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Gostelow Report: Re-opening The Lanesborough with a smile

“I know I can be stubborn, but I am determined to go for quality – and the details,” says Geoffrey Gelardi, long-time managing director of The Lanesborough in London, which held its grand re-opening party on November 25 after a complete refurbishment.

Some 400 guests, including 60 media flown in from all key markets, received the red carpet treatment at the 93-room hotel right on Hyde Park Corner. There were London celebrities and a host of bigwigs from the Oetker Collection office in Germany, which now manages the hotel.

“This is my third management company,” Gelardi said. “I opened the hotel in 1991 as Rosewood, we went through St Regis, and Oetker came in for our re-opening. But our owners, Lanesborough Management Ltd., have remained consistent.”

The Lanesborough's Managing Director Geoffrey Gelardi
The Lanesborough’s Managing Director Geoffrey Gelardi

Yes, Gelardi has been with The Lanesborough since 1990, pre-opening. He said at the time that opening hotels was probably the hardest thing to do, though he has always enjoyed all openings he had been involved with. He closed this hotel in December 2013 for a complete re-do down to bare-bones infrastructure.

“That was definitely the most difficult thing I have ever done, consoling regular guests and employees, and handling an auction of furnishings – but it did mean, for the first time in over two decades, I was able to have Christmas at home with my family,” he said with his characteristic smile.

Smiling is part of the Gelardi DNA. At the re-opening party, one of the two live bands had paused as Oetker CEO Frank Marrenbach was ready to make his speech, supposedly to be introduced by Gelardi, who had momentarily disappeared, presumably to attend to a tiny detail. The speech went ahead, Gelardi re-appeared – smiling.

The Gelardi philosophy is simple. Treat your guests as you would like to be treated if you are spending that kind of money. “It is about making life easier for people,” he said. “You have to listen to what your guests tell you.”

This week Gelardi is in Cannes, France, for the annual mammoth International Luxury Travel Market. “It is one of the best ways to catch up with travel advisors – another is Virtuoso Travel Week in Las Vegas every August, and I go personally,” he said. “I also make at least three courtesy calls a year to visit business friends and guests in the USA.”

Gelardi knows how lucky he is having owners from Abu Dhabi, who have invested an unfathomable sum in the rebuild. It was they who hired Cabinet Alberto Pinto, now led by Linda Pinto, as designers. Many ceilings are now elaborately decorated, but with real gold leaf that, judging by the thousands of post-its stuck on pre-opening, to designate slight inaccuracies, had to be re-done again and again. “My owners have never turned me down for anything,” Gelardi smiled.

The next heavy investment will be a proper spa and members’ club in the building next to the hotel. By contrast, the amount spent on a Garden Bar, a hideaway smokers’ paradise that opened four years ago, was negligible, with immediate return on investment. “It’s the perfect place anytime to sit and have a cigar and a drink,” Gelardi explained, recalling that one of his favorite steps on the career ladder was being a barman.

Geoffrey Gelardi was born into the business – he is a fourth-generation hotelier (his grandfather Giulio Gelardi opened Waldorf Astoria New York and his father, Bertie Gelardi, headed TrusthouseForte USA). After school in England he got a part-time stewarding job at London’s Sonesta Tower, now Jumeirah Carlton Tower. He worked his way up via Hilton, going on to head, at 29, Hotel Bel-Air, Los Angeles, and then, as a partner, The Sorrento Hotel, Seattle, from which he was enticed by Atef Mankarios to The Lanesborough 18 months ahead of its opening.

Somehow, Gelardi still finds time, to play squash.

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