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Why Hilton partnered with this company on its new luxury London entry

Sometimes it makes sense to have another company manage your property (even when you’re in the business of managing yourself). Take London-based Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, which had previously partnered with Hilton and reached out this time around to ask the company to manage its newly repositioned London-based property The Biltmore, Mayfair. 

The 257-room, 51-suite hotel is set to open in spring and will be branded as LXR Hotels & Resorts, Hilton’s luxury collection brand relaunched in 2018.   

Until now, LXR has had only one other project to its name, Dubai’s mixed-use Al Habtoor City development, which includes three rebranded Marriott International properties, including the former St. Regis Dubai Al Habtoor City, now the Habtoor Palace, LXR Hotels and Resorts. (Technically, LXR had previously launched in 2005 but all LXR branded hotels were reflagged as Hilton properties in 2007.) 

Now, with Millennium & Copthorne’s repositioning of The Biltmore, Mayfair, LXR makes its official debut in Europe.

Exterior of The Biltmore, Mayfair - LXR Hotels and Resorts
Exterior of The Biltmore, Mayfair – LXR Hotels and Resorts

HOTELS spoke with Martin Rinck, executive vice president, global head, luxury and lifestyle group for Hilton (which includes LXR Hotels & Resorts) about why the partnership with Millennium & Copthorne was the right fit and what’s ahead for LXR. 

HOTELS: How did the partnership first come about? 

Martin Rinck: I spent the past 10 years out in Asia Pacific to run the activities for Hilton based out of Singapore. So (Hilton) has a long-standing relationship with Millennium and with Chairman Kwek Leng Beng because in Asia Pacific, the Millennium Seoul Hilton as well as the Millennium Hilton Bangkok are both part of the portfolio we operate together with Millennium. And in the U.S., there’s the New York Plaza as well as the Millennium Hilton New York Downtown. So, we have an existing cooperation with Millennium on a couple of properties where we feel it adds value and is a win-win situation for both sides.

So, (M&C had already) acquired The Biltmore, Mayfair and were looking at what is the best brand to run it under, and they were aware that we were in the process of growing LXR and they approached us, had a dialogue and it came to fruition. It is a very unique asset which has gone through multiple name, brand and ownership changes over the years. But it’s a very unique, distinct property independent from everything else that is around and fits the LXR brand extremely well.  

H: Why did M&C decide a partnership with Hilton (and LXR in this case) was the right fit versus branding and managing internally? 

MR: The majority of assets that are currently branded Millennium hotels are owned by the company. But they look at destinations and, like I said, in Asia Pacific we’ve been very successful with them and likewise in the U.S. and we always have an ongoing dialogue.The Biltmore in London is a perfect opportunity for the two companies to expand the relationship and it’s a wonderful property to really enhance the brand. 

H: Shifting away from M&C, what are the plans for LXR moving forward? Any regions being targeted? Anything in the pipeline?

MR: We are working on multiple deals right now in different geographies in different stages of development. It’s truly global. These are not specific pockets of the world we’re looking for, it is really based on the fact that it’s a collection brand – these are properties that have unique heritage that are very locally authentic to where they are based. That means we’re looking for urban as well as resort destinations. We’re working on multiple deals in the Americas as much as in EMEA and Asia Pacific, my previous stamping grounds… I can tell you that I wouldn’t be surprised if between now and the middle of the year, we would be in a position to announce three more with global distribution.

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