Interview: One to One COO Hotels Philippe Harb

Just six months in post and Philippe Harb, chief operating officer of One to One Hotels & Resorts, is making headway expanding his corporate team and raising awareness of the company’s four brands

In January 2014, Philippe Harb took the helm of the hospitality arm of UAE-based investment company Al Husam Group, as chief operating officer of One to One Hotels & Resorts Management LLC, having been promoted from his role as corporate director of operations.

He took over the Abu-Dhabi hotel management company, established in 2007, from previous CEO Sami Ayari, and is supported by a small corporate team, which is set to expand in parallel with the company’s properties.

With just a corporate chef, chief financial officer, corporate lawyer and a recently appointed business development manager covering Morocco, Harb admits that currently, One to One Hotels & Resorts doesn’t have the “team”, “structure” or “capital base” to open “10 hotels a year”.

“We only want to open one or two properties a year so we have to be very careful. We want to hand-pick every property because for us every property is like a small baby,” he explains.

Return on investment is of the utmost importance to the small team and accordingly, the focus has so far been on “boutique hotels from 50–150 rooms”, which Harb explains, is “part of our differentiation strategy.”

“We think that boutique properties are in high demand and can generate RevPAR close to a five-star hotel and they don’t fall as far during low season. They are a lean operation, easy to run and you can get the best return on capital investment,” asserts Harb.

The first One to One projects fell under the flagship ‘Boutique’ brand. Debut property, The Village, Abu Dhabi, a 127-room hotel opened in 2008, followed in 2010 by a Lebanese mountain resort project, Dhour Choueir.

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New brands

However, the company has since branched out, introducing three new brands, and it has been Harb’s mission to raise awareness of these.

“Each brand has the guest and traveller in mind and therefore an economic proposition,” he claims.

Although the five-star lifestyle brand Elite currently doesn’t have any operating hotels, Harb insists “we have the plan, we have the design and we know how it will look”. The first long-stay Suites brand is set to open in Dour Choueir, Lebanon next year with 90 keys, and the Wellness Resort brand has already been rolled out in three properties.

What Harb describes as the “pilot project” for the Wellness Resort brand launched in 2012, is the Ain Al Faida One to One Resort in Al Ain, a 25,000m2 83-key conversion. In April this year, the property — which features 26 hotel rooms and 57 villas — was upgraded with the addition of the first One to One Spa, and is according to Harb, set to become “the ultimate retreat destination spa in Al Ain”.

The spa offers eight treatment rooms with two Jacuzzis, two private Moroccan hammans and two salons, for males and females. A full renovation of the garden area has been completed to provide a wide leisure offering, including pony rides and a mini zoo.

“When we took it on it was the wrong operator and the wrong brand,” comments Harb, referring to the conversion. “We came up with a comprehensive repositioning plan for the asset. We brought in One to One Hotels as a flag and invested a lot in our leisure activities and recreation activities because we believed that this property would be appealing for leisure and local business, as well as high-rated transit business”.

The third roll out of the Wellness Resort brand — another conversion project — opened on May 1, 2014. One to One took over management of Tarifa Hotel, Morocco, rebranding it the Tarifa One to One Resort, an 83-suite property located 18km from Tangier in Ksar Sghir.

Harb admits that conversion is the expansion model that will remain the focus going forward for One to One: “We understand very well that conversion means immediate operation, whereas construction is going to take two to three years”.

However, an emphasis on conversions doesn’t necessarily signal impatience, the ambitious COO asserts, saying that “careful expansion” is equally a priority.

“When we look for partners we like to have a local owner, based in the local market, that understands the local market and of course understands our brands, so this is a merge we’re looking for,” explains Harb.

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Challenging times

Having debuted with a UAE property, One to One then moved its focus further afield to Lebanon, Morocco and Thailand, where the company runs Sunset Hill Boutique Koh Phangan, rather than growing into the nearby markets of Dubai, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

According to Harb, the group is now “negotiating two more properties in Thailand and one in Morocco” and has two pipeline properties in Lebanon, including a 250-key Wellness Resort planned for 2016. However, he admits that going forward, “Lebanon is off-target”, due to performance falling below expectations at the existing properties.

Having recently appointed a business development manager to oversee Morocco, expansion is probable for that area, and already there is one hotel confirmed opening for 2015. The One to One Marina Beach Wellness Resort, Tétouan, Morrocco will fall under the Wellness Resort brand, and with 200 keys, will be the largest of the company’s properties.

Saying this, the UAE is still on Harb’s wish list for further growth, although he reveals the company “hasn’t signed any Memorandums of Understanding” and is “still in the negotiating process”.
“We understand that to come to Dubai and get a prime location you need to have a capital base,” he says, adding that the company is “trying [its] best”.

“We are looking at hotels in Dubai but all the big international chains want to be in Dubai so for us it’s a bit hard. We’re always negotiating properties in Dubai though so it could be any time; a year, two years maximum.”

As owners of its Al Ain and Abu Dhabi properties as well as the operators, however, Harb believes this gives One to One Hotels & Resorts increased leverage for growth, especially in the UAE.

“We’re already in Abu Dhabi and I wouldn’t say it’s challenging, and we have no problem expanding further there. By doing that we’re going to gain market share in assets in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, because more rooms are needed there,” he comments. “In the Middle East we have no boundaries at all.”