression of a hotel’s identity, and possibly the only thing a guest takes home.

I’m excited to announce La Bottega Collective as one of the partners for this year’s podcast. It’s a partnership that feels particularly aligned, as Italy is the home of The Stanza and therefore continues to influence The Stanza’s editorial vision and perspective on hospitality.

Your father founded La Bottega Collective in 1981. What was the problem he was solving for at the time, and how has the business he started 45 years ago evolved to what it is today?

Like many Italian companies, it was born through an opportunistic phone call. We were living close to a port, a cruise ship was landing nearby, and someone contacted my father to provide what I consider one of the most luxurious items in the world: toilet paper. Rather than passing the call to a colleague, he said yes, and started supplying amenities for cruise ships. The natural next step was to move into the hotel industry in Italy. That’s where the magic happened.

It’s not a very charming origin story, but it’s the real one, and there’s a wonderful full-circle moment embedded in it. Several years ago we collaborated with Maurizio Cattelan, probably the most controversial Italian artist in the world, to create a Toilet Paper-themed room at the Sixty Hotel in New York. From my father supplying toilet paper to hotels, to a Toilet Paper room in New York thirty years later. All the dots connected.

For readers who may know La Bottega Collective only from their hotel bathroom, the full scope of the group — Beltrami, Vanity Group, Palatino, White Privé — is likely a surprise. How do you describe the platform and the way its pieces work together?

La Bottega Collective connects back to my father’s original dream. The original name was La Bottega dell’Albergo — “the small Italian shop where you can find everything for the hotel.” We started by selling all kinds of items, but over time, particularly after acquiring our cosmetics factory in 2002, we streamlined around beauty as our core business. When I opened the US market in 2008, La Bottega dell’Albergo was unpronounceable, so we shortened it. But with La Bottega Collective, we’ve returned to that original vision: a one-stop platform for guest experience.

Today the Collective is organized around distinct verticals by product category. La Bottega and Vanity Group cover beauty. Beltrami covers textile. Palatino covers accessories. White Privé is a second-line linen brand sitting alongside Beltrami. Beltrami is not a name many people know, but we consider it the jewel of the organization. It’s intentionally small, with an exceptionally high-profile client list: Amangiri in Utah, Passalacqua in Lake Como, the Ritz Paris. We don’t want to scale Beltrami because scaling it would mean losing its exclusivity. That’s exactly why White Privé exists: a more accessible entry point to grow market share without compromising the flagship.

The verticals are structured so there’s no overlap between them. Each item falls into a defined product category, with a go-to-market strategy built around that discipline.

In 2024, Three Hills invested $115M for just under half of the group, and then the Ruffini family came in for a 14.7% stake in September 2025. That is significant conviction from two sophisticated investors with deep hospitality exposure. What were the highlights of your business that catalyzed their investments, and how has their involvement changed your ambitions for the company?

You should really ask them directly! But I can tell you what I believe, having now been through two rounds of institutional investment, the first with Mediobanca back in 2018.

The channel itself is a major factor. Hospitality — what I now call hospitality at large, because it extends well beyond hotels to restaurants, private clubs, safari lodges, golf clubs — is a sector with a compelling growth trajectory. And both investors understand it intimately. Three Hills through investments like Sant Ambroeus; the Ruffini family through Langosteria. They love hospitality, and we speak the same language. That alignment matters enormously when you’re trying to scale while preserving exclusivity, which is the central tension of this business.

The second factor is global footprint. There aren’t many Italian companies that have built one, and investors backing Italian businesses want to see a credible path to international scale.

The third is the platform vision. What I’m building is a luxury one-stop shop for the hotel – pick up a property, turn it upside down, and whatever falls out, we supply it. Their involvement has sharpened our ambitions on the buy-and-build side. Food and beverage, spa, uniforms: these are all verticals we’re actively evaluating for future acquisitions.

Palatino was your third major acquisition within a year. How do you think about the discipline of integration and preserving each company’s distinct identity while building coherence across the platform?

I became friends with the founders of Palatino and Vanity Group before any transaction happened. And I was clear with both of them: if a founder is ready to exit and walk away, we’re not interested. Every acquisition we’ve done has been structured as cash plus equity, so the founder remains invested as a minority shareholder and stays actively involved in a role that fits their strengths. That structure is a signal that they believe in where we’re going, and it’s the best protection against losing what made the company worth acquiring in the first place.

On quality specifically: the philosophy is to preserve what makes each company exceptional and invest heavily in R&D to keep pushing it forward. Take Palatino: the elegance of their detail work is exceptional. But if the same objects appear in every hotel, they become commodities. And once something is a commodity, it competes on price, which is not a business we want to be in. So the challenge with Palatino is constant invention: new guest experience formats, new objects, new collaborations with international designers that keep the work one step ahead.

La Bottega and Vanity Group are different, because licensing multiple brands means we can offer a different face to different clients. We can work with the Ritz-Carlton because we carry Diptyque. The most recent Corinthia Rome opening used Santa Maria Novella. That side of the business is more naturally scalable, though no less deliberate.

How do you decide which brand to pair with which hotel?

There are two approaches: top-down and bottom-up. Some clients come to us with a specific brand in mind, and we evaluate the fit. Others come with no brief, and our brand and marketing team in Milan scouts for the best match alongside our global sales team. We never present a single option because each brand carries a different heritage and speaks to a different type of guest.

Our catalog is essentially a blank notebook. Our salespeople go into client conversations as interviewers first: Where do your guests come from? What is the brand identity you are building? Is the brief rooted in fashion heritage, fragrance, wellness? From there, the right fit becomes clear.

With so many hotel brands licensing the same cosmetics lines, how do you manage exclusivity across clients?

We are almost obsessive about this. You can gain a lot of market share in one year and lose it all the next if you are not disciplined. For certain brands we have formal agreements with international chains that cap volume. When I worked with Thomas Maier at Bottega Veneta, we had a strict limit of five hotel partnerships per year. The go-to-market and marketing strategy behind every brand placement has to be deliberate, and it is not only about which label of shampoo sits in the bathroom. It is about the storytelling layered around the product.

With the Ritz-Carlton NoMad opening in New York, we partnered with Diptyque to install a Bar Parfum inside the hotel, so the product becomes a destination in itself. With Dr. Barbara Sturm, whom I have been in conversation with for nearly four years, we are launching a program this year that moves well beyond the amenity format and shows up across multiple guest touchpoints.

How much does the design of amenities, bathroom products, slippers, textiles, impact the storytelling of a hotel?

These are among the most powerful touchpoints in the entire guest experience, because they are the one thing guests can take with them. They are not going to take the television or the minibar. Amenities are the memorabilia, and when they are done well they become marketing tools as much as products. We regularly see guests reposting beautifully designed objects on social media, which creates organic visibility for the hotel.

There is a commercial dimension too. The big trend now is hotels building retail concepts in-house, not selling brands you can find in five hundred airports, but things that genuinely belong to the property. COVID helped accelerate this. After two years of lockdown, when people started traveling again, they really wanted to find something that belonged to the place they were staying and to take it home with them.

Has the guest expectation around amenities changed meaningfully since before the pandemic?

I think COVID didn’t destroy channels that were already performing; it stopped businesses that weren’t. The trends I’m describing were already in motion before 2020. The last major project I finalized before the pandemic was The Peninsula Hong Kong: plastic-free packaging, a bespoke scent developed with a local artist for each property in the Peninsula portfolio. Every hotel in the group has a different scent, and they built beautiful storytelling around it, video content, in-elevator retail installations, online and offline sales. Place-specific, locally rooted guest experience was already where the industry was heading. COVID just compressed the timeline.

My view is that the hotel is not my client, the guest is. I can have wonderful relationships with owners and GMs, but if the product doesn’t resonate with the people staying there, the contract doesn’t renew. So we work alongside hotel operators with that perspective always in mind.

Guests increasingly demand experiences that feel singular and tailored, yet they’re staying in properties managed by brands that serve hundreds, if not thousands, of rooms. How do you manufacture genuine bespoke at scale?

It depends entirely on what the brand is trying to say. When we work with Aman, the brief is consistency across properties; the beauty has to hold together globally. When we work with Rosewood, “sense of place” is the entire payoff, so each property gets something different. When we partner with W and Davines, the product is the same everywhere, but the guest experience is crafted locally. At the W Sardinia opening this summer, the beauty was consistent, but everything built around it was specific to the property.

We play across our verticals to determine, together with each client, what has to be consistent globally and what has to be crafted for the property. The trend toward local design, local guest touchpoints, and local sense of place is moving strongly through ultra-luxury, but we are seeing it in broader luxury too. We have worked with Four Seasons for many years, and even there the direction is shifting. We are currently involved in the Four Seasons at Hotel Danieli in Venice. I can’t share details yet, but the brief is something that belongs to Venice, not even to the Four Seasons. The approach at Four Seasons Dallas would be quite different.

There’s an estimated $84T being transferred to Millennials and Gen Z over the coming decade. From your position supplying hotels that have to serve this next generation, what changes are you seeing?

I have the most demanding client in my own house: my daughter, who just turned 20. When I was her age, I dreamed about cars. She couldn’t care less about a car, or about fashion. What she wants is to travel, and every time she travels she wants to be surprised by something she has never seen anywhere else, something she can bring home and share. That, to me, is the brief.

What I have watched evolve in her specifically: at twelve, she was captivated by a well-designed kids’ program at the Four Seasons Maui. At twenty, she cares about skincare, the quality of what is in the room, and whether she can actually buy those items, beautiful pajamas, a well-made t-shirt. What we created for Passalacqua alongside Valentina De Santis is a good example: the objects we developed for the property weren’t hotel products, they were retail products born from a hotel context. That is the direction this is heading.

Where do you see the application of AI in your business? And do the hands of a craftsman still matter in 2026?

They will still matter in 2056. Craftsmanship isn’t going anywhere, and I think we are fortunate to operate in hospitality, because AI is not going to replace the experience of being in a place, or the people who create it.

That said, we would be foolish not to use it. For us, the most meaningful applications are internal: guest profiling, go-to-market strategy, demand forecasting. We are already using AI to anticipate hotel requirements with a precision that manual processes can’t match, and on the design and production side it will meaningfully compress timelines. But the work itself, the material choices, the detail, the judgment, that remains human.

La Bottega started in the Marche countryside in 1981. You now have a showroom in Milan and are expanding to New York and Dubai. What does Italy still offer to the world of luxury hospitality that cannot be sourced elsewhere?

Italians do it better. Jokes aside, the Italian gusto, particularly when it comes to the detail of an object, is something we have always leveraged and will continue to. I am not claiming Italian hotels are the best in the world; there are international properties that are far more sophisticated in marketing or in building iconic status. But when Italy is expressed through any guest touchpoint, through the art of hospitality, the level of attention is something I have rarely seen replicated.

I worked with an owner once who repositioned a vase of flowers by one centimeter because the balance wasn’t right. At the time I thought it was excessive. Now I understand exactly why he did it. That instinct for harmony is what Italy still exports to the world.

Thanks for reading this interview. For more of The Stanza, subscribe to the weekly digest and follow on Instagram.

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Thank you for the incredibly kind notes about my interview with Anne-Laure Ollagnon at Airelles. It excites me to share the stories of hoteliers who are doing hospitality in a unique and interesting way.

Today’s letter is a long one, and I hope it’s one packed with valuable insights for you.

Enjoy,
N

If you’re new here, or want to catch up on the best of The Stanza, I’d recommend that you start here.

Links to the latest podcast episode can be found here.

In today’s newsletter:

• Inside the distribution strategy of the hotels that never need to discount

• The hotels with the most defensible pricing power aren't running bigger sales teams. They're making relationships their competitors have delegated away. What does that look like in practice?

• Most pre-opening budgets are allocated to the wrong things. Luxury hotel PR Jules Perowne on what Passalacqua did instead, and why it went straight to number one on the World's 50 Best

• David Prior designs travel for some of the world's most visible tastemakers. Here is exactly what a hotel needs to have done before it ever gets on his radar.

• SmartFlyer booked over $1B in travel last year. COO Erina Pindar on what the hotels compounding value from the advisor channel are doing

• Belmond CEO Dan Ruff on investing in the guest experience at Villa San Michele

Read previous issues of The Stanza here.

For Sale: Fully-entitled hospitality site in West Hollywood

UPDATED PRICING: $6M

Shovel-ready, four-story ±45,000 SF development approved for F&B and members club uses with rooftop pool, outdoor dining, and alcohol service. A rare, flagship-scale opportunity with no entitlement risk in prime West Hollywood ideal for a globally recognized brand. The current approved plans features indoor/outdoor flow on various levels, separate public and members-only access points, and flexible floor plates for various hospitality concepts.

Other possible use cases include joint-venturing with current ownership, or re-entitling for boutique hotel or mixed-use residential (≈91 units via density bonus).

Inquire here.

Current listings:

• For sale: Beachfront 5-Star Boutique Hotel in Mykonos

For all live listings & inquiries (hotels for sale, investment opportunities, open job roles), click here.

Advertise with The Stanza Classifieds: via classifieds@thestanzamedia.com.

Guido Reni was a 17th century Italian baroque painter who trained under Flemish painter Denis Calvaert, then under Ludovico Caracci (cousin of the prolific Annibale). Guido was known for painting dark and sometimes gruesome allegorical scenes with brush precision, influences of Caravaggio’s chiaroscuro technique, and a lighter palette in his later works. Here, he depicted a story from the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament. John the Baptist had criticized Herod for marrying his own brother’s wife. At Herod’s birthday party, Herod promised his stepdaughter Salome (pictured above), anything she wished after she performed an entertaining dance. At the nudge of her mother, she requested the head of John the Baptist on a platter. This scene has been painted by several other prolific artists, including Caravaggio, but this may be one of my favorite interpretations because of the contrast between Salome’s innocence, beauty, and her extravagant oriental garments, and the timeless human themes of jealousy, revenge, and despair.

• Belmond’s reopening of Villa San Michele after an 18-month renovation has been a focal point of the hotel world recently. In addition to the renovation, they’ve also added a spiritual wellness program with Californian Milanese fashion entrepreneur JJ Martin, a spa by Guerlain, and a new fine dining restaurant by young Tuscan chef Alessandro Cozzolino. With all the additions, I’d describe the renovation as more of a repositioning. Something that isn’t talked about enough in the hotel business is the constant need to be upgrading and investing in the guest experience. Not only do the physical spaces need annual maintenance capex, but the best hotel owners are constantly thinking about how to deliver facilities that attract their target guest. I asked Belmond CEO Dan Ruff how they think about the return profile of experiential investment at historic properties such as Villa San Michele:

  “Experiential investment at historic properties is an act of custodianship, and the returns compound over time through brand equity, guest loyalty, and the enduring relevance of the property itself. Our 18-month restoration of Villa San Michele - fewer rooms, more space, more time to linger - makes Slow Luxury an experiential reality, and that is what sustains value across generations of guests.”

On Distribution & Relationships: The Soft Power Behind The World’s Most Successful Hotels

The best perk of my job is access to a wide variety of hotel owners, investors, and management company CEO’s, and getting an insider’s view on how they operate. A striking observation I’ve been reflecting on lately is that the most commercially successful luxury & ultra-luxury hotels are not necessarily the ones with the largest sales teams or the most sophisticated CRM systems, but ones where the owner or CEO has personally invested in the right travel advisor and editorial relationships, instead of delegating this to their sales & marketing teams. In the context of AI changing online hotel distribution systems, for hotels that strive for true excellence in every aspect, the quality of relationships with the right editors and travel advisors is arguably the most underrated variable in long-term rate integrity. What does it take to build relationships that compound into this kind of soft power?

Read more

I’m very excited to share a behind-the-scenes view of a hotel group doing hospitality in a unique way: Airelles.

Ask any sophisticated traveler what they think of Airelles as a brand, and you’ll either get glowing reviews or feedback that it wasn’t for them. This is exactly why I appreciate how they operate — they’re intensely focused on providing a specific kind of experience and being the best at it, rather than trying to appeal to everyone. As an ultra-luxury hotel group competing in a pool of well-capitalized brands that seemingly want to be on everyone’s radar, it’s a bold and respectable strategy.

Although I almost exclusively talk about hotels on this platform, I rarely share my personal experiences staying at the hotels I talk about. But here is something you should know before you listen to this interview: I loved my experience at Airelles’ Le Grand Contrôle so much that I already began planning my next trip there before check out, and am planning to stay longer next time. Le Grand Contrôle is the only hotel in the Palace of Versailles, and I would describe it more as an immersive experience than a hotel. I had the chance to experience private after-hour tours of Versailles and the Grand Trianon, the private family palace of Louis XIV. I rode a stunning French horse between rows of trees in the garden of Versailles. At the Royal Feast by Alain Ducasse, the staff dressed in 17th century costumes choreographed what was the closest I could get to experiencing dinner at court. It was theatrical, glorious, and unforgettable. If you’ve been a reader of The Stanza for a while, you’ll know that I have a passion for history, particularly of this period, and so this experience was special for me.

Then, there’s the gifting, which Airelles is known for. Each time we returned to our room, we were showered with beautiful gifts that were often customized with our initials, along with endless Ladurée macarons, exotic fruits, and snacks. In case you do stay at an Airelles hotel, I won’t spoil it for you and tell you exactly what they gifted me, but I’ll just say that they took “surprise and delight” to another level. As someone privy to hotel P&L’s, it struck me that they clearly have invested a lot into generosity, which is not the easiest decision when you’re operating smaller hotels. But, this generosity communicates that they’re thinking of how to make guests feel special, and therefore, it’s easy to see why Airelles has a cult following and a high return rate.

This is also Anne-Laure’s first podcast interview, and I’m grateful that despite the fact that Airelles tends to be discreet as a group, she was able to share what it takes to build a hotel brand at this level.

Watch on Spotify or Youtube

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Part I: The Travel Advisor as Curator

00:00:27

Erina Pindar, COO of , argues that the travel advisor’s core product is less about access but more so curation and personalization: the construction of high-emotional-impact moments that exist outside the algorithm and cannot be replicated through self-booking.

In Part I of this episode, Erina walks through how SmartFlyer conceptualizes experiences designed to generate genuine surprise for HNW clients, why safari travel has seen a measurable resurgence in demand post-pandemic, and what the rise of multi-generational, long-stay itineraries signals about how the most valuable travel clients are beginning to define the category for themselves.

This episode was made possible in partnership with SmartFlyer.

SmartFlyer works with hotel owners and management companies looking to access a HNW traveler base that sits outside standard distribution channels. Reach out to learn more.

hello@smartflyer.com

Learn more about SmartFlyer here

Follow SmartFlyer on Instagram

Part II: The Art of Emotional Storytelling: How Airelles Builds Ultra-Luxury Around History & Generosity

00:09:54

Anne-Laure Ollagnon is the CEO of Airelles, the French ultra-luxury hotel group owned by entrepreneur Stéphane Courbit, whose portfolio of historic properties spans France and, as of this month, Italy. She joined the group in 2007 when Courbit acquired the original property in Courchevel, bringing a background in M&A law that shaped her approach to transforming heritage buildings into destination assets.

Airelles follows a full ownership model across almost all of its portfolio: Airelles Courchevel, Airelles Val d’Isère, Château de la Messardière and Pan Deï Palais both in Saint-Tropez, La Bastide de Gordes in Provence, and Palladio Venice on the island of Giudecca.

The one exception is Le Grand Contrôle, the only hotel inside the grounds of the Palace of Versailles, which Airelles operates under a concession with the French government. It is arguably the most precise expression of what the brand stands for: identifying sites of irreplaceable historic significance and restoring them into experiences that could not exist anywhere else. Across all of it, Airelles has grown without third-party management contracts, maintaining direct operational control and brand integrity at every property.

In this episode, I sat down with Anne-Laure Ollagnon to explore what it really takes to build and run an ultra-luxury hotel group rooted in historic properties, emotional storytelling, and a culture of generosity that institutional capital structures are rarely designed to sustain.

Interview Highlights:

• The difference between family office capital and institutional capital in ultra-luxury, and how that impacts the guest experience

• How Airelles won the Palace of Versailles tender against more than fifteen competing hotel groups

• The six-year acquisition and authorization process for Airelles Palladio Venice, and what patience as a development discipline actually costs

• Airelles’ philosophy behind owning and operating distinct hotels

• What Anne-Laure looks for when evaluating a new asset, and why emotion is the first filter before any underwriting begins

• How a high-end hotel under 50 keys justifies its ADR and operates profitably without relying on volume

• Anne-Laure’s view on where ultra-luxury is heading

Learn more about Airelles here

Follow Airelles on Instagram

Follow the latest opening in Venice on Instagram: the Airelles Palladio

Follow⁠ ⁠The Stanza on Instagram

I’m hiring an editorial assistant. If you know someone junior who has strong work ethic & precision, and is aligned with the quality and voice of The Stanza, please have them apply here.

If you’re new here, or want to catch up on the best of The Stanza, I’d recommend that you start here.

Links to the latest podcast episode can be found here.

In today’s newsletter:

• Should I hire a flag or operate my hotel independently?

• What does signing an HMA with an institutional flag actually cost you beyond the headline fee?

• When does independence make sense as an investment decision, and when does it not?

• What do most aspiring independent hotel owners get wrong before they even start?

• Dave Barry, investor in Chiltern Firehouse, The Standard, The Hotel Chelsea, and Nine Orchard, on the three conditions that have to be met before independence justifies the risk

• Alex Ohebshalom of Flâneur Hospitality on what it actually takes to build a commercially successful independent hotel

• David Zisser of Omnam Group, one of Europe’s most active hotel developers, on how the best hotel developers think about brand selection from day one of underwriting

Read previous issues of The Stanza here.

For Sale: Fully-entitled hospitality site in West Hollywood

UPDATED PRICING: $6M

Shovel-ready, four-story ±45,000 SF development approved for F&B and members club uses with rooftop pool, outdoor dining, and alcohol service. A rare, flagship-scale opportunity with no entitlement risk in prime West Hollywood ideal for a globally recognized brand. The current approved plans features indoor/outdoor flow on various levels, separate public and members-only access points, and flexible floor plates for various hospitality concepts.

Other possible use cases include joint-venturing with current ownership, or re-entitling for boutique hotel or mixed-use residential (≈91 units via density bonus).

Inquire here.

Current listings:

• For sale: Beachfront 5-Star Boutique Hotel in Mykonos

For all live listings & inquiries (hotels for sale, investment opportunities, open job roles), click here.

Advertise with The Stanza Classifieds: via classifieds@thestanzamedia.com.

*Paid subscribers are welcome to email reply any follow up questions, thoughts, and topic suggestions for future newsletters. Please make the most out of your subscription!

To Flag or Not to Flag, That Is the Question

One of the most frequently asked questions I get in my inbox are from people who are either considering opening a hotel or are in the process of acquiring one, and that is:

“Should I hire a third-party operator to manage the hotel? Or should I operate it myself independently?”

There is no straightforward answer. It’s a highly nuanced, and highly consequential question every hotel owner, whether it’s their first hotel, or their 50th acquisition, has to consider.

Part One: The Flag

Along the same vein, many of you who have emailed me about this topic know that the first question you are asked by lenders and equity partners is: “who is the operator?” It’s rarely asked out of genuine curiosity about hospitality philosophy. Rather, it’s asked because the answer determines whether the person on the other side of the table can slot your project into a model they already understand. Signing an HMA with a major flag or operator is a shortcut to credibility, and in many markets, it is the difference between a term sheet and a polite no.

Read more

Today’s letter is fun, light, and sans paywall. It’s my birthday very soon and I’m in a good mood.

It’s also a long post with many photos from the week, and may be truncated in your email. You can view in its entirety on the Substack app or on a browser.

This weekend would be a good time to catch up on recent previous letters:

• Would you bet on the “itinerary play”? The American Mayfair, European pied-à-terres, and a new hospitality business strategy

• Not everyone can nor should do luxury hospitality. Saying what everyone is thinking but won’t say out loud. (Removed paywall on this one for now)

• Is there still a case for lifestyle hotels? Playing devil’s advocate

• Links to the latest podcast episode can be found here.

No new listings this week.

Current listings:

• For sale: Beachfront 5-Star Boutique Hotel in Mykonos

• For sale: Fully-entitled hospitality site in West Hollywood (~45,000 SF)

For all live listings & inquiries (hotels for sale, investment opportunities, open job roles), click here.

Advertise with The Stanza Classifieds: via classifieds@thestanzamedia.com.

Design week is always a treat - Milan lights up to welcome those in the creative industries who have traveled far and wide to participate in what I call the “Coachella for adults”. It’s an intense week full of exhibitions, cocktail parties, dinners, and meet ups with friends and industry colleagues you rarely see. Here’s what I got up to this week:

Sunday

18:35

Arrived at the cocktail opening of Laila Gohar x Arket installation, which was a carnival style carousel with giant fruits and vegetables instead of ponies. Unfortunately, the entire carousel was occupied by those taking selfies so I couldn’t get a good photo.

19:17

Arrived at DIMOREGALLERY, the studio space of the very chic Milanese design firm Dimore Studio. They’ve done some cool hospitality projects, such as Trattoria del Ciumbia (a favorite in Milan), and La Dolce Vita Orient Express trains.

19:45

Made my way over to David Prior’s Spaghettata, his annual Salone party at his Milan home / office. I arrived just in time to catch the beautiful sunset. Met Dave Barry, whom mutual friends have insisted I meet. Dave is a real estate developer in NY and has also worked on cool hotel projects such as Chiltern Firehouse. He also has a fun podcast with Mike Novogratz called Business Untitled.

21:00

My husband picks up me, Jeff Klein, and his husband John for a double date at Casa Cipriani. It’s been a while since I laughed that hard. We ordered cacio e pepe, carpaccio, and filet.

Monday

11:40

The St. Moritz tourism board graciously invited me for a tour of Villa Pestarini. Villa Pestarini is a private home designed by Italian architect Franco Albini. The house was decorated with furniture and objects made by Alcova’s curation of excellent artisans.

13:02

After the tour, we were ushered to The Wilde, where we had an intimate al fresco seafood lunch.

15:23

Headed home for a bit to catch up on some emails and recharge my social battery.

18:27

Met up with Jules Perowne, the only hotel publicist who has my number, and Dave Barry for an aperitivo at the very chic Bulgari Hotel garden. I love nerding out about hospitality with fellow geeks!

20:13

Arrived at the T Mag party at beautiful Villa Necchi, which was dedicated to the end of Hanya Yanagihara’s tenure as Editor-in-Chief. Met up with Andrea Franchini, Global Brand Director at Edition and W Hotels, and his lovely partner Cian O’Connor who write a great Substack ( , where he reviews spas at luxury hotels). The Lake Como Edition curated the cocktail bar, but didn’t have any water! Ran into plenty of familiar faces from NY and London, which is always wonderful. Said hi to the coolest Gen X person I know, . Ended my night at the party discussing peptides with The Stanza podcast alum Dr. Jonathan Leary.

Tuesday

9:35

Met up with some friends from Milan at the Cromo Tea pop-up on the roof of Torre Velasca, which will become a new members club called Madison House. It’ll be operated by Dubai-based Sunset Hospitality Group.

11:14

Visited the beautiful Nilufar Depot, which always has one of the best curations of furniture. This year, the theme was “Grand Hotel”, although nothing about the exhibition gave me “hotel vibes” other than the faux front desk reception desk.

12:27

Went back home to work on the next podcast episode, which I can’t wait to share with you all.

18:23

Arrive at Sant Ambroeus to celebrate the group’s 90th anniversary. There was a beautiful table full of all their best pastry treats, along with pastry chefs decorating giant princess cakes. Said hi to Cosimo Gherardini, Alireza Niroomand, Ana Mari Rovirosa at Sant Ambroeus, and ran into more familiar faces.

19:13

Finally get to the Artemest cocktail, which has consistently been one of my top 3 activations during Salone every year. Artemest is a platform curating beautiful furniture. Every year they decorate an apartment to showcase their curation of artisans. The dining room by Rockwell Group was particularly memorable.

20:04

My friends and I popped into the Flamingo Estate x Kohler event. I was today year’s old to learn that Kohler has apparently invested in Flamingo Estate. The event itself was more of a social event and not a true exhibition.

20:23

We walked over to the RH event, which is the talk of the town. It was chaos outside, with paparazzi swarming any blacked out van that emptied out any sort of recognizable person at the entrance. RH was very generous with the catering and none of it was done with negative intentions. It was just shocking given that the Milanese aren’t used to this level of spectacle. Some of the words eventgoers used to describe the event were: “disgraceful”, “ridiculous”, “ tacky”, and “savage”. Rumor says that RH spent $1.5M on catering alone, which included Vesper Martinis, Petrossian Caviar, a recreation of Bar Basso, Sant Ambroeus and more. See the invite below. I’m just wondering why they chose Hugel to DJ the party, and why they chose Margot Robbie and Zoe Saldana to make appearances given they have no obvious connection to Italy, luxury furniture, or the design world. Regardless of what people think of RH, the event was certainly a very American way to make an entrance into Milan, a city that leans towards discretion and understated elegance. One interesting comment I kept hearing was that RH furniture is too large for Milanese apartments. After all, the elevators here are tiny and moving typically requires crane lifting furniture from the street into narrow terrace windows. The restaurant may do fine, but I doubt the Milanese would buy RH furniture when they have the world’s best craftsmen in their backyard. After all, Milan is the design capital of the world.

21:30

Dinner at Rost with friends from NY and Milan. If you haven’t been yet, I highly recommend.

Wednesday

18:35

Stopped by The Thinking Traveller cocktail party at the beautiful home of the owners of Rocca delle Tre Contrade in Sicily. The Thinking Traveller is a villa rental platform operating in Italy, Greece, and France. There were Sicilian nonne making arancini from scratch in the kitchen, which is a great idea for a dinner party at home.

20:01

Met up with a friend at Nino, another great Milan restaurant that recently opened. Diego Rossi of Trippa fame opened Nino, a 1970’s osteria serving creative twists on the classics. Highly recommend.

22:34

Organized friends from various phases of my life to gather for the Silencio at Ronin pop up. Local celeb Simone de Kunovich DJ’d and it was a full house. Discussed peptides with a new friend from NY.

Thursday

Shot some fun content for the podcast on this day, which deviates from my usual interview format.

Friday

12:49

Caught the end of Giampiero Tagliaferri’s exhibition at his design studio in Brera: “Materials at Edge”. Art curator Truls Blaasmo and gallerist Chiara Rusconi collaborated on the art pairing. I first met Giampiero in Naples last summer and am excited to see that he’s having momentum in the design world.

That was my 2026 Salone! Back to regular programming next Friday. Have a great weekend!

Thanks for reading. For more of The Stanza, follow on Instagram here.

I’m mentally preparing for the Coachella of the design industries: Milan Design Week, and will be sharing highlights on IG stories.

If you are coming to Milan for Salone and need F&B recommendations, I compile all my recommended restaurants, bars, and cafes on the AmiGo app. It’s free to use with code THESTANZA. If we happen to be at the same events, please say hello!

Some news:

The Stanza has always operated on a foundation of credibility, unique insight, and storytelling. This is most likely the reason why you find it valuable.

As you know, The Stanza is not traditional journalism. I don’t copy and paste press releases, nor do I “cover”, “report”, or “break news”. I don’t accept inbound interview or feature pitches. All guests, whether for written interviews or the podcast, are invited by me through my personal relationships. This ensures the integrity of The Stanza’s brand and voice, and ultimately, a better experience for you as a reader and listener.

This newsletter is pivoting to a slightly different format to serve you all better. Each Friday, I’ll answer a big question or dissect a pertinent theme in the business of hospitality, with input from my personal network of leaders making decisions that impact the broader industry. The goal is to make each issue insightful, informative, and a genuine pleasure to read.

You can read last week’s issue as an example (paywall removed).

If you’ve been thinking of upgrading, now would be a good time to do it as the current annual price is the lowest it will ever be. Starting Monday, the price of an annual subscription will increase to $250, or the price of a power lunch in Manhattan for two. Paid subscribers are welcome to request topics or questions to dive into on Fridays.

Several of you have told me that this newsletter has helped you prepare for meetings, challenged your perspectives, or helped you develop a concept further. Others have told me that the voice of The Stanza cuts through the industry noise. These notes motivate me to become a better storyteller every day, and I’m incredibly honored to have earned space in your inbox.

Thank you for being part of The Stanza’s evolution.

-Nadine

If you’re new here, or want to catch up on the best of The Stanza, I’d recommend that you start here.

Links to the latest podcast episode can be found here.

In today’s newsletter:

• What’s the investment case for design-led lifestyle hotels charging under $1K ADR?

• If lifestyle hotels serve a different customer than luxury and ultra luxury, how do you underwrite demand resilience in a segment that is more exposed to discretionary spending?

• Richard Caring’s empire of Mayfair members clubs and restaurants just traded at a 24x multiple. What does that say about how institutional capital is underwriting hospitality brands?

Read previous issues of The Stanza here.

No new listings this week.

Current listings:

• For sale: Beachfront 5-Star Boutique Hotel in Mykonos

• For sale: Fully-entitled hospitality site in West Hollywood (~45,000 SF)

For all live listings & inquiries (hotels for sale, investment opportunities, open job roles), click here.

Advertise with The Stanza Classifieds: via classifieds@thestanzamedia.com.

K-Shaped Hospitality, Part II: The Contrarian Argument for Lifestyle Hotels

It was great to hear such a strong response to last week’s newsletter on the impact of the K-Shaped economy on hospitality. The general conclusion was that while the ultra luxury thesis makes sense on paper, there are some big caveats to that thesis:

• Too many operators and too much capital are rushing into this ADR segment, which naturally erodes the returns that made it attractive in the first place;

• Most of the product resulting from this “rush” does not occupy irreplaceable and irreplicable real estate;

• Most of these operators do not have a unique and strong point of view, and therefore are not effective at telling their own brand story;

• They also do not intuitively understand what service means at the luxury level, and it shows through the staff interactions, which will make it difficult to survive the inevitable market contraction when the only paying guests left are the ones who are used to high quality service and experience (the exact HNWI traveler that everyone is chasing).

In today’s context during which capital is rushing into “ultra luxury” on the back of macro data on HNW/UHNW travelers, the contrarian argument surrounds the case to develop lifestyle hotels, not as a consolation prize for those priced out of ultra luxury, but as a category worth building toward on its own terms.

Read more

Thank you for your feedback on the interview I published this week with Jonathan Goldstein. If there is one interview you should watch from The Stanza, this would be it.

Last week, I asked you all to share with me any names of companies building the ultimate CRM for luxury hospitality. It turns out, unsurprisingly, that Dorsia is building an operating system for members clubs. The move makes intuitive sense. Dorsia has always been a membership business at its core, and the technology stack they built to manage reservations, payments, access, and member behavior in the restaurant vertical translates naturally to what a members club needs to run well. The platform covers the full stack: member CRM and lifecycle management, bookings and reservations, frictionless payments, access control, a white-labeled member-facing app, communications, and a data intelligence layer that gives club operators visibility into member behavior and engagement. They are covering switching costs for select early partners and offering a free demo to clubs interested in seeing the platform before committing. If you run a members club and have been looking to replace the system you are currently tolerating, reach out to knox@dorsia.com.

Enjoy reading this week’s letter,

Nadine

If you’re new here, or want to catch up on the best of The Stanza, I’d recommend that you start here.

Links to the latest podcast episode can be found here.

In today’s newsletter:

• Is the asset-light model incompatible with competitive ultra luxury hotels?

• Why do so many luxury hospitality brands look and feel the same, and when will that become a drag on returns?

• The next market contraction will expose why “brand” is overrated in hospitality.

• What is the most interesting whitespace in hospitality right now?

Read previous issues of The Stanza here.

No new listings this week.

Current listings:

• For sale: Beachfront 5-Star Boutique Hotel in Mykonos

• For sale: Fully-entitled hospitality site in West Hollywood (~45,000 SF)

For all live listings & inquiries (hotels for sale, investment opportunities, open job roles), click here.

Advertise with The Stanza Classifieds: via classifieds@thestanzamedia.com.

K-Shaped Hospitality

The year is 2026, and the world is obsessed with luxury hospitality. Open any social feed and you’ll see a plethora of LinkedIn poetry claiming to know what hotels get wrong about the guest experience, or green screen videos giving recycled cliff notes on Adrian Zecha-era Aman. And have you noticed the online fervor for hospitality whenever you see this type of content? It’s a direct reflection of the real world and where people are spending their time, attention, and money. Members clubs, social wellness, “Eurosummer”, 8PM Friday reservations, fashion & hospitality crossovers…we simply can’t get enough of hospitality. And for good reason - after a period of dismal lockdown, the urge to experience and connect with people and places has only seemed to intensify over the last five years. Plus, life is so much better when you’re spending it to experience your own subjective definition of beauty.

The term “K-shaped economy” has been coming up in many conversations lately, typically as a means to justify why a developer/operator/investor should pursue the ultra luxury hotel segment. at wrote about how the hollowing out of the aspirational middle is also not a hospitality-specific observation, and that it’s a dynamic across the entire built environment: retail, residential, office, and F&B are all exhibiting parallel patterns.

It’s helpful to have historical context around the K-shaped economy: why is this pattern emerging now? Since 2008, the Fed Reserve cut interest rates to near zero and kept them there until 2015, then again during the pandemic to steer the US economy from an iceberg. Fourteen-odd years of near-zero rates were one of the most significant wealth creation events in modern history. Equity markets compounded, real estate appreciated, venture capital and the mass adoption of new tech generated returns that looked extraordinary by any prior benchmark, and the cohort of genuinely wealthy individuals expanded materially as a result. I’ve spoken several times before about the current Great Wealth Transfer, the largest transfer in history, which further underlines the K-shaped economy concept.

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