An Interview with Nicholas Clayton
The BLLA Events Team sits down with Nicholas Clayton, CEO of Capella Group as he prepares to keynote the 2021 Boutique Hotel Investment Conference on June 2.
How did you come to enter the hospitality industry?
In the early years of my professional life, I had opportunities to work in interesting sales roles and the independent restaurant business. My first hotel experience was in the front office at The Four Seasons in Dallas, Texas.
The plan was to learn everything I could from a quality organization while diligently studying to complete my degree in Finance, eventually moving into investment banking. As I progressed with Four Seasons, I came to love the dynamic nature of the hospitality industry and the rest is history.
How would you define the word “luxury” in the hospitality industry?
First and foremost luxury is about being recognized as a valuable and unique customer, service quality that is delivered with an extraordinary degree of reliability and a genuine level of emotional engagement. Luxury experiences are personalized, authentic and have the impact to create life long memories.
What would you say are some key qualities in not only authentically luxury-boutique, but profitable hotels?
Financially successful boutique hotels must leverage their intimate size and provide customers with high levels of personalized service. Given that leisure business drives price premiums, a boutique property’s location and proximity to destination highlights is critical to commercial performance. In order to establish a superior reputation, a boutique hotel must identify unique and distinguishable features in order to drive a higher RevPAR. Food & Beverage operations should be designed for success with the local audience in order to ensure the activation of public spaces and optimization of profitability.
What do you think contributed to the rise of the boutique hotel movement, specifically in terms of these types of hotels becoming very attractive to investors and developers?
Early lifestyle boutique hotels were conversion projects in capital cities like New York, London and San Francisco. These opportunities were created by developers who identified hospitality as “highest and best use” for their real estate assets. Given the right infrastructure, conversion projects can be more efficient to renovate and can be brought to market more quickly than new built projects. Design and creativity were expressed in the public spaces, while guest rooms were conveniently viewed with greater functionality in mind. The success of these early projects has spawned 40 years of evolution and tremendous growth for the boutique segment.
Why are you excited to speak at the 2021 Boutique Hotel Investment Conference by BLLA?
The successful development and operation of a boutique property or brand requires a great deal of dedication, entrepreneurship and creativity. We spend so much of our professional lives working closely with our own teams, viewing the business from a limited perspective. The BLLA Boutique Investment Conference gives us all the opportunity to engage and learn from like-minded, highly successful executives who share a passion for the boutique segment of our industry.
What does boutique mean to you?
The interpretation of “boutique” has evolved over the past 40 years, however there are some common features that have stood the test of time;
· An intimate size which allows for highly personalised service and creative guest amenities
· Boutique hotels convey originality and character with a strong design concept
· Public spaces, in particular dining & drinking venues are designed and operated with a local audience in mind, often becoming social centres in their respective destinations