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The Art of Sublimating Luxury Hotels
I’ve been lucky to discover numerous One&Only Hotels, especially two in Dubai and one in Mauritius. The One&Only Dubai Palm is a sumptuous establishment, an oasis of calm between the Palm and Dubai Harbor. This interview with Monsieur Philippe Zuber, President of One&Only Resorts will allow you to better discover the brand and their art of welcoming, which is dear to me.
Philippe Zuber, President of One&Only Resorts
What is your business approach to One&Only’s art of welcoming? Do you think that the art of welcoming is a differentiating factor for luxury hotels?
One&Only is an innovative brand in the high-end sector, and we constantly strive to offer very high quality, even custom-designed, experiences, for our guests. Each of our clients have different desires and needs, and we have to best understand their lifestyle in order to create and develop experiences that will leave lasting memories. For instance, after receiving feedback from our clients, the iconic One&Only Ocean Club in the Bahamas took on a complete renovation to add a diving pool called the Ocean Pool as well as the restaurant Ocean Pool Grill. Our guests said they wanted to be close to the beach and see the ocean without necessarily being on the beach. Since then, we’ve added three pools to the resort—the Versailles pool for adults only, a pool for the entire family including children, and the newest Ocean Pool. One&Only is focused on leisure activities and offers a high-end experience in terms of service, lifestyle, and location.
One&Only Resorts was designed to be distinctive and take into account the personality and experiences found in local culture. Other characteristics of the One&Only signature include being intuitive, an authentic welcome, as well as propositions in place to satisfy all of our clients’ desires. Our objective remains offering unforgettable experiences thanks to an impeccable service and a range of offerings that makes our reputation as much for couples as families. We ensure the best experience possible for our guests in order to create a custom-made stay for them and, to do this, we focus on the activities that they want.
One&Only Sanya
What are the values that you draw on when you welcome your guests? What experiences do you deliver? What are the principal differentiating characteristics in your service that you offer compared to other hotels?
One&Only Resorts aims to improve the experience of each guest and respond to their needs. Attention to detail is very important.
One&Only is a highly specific brand that strives to possess unforgettable sites with excellent locations within only the best destinations. For instance, if it possesses a location by the sea or by the ocean, the resort tries to have the best beaches in the destination, as it is our responsibility to ensure that we have spaces sufficient to allow adults as well as families to take maximum advantage of their stay. As a high-end brand, One&Only’s aim is to grow, but not to become a mass luxury brand.
There are currently other large hotel brands on the market, but very few put the accent on the high-end leisure experience in a coherent way in terms of services, lifestyle, or even the location the way One&Only Resorts do. Most brands in this sector have the tendency the mix business and leisure.
One&Only delivers creative experiences and works hand in hand with partners: develop the culinary element, for instance, work with international celebrity chefs in a playful way. This is part of One&Only’s DNA.
One&Only Hartford Wing
Each employee is an ambassador of his respective hotel. What actions have you put in place to involve your teams in the success of the client experience? How do you motivate them so that they give the best of themselves?
We do our best to work with the finest talents in the local tourism industry and continue developing fresh talent. We are extremely proud of our teams because they are always in search of new ways to astonish our guests and offer custom-tailored services to our clients. One of our fundamental values is “blowing the client away,” and we aim to surprise and enchant our guests in our coming resorts.
One&Only Bahamas
What spirit do you evoke when you build a One&Only Hotel? How do you create a One&Only Hotel? What are your sources of inspiration when you design a One&Only Hotel?
Our teams never stop innovating and introducing new offerings in our One&Only resorts. They inspire the desire to travel as well as unbelievable memories through refined luxury and experiences. What’s also important is that the location is a good one. One&Only will launch 5 new resorts – One&Only Sanya in China, One&Only Portonovi in Montenegro, which will be the first One&Only resort in Europe, One&Only Bahrain and two new One&Only resorts on the outskirts of Puerto Vallarta in Mexico. In line with our strategic development, One&Only remains committed to uncovering the most exciting destinations and the best sites around the world. One&Only is looking into the idea of establishing hotels in some of the key global cities such as London, Paris, New York, and even Hong Kong. But given the maturity of these destinations, it is difficult to land on an ideal locaiton.
One&Only Montenegro
Laurent Delporte, an editor and conference speaker, is a strategic expert in the sector of hotels. A visionary, he brings his unique look on hotels in service to the decision-makers in the industry, whether to enhance the development of new projects or strategic visions.
Laurent has visited and audited over 350 hotels across the world and also participates in mystery visits to provide quality control for the world’s finest hotels.
