CREDITS: Paul Walker, Jean Baptiste Delerue
VOICE OF LUXURY
Glenapp Castle, Scotland
Domaine Les Crayères, France
Lympstone Manor, England
a very good level of average price, knowing that we are facing other increases regarding electricity, water, taxes and wages. The forecast for this year is quite good. Bookings aren’t as strong as 2023 but the level [value] of bookings in our system is quite high. We have less of the last-minute bookings that we’ve seen over the past two years. Bookings from our key source market, the US, are doing well, as are sales to key destinations Italy and France.
Q. You operate in 65 countries – namely across Europe but with growth in North America, Asia and Africa. Are there any destinations you’re keen to have more of a presence in? The US market is very important – the US, Central America, South America and Mexico. We also want to develop a market in Scandinavia. We have two ways of considering our business – you have the source market and the destination market. We can also develop ourselves more in Egypt – we have two properties there currently. What you have to think about is our DNA. We are not obliged to [reach] any number of properties. Our DNA is family spirit, a sense of design and architecture that is locally based, the sense of welcoming and a local restaurant. I don’t care about having more fees at the end of the year. We are crazy about quality.
Q. Relais & Châteaux is known for its strict admission standards and quality control process. Can you tell us more about that? We have 15 anonymous inspectors who check 500 points and if properties don’t have what we want them to have, we don’t take them. We inspect about 200-250 properties a year. If the report is good, no problem. If it’s not good, the member goes through the network commission and we usually give them a warning, where they will have around two years to change. If it doesn’t, it can be excluded. We take out 30 or 40 hotels a year.
Q. Currently the association mainly comprises hotels and restaurants. Are there plans to expand into trains or cruise? Yes, but it depends on the quality. The train market is much more occupied now with Belmond, they are very good in trains. There is also the Orient Express so if there is a nice train that is independent and wants to join us, we would be very happy to do so. We already have some ships so we are quite open to that. Ponant recently joined as a new member and we have the EcoVentura boats in the Galápagos. It is not our core business, but we are very happy to consider them.
aspiretravelclub.co.uk
JANUARY 2024 ASPIRE
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