DALLAS—For 28 years within the hotel industry, the Rosewood name has been synonymous with luxury hotelkeeping. But with the exception of the brand’s loyal guests, most consumers didn’t know the name. But under new COO Robert Boulogne, Rosewood Hotels & Resorts is finally becoming a customer-facing brand. The initiative began with the relaunch of the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas and Rosewood Little Dix Bay, Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands.

“As the portfolio grows (15 operating and six under development), it creates a different set of challenges,” Boulogne says. “Scale is one. Branding is changing and something people look for.” So, based on favorable responses from guests when Rosewood used its name as a tagline after the hotel name, the re-branding will continue slowly. Boulogne expects about half of the managed hotels to adopt the Rosewood brand, as will all six new hotels slated to open over the next three years. For example, in October the Rosewood Corniche opened in Jeddah, and last month the Rosewood Mayakoba opened in Mexico.

“We are allowing owners to take advantage of the opportunity, and some may decide to go the other way,” Boulogne says. “It has to be right for the owners. Once we demonstrate awareness and revenue gains, others will follow suit. We don’t want to force it. It should be a natural progression.”

Boulogne says he has some ideas about the value-added revenue projections due to cross-selling opportunities but is a year away from proving those metrics.

The cost to make the change is about US$300,000 for signage, collateral and training, Boulogne says. He does not expect to do a big consumer marketing push with a new message because the last thing he wants to do is confuse or change their expectations. “The essence of the brand is not changing,” he says.

However, Boulogne will work to educate media outlets about the change so they reflect the new name in editorial.

Rosewood is also in the process of rolling out its own “Sense” spa brand, which is launching at the Mayakoba property, followed by Little Dix Bay and then New York’s Carlyle by April. “The Sense spa is about embracing sense of place,” Boulogne says. “They will be uniquely different in each location with a consistent operating philosophy.”

At the same time, Boulogne says Rosewood is trying to “get its arms around” the environmental challenge and expects to launch an initiative in this first quarter of 2008.

On the development side, Rosewood has been somewhat sleepy and Boulogne wants to perk things up by ambitiously adding two or three properties a year going forward. He doesn’t want to grow Rosewood to a 100-hotel chain but would like to reach 50 or 60 hotels in 10 years.

A hotel in Menlo Park, California, opens this year, followed by Dubai and Telluride, Colorado, in 2009, and Guanacaste, Costa Rica, in 2010. He says he has a few more potential projects in Mexico, as well as the Caribbean and the Middle East.

“Developers didn’t look at us as a brand, and they need a brand to sell real estate. Now they are more attracted to Rosewood, which is looked at as a residential brand,” Boulogne says. “We are not cookie cutter and are trying to create a brand with a promise to fulfill individuality. That is the trick.”

While Rosewood usually acts as a strict manager, putting some equity into projects that would get the brand into markets like London is not out of the question, Boulogne says.

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