Interview: Four Seasons CEO on the U.S. Election, Loyalty and Scale
Photo Credit: Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts CEO J. Allen Smith says the luxury hotel company will remain focused on its market and its brand through personalized service, and not by adding more brands or a formal loyalty program. Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts
Skift Take
Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts' approach to the luxury market is a little bit different from its peers, and our conversation with president and CEO J. Allen Smith gives you a bit of a glimpse into that approach.
The day before another hotelier was elected to the highest office in the U.S., Skift traveled north to Toronto to meet with Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts president and CEO J. Allen Smith to talk about the challenges facing the luxury hotel market, and what lies ahead for the future of hospitality.
More than three years into his role as president and CEO of the storied luxury hotel company, Smith has endeavored to grow the Four Seasons brand with a uniquely singular focus on differentiating the Four Seasons brand within the luxury market.
When Smith joined, the company had less than 100 properties and today, it has 101 in 42 countries worldwide, with more than 50 projects in development. In the years since his appointment, Four Seasons also launched the Four Seasons Private Jet and the Four Seasons mobile app. The company's latest development is a Research and Discovery Studio, of which Skift got a firsthand tour during our visit.
What follows is an edited version of our in
