Radha Arora: President of Rosewood Hotels & Resorts – Redefining Hospitality, A Sense of Place, & Loyalty In The Details

0:00Well Radha, thank you so much for being here. Welcome to the Stad Guy Podcast. Nice to be here. I'm a big fan of you and all your incredible work. Thank you. As the president of the Rosewood Hotels and the Rosewood Group globally, you have amazing properties and they look great, as do you, always. We met for the first time on a flight. We did. We're flying to Milan, right? We were. It was, I think it was, was it two years ago? I think it was two years ago. Or was it a year or two ago? I think it was a year or two ago, and I remember you were wearing, I think maybe a similar jacket to this. Yes.

0:36You were wearing like a… Yes, I was admiring you wearing that earlier. I thought, oh, I need to dig mine out again. Thank goodness I didn't wear it. It's so similar. Thank you so much, but I don't think so. I remember looking at you and thinking, wow, that guy knows how to dress. Because it wasn't just you had a great jacket on, but you had this whole kind of swagger to you. Oh. And I was like, I would love to know what this guy does. And then lo and behold, we ended up connecting and bonding over our mutual love for the properties that you run and becoming friends and meeting your lovely wife.

1:09Yeah, that was very kind of you. Thank you. And it was, you know, that moment and I sort of, you know, our eyes locked at the same time and I was coming back into the plane, you know, toward my seat. Just at an angle, I thought, oh, that guy. And guy being the operative word. It's like your surname, isn't it? Guy is your surname. Literally. Gustav Guy. Mr. Gustav Guy. Exactly. So, so, eyes locked and I thought, I just, just, and you looked at me, I looked at you, I said, okay, and we struck a conversation immediately. And thereafter, we've, we've stayed in touch and, and had some great exchanges and, and I keep following you everywhere and, And it actually gives me great pride when I say, I know, I know that guy.

2:05He's a friend. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. I feel the same way whenever someone talks about one of your properties in particular. Yeah. Say, well. Well, it's passion, isn't it? What you do, traveling around the world and looking at great things and seeing things through your lens, which are always very pretty. and aesthetically, as you know, the hotels that we have, they're kind of handcrafted, curated, detailed, and drive ourselves insane. No, that flower shouldn't be there or the amenities not positioned correctly and what amenities will there be in the service and how the team will be talking to the guests.

2:50For sure. So it's a paranoia. Yeah, I can imagine. And I think to myself, is it a paranoia or was it really my calling? Have I driven myself mad? Or is it maybe I don't know anything else? Around the world with your host, the Stardguy. We welcome you back to the Stardguy podcast, sharing stories of excellence with those in the know for those who just know. Honestly, when I met you, when I look at you, it makes sense that you're running the properties the way you are because you look like a walking representation of the properties and you act like it too. You have this incredible warmth to you and this incredible kindness and you feel that when you come to your properties.

3:39And I always actually think of the complexities of running a hotel because the property is one thing. and the team in the leadership is something else but then the entire experience of a guest can be made by the smallest thing or even tarnished by the smallest thing which means that the level of control you have to have at a management level to make sure that something as small as the person helping the guest check in yes is doing an amazing job And making a difference. And making a difference. No, yes. So, look, at the end of the day, there are, in all the hotels that we have today, 36 going on to 40.

4:28It's not a lot, but again, each one's crafted thoroughly and unearthing the whole sense of place, philosophy that Rosewood has. So, there are these interactions going on that are out there that I don't know about. between the teams and the guests. Millions of them as we speak. And how do I know that each one of those interactions is being turned into a relationship for the future, a lasting memory? And so the only way you can do that is by giving a sense of pride to the teams, making them feel good about life, waking up in the morning so they have a spring in their step and a spark in their eye.

5:18And so when you create that environment where people are liberated, the team that I'm talking about, they're liberated to do whatever they wish with the guest, knowing that they have the backing of the management teams around them, then it's a brilliant world. and you can only do that by your own, you know, walking the talk, talking the walk or whatever you say. You have to lead by example. For sure. And that's, you know, over the years that I've come through my industry and hospitality and, you know, there was, I know what it's like to lead from the front at the grassroots level, but I also know what it's like to be an associate in the laundry, in the kitchen, in the stewarding, in the front desk.

6:18So I know what makes them tick. And that's why I kind of, as I said, I think it's the only thing I know. I love that. I'd love to... You ask me one question, I get carried away. I love that. Please, please keep going. But I'd love to know more about what makes Rosewood Rosewood. I've been very privileged and lucky to stay at some of the most beautiful properties in the world. Yeah. And I've dated a few of your properties, and I do feel this very similar energy that is unique to you and the hotel group. And I'd love to know how you define that. Yeah, look, like I said, you know, so first of all, we're fortunate.

6:55So I'll have to kind of turn back the dial a little bit. So the brand was founded back in 1979, way, way before you were even a twinkle in your current size. And so back then, it was founded by a lady called Caroline Rose Hunt in Dallas. Oil family, vegetables, I mean, they had a myriad of businesses in Texas. and actually you're too young to remember a lot of people think that the series Dallas was formed after them back in the 70s 80s I think anyway so the idea was for her was to she had this beautiful mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas and she wanted to welcome people home and she wanted to create she had such great feedback on how she would welcome people to her home.

8:00She said, okay, you know what, I'm going to get into hospitality, maybe bring a sense of mention on Turtle Creek and the pride that she had with her team in Dallas to kind of create that magic in other parts of the world. So here in L.A., Rosewood used to have the Bel Air many years ago. London, it was the Lanesboro. and so there was only like maybe eight nine ten hotels that she actually got in the end and then she went into partnership with somebody else and then um and then continued to grow probably reached about 14 15 hotels and that was it so that was kind of the phase one of rosewood and then um eventually i'll get to your answer please but this is i'm getting somewhere with this this is actually really incredible information i've never known so please actually The more details, the better.

8:53We love this. So that was sort of Rosewood 1.0, if you will. And then 2.0 being when it was purchased by the Cheng family, Sonia Cheng and her father, Dr. Henry Cheng. And that's when I took the role when the brand was purchased. And they asked me to preside over the brand. When was that? 2011, 14 years ago. Wow. So it's 14 years in the making. We've gone from 15, 16 properties to 36 and then some. Now, you know, a lot of people say, wow, you have more than double. That sounds great. The numbers and all that. But there was never a strategy to say, oh, we must have X number of hotels and we're just going to be like another hospitality company, but maybe better, but put some hotels around the globe.

9:49Well, no, that wasn't how we wanted to grow. We wanted to take bit by bit by bit and curate the right destination partners that were aligned with us in these destinations and to showcase people generally, the public at large, about what is Rosewood because it was mostly, its footprint was in the U.S., in Mexico, in the Caribbean, and the odd smattering here and there in Saudi, in Riyadh. So we said, okay, what is Rosewood? How does it define itself? How is it different to other hospitality brands? And we were fortunate, and this is what I was coming to, fortunate that there was a sort of tagline that was trademarked, and that is a sense of place.

10:45So most people use that as a throwaway line. But what we said was, no, we're going to take a sense of place seriously, and we're going to unearth every aspect of what a sense of place means. And with that, it's working with local artisans, hiring only locally, design, product, amenities, and creating something that speaks to the local sensibilities. And so when the brand was purchased, the family actually owned an asset in London, which is now Rosewood, London, and it's been around for 12 years. It was an old building under a different brand. the family took it and they said okay we just bought Rosewood the brand, now we're going to convert this property into a Rosewood that was a massive risk because as you know living in London all the sort of the heavy, the top the amazing hotels and marquee hotels are mostly in either Mayfair or Knightsbridge well here we are our hotel was in sort of Holborn Covent Garden.

12:07And it was a big risk. It was audacious. And through that audacity, we are where we are today. So Rosewood, Hong Kong, kind of defining its sense of place. If you've ever walked in there, you see the wardrobe of the team, the detail. It is so British. It's an oasis in London, unexpected oasis and it's like bringing the real authentic London and giving London back to the city of London because as a hotel it's just it kind of redefined Rosewood 2.0 with it the family also owned an asset in Beijing. It was an office building that they took the skin off and converted into a hotel. And it's the only property in Beijing that has a lot of softscape around it.

13:12Because as you know, there's a lot of hardscape in Beijing. And so that happened in parallel. Well, and then at the same time, as this was going on, we managed to get the keys to the Hotel de Creon. And that too, and I call it now the living room of Paris. You know, it's not a hotel. And I was personally invested in Hotel de Creon because I lived there as a child for a few months. I worked there and I was driven to make it part of the company and the family were very supportive in allowing me to chase down this opportunity and there we have it. So basically what I'm saying is that what is Rosewood is taking the sense of place, is finding these unique assets and properties, these hallmark destinations, and converting them into a destination where you want to stay and not a hotel.

14:22I mean, a lot of your properties, particularly the Rosewood in Palo Alto, doesn't even have the reputation of a hotel. It has a reputation of a place where some of the most iconic deals in Silicon Valley have been made. It has this incredible gathering of some of the leaders in tech. They hang out there all the time. And I've been there a few times and I've seen anyone from Bill Gates, Elon Musk, just hanging out and having lunch. Mind you, they probably say the same thing about you. I find it very unlikely. I find it very unlikely, but it's amazing. And when I talk to friends in London, someone mentions traveling to Asia and to Hong Kong in particular, they always say you can only stay at the Rosewood when you're in Hong Kong.

15:09And I think the difference between running a great property and running an icon for a city or a town is a big difference. and being the staple top property of Palo Alto and of Hong Kong, it doesn't happen through branding yourselves. It happens through perception. So I'm wondering as a consumer and as a guest, what is it that makes those two properties stand out and other properties of yours that you consider to be icons globally? Yeah. No, it's a really good question because when you look at our portfolio today, of course, I like to think they're all equal. But there are certain properties that kind of stand out.

16:03and Silicon Valley, Sand Hill, that property was built, I think, it was built about 16 years ago. I was with a different company then, and well, so-called competition in those days, and I had oversight of Palo Alto in my role. And I remember seeing Rosewood Sand Hill being built. And I thought to myself, oh, dear, this property is going to be amazing. It's a quasi-resort city. It has great energy about it, a lot of sunlight. And the way the hotel resort has been built with individual villas. It's in a part of the world that doesn't really prioritize. luxury at all. Yes, it doesn't. And thanks to the previous regime of Rosewood, they had the vision to do that work with Stanford.

17:12Of course, Stanford is our partner. Oh, wow. And they needed the postgrads to come and stay somewhere and go to college. So what's happened with Sand Hill? I mean, I've seen that. I mean, the success of that property, even when I was sitting on the fence on the other side, I remember thinking, wow, this place is an overnight sensation. And as you said, so many deals have been struck. I mean, so many deals. It's the IT glitterati, basically. And deals that have shaped, completely changed the shape of our world. and all that's happened in Rosewood Sand Hill. And so now you talk about Rosewood Hong Kong, a lot of people from Asia come to the Silicon Valley and Hong Kong, the masterpiece that it is, and I always say that ground up, you'll never go to see anything built so beautifully and so beautifully crafted and the aesthetics and the service this century, not ground up.

18:28It's just, it was... As your property in Hong Kong. Yeah, ground up I'm talking about. You know, the family believed in Rosewood, the Cheng family, so much that they owned this piece of land. And basically they paid homage to the 80s because that land was very famous as a destination on Kowloon side. And they owned it. They still own it. And they thought, okay, now that we've seen the success of Rosewood, be it through London, Beijing, Paris, we will now craft something ourselves. That will be a showcase to our other partners who want to partner with us and create Rosewood Magic in other destinations and developers and partners.

19:20and so that was a 10-year-plus undertaking and we were just waiting with a bated breath when the place was open and the feedback that we got and there's some unique attributes to that assets that commercially people will say, wow, that was some undertaking but also at the same time. That's being audacious, and that goes back to my initial word about being audacious about crafting something in London in a place that was not revered. And Kowloon, same thing, did not want it to be a typical tall skyscraper. So the property kind of mimics the Rockefeller Center in New York and is built in such a way that is elegant versus yet another skyscraper.

20:22And that of in itself, again, speaks to sense of place. And so then, you know, to continue to answer your question about there are other places, Rosewood Hotel de Creon, of course, a favorite as well. The Rosewood Sao Paulo. Wow, I mean, talk about audacity. You know, we had, unlike Rosewood, we worked with, you know, kind of designers that we normally work with, the architects, the designers. Well, this one is Philip Stark, and he's out there. And so he's really, I mean, designed for us something really magical in Sao Paulo. If you haven't been there, if you have. I have not. You have. Never been to Brazil.

21:13Oh, no, you have to go to Sao Paulo just to go to Rosewood. Just as you think Rosewood, Hong Kong is wow, Rosewood, Sao Paulo is incredible. And it has, you know, all the local artisans and everything, you know, be it the marble, be it all the elements of the hotel, are locally sourced. People often ask me about my definition of luxury and how I perceive luxury. and I think the easiest way to feel luxury and understand what it means is hospitality in hotels. I think when it comes to watches or clothes or any other category, it's sometimes harder to experience what it actually means for a product or a business to be luxurious.

22:03I personally define it as something that cocoons you in a way and cares for you, forces you to make the least amount of decisions possible for a luxurious experience and also elevates you in terms of aspirations and things that you notice. Exactly. So it elevates your perception of self, it elevates your feelings, elevates your sense of comfort. One of my dear friends, who is the CEO of Aqua di Parma, actually, his name is Giulio, he helped me come up with that decision. So I must give him credit where it's due. but basically cocoons you and elevates you. And it's very hard to imagine that analogy across products but when you walk into a luxurious hotel, that's what you're meant to feel.

22:52Which of those elements do you think the rosewood stands out in the most? I just know that when you walk into a rosewood, that's a sort of...

23:06it's something that's kind of indescribable. It's that feeling, that overwhelming feeling of knowing that you've got to be taken care of. And I think, you know, certainly in our properties where we have the butler service, the butlers have become such an integral part of everything that we do that you want to bring them home. And when you come home, you think, I have to do all this. I have to make decisions for myself now and this and the other. But they've got everything done for you. Pre-arrival, through the stay, post-arrival, and the manner with which they speak to you also makes you feel very comfortable.

23:52And that goes back to me saying earlier that, you know, if you create a sense of pride within your team, they will impart their own self to you and self-actualization. And I think, you know, like you said, it's the whole cocoon aspect. When I do walk into any of our properties, I'm actually standing in the corner observing how the team is behaving with other people so it's not just me, so that it gives me a sort of sense of comfort to me knowing that everybody else is being taken care of. And so when I get these amazing complimentary notes from our guests, these anecdotes, I use those anecdotes constantly to tell more stories.

24:49So when I'll go to a property, I'll talk about another property's amazing anecdotes and all this sort of unique experience, small touches. that then kind of perpetuates and that creates a similar behavior. So what you were saying is that, you know, that feeling of every detail being taken care of, including the perfect sheets, the perfect bed, perfect lighting, the way the amenities are placed on the bathroom, is not just a process because anybody can do that. For sure. It's a feeling. I mean, I've tried to define that feeling for me staying in some of these hotels and I think the easiest definition for me is coziness.

25:42Yeah. Intimacy. And intimacy as well. I think that that feeling also can come in hotels that aren't necessarily physically cozy. You have a hotel that's very brutalist or very futuristic like a Philip Stark hotel. But I still have that feeling of coziness from the touch and the tact of the team running it. For example, one of my favorite hotels in the world is the Bedroods Palace in St. Morris. I think it's just... It used to be a Rosewood. No way. It was. I don't know that. Before, under the previous regime, had it been Rosewood still, when we took over the brand, it would still be Rosewood. Unfortunately, yeah, I love that.

26:24I think it's so well run. Yes. And it really feels like you are coming home. Yeah. And there's a few other hotels globally that give me that same feeling where you have that homecoming emotion. And it always seems like it's coming down, top down from the management where the... Who's a good friend of mine. Yeah. Richard is an incredible, incredible general manager. but there's this very like patriarchal or matriarchal feeling to the property where it really does feel like no matter how many keys a property has it feels like you're going into someone's home and the Alpina and Shtad even has that same feeling there's many properties that I love and they have that same emotion and I wonder when you as the group level operator look to hire these exceptional GMs What are the values you're looking for in the person that can then translate into an experience for the consumer?

27:28Not every MD, as we call the managing directors, can say, let's say, run a hotel in Hong Kong and then run a hotel in Paris or run a hotel in Napa Valley or whatever it is. It's not, you know, one shoe doesn't fit all. I mean, it has to be somebody who gets that destination, gets that city. Somebody who's really impassioned to be in that place. This podcast is brought to you by Pubelle by The Stard Guy Bringing you charms hand-painted with enamel On 925 sterling silver Allowing you to express all the things you love And all the things you might question From reaver bateaus to baggamen board And caviar tins to paddle rackets There is a Pubelle charm or completed set For everyone in The Know Thank you so much for watching And enjoy the podcast With the caliber of guests that end up kind of following your properties around the world, because a lot of your guests live these nomadic sort of lifestyles, and they end up staying at your property in Hong Kong, and then when they go to London, they're staying in London, and then they go to the US, they're staying in your Sand Hill Road property.

28:40I think they always look for a rosewood experience, but they also look for a localized touch, and something that's true to that destination, because although you do want something familiar as a guest and as a consumer, you also want something novel. Yes. And I think a lot of businesses and a lot of hotels fail at that where they get the trust right of our customers choose us because they love our brand name and they'll stay with us because they have that. But then the customer goes to the property in this new destination they haven't been to and they're living novel. It feels the same. Cut and paste.

29:13Cut and paste. and I think localization really is an art and it can happen at a macro level architecturally where property can inherit some design elements of the group but then have some local design elements like you've done at the Rosewood in London, for example, and then even at the menu level. Where do you think the most important touch to first feel a sense of localization comes as a guest. When am I supposed to feel like I've arrived to the city? We have this sort of saying about relationship hospitality in Rosewood. It's part of our DNA as well. It's part of our ethos and our underlying values.

29:59So that relationship has to be built one interaction at a time and that starts with the very first phone call. You're made to feel good right from the beginning. I say phone call because for me there's nothing better than, you know, of course these days everything is through, you know, whether it's iPhones or computers, through IT medium or not. But to have that interaction on a phone, especially when you are about to go to Tuscany or Mexico or one of our destinations and saying to yourself, well, I'm about to pay a lot of money from my own back pocket here. Because most all of our guests are individual travelers.

30:54There's no corporate guests. Yes, there are in certain destinations, but we're followed by individual guests, which is the beauty of the brand, because they know they're going to get something unique, as I said, experiential. And so when that journey begins, we make sure that that experience is great. And then I think what's happened over the years is that because we've built more assets, more properties, more in different destinations, and we've learned from those different destinations and how to curate something that's unique, each one has kind of given us a lift. And so the more the people acknowledge the fact that Rosewood is something unique and is something subliminal about it, it really does value the local destinations and goes through intimate detail on how it's going to curate something that's local.

31:59What I'm saying is that the guests have begun to realize that that's what Rosewood does. And it's given us a huge lift and confidence in doing more of that. And again, to that point, if you take a look at Rose with the Chancery in Mayfair, it's a masterpiece. And, you know, I'm very hard on myself. We're very hard on ourselves. And you'd mentioned earlier on about so many things go right. And, you know, it's about the details. 99 % of things that we do are great. But we always focus on that 1 % that might let something down. And so, again, there's another project, just like Hong Kong and Sao Paulo and Hotel de Creon.

32:47The Chancery Rosewood has taken us almost 10 years to get to its point. I was there last week. You walk in there, you've got Sir David Chipperfield, the architect, Joseph de Hall from France. It gave me goosebumps for, okay, you know, it's actually what we wanted it to be. But in order to get to that point, there's a lot of vacillation that goes on. And you start questioning yourself. Was that the right thing? Is that really sense of place? Is that really London?

33:25And yeah, it takes a lot of sort of self-analysis and kind of, okay, you walk through it. Even the design team, my design team, our design team, they go through every single detail and question themselves all the time, which is what keeps us humble and determined to make sure that the next property is going to be as good, if not better than the previous one, and will account for all the local sensibilities. I mean, when I'm choosing a property or a hotel to stay at, I often think about the service I'll get from the property and the staff there before making a decision. But I also often think about the service that the other guests will show the staff and the type of guest that will stay at a hotel.

34:23and sometimes it's hit or miss and you go to a property where you expect things to be great and there's one guest which kind of maybe throws off the experience with a lack of manners or with a way of being. But other times it seems like the hotel has a great way of kind of demanding a certain level of respect or mutual respect from the guests by the way that they treat them. The golden rule. I wonder how difficult it is. I mean, you've been in the position where, or many positions where you actually had your, you're getting your hands dirty on the ground, but how difficult it is to deal with the volatility of what a guest could be like and always trying to do your best to serve them and serve all their needs.