Boutique fashion
Peter Tyrie spent the bulk of his career running large, international luxury hotels, but now he has swapped grandeur for a more personal offer. But that does not involve a compromise on the design, creature comforts or welcome that guests receive at any one of his Eton Town House hotels. "Our aim is to create a home from home where guests are pampered and treated as individuals," he says.
The luxury townhouse - or boutique - hotel sector is still one of the few niche markets to be fully explored by the hotel business, says Tyrie.
"There are enough large hotels at the quality end of the market and there is a good supply of one- or two-star hotels of the Travelodge variety," he says. "With a consolidation in the industry of the many large brands, there is a huge opportunity in the middle to create good-quality hotels where people are looked after as individuals."
To this end, Tyrie set up the Eton Town House Group in November 1998, backed by £52m from City-based venture capitalist European Acquisition Capital.
An impressive track record in the industry helped him secure the financial support. Tyrie first came to prominence in 1981 when he was involved in establishing Gleneagles Hotels as a luxury hotel group. Tyrie left the company to become managing director of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, based in Hong Kong, for three years, but on his return to the UK, he set up Balmoral International Hotels.
However, the opening of the Balmoral hotel in Edinburgh in 1991 coincided with the start of the Gulf War and a slump in the US market to the UK. The Balmoral hotel was sold in 1992 to Forte Hotels, leaving Tyrie and Balmoral International Hotels to concentrate on developing luxury operations throughout Europe.
Tyrie's townhouse strategy
Moving into the townhouse market, Tyrie had originally intended to call his new company the Balmoral Town House Group. But this would have created problems when the time came to open a hotel in Edinburgh, where the Balmoral hotel (now run by RF Hotels) still operates. He settled on Eton, because of its connotations of good quality.
Tyrie is reluctant to put a figure on the number of hotels he hopes to acquire, but so far he has put four hotels in the portfolio - including three in London - in 18 months.
The 43-bedroom Colonnade Town House in London's Little Venice and the 50-bedroom Academy Town House in Bloomsbury have both been opened after extensive refurbishment. The company's first venture outside the capital, the 46-bedroom Quebecs, will open in Leeds in spring 2001, while its 70-bedroom flagship hotel in the City of London - Threadneedles, The City Town House - will open in summer 2001.
Tyrie is expansive about townhouse hotels, particularly those in his group. "We aim to provide a comfortable home with all the add-on services and gimmicks of a five-star hotel, to spoil guests and make their stay a fun and enjoyable experience," he says.
As well as providing mineral water and fresh fruit in all the rooms, turn-down and shoe-cleaning is readily available, as is the technology expected by today's sophisticated travellers - modem points, dual-line telephones with voice-mail, and CD players.
There are no vast public areas - just a small reception/drawing room at the Colonnade and a conservatory and patio at the Academy.
Restaurant facilities are limited. The Colonnade offers a room-service menu, and planning permission is sought for an extension to the small restaurant currently used for breakfast. Breakfast and lunch are served at the Academy, but there are plans to open the restaurant for dinner. Only Threadneedles will operate a 100-seat restaurant and 46-seat bar, as well as a 6,000sq ft health and fitness club in its basement.
The compact nature of the hotels requires the staff to be multiskilled. The receptionist at the Colonnade, for example, cooks breakfast once a week and the rest of the hotel's 23 staff are capable of cooking any of the dishes on the room-service menu if asked.
Vital to the success of the Eton Town House Group will be the correct positioning of its room rates. The average rate at the Colonnade, for instance, is £150 a night, including traditional English breakfast and service charge but not VAT. It currently has an occupancy rate of 70%, but this is expected to rise to 78-82% by 2001.
"This is very inexpensive for London, in view of the quality of the property and what you get in terms of services," says Tyrie. "There are some very overpriced townhouse hotels charging in excess of £200, but we've got to be careful not to rip off the market."
Threadneedles, regarded as a notch up from the other hotels within the group, will be expected to achieve average room rates of between £180 and £220.
Tyrie has plans to develop two or three more hotels in London. He is close to securing two sites in the West End and is looking at a possible opening in Knightsbridge. Beyond London, he says that Edinburgh (his home town, from which he commutes on a weekly basis to the capital), Glasgow and Bristol are all likely locations.
The hotels will offer 40 to 70 bedrooms as a rule, but Tyrie adds: "That doesn't mean to say we wouldn't look at a bigger or a smaller property in the right location, but with more than 100 rooms you definitely start to lose something of the individual approach we are after."
FACTS:
Eton Town House Group
2 Warrington Crescent, London W9 1ER
Tel: 020 7286 1052
Fax: 020 7286 1057
Managing director: Peter Tyrie
Financial director: Ken Pratt
Director of sales and marketing: Nina Lovatt
Director of public relations: Marisa Martin Lee
Hotels: the Colonnade Town House in Little Venice, London, and the Academy Town House, Bloomsbury; two are undergoing extensive refurbishment - Threadneedles, The City Town House (due to open in summer 2001), and Quebecs, Leeds (due to open in spring 2001)
Finance: £52m raised through venture capitalist European Acquisition Capital to form a group of luxury townhouse hotels, each offering 40-70 bedrooms in prime city-centre locations
Costs so far (completed and planned): the Colonnade, £4m on freehold and refurbishment; the Academy, £6m on 115-year lease and refurbishment; Quebecs, Leeds, £3.6m on 50-year lease and refurbishment; Threadneedles, £17m on 70-year lease and refurbishment
Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 22-28 June 2000
