Six Senses Hotels Resorts & Spas has renewed energy and leadership after being acquired last April by U.S.-based private equity fund manager Pegasus Capital Advisors.
Earlier this week, the Bangkok-based company with nine managed hotels under the Six Senses and Evason brands announced significant expansion plans, including its first resorts in the Caribbean and South America. It also announced the appointment of two long-time Four Seasons executives Neil Jacobs as CEO and Wolf Hengst as executive chairman. With their vast experience and contacts, Jacobs and Henst hope to grow the brand to 40 hotels within five years, as well as integrate the company’s spa business, which manages 29 assets around the world.
Five new hotels are scheduled for completion by 2016. The additions will include the brand’s Western Hemisphere debut, with properties under development in St. Lucia, Dominican Republic and Colombia. It also announced a project in Bhutan and the opening of Six Senses Qing Cheng Mountain, China, at the end of 2013.
HOTELS spoke with Jacobs this week to learn more about the new team’s plans for expansion and tweaks to the concepts.
HOTELS: What role will Pegasus play in the expansion?
Neil Jacobs: It is a tremendous group and a different type of private equity firm that hasn’t done a lot of real estate deals. It is very intrigued by the wellness industry and very focused on sustainability, which is what attracted them to Six Senses. It was an investor and on the board for a few years prior to buying company and now it brings the ability for us, although primarily a management company, to take a greater position in a deal. We also may create another financial vehicle to run along side Six Senses.
HOTELS: Will you grow strictly through management?
Jacobs: Yes and no. We are able to have more skin in the game compared to most companies our size, which gives us a bit of an advantage when talking to developers.
HOTELS: How aggressively will Six Senses expand?
Jacobs: Very aggressively. Our timing is good. We don’t owe any money and have capital, so we are in a position to springboard. The company grew up in Asia, but I don’t see it as an Asian company because the hotels don’t look particularly Asian, and a huge goal is to take it out of Asia. The Caribbean, Central America and South America are huge opportunities. We are looking in Costa Rica, Panama and Ecuador, as well. Asia continues to be on our radar, as does China, but we want to go everywhere. We have also talked a lot about the urban execution of the brand. We would love New York City, London and Shanghai.
Part of the program in Dominican Republic includes doing a destination spa, and that is part of our ongoing agenda. It can work in certain places and we have the bandwidth and people to accomplish this.
HOTELS: How much will be new development?
Jacobs: It will be a combination of new development and conversion. I would love to find a few existing properties. Having a strong sustainability piece, the greatest move is not to knock down a building and convert it, but it is not so easy and if we are in a city we need space, gardens, rooftops and space to do a decent size spa. So it is not a no brainer, but opportunities do exist. We just have to find them.
HOTELS: What is the three- to five-year plan?
Jacobs: Within five years we hope to be at 40 hotels — not all open, but to have that many open or in development. It is aggressive but there is a lot of opportunity, as well as distress out there. Our deal flow is very robust right now, which makes our goal possible. It has been interesting due to the challenges the company experienced in past year. There were lots of deals the previous owners brought in that were sitting there. They didn’t go away, but they didn’t get signed. Developers were playing a wait-and-see game. Since the transaction concluded and people have gotten to know the new team the development community has a lot more faith, and that has helped us close some of those deals in the past few months.
HOTELS: What role will Wolf Hengst play?
Jacobs: He is based in New York City and is working with me on strategy and looking for new opportunities on his side of the world. He is being a voice and face of the company and is active in what we are doing. Everyone knows him and he brings great credibility to what we are doing.
HOTELS: How will Evason play into your growth plans?
Jacobs: It is a larger hotel model, a lot more family driven in the 4- to 4.5-star segment. There are as many opportunities there as for Six Senses. It has the same ethos but is a different product.
Right now we have three Evasons and six Six Senses with a good number of Evasons that we are looking at now.
HOTELS: How will the brands change under new leadership?
Jacobs: In past we ran spas and hotels almost as two separate companies and we are breaking down many of those walls to become one entity. Development was responsible for design and we are breaking that up with a new head of design. Bernhard Bohnenberger, who has been with brand as president for 20-plus years, will remain. He and I have carved up direct responsibilities but at end of the day, we are small enough where we all get our hands into everything.
HOTELS: What changes will consumers notice?
Jacobs: No changes in the essence of the brand. We do have a new logo and website. They will see a little more designed, contemporary look, and aesthetically we will lose a bit of the roughness — the Robinson Crusoe piece, and become more refined. That is what customers, and those who are not our customers, are telling us. This is not about losing the essence of the brand. It will still be very much about natural materials, but maybe more about finishes and how things look.
HOTELS: What kind of shape are the properties in?
Jacobs: Some need some help but most are in good shape. We need to put some money into our Koh Samui property and in Vietnam. We are wrapping up a three-year capital plan for all the hotels and hope we can do it strategically and thoughtfully rather than shotgunning it.
HOTELS: Are you considering adding a brand?
Jacobs: No. Six Senses used to have six brands and a lot of time was spent reducing that number. We are not inclined to do more brands but perhaps we would consider a strategic alliance with another company to help drive growth.
Editor’s Note: In the February 4 story about Six Senses expansion a quote about its expansion should have read: “Pegasus’s ability to attract capital and their ability to co-invest is going to help us drive growth.”