GOSTELOW REPORT—“Other hotel groups are led by reservations or loyalty programs, but Nobu Hotels rely on F&B,” says Trevor Horwell, CEO of privately held Nobu Hospitality.
“We play to our strengths, which are F&B, complemented by a very strong customer base that is loyal to Nobu. Each of our restaurants can see 100,000 to 250,000 customers a year and even if we only pick up 15% of those diners, they will still fill our hotel beds.”
The first Nobu restaurant opened in New York in 1993. The first Nobu Hotel opened in Las Vegas in 2012, and today there are nine hotels (2,628 rooms) open, with nine to come. Miami-based Nobu Hospitality is majority owned by the board — Robert De Niro, Nobu Matsuhisa, James Packer and Meir Teper — with 20% investment from Crown Resorts.
It encompasses Nobu Hotels and their restaurants, plus freestanding Nobu restaurants, some of which might be in hotels, say COMO’s The Metropolitan, London, One&Only Cape Town, South Africa, and Hotel InterContinental Hong Kong. There are over 3,500 employees system wide.
“Others lose money on F&B: For us it does what we want, to be special for our Nobu customers — 70% of our restaurant customers are Gen X or Gen Y, and our focus is on youth in the industry,” said Horwell. The combined age of the four shareholders of Nobu Hospitality is 275 years, but as is apparent in the appeal, of say, Bernie Sanders or such entertainment legends as the Rolling Stones, old and young today seem to have a special affinity.
The vibrancy throughout the company is also attractive to potential owners. Nobu Hospitality puts no equity into hotels or freestanding restaurants. It does not franchise, but it allows bespoke contracts (“a personalized manchise,” explained the CEO, adding that, whatever the specific terms, Nobu Hospitality always puts in a hotel’s GM).
Nobu Hospitality believes in establishing and nurturing its internal culture highlighting the brand. This seems to satisfy owners, several of whom are involved in more than one Nobu hotel. Nobu Ibiza, in Spain’s Balearic Islands, for instance, has two 50-50 shareholders.
One is the Shamoon family’s MC Hotels, which also owns 100% of Nobu Marbella, Spain. The other 50% owner of Nobu Ibiza is the Livingstone brothers’ L&R, whose mighty global portfolio also includes the current conversion of London’s well-established Radisson Blu Portman Square, once InterContinental, into what will be Nobu Hospitality’s second London hotel, Nobu Hotel London Portman Square.
“But owners would not invest with us if we did not get results — you must be successful in what you want to do. Our fees are based on reservations, and yes, we need to work with OTAs to get customers in through the door, but that also gives us a voice.” Four of the hotels, Palo Alto, Miami Beach, Los Cabos and Chicago, opening this fall, are members of Leading.
“You stay with a company where the leaders stay,” explained Horwell, who joined Nobu in 2009 from Hard Rock (he has worked with his COO, Struan McKenzie, for 28 years). The energy and passion seem to filter through the company: “When I see Nobu Hospitality staff I know they have a different approach, a friendliness that ultimately comes down from the shareholders.”