Founded in Spain in 1978, NH Hotel Group has combined organic growth with carefully-chosen acquisitions and is now one of the 25 largest chains in the world and operates across Europe, America and Asia. Here, RLI speaks with NH Hotel Group CEO Ramón Aragonés about the global growth of the company and what the future holds for the business.
With an urban and experiential character, NH Hotel Group currently operates a total of 353 hotels and over 55,000 rooms across 30 countries. Situated across key cities such as Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Dublin, London, Madrid and New York, there are 170 hotels in Southern Europe, 126 in Northern Europe, 55 in Latin America, one in the US and one in Tunisia.
“When lockdowns began in March 2020, we set two essential objectives,” explains Ramón Aragonés, CEO of NH Hotel Group. “On the one hand, we wanted to guarantee the health and safety of professionals and clients to recover their trust in the sector through it whilst on the other hand, we wanted to preserve the sustainability of the company by putting in motion a comprehensive contingency and cost reduction plan.”
In reaction to the pandemic, in May 2020 they launched Feel Safe at NH, a new set of measures implemented across the Group’s 350 plus properties to address the health crisis. Grouped under ten main lines of action and endorsed by specialists, the measures encompass the digitalisation of hotel services, the adaptation of sanitation processes, the incorporation of safety distancing policies and the use of personal protection elements, among others.
Even in these challenging times, the company has still inaugurated some very exciting additions to their portfolio. An example of this is the NH Collection New York Madison Avenue, a completely renovated hotel with 288 rooms that features a cutting-edge interior design with a nod to Madison Avenue’s golden age of advertising and views to the Empire State Building.
Meanwhile in October last year they launched the NH Collection Copenhagen, their first hotel in the Nordic countries and one of the few five-star hotels in the city. The site is located in an emblematic building in the picturesque neighbourhood of Christianshavn in a unique location.
“Finally, in November, we opened the boutique hotel NH Collection Venezia Murano Villa, perfectly combining industrial architecture with Venetian history. It is located in an old glass factory on the isle of Murano and offers incredible views of the Venetian lagoon,” explains Aragonés.
In the pipeline the business currently has 17 hotels, consisting of more than 2,600 rooms by the end of 2024. Among the new additions, seven will belong to the company’s core mid-scale brand NH Hotels and the remaining sites will belong to their lifestyle (nhow), upper-scale (NH Collection) and luxury (Anantara) brands. These upcoming openings will be concentrated in Southern Europe and Latin America.
Along with their strategic priority of growing in the upper-scale and luxury segments, the business is looking to grow in the resorts segment, especially in Southern Europe. They also want to strengthen their presence in the Nordic capitals and pursue opportunities to enter Paris, Moscow and Miami.
“Our partnership with Minor, our brands NH Hotels and NH Collection will grow in Asia in the upcoming years too. In 2022 and 2023, the NH brands are expected to debut in China, Dubai, Qatar, Doha and Australia,” comments Aragonés.
Continuing to build a more sustainable future is a fundamental strategic value that has been integrated into the NH Hotel Group business model and company culture for many years. The company believes they have a responsibility to build an operating model that ensures a sustainable future, and they feel they have a unique opportunity to do so because of the sector in which they operate, which allows them to have an impact on so many lives and to make them, and the world, a better place.
When discussing the key drivers of the success the company has enjoyed over many years, Aragonés feels it is their people and their culture of innovation that has driven the company forward.
“In NH we started to implement it back in 2014 under the patronage of the Company’s Management Committee and since then, it’s been ingrained across all our functions and throughout all our hotels.”
Technology has been a massive part of the growth of the brand, and recently they have implemented additional digital solutions to facilitate service and minimise the risk of contagion that has proved very successful. This includes FASTPASS, which offers the possibility to check-in, choose the room you want and check-out from the customer’s mobile device, a Mobile Guest Service platform, with which the customer can manage hotel services such as Room Service, request extra amenities or book a table in the restaurant and a Smart Tablet in Reception, a new proposal that reduces physical contact elements and time spent at hotel reception, thus improving the customer experience by digitising all phases of the processes during check-in and check-out.
“In our sector, technology and digitalisation must be viewed and promoted as a facilitator to improve what our employees love most and do best, which is to care for our clients. It must complement their work, freeing them from administrative tasks so that they can offer a more personalised service to guests.”
When discussing the future, Aragonés feels that they still have many challenges ahead but he feels recovery lies ahead and is certain that they will prevail.
“We will not forget what we have learned throughout these past two years. Nothing is ever guaranteed and complacency is not an option. We must always strive to be a step ahead and continuously innovate, create, redefine and anticipate.”
