GOSTELOW REPORT—“We will definitely miss all our travel advisers now that International Luxury Travel Market is going virtual this year, but by being part of the online event we will still see many familiar faces,” admits Pierre-Louis Renou, general manager of the 349-room Hotel Barrière Le Majestic Cannes, France.
Every year, for at least four nights in early December, 80% of his rooms are traditionally taken by ILTM for its invited advisers. This year, a personal telephone call 10 days ago from ILTM Portfolio Director Alison Gilmore confirmed what Renou had been expecting.
“Alison Gilmore really wanted it to happen. She came to see us a couple of months ago and I know she did everything to make it work in reality, but she was hampered by travel and quarantine regulations.”
The format, year after year, has been the same. Room guests begin arriving on the Sunday and check out Thursday or Friday. The hotel then closes Friday afternoon, with a staff party that night.
“We traditionally reopen on 28 December, ready for New Year. This year we will close slightly early,” he said.
During the ILTM period, as well as 100% occupancy and outsiders using the hotel’s lobby and bars as essential impromptu networking venues, there are 30 to 40 invitation-only cocktail parties and presentations in suites and small meeting rooms (the higher the floor and the size of the space’s outside terrace determine the value in the eyes of invitees). On the Wednesday, the entire first floor of the hotel’s East Wing is closed for a private party for 1,000, hosted by Barrière and Leading Hotels of the World.
“In all, throughout the ILTM period, I reckon we get through at least 2,000 bottles of Champagne,” said Renou, who admitted ILTM is not only his team’s preferred event of the year but it is the most important annual travel happening in the calendar. “ILTM is not merely a matter of sales. It is our best chance to listen to the world’s most respected buyers and discern trends.”
ILTM is, to many, a well-oiled machine. The hotel’s 450 employees are 95% French, and overall staff turnover is 20%. Rostering for ILTM begins a month beforehand, with final minutiae checked, again and again, a week ahead of the arrivals on the Sunday.
“It helps that there is unusually good rapport with the municipality. Mayor David Lisnard, who was appointed in 2014, has brought a lot of modernity into the entire logistics of the town — it is now much easier, for instance, for our ILTM guests to cross the road to the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès venue. The fact that the Palais is now headed by a former hotelier, Didier Boidin, helps communication between relevant organizers.”
As a child, Pierre-Louis Renou wanted to be a pilot — he still loves to fly if he has any spare time. Sometime in his mid-teens, he was helping his parents, who ran a patisserie and catering company on the outskirts of Paris, to cater a Glion recruiting event.
“I was drawn into that atmosphere, and went to Glion, and then to Harvard Business School,” he revealed. One thing led to another, with Sofitels in the USA and U.K. and such names as Hilton, Hotel Martinez, Cannes, and Hotel de Crillon, Paris, on his CV before he joined Barrière to run Le Majestic and the nearby Le Gray d’Albion Cannes, in 2013.
And now he moves on again: On 15 November 2020 he becomes managing director of Fairmont Monte Carlo and regional vice president of Accor Luxury Hotels in Spain, Portugal and Italy.