MOVERS & SHAKERS
that kind of spa and retail experience. How- ever, there comes a time in life when you don’t want to spend every week on an aeroplane. I have one young grandson and another on the way, so I wanted to limit my travel to about 30 per cent. While Marriott is a global com- pany, which means I still get to travel, it’s also local to where I live [Washington DC], so I get the best of both worlds.
What’s your vision for spas at Marriott International? I’ve been labelled as a ‘turnaround agent’ in my career and my mission at Marriott, and the industry as a whole, is to help spas to become entwined in people’s lives rather than thought of as a pampering experience. T is also fi ts in with Marriott’s goal. My role is a new post and it is part of Marriott’s global reposition- ing – they don’t want to be known just as the business traveller’s hotel, but also a lifestyle brand. T ey’re realising that the spa business can help perpetuate their growth globally.
What do you want to achieve over the next 12 months? My short-term plan is to do better with our existing spa facilities – the ‘low hanging fruit’ – by tightening up our operations and devel- oping a thread of consistency across the board in terms of the pre- and post-visit stages and the entire guest journey. Another priority is to develop a sales culture – a more mid-term goal. Firstly, we need to work on our retail strategy by identifying the sales channels of – whether they’re through the spa, giſt cer- tifi cates or hotel shop – look at how they’re performing and what we can work on. Sec- ondly, is to focus on education. We need to bring in retail and sales experts to help us to develop a training programme.
What are your long-term ambitions? We have a very strong pipeline of new devel- opments that I will focus on. I am currently in discussions with companies about develop- ing strategic partnerships moving forwards.
T ese could be product houses or spa man- agement/operating companies, but I cannot divulge too much yet! However, we don’t want to fall into a sea of
sameness with our new developments and so another part of my long-term strategy is to develop spa concepts in line with the hotel brands. JW Marriott guests, for example, are very cultured people who like to have mean- ingful experiences but prefer to be guided in decisions, whereas Renaissance guests are more adventurous and want to discover the culture for themselves. T is will all be refl ected in the spas – from the architecture, to the dif- ferent off erings at a local level. We’ve just launched our in-house concept,
Saray spa, in Dubai. It’s been created using Ara- bic design elements and traditional treatments. We’ll roll this out across the Middle East and already have three other planned openings.
Will you get involved with spas for Marriott’s new Edition brand? Edition is our new boutique chain and it’s been created in conjunction with hotelier Ian Schrager. T e fi rst property opened in Hawaii last November and one is due to launch in Istanbul in 2011 and then in Barcelona, Bang- kok, Mexico City and Miami aſt er that. However, Edition spas haven’t come onto
my radar yet and even if they had I wouldn’t be able to say much! Perhaps in the next three to four years that will change and there will be more involvement from headquarters; in the meantime, we’re there to support Ian and make recommendations and suggestions.
Marriott has just launched the in-house Saray spa concept for the Middle East market. T e spas are based on an Arabic design theme and include treatments using local ingredients such as coff ee and Dead Sea salt
46 spa business handbook 2011
www.spahandbook.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204 |
Page 205 |
Page 206 |
Page 207 |
Page 208 |
Page 209 |
Page 210 |
Page 211 |
Page 212 |
Page 213 |
Page 214 |
Page 215 |
Page 216 |
Page 217 |
Page 218 |
Page 219 |
Page 220 |
Page 221 |
Page 222 |
Page 223 |
Page 224