LOS ANGELES — Virgin Hotels has entered a new era of growth with the combination of Virgin Limited Edition into the Virgin Hotels Collection, CEO James Bermingham said.
Speaking with Hotel News Now during the Americas Lodging Investment Summit, Bermingham said the addition of Virgin Limited Edition — a collection of hotels, retreats and private islands positioned in the ultra-luxury space — opens up new possibilities.
"The synergies are just fantastic," he said. "We're joined at the hip through the Virgin culture at both brands. The geographic diversity is fantastic and super complementary."
That will include branded residences for the first time in the company's history, which Bermingham described as "a game changer in terms of new development and conversions," adding he had great success with that segment prior to joining Virgin Hotels in 2021.
"I have for 20 years at Montage [Hotels & Resorts] crafted a very successful residential program," he said.
Bermingham said the two portfolios are extremely complementary to each other. The Virgin Hotels brand currently has six luxury hotels open — in Chicago, Dallas, Nashville, New Orleans, Las Vegas and Edinburgh — and four more in the pipeline. Virgin Limited Edition, meanwhile, has 10 properties, most heavily concentrated in The Caribbean and Africa.
"Today, we're North America-heavy on the [Virgin Hotels] side, with the opening in Edinburgh last year and Glasgow at the end of March. So we've got the beginning of a European footprint," he said.
Bermingham said it's unlikely that Virgin Hotels remains so focused on North America forever, especially since the broader Virgin brand is so global — and with the addition of Virgin Galactic, possibly more than global.
"With Virgin Galactic, it won't be long before we're on the moon," Bermingham said, echoing Conrad Hilton's famous pronouncement that he wanted a hotel on the moon.
A major catalyst for the shift to a collection model was the pending retirement of Virgin Limited Edition CEO Jon Brown, who was with the company for 24 years. Bermingham also said Virgin Group founder Richard Branson was keen on combining the two companies.
Bermingham now believes all the pieces are in place for an era of quick growth for Virgin's hospitality brands, adding that while financing is difficult in the broader development market, the addition of branded residences can help offset development costs and the company typically works with ownership groups less sensitive to restrictions in the debt markets.
Virgin Hotels launched in 2010. Bermingham said having just a half dozen properties open 13 years later is a slower ramp-up for the brand than many expected. He said the company initially launched with a plan to take advantage of a wave of distressed assets that never materialized. This stage of the company, however, will be built around "careful growth," he said.
"It's all about choosing our right destinations, partners and locations within those destinations," he said. "That's more important to me than growth for the sake of growth because that's going to help us to really develop our reputation since we're still a young brand."