GOSTELOW REPORT—“Last week we hosted Copenhagen Fashion Week, with actual fashion shows, which has really helped us off to a good start,” says Peter Høgh Pedersen, managing director of Nordic Choice’s 390-room Villa Copenhagen, which opened 1 July 2020 in the center of the Danish capital.
Pedersen had forecast a first-month occupancy of 32% but achieved 55%. “There is a lot of goodwill among Danes who remember using the property when it was the city’s main Posthuset, postal sorting office, which operated until 2015. We have also seen business from throughout Scandinavia and the Schengen free-movement area of Europe. The challenge is that quarantine regulations seem to change every hour and Denmark has six-night minimum stays for international travelers. This is difficult for everyone,” he explained.
The hotel is a conversion of a significant five-floor red brick building, finished in 1912. Nordic Choice Hotels Group owner Petter Stordalen had immediately recognized its potential — he had already converted Gothenberg’s former post office to what is now the 500-room Clarion Post Hotel (for that opening, he descended from the rooftop playing drums inside a giant disco ball, whereas because of the pandemic Villa Copenhagen was discreetly launched with a flag hoisted in The Board Room).
Pedersen was attracted to this project by the opportunity to create.
“I had done five openings but the others, including InterContinental hotels in Davos, Switzerland, and Lagos, Nigeria, were all for big brands, and we had exactly to follow opening standards’ books. Here I was able to be involved in designing exactly for the Danish market.”
After running his own consultancy for three years, Pedersen joined Nordic Choice in April 2018 and quickly built up a core team of entrepreneurs.
“We decided at an early stage not to go with a brand, as Nordic Choice’s DNA is individual hotels with unique personality. Preferred has done a fantastic job in boosting our presence.”
He talked to locals. “We were determined to pursue conscious luxury, with a strong regard for sustainability — Petter Stordalen is a committed environmentalist. Denmark, anyway, is very much to the forefront of the green movement, and the hotel follows the 17 goals (SDG2030) laid out by the United Nations. We knew our customers would want green. Our 80-foot outdoor swimming pool, open year-round, is heated to 34 Celsius by excess heat from the hotel’s cooling systems. Left-over food is distributed by biotransfer in a closed system for biofuel use,” he explained.
In fact, partly inspired by René Redzepi, whose Noma restaurant is regularly recognized as the world’s best, Copenhagen is increasingly regarded as a center of gastronomy.
“But we did not want to run with fine dining. Our brasserie offers organic seasonal products, with favoring sharing plates. This all makes the experience fun for diners, and for servers,” said Pedersen.
At the moment Villa Copenhagen is running with about half of its eventual 200-strong workforce. Citywide payroll costs of 40% demand utmost efficiency, and Pedersen and his HR director (like him, the most venerable of a notably young team) carefully juggle others’ rosters, often part-time.
“I believe in individual empowerment. People do wear name badges but flexibility of our mix-and-match fashion choice means you sometimes do not know who is a team member and who is not,” he admitted.
In actuality a variety of looks, and actions, helps contribute to Pedersen’s overall goal.
“I am determined to make Villa Copenhagen the vibrant meeting place for Copenhagen and the world – and my Italian wife always says every hotel opening takes years off my own life,” he laughed.