When Exclusivity Feels Familiar, Soho House Looks to Another Club: Wall Street
Skift Take
As Soho House considers plans to go public, there's a lot of competition on the horizon at every turn. This, plus the inevitable struggle to balance aggressive growth versus exclusivity, and a less-than-stellar customer experience, presents some problems on the horizon.
On Experience
Colin Nagy is a marketing strategist and writes on customer-centric experiences and innovation across the luxury sector, hotels, aviation, and beyond. You can read all of his writing here.
The Soho House built its brand and re-energized the private club model more than two decades ago on the notion of exclusivity.
But today Soho House feels a lot less exclusive, as competitors line up and Soho House's challenges grow. That hasn't stopped the company from pursuing a development tear, with new locations spanning from Dumbo in New York, to Istanbul, to Mumbai and beyond, while it eyes a possible IPO.
The irony, of course, is not lost on market observers that a chain of clubs created as private sanctuaries would now be public, as in an open book for shareholders.
Nick Jones started the brand in 1995 as a hyper-focused members club in Soho in London, catering to a well-connected, drink-loving media class. It stood in stark contrast to Britain’s notion of a members club: instead of leather club chairs, grey hairs and legacies, this felt fresh, design-centric and new.
As the brand expanded, so too did the stories of waiting lists miles long, and selectively pepper
