Skift Take
Four Seasons has been re-evaluating brand strength, how staff caters to guests, and distribution strategy.
Early Check-In
Editor’s Note: Skift Senior Hospitality Editor Sean O’Neill brings readers exclusive reporting and insights into hotel deals and development, and how those trends are making an impact across the travel industry.
It's been a year since Four Seasons brought on new CEO and president Alejandro Reynal and rolled out a new marketing campaign. So I wanted to check in on the luxury hotel and resort powerhouse.
I spoke with Marc Speichert, who joined the company two-and-a-half years ago as executive vice president and chief commercial officer.
Quick facts, first:
As of 2021, Four Seasons is 71% owned by Bill Gates through Cascade Investment and 24% owned by Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal through Kingdom Holding Company. Four Seasons runs 126 hotels and resorts and 53 residential properties. It's essentially also in the luxury vacation rental sector running about 800 villas for exclusive use in about 40 destinations. Four Seasons has approximately 50 projects under planning or development, including about 30 with branded residential components. Executives have been raising expectations for performance. "My brief when I joined was how do we really raise the bar and set the expectation that we need to understand our guests better than anyone else," Speichert said. "We are the leading hospitality luxury brand, so how do we set that expectation for everyone within the organization? How do w