Interview with Dan Wakeling, VP Development - Luxury, Europe & Africa at Hilton Worldwide. He leads luxury development for Europe and Africa, with three luxury brands, LXR, Conrad and Waldorf Astoria. He is also responsible for any project that has a residential component across the EMEA region.
What are the development prospects?
Our strategy hasn’t change too much for our luxury brands. We still want to be present in all the key gateway markets of Europe and resort destinations. In Europe, Hilton has a gap in the system as far as resort is concerned. We also have plenty of loyal guests who are willing to come and stay with us.
Having signed the Waldorf Astoria in London a few years ago in an iconic building, priority number one would be Paris.
How to convince investors and owners to dive into the luxury market?
Some hotels were able to stay open during Covid. Our luxury platform did excessively well. The three brands managed to grow over the year, though occupancy is still a challenge. We have had some of the best years we ever had with our luxury brands.
From that perspective, we have no problem convincing owners that there is a resilience in the luxury market if you are in the right location, with the right product and the right brand.
We notice a lot more interest from investors in bringing a branded residential component. We have seen the explosion of branded residences in South of Florida, in Dubai … It’s a key market. Even stand-alone branded residences, being a residential building with services and amenities, are attractive for investors.
We have 55 projects globally with a hotel and a branded residence component. There are urban opportunities and resort opportunities. I think we will see more and more of these branded residence + hotel projects in the future.
The Waldorf Astoria in NYC is soon to open. It has a branded residence component. The hotel was over 1,000 rooms and was sold a few years ago. The investors decided to reduce the key count to one that...
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