Langham's Bob van den Oord: 'We expect to be managing 100 hotels by 2040'

I remember I had to report to the lobby at 9am. I got dressed and put my jacket on, and I thought I looked pretty good, but this gentleman, who was the general manager of the hotel, came up to me. He looked at me and said: "Monsieur van den Oord, we polish our shoes at the George V. Go down." That was my first experience and it stayed with me forever.

When I was based in London, I worked at Le Méridien Excelsior Heathrow hotel [now the Park Inn Heathrow], and then I went to Park Lane and worked at the Londonderry hotel, now called the Como Metropolitan. For a time, I was working across the street from the Langham at the St George's hotel. I was there on breakfast duty and distinctly remember looking at what is now the Langham, London hotel every morning with a great deal of admiration and a desire to someday work at such a place.

You joined Langham Hospitality Group in 2004 and returned to London in 2015 to become managing director of the Langham, London. Can you tell us a little about that role?

London is so competitive. We've got some great hotels and great restaurants, so you've got to focus on differentiation and creating a unique selling point. We launched an incredible club lounge product. I think we're the only luxury hotel in London that has a club lounge of that size and level, where you can have breakfast and Champagne throughout the day. It's very exclusive and I think that's been a great differentiator for us.

We also invested heavily in suites. We have one of the largest suites in London, the Sterling suite. We renovated our rooms, so the product is very high level. The property is also leading the charge through innovative culinary concepts, which has really positioned us as a hotel of choice.

What are your thoughts on the recent boom in London's luxury market?

We've had the Peninsula and Raffles at the OWO [which opened last year], and we're about to see the launch of the Emory and Mandarin Oriental Mayfair.

I think it's good for London. They are great hotels and we can only benefit from having more attractive hotels in the offering. We just stay true to ourselves and what we believe in. We think our offering is equally as exciting, presented in a different way. Of course, our location is second to none. We're right in the midst of four villages and guests are within walking distance of Marylebone, Fitzrovia, Soho and Mayfair. They can get anywhere in five minutes, and that really sets us apart. Of course, continual upgrades and renovations have been key to maintaining this edge, and our newly refurbished Portland Suite also showcases the extent of our commitment to the process.

How is the Langham group's financial performance?

Last year was a great year for us. It was the most profitable year in the group's history and resulted in a 32% increase in year-on-year earnings after tax. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation across our hotels grew by 78% to £111.3m. The Langham, London recorded a 13% annual increase in revenue per available room from £349 to £394 and an 8% increase in occupancy rate, up from 65.5% in 2022 to 73.5% in 2023. The US is our number one [inbound] market in the UK, particularly from leisure. Our US hotels also had a really strong year with good results. We're still a little bit behind in China and Hong Kong because those international markets haven't quite opened to the degree they had in the past, so we're not quite at 2018 levels, but we should get much closer to that in future. And then in Australia, there is a near recession with high inflation and people have less disposable income, so we're hurting a little bit there. But in 2024 we hope to turn a corner. Growth in 2023 predominantly came out of the US, Europe and London.

Could you talk a little bit more about the brands under Langham Hotels International?

We've got four brands. We have our upscale brand, Cordis, which means heart in Latin, that is very much about being ‘at the heart of everything' because guests are checking into a local neighbourhood. So, in Cordis Auckland, we've got a really amazing Māori art collection, and if you go to a Cordis in Shanghai, you can learn how to make Chinese dumplings – it's very much about local experience.

Eaton Workshop is all about making this a better world through great hospitality, standing up for women's rights, gay rights and the environment. Eaton Workshop is based on various pillars and has a strong social offering. There's also a co-working space by Eaton. We only have two right now, but we are hopeful to open some other Eatons around the world. We're actively seeking an Eaton Workshop for London – we feel London would be perfect.

We also have Ying'nFlo, which is our mid-tier brand, and you will see more of these coming up in China. It's a limited-service offering, with really cleverly designed spaces – a bit like a fancy hostel. We've put real thought into the design to make it efficient, but also fun. The brand is perfect for China, where we can probably open 50 to 100, if not more of these hotels over the next five years. We're not planning Ying'nFlo in the UK just yet – I thin k we first need to perfect it, so to speak, in China. That's really where we want to start before we bring it into Europe. And of course, Langham is our trophy brand.

Do you have plans to expand the Langham brand across the UK?

We have just the one Langham here in London, though I see opportunities for Langhams in places like Glasgow, Edinburgh and maybe Manchester as well. We're sticking with city centres because once you get into the countryside, you get into a much smaller room count and that's not really what Langham is all about.

How did you create a heritage story, especially in your previous involvement as head of branding for the group?

There were a few owners in the early 1800s, but the creation of the Langham brand only started 20 years ago or so, after Hilton sold the property in 2002. It's really then that we started working on the DNA. The Langham has a British heart. For example, our Langham clubs were inspired by the quintessentially English gentlemen's club. The Langham was also the first hotel in the UK to serve afternoon tea and we've made that into a signature for all our hotels around the world. And while we are a British brand with a British heart, we are owned by Great Eagle Holdings, a Hong Kong-based company, so we are influenced by some Asian expertise.

How did the Wigmore pub come about?

I opened the Wigmore in 2017 and it's turned into an iconic neighbourhood bar that everyone goes to after work. The space used to be a spa, and we said a spa doesn't really need to be on the ground floor, so we moved it to the basement. When my chairman asked what I wanted to do with the space, I said let's turn it into a bar, so we turned it into a British tavern.

We appointed Martin Brudnizki Design Studio and I remember him coming round on the first day. He had already seen the area and he said he would spray-paint the whole pub racing car green. I thought this guy is crazy, but he said the green would look different in the morning than it did at night, and he was so right. We're so pleased with it. It's a posh pub because of the interiors, but the food is really good, reasonably priced and delicious.

After Roux at the Landau permanently closed last year, the Langham, London relaunched the space with Mimosa. What can we expect?

The Langham, London has always been at the forefront of innovative food and beverage. We've got Michel Roux Jr, who will continue to oversee the hotel's culinary offering, which includes afternoon tea; our cooking school, Sauce; the Wigmore; and Artesian. When it came to the former Landau space, we wanted something distinctive, so we took the time to search for the right partner. I'm pleased to say that we found that partner in Moma Group, which has chosen The Langham, London as the venue for the first outpost of its iconic restaurant, Mimosa. Like its sister establishment in Paris, it's a tribute to the French Riviera – both in terms of cuisine and décor – and makes for a great addition to the group's selection of destination restaurants.

The hotel's Palm Court has also been home to Dom Taylor's Good Front Room restaurant, which grew out of the TV series Five Star Kitchen. Do you have any plans for this site?

The winning prize for the televised competition was a one-year pop-up restaurant, the operating period for which ends later this month. It's been a remarkably successful endeavour, both for us and Dom Taylor, but it's time for something new. So come May, we'll be opening the doors to Chez Roux. The brainchild of The Langham, London's much-loved culinary leader Michel Roux, the menu will be inspired by his memories of growing up in rural Kent in the 1960s. Expect to see some British classics made using traditional French cooking techniques.

How are you incorporating sustainability into your hotels?

I think you have to be ambitious to deliver on sustainability, so we've set ourselves a couple of goals. We've said that by 2030 we're going to halve carbon dioxide emissions and by 2045 we want to get to net-zero. Secondly, we've put in place a sustainability steering committee so we have the right governance to really deliver. Then we have various teams at a property level and at corporate level to come up with initiatives. There's a couple of things that fall under the obvious, such as using glass for bottled water and taking plastic out of the rooms. Then we make sure we have chillers, plumbing and elevators that are environmentally friendly. That requires big investment and a five-year plan. Finally, we want to make sure that everything we do is measurable, so we've partnered with a group called Earthcheck. Nineteen of our hotels across the group are now Earthcheck-certificated. They come in every year and do an audit.

What's next for the Langham Hospitality group?

We held our global leadership conference last month and focused on our growth plans and something we call the Langham Way, which is our approach to engaging with guests, colleagues and the world around us. It's a term that was coined by a club lounge staffer at the Langham, London, who was asked by a guest to explain his notable ability to recall their every preference.

We also launched our loyalty platform, Brilliant by Langham, across 30 participating hotels under our brands. We currently manage 32 hotels across four continents, but in view of our current rate of expansion, we fully expect to be managing as many as 100 hotels by 2040.

Bob van den Oord's CV

• 1991-1996 Food and beverage director, Hotel Russell
• 1996-1999 Food and beverage director, Strand Palace Hotel
• 1999-2004 Resident manager, Le Méridien, Boston
• 2004-2008 Managing director, Eaton hotel, Langham Hospitality Group
• 2008-2012 Vice-president, sales and marketing, Langham Hospitality Group
• 2012-2013 Regional director, operations – Korea and Indochina, Langham Hospitality Group
• 2012-2015 Vice-president, brands, Langham Hospitality Group
• 2013-2015 Managing director – the Langham, Hong Kong
• 2015-2020 Managing director – the Langham, London
• 2019-2020 Regional vice-president, operations – Europe, Middle East and US
• 2020-2022 Chief operating officer, Langham Hospitality Group
• 2022-2023 Regional vice-president operations – Europe, Middle East and US
• 2023-present Chief executive