Four seasons sets european goals

By Gaby Huddart

The Four Seasons/Regent Hotels & Resorts group is searching for opportunities to expand across the UK, continental Europe and the Middle East.

Within the next five years the chain aims to have Regent Hotels in most major European cities and Four Seasons properties in smaller cities and provincial locations. It has set itself a target of growing its worldwide presence from 40 hotels to 60 over this period, and wants many of these new properties to be in Europe.

Speaking to Caterer during a two-day visit to London last week, John Richards, executive vice-president of the Toronto-based company, said he was particularly keen to see a Regent hotel in London again. The property it ran in the capital under this brand was sold in June last year and the only UK hotel it now manages is the London Four Seasons Hotel.

"There are a lot of properties changing hands at the moment here and it's our objective to have a Regent in the market again," said Mr Richards.

He added that following the takeover of Forte by Granada, his company would be keeping a keen eye on which hotels come up for sale.

"There should be a number of interesting things out of the Forte devolution," he said. "We'd probably look at some of the Exclusive Hotels, for example, things like the Hyde Park Hotel.

"And in wider terms, looking at the Forte assets, we might also be interested in properties outside London, for example, the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh, the Bath Spa Hotel or the Shelbourne in Dublin, which could be introduced to the Four Seasons brand," he said. "We want to be able to offer customers something in the provinces."

Throughout the rest of Europe the company was also attracted by Forte properties, such as one of its three Paris hotels, said Mr Richards. And more new-builds were also likely. This year, the company is opening Four Seasons hotels in Berlin and Istanbul, and plans to follow these with other new-builds.

In most cases it is likely hotel acquisitions and building will be financed by a partner taking a majority stake, such as the arrangement at the London Four Seasons which is 50% owned by its partner Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal.

"We want to concentrate on the management side and in most cases the majority stake in properties will be held by our partners," Mr Richards said.