Dorsett Hospitality International is embarking on a multi-brand strategy to allow the company more flexibility and scale.
Winnie Chiu, Dorsett’s president and executive director, said the strategy will allow the Hong Kong-based firm to expand its capabilities. In addition to owning, operating and leasing hotels, Dorsett also builds residential communities.
In 2021, Dorsett was involved in the United Kingdom’s second largest single-asset hotel sale when its parent company, Far East Consortium, sold the 267-room Dorsett City London to Ceberus Capital Management and Highgate Hotels for 115 million pounds sterling ($139 million), according to CoStar data.
Dorsett Hospitality, in addition to the eponymous Dorsett brand, also owns and manages the Silka Hotels brand, a select-service brand with four hotels, three in Hong Kong; and boutique brand D.Collection, which has three assets, two in Hong Kong. The other properties in those two brands are located in Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur.
Its latest brand, Dao by Dorsett, is the company’s answer to how guest preferences have changed since the start of the pandemic, Chiu said. The brand had its soft opening in the United Kingdom in June with the 74-key Dao by Dorsett West London, in the Shepherd’s Bush district of the capital. The hotel occupies the former Shepherd’s Bush Cinematograph Theatre, which dates to 1910.
“It is for the guest who wants to have a barbecue at the weekend but does not want to clear up the mess,” she said.
Dao’s room type has more space and comes with all the amenities the new traveler requires, such as kitchens and large balconies, Chiu said. Properties will make a big play on health, hygiene and wellness.
“Wellness no longer means just visiting the gym. We can provide Peloton bikes and curate workouts,” she added.
As travel becomes more costly, guests will travel for longer periods and mix business with leisure, Chiu said, adding that during a recent trip to London, she took her two children with her.
The Dao brand has no minimum length of stay, and she said the brand reflects changes in lifestyle.
“As travel changes, so must hotels themselves," she said. Dao "will develop over time. Hotels take two years or more to develop, and in that time, society grows, develops and adds."
Dao has one other asset, in Singapore, which opened on July 1, but Chiu said the two hotels are different.
“They differ because the inhabitants of their destinations differ. Singapore will be more corporate as it is next to the Singapore Stock Exchange. Guests often are there for the listing of [real estate investment trusts], so they need to stay for longer,” she said.
Chiu said the Dao brand is gaining momentum in establishing its identity.
“Dao is making positive statements in every way, a definite value proposition. It is not 100% luxury, but it makes a point,” she added.
She said the brand is pet-friendly and contains a plant lobby.
“Guests can look after a plant when they stay, and quite often they take them home afterwards as a relationship has been formed. Fifty percent of the menu is plant-based,” she said.
The next opening for the brand is the Dao by Hornsey, which will open by the end of 2022 in London in the former Hornsey Town Hall. In 1971, the venue hosted a performance by rock band Queen before the band members were international superstars.
“It is an affluent area,” Chiu said. “The hotel will have a theater. We love to revitalize and co-create,” she said.
Of future growth plans, Chiu added, “we’re looking at U.K. scale, but let’s get the product out first.”
Innovation and Development
Dorsett Hospitality continues to look for opportunities to enter joint ventures and invest in new ideas, Chiu said.
“We’re happy to invest in new concepts. We also co-create labs with students to foster ideas,” she said, adding such partnerships are critical in this age of high costs and supply-chain disruption.
"Currently, every hotelier is busy housekeeping, and whoever cracks it will make a fortune,” she said.
Innovation will go hand in hand with the firm’s core values, Chiu said. The company was the largest hotel firm in Hong Kong to assist in mandatory quarantine requirements.
“These core values are executable values. Honor your words,” she said of Dorsett’s community reach, which has included supporting sections of the Metropolitan Police force in London close to its Dorsett City London property and hosting Ukrainian and Afghani refugees and victims of domestic violence.
Chiu said she sees big things coming to Hong Kong, the company's home market.
“We’re in the middle of building our flagship hotel there, by a sports park hosting 80,000," she said. “International travelers will come back, but no city can be complacent. We are benchmarking our hotels every day, and we should do the same for cities. Hong Kong will have its cycles like everywhere else, but we’re confident."
Currently, Dorsett's entire portfolio includes 64 hotels in operation and its development pipeline.
“That really has been growth since 2011, when we had only 11 hotels,” Chiu said, adding development will be in places practicing common law.
“We understand that better,” she said.
Dorsett is developing a residential zone of 16,000 homes in Manchester, along with properties in Brisbane, a city that will host most of the sports of the 2032 Brisbane Olympics. The Brisbane project is located on land Far Eastern partly owns and will include two Dorsett-managed hotels, a Dorsett Hotel and a Ritz-Carlton, and four hotels and more than 1,000 rooms in total. Partners there include Hong Kong’s Chow Tai Fook Enterprises and Australia's Star Entertainment Group.