Roland Fasel is busy. He just completed his first year as Aman Resorts Hotels & Residences’ chief operating officer – a year of intense travel to most of Aman’s 31 hotels in 26 countries. Last year included gathering momentum with a new leadership team and further developing Aman Wellness and two F&B restaurant brands. January saw the opening of the ambitious Amanyangyun hotel near Shanghai, a project that entailed moving Ming dynasty-era houses and a camphor forest 700 km. In 2018, which marks 30 years for Aman, and beyond Aman will see more expansion into urban locations with residential as a key component, including a New York City hotel slated to open in 2020. HOTELS’ Investment Outlook talked to Fasel, who joined Aman from The Dorchester Collection.
HOTELS’ INVESTMENT OUTLOOK: How is the drive to open more urban locations coming?
Roland Fasel: It is a normal evolution of the brand that, ultimately, we need to explore the urban context. If you look at the success of Tokyo (opened in 2014) and how the ethos and brand pillars were translated into Tokyo, and now to a certain extent into Shanghai, and potentially into New York City, you can translate these brand pillars around the generosity of design, the service proposition and the human touch into a city context. We are all very committed to growth on that side, but it doesn’t take away that we stay focused on nurturing our pathfinder spirit and still want to be at the forefront of finding destinations that are not, maybe, on the map today.
HIO: Regarding the spacious design – how will that affect room prices?
RF: In most of the locations we enter… our aspiration is clearly to redefine some of those rate ceilings or some of those opportunities you have in those destinations. I always feel that we have to be redefining and resetting some of those goals in those resorts and those cities. New York City is obviously very competitive, and we have a lot of respect entering the market, but I feel that what is coming together and what is planned, and the location we are in, the ethos and the service delivery, we have a unique opportunity to be very successful in New York.
HIO: Other cities you’ve talked about entering include London, Paris, Hong Kong, Singapore and Sao Paulo. Are they still in the pipeline?
RF: We’re moving on several of the locations. At this moment I’m not in a position to reveal which one will come first, but there are three or four cities where we are in an advanced stage of finding locations and partners who want to collaborate. Some of the cities are a little more difficult than anticipated, but in general we have several getting closer.
HIO: Any plans to introduce a new brand?
RF: It would be a missed opportunity not to explore a sister brand to the Aman brand. Not a sub-brand, but a sister brand – equal but in a different segment.
HIO: It’s Aman’s 30th anniversary. What’s the long-term plan?
RF: In 2017, first and foremost, we defined the proper strategy in embracing and safeguarding our brand and further shaping it into the brand we want it to be. We have a track record in the business, and we have a very committed view on remaining faithful to the core values of this 30-year-old brand. But we want to integrate a strategic plan to grow our business, and we want Aman to reflect the changing marketplace and requirements and design of today’s adventurer. So we have done proper HR strategy to make sure we have people who can grow with me, develop with me… (Aman) is a brand that will pencil in 45 to 48 hotels; that’s our aspiration up to 2025. Part of the strategy clearly defines 2025 as our benchmark. It’s all about fulfilling that strategic outlook that we finally have proper alignment for, and that we have alignment with the shareholders. Residences is a key component of our brand and the way forward. Of the 11 projects, all of them have a residence component.
HIO: Developing two F&B concepts for hotels seems to buck the “local” trend. What’s the strategy?
RF: These are restaurant concepts, Japanese and Italian, that have to compete with the restaurants in the destinations they’re located in, but it would also become potentially an independent restaurant, maybe, in cities where we cannot get in. I think we are quite aligned to the same trend. Today, in?order to guarantee the organic piece, you have to source locally. The concepts have enough flexibility to adjust the menus based on the produce or product that is available in the local context… In some of the places maybe you wouldn’t put a Japanese restaurant and you don’t have access to the product I need to deliver on that high level, but in general, nowadays, we have access to incredible global product in many of the destinations we operate in.
