The soft power behind the world's most booked hotels
"Capital D" Distribution
Hello everyone and happy Friday,
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.
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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 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?
