When asked what innovation or technology he wished he had come up with as part of the opening session for HICAP, the co-founder of Aman Resorts had a quick response.
“Probably Airbnb… Airbnb was an incredible idea that utilized underutilized assets effectively, built a scalable model on a global scale, and created a global brand. I sure wish I had done that,” said Anil Thadani, chair of Singapore-based Symphony Asia Holdings Pte. Ltd., who also co-founded Aman Resorts with Adrian Zecha in 1988.
When asked if Airbnb was a competitor to hotels, Thadani said he didn’t think so, especially the kind of experience-driven hotels that were being discussed on stage.
“It’s a transformational development for the industry, but it doesn’t compete directly with the kind of hotels that some players in this room are involved with,” he said.
Thadani was part of a “Legacy Check In: Investment Icons Look Back & Ahead” panel on the first day of the Hotel Investment Conference Asia Pacific (HICAP). The panel included three HICAP Lifetime Achievement Award winners: Bill Heinecke, founder and chairman of Bangkok-based Minor International Public Co. Ltd. (who won the award in 2016); Miguel Ko, chairman of Singapore-based CapitaLand Investment Ltd. (who won the award in 2022); and Thadani (who won in 2018). Jeff Higley, president of The BHN Group by Northstar, served as the moderator.
The trio of industry legends looked back on their careers, but also discussed how technology continues to transform their industry, as well as emerging markets in the Asia Pacific and around the world.
When asked about other innovations in hospitality that were on his radar, Thadani mentioned two, both of which he had a hand in creating.
“One is the growth of lifestyle brands: brands that have managed to combine hospitality with a sense of belonging and being. I’m thinking of things like Soho House,” he said. “For Aman, we were not selling hotel rooms. We were selling a lifestyle state of mind, a kind of a dream, and it has worked. There is a huge market for that sort of thing.
“The last one is one that I’m happy to say we were pioneers of, which is the rise of branded residences. These innovations have significantly helped the industry. You know, branded residences now are spreading like wildfire, but Amanpuri (the first Aman Resort in Phuket, Thailand) was one of the first to ever do that.”
When asked about the newest trends in hospitality that are on his radar, Heinecke pointed to wellness.
“We can attribute a lot of that to the aftereffects of COVID. Today, most of our equity goes into trying to find ways to bring wellness [to our developments],” he said. “In the old days, I remember starting hotels where we didn’t even have spas. Then, if you didn’t have a spa, it was like not having room service. So, you had to have a spa.
“Today, it’s all about wellness. It’s all about extending quality of life. We’re all going to live longer, but how many of us are going to live healthier and better and live more productive lives in our later years? Speaking as one of the older guys here, it’s the older [guests] who are basically taking full advantage. We put more money into wellness now than we have into any single hotel.”
Ko pointed to disruptive technologies, especially the sharing economy, with products like Airbnb.
“In the last 20 years, the biggest threats or opportunities that have happened to our industry are OTAs and then, what [Anil] talked about with Airbnb,” he said. “The trajectory, the tech growth for this sharing economy continues, and there’s no question that it's something that we as an industry cannot prevent from happening. The question is, how well and how fast can we adapt to this new technology coming about to share a hotel?”
Ko said sharing a hotel is going to come at the cost of a lot more disruption inside properties.
“In the old days, the idea was to win [what’s inside] the four walls of the hotel,” he said. “Then you learned that the OTA controls much of the reservations. Then you realized that even within the same hotel chain, there’s shared centralized revenue management, centralized sales, centralized everything. Then you start losing control.”
Ko said that those who are not comfortable with losing control should get used to it.
“If you don’t feel comfortable, be ready because they want to start sharing even more of the hotel resources,” he said. “The smart one will try to work with these forces and benefit the hotels by reducing costs, including the build requirements for the hotels, and start sharing.
“I believe room service is soon going to be a thing of the past. I believe many of the services that are offered by hotels, even a shared business center, will soon be things of the past.”
Thadani said he’s especially intrigued by the confluence of hospitality and hospitals.
“There’s only a difference of… three letters in the back. Otherwise, it’s the same thing,” he said. “In one way, you look after people when they’re well. In the other, you look after people when they’re sick. You look after people either way.”
Thadani also said that, based on what brands like citizenM are achieving, he believes technology continues to be underutilized in the hospitality industry.
“There are still opportunities to leverage technology and innovate in this industry in ways that maybe I personally may not be able to think of, but it’s just my sense,” he said, noting that his sense was exacerbated by what a friend told him he was doing. “He’s running 400-room hotels with eight employees. That’s innovation.”
Emerging markets
When the trio was asked about emerging markets in the Asia Pacific, Heinecke quickly mentioned markets in which Minor has little or no presence.
“We’re not in India, and that’s a major market. Vietnam is still small for us and we’d like that to be a lot bigger,” he said. “We’re proceeding with our first hotel in Japan, and we are getting our first hotel in Singapore. So, we’ve still got a long runway in front of us.
“There are still huge places and opportunities. The ones that I look at closest to my heart would be India, China, Vietnam and Indonesia. These are huge markets. Half the world’s population is in this part of the world.”
Ko said that recent geopolitical problems are perpetuating the trend that people want to travel more locally and are less likely to go to places they’re not familiar with.
“I expect in the next three to five years, a lot of traveling is going to be more localized,” he said. “A lot of Chinese are going to travel in China, and Chinese are going to nearby countries, and they form the biggest source of tourists for the Asia Pacific.
“Some of the obvious markets, Japan and Korea, continue to be quite hot. People are looking for cultural synergy. A lot of tourists are saying that if I can go to places where the food and the cuisine are similar to what I’m used to and the customs are similar, I would like to go more often. So, we’ve seen a lot of uptick in those markets in the last two to three years, and that trend will continue. I’m net positive about Asia’s travel within Asia and I’m less optimistic about Asia going all the way to North America, including Hawaii.”
Thadani pointed to the emergence of India, particularly with its increased infrastructure spending over the last few years. He also pointed to Vietnam and Indonesia as markets to watch.
“Vietnam, because of infrastructure spending and encouragement, and Indonesia has incredible opportunities because you can create iconic properties in cities, and you have this incredible archipelago of 17,000 islands where you can create incredible experiential tours and island hopping,” he said.
But those hospitality opportunities aren’t just limited to Asia, Thadani said.
“There are great opportunities today in parts of the Middle East: Oman and Saudi Arabia,” he said. “If you believe what I think, that a century going forward, Asia is going to be the place to work, and Europe is going to be the place to play, then you need to also look at Europe as to where to play. Places like Italy provide incredible opportunities. The quality of life that Italy offers is almost second to none.”
By Rob Schneider
