Reflections: Robert H. Burns

By Staff -- HOTELS Magazine, 8/1/2006

Robert H. Burns, proprietor, Grand Hotel a Villa Feltrinelli, Gargnano, Italy

On reflection, there are very few major industries that have changed as much or as dramatically as our hotel industry.

I fondly recall my first exposure to luxury hotels, it was 1944. I was 14 and with so many men and women in the armed forces, states like New York and New Jersey allowed minors to work in hotels with the understanding that we would not serve liquor.

My first job was in the laundry of the very luxurious Essex and Sussex Hotel in Spring Lake Beach, New Jersey. It was a glorious summer, full of hope for a post-war world and back to life as it was lived in the ’20s and ’30s—at least as it was for people with a good deal of money.

But things changed rapidly, from that post-war period of the mid-’40s and early ’50s, a whole new way of life developed and the hotels with it.

With the arrival of the first “jets” in 1958, airfares and flying times were reduced dramatically. It was now only five hours from the West Coast to Hawaii, not four days by Matson. Certainly, not as gracious or charming, but inexpensive and fast. The same from the East Coast to Florida and beyond—cheap and fast.

The interstate highway system gave rise to the motels. Holiday Inns and McDonalds prospered.

But with all this mobility, we lost something that was very precious. It was the end of the era of the “American Plan” resort hotel—properties like the gracious and lovely Crestmont Inn in Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania, that catered to the families of Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington, were closed and replaced with condominiums by the early ’70s.

On the other hand, the industry grew exponentially on all fronts with mega-resorts in Hawaii, the Caribbean and throughout the U.S., and in Europe as well.

In the cities, three tiers of hotels emerged—the huge convention properties, the economy hotels and the high-end boutiques. Many old properties re-emerged with new images like the old Paramount in Times Square in New York, repositioned by an enterprising club owner (Ian Schrager) as a hotel for the young and hip—another new market.

And now a new concept is emerging in the world’s largest cities—New York, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Berlin, Milan where there is strong demand for rental or purchased apartments combined with a hotel for “round the clock” hotel services to the apartment units. This allows a developer to pay for the building while holding on to a free and clear hotel.

Another development, not entirely new, is the emergence of the small, very, very exclusive and expensive boutique hotel. These properties, with, usually, very few rooms, have replaced the grand luxe resorts of the past. They are catering to very high net worth individuals, and they are popping up worldwide. I see more coming in the future.

All this has come about with the emergence of the “management company.” Before the 1950s, hotels were owned real estate. In the late’40s, the concept of managing a property for an owner allowed hotel companies to expand and explore many new concepts. This alone has brought about the most significant changes in our industry—and I see a great deal more coming in the future. The end to the era of innovation and change is nowhere in sight.