Luxury worldwide

Kempinski Hotels is entering a period of significant change as the group prepares to open a further 50 hotels over the coming five years. Here, RLI talks to Senior Vice President Mike Haemmerli about the evolution of a true market leader and the group’s strategy for the years ahead

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Kempinski Hotels is a luxury hotel management company, whose ‘brand offer’ works on several levels; the group offers professional hotel management expertise to owners, whose properties it manages, whilst adding value to their image and investment. For its guests, Kempinski offers an authentic experience of each destination’s traditions, culture and hospitality. Each of its hotels is utterly unique and its portfolio includes individual luxury five-star hotels, resorts, and serviced real estate. It currently operates 57 properties in 20 countries.

RLI asked Senior Vice President Mike Haemmerli if there was one particular outlet that he would consider to be the group’s flagship?

“We are fortunate to have several flagship properties in our group,” he replied, “such as the Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi; the Hotel Adlon Kempinski in Berlin; the Ciragan Palace Kempinski in Istanbul and the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten Kempinski, Munich. It is precisely this product diversity that so well defines what Kempinski is; each property is truly different, offering an experience of historic grandeur or trend-setting contemporary luxury.”

Kempinski has developed a new business, Kempinski Residences, offering luxurious residences, tailor-made to the wishes of the buyer and serviced to the high level of hospitality standards of Kempinski. If not needed by the owner, Kempinski can rent them out on behalf of the owner.
Another development is the Global Hotel Alliance, of which Kempinski is a co-founder. The GHA is an alliance similar to the airline alliances, enabling guests to stay in GHA hotels all over the globe, receiving and experiencing similar hospitality values.

In October 2007, Kempinski officially reopened the Grand Hotel Kempinski Geneva after extensive refurbishment to reposition the property to attract an increasingly international clientele — the hotel also houses Geneva’s largest conference and meeting centre. The Kempinski Hotel Sanya also opened on the tropical resort island of Hainan in China, an excellent destination for the group in terms of raising its brand awareness, whilst the group also took over an existing property in the Piedmontese region of the Italian Alps, which is now a high-end luxury mountain village called Kempinski Pragelato Village.
And what is Haemmerli’s development plan for the coming year?

“In 2008 we plan to open 13 hotels globally and one luxury train in China,” he says. “We have a further 36 hotels signed — they’re all at different stages of development or construction, and are set to open within the next 3-4 years.”
Projects include exciting new additions in Prague, Bruges, Bratislava, Jeddah, Bahrain, Jakarta, Bangkok, a second hotel in Moscow city centre, Vilnius and Marrakech.

Kempinski’s portfolio has certainly evolved over the years; two decades ago, the group was primarily considered to be a German company with the majority of its hotels in cities such as Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich. Today its portfolio is truly international, having expanded throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa and especially Asia. Resort properties now represent up to about a third of its portfolio, while more and more new developments are mixed-use, including serviced apartments, residences and villas or offices and shopping malls.

For the full article please see the RLI March 08 issue