Skift Take
Can Capella Hotel Group make a sustainable business model out of providing highly individualized service to guests who think that run-of-the-mill 5-star properties are too cookie-cutter?
In 2001 at age 62, Horst Schulze wasn't done yet.
A renowned hotelier who helped set the bar for luxury service standards, first as vice president of operations at Ritz-Carlton beginning in 1983, and then starting in 1988 as the luxury brand's president and chief operating officer, Schulze remembers his wife Sheri and kids picking him up on the Friday that he retired, and feeling unsetled about the whole thing.
"I gave birth to this baby," Schulze recalls. "It was emotional."
But, at a time when a lot of people would be thinking about figuratively kicking back on the front porch, hitting the links at the country club, or traveling, Schulze was restless and had some misgivings about his track record at Ritz-Carlton.
After nearly two decades at Ritz-Carlton, maintaining the brand's standards and mundane tasks such as employee scheduling had become routine.
"Frankly, there's no magic in that," Schulze told Skift last week. "The painting had been painted."
But, then, he felt there were things that could have gone better, such as finding ways to avoid sacrificing luxury and standards to short-term financial mandates.
"I should have done a better job," Schulze told Skift last week, referring to his tenure at Ritz-Carlton.
Luxury versus Ultra-Luxury
It was 2001 and during the first weekend of what would turn out to be his short-lived "retirement," an obsessed, newly ex-Ritz-Carlton president was mulling how he could best get involved in the transformation of the hotel luxury market into the ultra-luxury market, a difference he likens to some people b
