BERLIN — British family office Rocco Forte Hotels is determined to continue its mission to deliver the highest levels of European luxury to its guests, and now the company has a new partner to help achieve that goal.
At the recent International Hotel Investment Forum in Berlin, company founder Rocco Forte shared his hospitality vision and spoke more about his firm's new partner, Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund. In December, PIF acquired a 49% stake in Rocco Forte Hotels for a reputed £590 million ($741 million), a deal that would value the company at £1.2 billion.
Rocco Forte Hotels has 14 open hotels, including eight in Italy, two in the United Kingdom, two in Germany and one each in Belgium and Russia. In its development pipeline, the company has four more hotels slated to open in Italy, where Rocco Forte’s grandfather emigrated from in 1911.
Forte said the deal with Public Investment Fund would allow his company's expansion into new markets.
“The challenge for us is financing and expansion, with the competition spending a lot of money on getting recognition and location. Our [recent] partnership is one with a long-term view and an international view,” Forte said.
Not surprisingly that Saudi Arabian capital injection could see a Rocco Forte Hotel in Saudi Arabia, he added.
Forte said it is “mindboggling to see the ambition there. We hope to have two or three hotels in Saudi Arabia in due course.”
Other target markets for growth are Spain and the U.S., he said.
“We’re not in Spain, and that is a very attractive market, and 40% of our business comes out of the U.S. I would like to open a hotel there, but in New York City, [there is] a terrible union situation,” he added.
Forte added hotels have been signed in Dubai and Marrakesh, which would mean Rocco Forte Hotels is represented in seven countries.
More Luxury
Throughout its current phase of growth, delivering a luxury experience to its hotel guests will remain the goal, Forte said.
“Service has not changed hugely. At the end of the day, it is about people. Technology helps behind the scenes, provides more information about the customers, their likes and dislikes, and helps the people on the ground, but luxury is luxury,” he said.
That does not come cheap, Forte added.
“In Germany, where [average daily] rates are quite low, it is more difficult as luxury is becoming more expensive to do. There has been a huge increase in prices, and we have more than doubled rates since COVID-19. Some have taken advantage and added money to their pockets. Our goal also is to reinvest in service,” he said.
Forte said his operational stance is he wants to treat guests in the same way he would want to be treated if he was one.
“I care, and that is a genuine trait. What annoys me, the only thing that does, is when service is promised but not delivered,” he said.
Within his family’s hotels, Forte said the strategy is to train and develop staff to emit a sense of belonging and warmth in guests and in the staff itself.
“In a way, I do not see that happening in many other hotel groups. Ask yourself, who is transmitting your culture? If you look at the brands at the top of the luxury structure, they belong to firms with multiple brands,” he said.
“I still do not think we have encapsulated what Rocco Forte Hotels is into a communication with the guest, not in the way we desire, and that is something I work on continually. The challenge is how to relay the messages in a way that is in line with the brand but also is exciting and emotional,” he added.
Forte added having multiple restaurants might be as damaging as having multiple brands.
“We tend to only have one restaurant in our hotels, and it is very much part of the hotel. We do not have an outside brand [operate the restaurant], which I believe is distracting and results in the restaurant not having the same relationship with our guests as our own hotels do,” Forte said.
He added his restaurants make profit, and their covers are 70% locals.
The Family Business
Forte and his sister Olga Polizzi founded Rocco Forte Hotels in 1997.
Their father — hotel and leisure investor Charles Forte — managed an international hotel portfolio, restaurant businesses and more through his company Trusthouse Forte. At one time or another, Trusthouse Forte had ownership stakes in Travelodge Hotels, Allied Breweries, famous London-based sporting goods story Lilywhites, Crest Hotels, the Le Méridien hotel brand and others.
In the mid-1990s, British media conglomerate Granada acquired Charles Forte's company. Years later, the Forte brand name was handed back to the family in a gesture of goodwill following the protracted takeover bid.
What emerged from these tussles is the entity the two siblings molded into Rocco Forte Hotels.
Forte and Polizzi have been in the hotel industry for close to 60 years, both with the present makeup of the family’s hotel business and in family apprenticeships under their father and grandfather.
Soon it will be time for another generation, the family’s fourth as hoteliers, Forte said. That could result in changes, but not an erosion in the level of luxury.
“They have a more modern outlook that I do, and they are always challenging me, keeping me on my toes,” he said.