Flannery says Edition is competing in the rare space of being a luxury lifestyle brand, with a focus on food & beverage and nightlife.
Flannery doesn’t give away much, saying the brand is “notoriously secretive” prior to opening, but teases that apart from the architecture, the F&B is something to look forward to. He says: “There’s going to be three restaurants where we’re partnering with a culinary partner; he’s pretty acclaimed and we’ll announce that later this year. He is on board to partner on three restaurant concepts, and then there are five other food & beverage venues in that hotel, so pretty significant F&B.”
He reveals in a throwaway comment that the operator hopes to open “later next year, we hope before Formula One”.
The heads of departments are already on board, Flannery reveals, and he adds: “We look for people who have passion, and who really embrace the culture. Culture is probably over-talked about but it’s about getting people who are going to be fanatical about the brand. For us, the service strategy is being a luxury brand but also being a lifestyle brand. And it’s focused around culture, and training the staff well.”
The general manager has previously worked with Flannery at Morgans Hotel Group, but also has experience in the UAE: Stefan Soennichsen. Heaping great plaudits on Soennichsen, Flannery adds: “There’s nothing more important in a hotel than a general manager that really gets that culture and builds trust and inspires people, and gets people excited about what they’re doing.”
Even more tight-lipped about the Edition Dubai, Flannery says that that property is meant to open at the end of 2019.
He’s confident there is a demand for products like Edition in the UAE, and adds: “There’s an interesting analogy that Ian uses from the movie business: there are tens and thousands of movies made every year but there’s always a market for a great movie.”
Further afield, he thinks the region is a great platform for future expansion. He says he could see Dubai having the potential for more than one property, and also says Bahrain is a great place for the brand to potentially open.
He notes: “I’m a big fan of Bahrain and the hospitality market there is great, and the nightlife is more vibrant than I thought it was. So that’s certainly a possibility for us. We also have an exciting project in Bodrum, Turkey that will be opening soon.”
Of course, the Edition brand now sits within Marriott’s portfolio of 30, after its acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts. But Flannery reveals the merger has had less impact on the Edition team, which still sits in the Meatpacking District of New York. But, he concedes, the merger has had its benefits — with ramifications on its F&B, deals with OTAs with better bargaining power, and of course, the loyalty programmes.
He says: “It’s interesting, I’ve always had something I wanted to do more than what I was doing in the current job, and now it’s good to say, ‘I can’t imagine there’s anything that I want to do more than the job I’m doing now’. I look at the job that I’m doing, especially when I came back to it after doing an earlier incarnation, so I feel like I’ve been training my whole professional career for what we’re about to do with Edition now.” We can’t wait.
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