Travel Trends with Dan Christian
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Uncover valuable insights, innovative strategies, and meaningful connections that will elevate your travel business or career to new heights.
Travel Trends with Dan Christian
Special Hospitality Series: Achieving Forbes Travel Guide's Five-Star Excellence with Malcolm Hendry, Managing Director at Hotel 41, The Rubens at the Palace & 100 Princes Street
Welcome to Season 2 of our Special Hospitality Series in collaboration with Forbes Travel Guide, the global authority on luxury hospitality.
In this season, we take you behind the scenes of Forbes Travel Guide 'The Summit' in Monaco—their first-ever international event. With over 750 attendees from 90+ countries, this prestigious event drew a global audience for learning, collaboration, and celebrating excellence in luxury hospitality, which featured main stage talks, exclusive sessions, and even the presence of His Serene Highness Prince Albert II.
This season’s theme, “The Leaders Behind the Stars,” introduces you to 10 visionary leaders shaping the future of luxury hospitality. From their passion and innovation to the relentless pursuit of five-star excellence, we’re bringing you inspiring stories from Italy, France, Beverly Hills, the Seychelles, and more.
In our first episode we are joined by Malcolm Hendry, Managing Director of Hotel 41, The Rubens at the Palace, and 100 Princes Street, who shares his incredible journey to earning his first Forbes Travel Guide’s coveted five-star rating and how they have maintained that status for nine consecutive years. Discover how he rallied his team after narrowly missing the mark on the first attempt and built a culture of excellence that defines Red Carnation Hotels.
From pioneering sustainability efforts such as the living wall at Rubens to recommending local authentic experiences like Borough Market tours, Malcolm reveals the secrets behind creating unforgettable guest moments. Learn how Red Carnation Hotel's leadership team fosters happiness and staff loyalty, with many team members staying for over two decades.
This discussion is filled with valuable insights on luxury hospitality trends and Malcolm’s tips for aspiring hoteliers—all delivered with his signature charm (and a memorable kilt story straight from Monaco!).
We will be releasing new episodes every Thursday—don’t miss this exceptional 10-part series featuring hospitality leaders from Beverly Hills to the Seychelles.
Season 5 Launched Jan 15th. New Episodes Every Weds! Check out our first 4 Seasons.
https://www.traveltrendspodcast.com/
The diversity of person you meet, including the luxury travel advisors and the general managers from around the globe. You know it's unique, it's a great opportunity. It's very inspirational. You know I get to come out here and have that. It's great and I do take the inspiration back the inspiration back.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone and welcome to season two of our special hospitality series in partnership with our friends at Forbes Travel Guide. As many of our listeners know, we had the privilege to attend our very first the Summit in Las Vegas last year. We recorded a first season to bring our listeners behind the scenes insights, expert interviews and really do a deep dive into what makes luxury hospitality so extraordinary. We had an exceptional response to that first season and we were thrilled and honored to be invited back for the summit in Monaco, which is the very first international event for the Forbes Travel Guide team. But just to make sure that everybody knows who Forbes Travel Guide are they are the global authority on luxury hospitality and their prestigious star rating system and expert recommendations are what really set the standard for excellence in the industry. So it's a huge honor for us to partner with them and also to be at the summit, their annual event and this time the first debut internationally which brings together the best in the business to share their knowledge, and that's certainly what I had the chance to see and experience. There was over 750 attendees from more than 90 countries and over the three days it was all about learning and connection and collaborating with really the world's best. There was main stage talks and exclusive breakout sessions and, of course, the historic presence of His Serene Highness Prince Albert II, who attended all three days, which, from my perspective, the summit really established itself as the centerpiece for global luxury hospitality and, excitingly, they also announced at the end of the event that we're going back to Monaco in 2026. So it was a perfect place for this event to come together, and it wasn't just about celebrating the achievements and discussing the future of luxury hospitality. It was really about immersing yourself in the world of luxury hospitality. So anyone who is in the industry or an avid traveler or curious about how these amazing properties offer this top tier service, I think these episodes will bring you invaluable insights and a lot of inspiration. Interestingly for this year, this was the first time that European hotels led the way in the number of new five-star properties, and you're actually going to get to hear from a few of those hotels on this series.
Speaker 2:Now it's important to understand how difficult it actually is to achieve a five-star rating, but really any place on the Forbes Travel Guide star-rated list, whether it's recommended four stars or the pinnacle being five stars not only do you have to achieve that extraordinary accomplishment. You need to maintain it year after year. So they are not easily earned, but maintaining them gets harder and harder every year, and that's actually why they have a partnership with the Academy, which is separate to Forbes Travel Guide, but for the learning and development service they have exclusive rights from the Forbes Travel Guide official star rating standards, and it's another way that I discovered how these incredible properties are able to improve their level of service to the point where they create raving fans and people coming back to their property. So there is a tremendous benefit of being associated with Forbes Travel Guide and to achieve that status and ranking, but there's also a huge benefit to going on that journey to improve the guest experience at their properties. That will ultimately lead to more delighted guests and them coming back again and again.
Speaker 2:Now for season two, we're going to introduce you to the leaders behind the stars. That's the theme for our second season, and these are the visionaries from the world's finest properties who embody everything it takes to deliver a world-class experience. There are going to be 10 inspiring episodes as we bring you some of the brightest minds shaping this industry. We're going to talk about their passion, their resilience and the innovation behind their journeys. We're going to be speaking to hoteliers from Italy, france, beverly Hills and the Seychelles. We're actually going to start today, though, with a dear friend of mine who is based in London, but he is Scottish, and very proudly so. For those of you who haven't already seen the cover of this episode, you have to check it out, because we made a commitment that we were going to capture a photo of us together at the gala dinner that night, where Malcolm was going to be wearing his Scottish kilt and he looks fantastic, as you'll see and he was so excited to be able to wear it in Monaco for the very first time.
Speaker 2:Now Malcolm is the managing director of Hotel 41 and the Rubens at the Palace, which are part of the Red Carnation Hotel Collection. He also oversees a new property in Edinburgh that we'll discuss as well, but he has a remarkable story to tell about his journey to become a Forbes Travel Guide five-star property, and I had the opportunity to sit down with him last year in Las Vegas, but we had a couple of technical issues, so this is the first opportunity that we had then to recapture the moment, and that's why this episode is so special for me and one of the reasons that we're leading off with this. Malcolm is an extraordinary individual. As you'll hear, he's a great dad, a terrific business leader, and I couldn't be more thrilled to bring this discussion together. Thank you, malcolm, for being here with us, and I look forward to sharing your story.
Speaker 1:Wow, thank you very much. What an introduction. Thank you, dan. It's been a short year between Las Vegas and here we are in Monaco, so it's different to Vegas.
Speaker 2:Well, let me set the stage for our listeners, because this is where I wanted to acknowledge our previous conversation and actually dive right into the fact that you you inspired me last year with your story about the fact that, unlike any of the other properties within the Recarnation Group, you went to your boss, jonathan Raggett, who we both know, and said to him that you needed to be Forbes travel guide rated, and you went on a journey to get there and have seen such success as a result of that, and this is the big conference you come to. So let's go back to that so all of our listeners can understand your journey. So tell us, I guess, first of all, for those of our listeners that are not familiar with Red Carnation Hotels or doesn't know Rubens or the fact that Hotel 41 is like the number one hotel on TripAdvisor every year, tell everyone about the properties that you oversee.
Speaker 1:So I'm very privileged to be looking after two of our London properties on Buckingham Palace Road, just by Buckingham Palace the Rubens at the Palace aptly named and Hotel 41 at 41 Buckingham Palace Road. And also, most recently, we opened in April 17 last year our first and only Scottish hotel in Edinburgh, 100 Princess Street. That was open, had an excellent first year of operation and we have an anniversary this coming April. So looking forward to that, and again, it's a pleasure and a privilege to be back home in my home country after 31 years away. For sure, as a London boy, I get to go back for a short journey every three, four weeks just to see the team and look after my responsibilities.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's well-deserved advancement for you and I guess that's where for everyone that could listen and learn from you in this discussion. Tell everyone how long you've been managing the Rubens now and your introduction, if you will, to hospitality.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I started Red Carnation Hotels. It'll be my 25 year anniversary this year on June the 10th.
Speaker 2:Congratulations.
Speaker 1:And yeah, that was 2000. I started at the Rubens as deputy manager in May of 2001. And was promoted to general manager there in August of 2004. So really I was general manager for about 18 years and then managing director in my current position for two years this year.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. Well, and just for our listeners too, I had the great fortune to work with both Brett Tolman and Jonathan Raggett for many years, and Jonathan Raggett for many years Brett Solman, of course, the CEO and chairman of the travel corporation, the red carnation hotel chain being created by his uh, his father and his mother, and I guess that's where you know there's a strong family connection. And when we would, I would uh, visit London quite often, it was really a home away from home and seeing you quite regularly throughout the year, which is why I think we have such a strong bond and kinship. We'd have dinner together and often, sometimes Brett would be there, jonathan would pop in, and I still remember when your son, jake, was born. He's now 12, 13. Yeah, he's 12.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's um, you know I, just our kids are 17. So I was just ahead of you then and um, and and able to impart some some fatherly advice at the time. But, yeah, you and I have always had such a, I guess, a strong bond. But I and this is where I didn't know until we sat down last year at Vegas your story in connection with Forbes travel guides all of a sudden, I'm sitting on the other side of the table from you interviewing you, and I actually wanted you to share that story with all of our listeners so they can hear it from you directly. So take us on that journey again of how you decided to become Forbes travel guide rated and ultimately twisted Jonathan's arm enough to let him give you this opportunity.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, we talked a lot about, you know, forbes Travel Guide and, you know, becoming an aspirational, you know, forbes five-star hotel. We had been talking at the general manager's level with Mr Ragged various meetings about the properties in London and there was only a handful at the time, certainly. So it was very much recognised as the top industry award and really it's sort of borne out of that. And I have a previous relationship through another source of travel with Chris Fradden now who heads up Europe and EMA and everything that he's now responsible for also half the world, and we met in Hotel 41 and he just started before Travel Guide and he just talked a little bit about you know their vision, their standards, the service excellence. You know commitment to. You know guest engagement, you know team engagement and he just I remember straight away you know, in our first meeting talking about Forza Chris, that you away.
Speaker 1:You know, in that first meeting talking about Forza Chris, that you know it really did align with everything that you know, red Carnation, uh, the Tolman family, mr Raggett and myself all believe in. You know, uh, the the, the experience of of a guest in a hotel, the experience of a team member in the hotel, the importance of you know your team and and how, the importance of them engaging with guests and likewise guests engaging with them. So there was a great alignment I thought with for travel guide and what they believed was you know that true service experience and excellence and what we in red carnation and I went to mr racket and and uh said we'd like to do it and and uh, you know he, he agreed we'll leave it at that. He agreed and and and I just go small feet, he's a great leader, and but he expects um.
Speaker 2:He expects a lot right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he definitely. Uh, I had to make various uh commitments to um, not come back with anything other than the five star. We'll, Thankfully, you know, with a fair wind and a lot of hard work from the team and consistency and, you know, bringing a lot of you know what Forbes and Red Carnation believe to be that experience of a guest engagement to bring it into our culture. We were successful and as we stand here, this is we're nine years a Forbes five-star hotel and, you know, super proud. You know, and I genuinely I really do think it's a I come back to that word privilege to attend the Forbes Summit and it's one of the highlights of my year.
Speaker 1:I really enjoy the diversity of, you know, hotelier that comes from all around the world to attend the unbelievable properties and, you know, and now the Forbes Travel Guide has started to bring those 80 luxury travel advisors attending. So it puts a different angle to part of the summit as well, and it's a great thing about Forbes they are constantly developing, constantly pushing the boundaries, making the summit better every year and even this year actually moving out of America for the first time to Monaco, unlocking the opportunity for more people to attend and also to be in a different part of the world and you think a little bit different in some ways as well, so it's brilliant.
Speaker 2:Remind everyone how long it took you to get your certification, initially your Forbes five-star.
Speaker 1:Well, it's incredibly tough to be a Forbes five-star. Well, it's really it's incredibly tough to be a Forbes five-star hotel, and I did make the commitment that we would nail it first year round and we narrowly avoided it. So it's just part of our history, but I do, looking back at that time, truly believe that strengthened our resolve to come back and we narrowly missed it by a few decimal points of the 90% we need to come back and we narrowly missed it by a few decimal points of the 90% we need to achieve it. And you know, I think that doing that strengthened our resolve to shore up a lot of what we were being judged on and made us stronger for the future. And then we did achieve it the following year. I believe we were in a better place then than we would have been had it first time round, for sure Hit the money yeah.
Speaker 1:Thanks for reminding me.
Speaker 2:Well, there's a specific reason that I wanted to jog your memory on. That is because a few of the guests that we're having on this year's season two of the special hospitality series in partnership with Forbes, there's a couple of hotels that have achieved that in their first year and which is truly remarkable when that actually does happen. But obviously, it's one thing to get your certification and it's another thing to keep it, and so, um, as you've already highlighted, you've had the certification now for nine years and you have to maintain that excellence. So it's not something that, once you get that badge of honor and certain properties lose their status if they're not meeting those expectations. So it's, um, and this is where I wanted to go with the next question for you. Is that, given your background and experience, both with pushing ahead with getting the certification and going on that journey, and then now sitting here nearly a decade later, having benefited from the association?
Speaker 2:And one of the things you called out for me that I've referenced in other interviews too is the fact that, beyond the benefit of being able to generate additional business by being Forbes travel guide five-star rated, is that it actually you use the example there of how it aligned with red carnations, view of excellence, of values and and your commitment to excellence and tiny, noticeable touches and the things that are so special and beautiful about red carnation hotels, as I've come to know for many years including, you know, mr tolman always having the red carnation in his lapel and um, many of the magical things that you guys do there. I guess tell us some of the tips and suggestions that you would have for other people listening to this that are about to start their journey. What are some of the things you would say that they need to be paying attention to and aware of, for from your expertise, gosh, big, big, big question.
Speaker 1:I could probably talk for a long time on it, but in in sort of summary, I think the um, the attention to detail is important. You know the small touches, whether it be positive, tiny, noticeable touches or just the small detail of your, your service, offering your, your products. Really important, uh, uniform standards, um, you know a lot of it is is getting the culture of the hotel right, uh, and getting everyone along on the journey with you. Get everyone to believe that that you know, they understand, you know what we need to be doing for our guests, for our team members, to be on that journey and be on that journey daily. I think that it's not something you can pick up and put down. There's got to be a big desire for the team, the manager, so myself and the senior team have got to be driving those standards, and it really does.
Speaker 1:You know it starts at the top, but it's a consistently every day. Every day, you just are reinforcing and in a positive way, uh, and you leave nothing, nothing to chance. You know you're, you're checking everything, uh, you're measuring everything, you're facing up to things when they're not right. You're trying to understand and why, and and put them right and, uh, you listen to your guests most definitely. You listen to your guests Most definitely. You listen to your guests and you pay attention and reasons and really promote all the positives of engaging with guests and the face-to-face and the conversational and how important and unique guests are and everyone is an individual your team members and your guests. And, yeah, it's developing the right positive culture. Yeah, that enforces the standards.
Speaker 2:So, given all of that and how red carnation has grown as a luxury boutique four and five star hotel collection of properties globally and you know you have Asher Castle in Ireland. Of course you mentioned princess street, which is obviously new in Scotland. I'm so thrilled that you're overseeing that. You've got a Kedra in Botswana, you've got multiple properties in South Africa and obviously in Geneva as well, and I've had the privilege and good fortune over many years to not only stay with you many times but also to stay at other Red Carnation hotels both in South Africa and Ireland.
Speaker 2:And I guess one thing I wanted to ask you about that is that has the work at Ford Travel Guide impacted other areas of the business? Because I'm assuming you as general managers work very closely together and there's a bit of competition amongst you. I know you've got a friendly rivalry, but there is a culture of excellence at Red Carnation with, certainly with with Jonathan and the Tolman family, um, and so I guess what I'm getting to is is there elements of what you've succeeded with with the Forbes that you've brought in to Rubens and 41, that you have to take a bunch of standards, measurements that forbes say and and give them to red carnation hotels and say this is new because a lot of what forbes really, if you look at this and you know red carnation hotels were doing, you know a lot of.
Speaker 1:That's why I was so excited about, you know, looking for these five star awards and being coming, becoming involved. Of course, a lot of what they were saying was important we were doing anyway. So there was, there was the odd tweaks and and then technical side of it. But you know we've got a number of forbes travel guide properties and and we have some of our properties that aren't, you know, but we we've encompassed the standards because when it comes down to it, you know, it's not just a Forbes travel guide standard that is only applicable to a Forbes travel guide rated hotel, it's, you know, service and hospitality in general. You know, so you don't have to be a recognized hotel to embody these great values and service excellence. It's throughout our collection of recognition hotels, these great values and service excellence. It's throughout our collection.
Speaker 1:Red Carnation of the Tales and you know we have a lot of support, you know, from Mr Raggett and I'm at this conference and a lot of you know what we've talked about. One of the main themes coming through is support of ownership and senior leadership and certainly Red Carnation of the Tales. You know anything that we are always doing together as a team. You know the tolman family and mr raggett are always super supportive of of everything and and and it's so, so important and so valuable. You're not just to myself as as a general manager, manager, director, um, but but every general manager of every property. We all say the same same thing and the team know that. And because they know of that supportiveness, then it fuels their desire, you know, to be as good as they can and serve our guests and look after our teams.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a really good point you just made there too, because what's also unique about the Red Carnation Hotel Collection is there's not a separation between ownership and management.
Speaker 2:There's not a separation between ownership and management, and that is often the case, especially in a lot of luxury organizations, where you have the ownership and the asset manager and then you have the property manager, and that you have to find a way to work in synergy together, and I've met people and that'll be featured on our highlight reel that actually work between those two organizations, and you don't have that. It's um. So the other thing you highlighted, too, is that being here in Monaco, and some of the highlights you'd called out to me about being in Vegas was very much the kinship that you also then have with other general managers, so there's great networking opportunities and learning from each other. So tell us now, as we sit here now in Monaco in 2025, what have been some of those highlights from this year's of the summit and what are some of the takeaways that you're expecting to be able to bring back, as we're sitting here on on day two, from the conference I mean it's, uh, you know a lot of.
Speaker 1:It is very similar to to vegas. There's a bit of a more diverse attendance this year. Um, that's just 750, I think 751 actually delegates of of attendance. So the diversity of person you meet, including the luxury travel advisors and the general managers from around the globe, you know it's unique, it's a great opportunity, it's very inspirational.
Speaker 1:Tellier, you know, from, uh, his property in los angeles, for instance, that was last night and versus this morning, you're talking to a general manager with her property in hong kong, for instance, and it's, it's just, it's great conversations to have. You know, we don't always get that opportunity in in london and in the uk. So, again, to come out, come out here here and have that is great. And I do take the inspiration back and even if it's a message that you've heard before about the importance of certain things, it's nice to take a step back and think about how you can go back to London, to the UK, and reapply that or maybe apply it a bit more strongly. Of course there's new things that you pick up and I think I mentioned before the chance to meet these luxury travel advisors and hear their stories and get a feel for how their clients are traveling, how often they're traveling, where we are this year and into next.
Speaker 1:That we've been talking about over the last couple of days is important, but you share a kinship and a positive direction with everyone in this incredible event. And it is an incredible event because you've got the business side of things through the day, where everyone works really hard from eight o'clock in the morning and often previous to that over breakfast meetings. You've got the symposium. You've got your brain dates, you've got your, your agent meets, you've got your, your discovery sessions. And then we still maintain the element of success and celebration by a couple of incredible events that, uh, for travel guide, organized and put on just to, you know, celebrate the, the you know a good, hard year of work and, and you know, celebrate our teams. You know their successes. As for travel guide hotels and and in our sense, 41 is five stars.
Speaker 2:There it's, it's a pleasure yeah, well, I know we're both going to be dressed up in our tuxedos tonight to uh look our best for the gala and the award function. I look forward to celebrating with you there.
Speaker 1:I've got bad news.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's right. Tell everybody what you're going to be wearing.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm not wearing my tuxedo, or I think we say we say dinner jacket, don't we in dinner suit in the UK? No, I've. I've been in honor of my new opening in in Edinburgh, 100 Princess Street. I've decided to introduce Monaco to my kilt this evening time, so I'll be proudly as Scottish as you can get tonight.
Speaker 2:Freedom.
Speaker 1:Here we go With the family tartan and and old ski, new in the sock.
Speaker 2:And yeah, goodness help the, the, the residents of monaco and everyone else that comes across me my kilt and, uh, I love that you're going to do that, not only because you're scottish, it's your heritage, but you highlighted to me yesterday that there's a few places in the world that you're really keen to wear your kilt, new york city being one of them and, um, monaco being another. So you're gonna have that and you, um, you are a traditionalist. For those of you that are listening to this and want to know what that means, I'll let you look that up for yourself. But, um, you are a traditional wearer of the kilt because it is, as you highlighted to me, very hot and um, and so I, uh, I, I respect you. I one of the things for our listeners. I'm going to make sure we have a picture of the two of us tonight.
Speaker 2:So if you jump on social media, at a travel trends podcast or at DC trips on Instagram, you can look for a, a photo of Malcolm all dressed up tonight, be standing next to him, looking like a penguin, um, but the other thing I wanted to chat with you about, malcolm, given that you're you've been ahead of the curve here in terms of partnership with Forbes travel guide, but you've also been ahead of the curve with sustainability.
Speaker 2:You obviously have the living wall at the Rubens Hotel. You have the Make Travel Matter initiative in partnership with Treadwright. Of course, you've been ahead of the curve with cuisine and some of the restaurants that are available at each of the amazing Red Carnation Hotel properties, and even wellness, too, is an overall trend which clearly is only just continuing to increase in importance. So I wanted to get your take for our global listeners about what are the trends that you're paying attention to, whether they be in London or in luxury travel, but just in terms of overall hospitality, what are some of the trends you're seeing in 2025 that you're expecting to? You know you're responding to in terms of customer behavior and booking activities.
Speaker 1:Well, I think one of the things that we have been talking about in the conference here is is how much you know luxury properties and parts continue to embrace and be able to embrace the sustainability side of of of what we do and and, and that's good because it it. We started talking about this, you know, at some of the forbes conferences almost my first one 10 years ago, you know. So it continues to be, and I'm actually going to do a discovery session on at two o'clock today very shortly. So it's really integral into the discussion, into the ambition. And another thing that sits in line with Red Carnation and Tales is that sustainability that really does come from the top of of tolman family, mr raggett, has been a key importance to to our business, how we operate and and you mentioned a few of the, the linen programs, the food recycling, uh, the elimination of single-use plastic you know uniquely in my property the living wall and and everything it does for the environment and and so so we're very lucky that that continues to be embraced as important in this luxury travel world that we live in.
Speaker 1:Other trends we've been talking about continued the, the continuing emergence of local, authentic experiences, and that can be gained anywhere.
Speaker 1:It's not just in the non-city-like locations and the rural locations, but for us, a lot of our hotels, and certainly my hotels, are city-centre locations.
Speaker 1:So authentic experiences to take. One we we're very proud of is is our borough market experience. You know, whereas, as with our executive chef, ben keller, our guests can can go down in the market you know london's famous borough market that still is is a a very shopped market by locals and and enjoy, you know, selecting the best of produce and and meeting, you know, the individual growers, the individual farmers, and have an interactive experience down there with chef picking their own ingredients for a dinner that they'll return to the hotel and chef will then cook that unique tailored menu for a guest. So that really is authentic and we've got a number of these type experiences that I could a bit more time I could talk about, but that's definitely a trend that's growing and we talk about we have talked about that for two days the continued engagement, the importance of face-to-face time between team members and guests you know, is continually demanded and expected by both guests and team members.
Speaker 1:I'm pleased to say so, in a world of screens and artificial intelligence and whatever which also comes up as an important tool for going forward in the use of artificial intelligence, importantly to harness it, to unlock more of a time to spend time face-to-face with guests. That's certainly a trend we talked about here as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a number of valuable trends you just mentioned there. And, just to give credit where credit is due, brett Tolman was the one that actually introduced me to, or suggested I go and check out the Borough Market when I was staying in London over a weekend. We had meetings on the Fridays and Mondays, so I was in town over a weekend. He was like it should go on Saturday to Borough Market, and I love Borough Market. I'm sure many of our listeners are already well familiar with it, but that was my first introduction to it, and not only have I gone on to have a love of markets.
Speaker 2:I created a venture, a real passion project, called world'sbestmarketscom, which features the top 100 markets around the world, and borough market for me, is number one, and I always get asked that question and I, whenever I'm in london, I always make it uh, an effort to get to borough market.
Speaker 2:But that's, this is where you know.
Speaker 2:That suggestion could come from the concierge at the red carnation hotel, and that is the culture of the organization. The interesting thing that had come up for me recently, malcolm and this certainly relates to the experience that you offer is that, um, there's a technology company that partners with hotels to offer activities, and part of the reason that they actually recommend their technology is because when someone has a great experience in a destination, they tend to give a much more positive review and a net promoter score. Mps, as many organizations are familiar with, which is so important to our industry and your success. So having those positive associations of a borough market or the experience you have in destination, in addition to having a wonderful place to stay and that was something that I guess it was just built into the DNA of the organization at Red Carnation- yeah, you know, it's, it's you know, for for a long time now we we've really have understood the importance of of you, a guest experience extends out with the walls of the hotel or the restaurant, in the hotel or the bedroom.
Speaker 1:It's, you know, it is the restaurant that we recommend to them in that area of London. It is the borough market experience, it is the, in a leisure sense, the tour they take. Everything you know actually, whether it's recommended by the hotel or not, goes and contributes towards the overall guest experience, positive or negative, you know. Drag it back to the reservation process and our hard we work to try and find out about a guest and the reasons for making the trip, and what's important to them is really to hopefully help increase the positivity and the experiences and maybe unlock some possibilities that they might have not found out about themselves. That we can ensure that their time with my guests in London or Edinburgh and that can be any sort of reclamation location, but for me, london and Edinburgh that they are having the best time and the most valuable time and it is just from when they arrive in the destination to when they leave.
Speaker 1:They're our guests and we want the very best. One of the other things that we've talked about in the last two days here is that very much luxury. One of the key things about luxury is finding time and how you use the time and, and so if we're embracing our guests and engaging in in how you know what time they have and how they're spending their time and how we're recommending they spend their time where there is pockets of opportunity, then it really goes towards, you know, that exceptional experience from start to finish yeah, no, that's great, malcolm, and one of the.
Speaker 2:I've got two more questions.
Speaker 2:You and I know you've got your session coming up, but one of the things I wanted to ask you and it connects to the reason that we're sitting down today Not only obviously do we know each other and we obviously had the privilege to speak last year because I was just keen to catch up with you and interview you as part of the podcast but this year's theme behind the stars and Jennifer and Amanda, who I work closely with at Forbes Travel Guide to bring this co-branded podcast series together.
Speaker 2:When I was speaking to Jennifer and highlighting Red Carnation and yourself, malcolm, and what we talked about last year and my keenness to have you part of this special kind of 10 exclusive conversations from the event, there's a number of reasons for me that I actually I thought it important, but one of the things that Jennifer completely agreed on is that more people need to know about red carnation hotels and really understand this, uh, the culture that you've built and and really a culture of excellence, so that knowledge clearly flows both ways. I know I asked you about you know what you've learned from Forbes travel guide and what you've applied. I think you know there's many more uh organizations that can benefit from knowing about, um red carnation hotels, and even you know Jonathan yourself, the general managers. You know the entire organization, right down to even Wayne Clark, who's a good friend of Jonathan's as well. They're like the world-class manager and some of the things that you know.
Speaker 2:he's a terrific colleague and friend to us all, so I guess what I wanted to ask you ultimately is what do you think makes Red Carnation, and specifically Rubens 41 and Princess Street, unique in luxury hospitality?
Speaker 1:You know it's always down to the people. You know the people that are involved, you know, and again, it's I'm not just going to talk about my incredible teams in in the properties I'm fortunate to be involved with, but the people really, right from the top, from supportive owners in the tolman family to an incredibly hard-working, talented and supportive uh leader and the ceo, mr raggett you know they're, they are part of the people equation. If, if you like, that's got to be right to allow general managers like myself and that to lead their own teams and their own properties, and that's important. And then, coming down to our level here, the on-poverty teams, their engagement, their happiness, their welfare, their well-being everything goes into making a happy team, absolutely key to that, translating into a guest experience, and I think I'd hope every general manager would say the same. But it cannot be more said about that of a red carnation.
Speaker 1:You know culture and and probably that that is is the importance, and you know myself. Come back to 25 years. You know I'm one of a number of long-standing general managers that they've booted 20-25 years in and and I think we were looking at one of the, the new boys the other day and and he's only got 15 years, sort of thing. So you know that doesn't happen. You know if there isn't a culture of happiness and commitment and real care. You know from ownership CEO all the way through the teams. You know up and down, if you like to say that, and it certainly is important and key.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, one of the things I've certainly experienced myself and understand from top performing organizations is that they celebrate success together, sort of a great representation of excellent culture, and that's certainly what you do every year at the red carnation, with a massive christmas party that everyone wants to be a part of, and you bring people in from all over the world and have a you know, a massive gathering that everyone raves about and feels privileged to be a part of. So you certainly walk the walk in addition to talk the talk, and I think that's you know, that really makes a difference. So, malcolm, I'm going to ask you one last question and then I'll let you go which is have given your, your personal expertise, what advice would you give to someone else aspiring or coming up in the world of hospitality? Would you?
Speaker 1:give to someone else aspiring or coming up in the world of hospitality.
Speaker 1:Um, you know, I I would always say to everyone you know, come into hospitality if you enjoy people. You know, if you enjoy being around people it's such a wonderful, um profession to be involved with if you love people and and I love people myself and, and you know I'm surrounded by a number of professionals here that also love people and it's always about the people so enjoy that. Uh, I would always say to everyone, you know, come in, be positive. You know, work hard, you do whatever.
Speaker 1:You can always go the additional mile, always do that little bit extra, always look for that opportunity to do that little bit extra, to always look for that opportunity to do that little bit extra, to take advantage not just for the tasks that you may or may not be doing, but for the experience of completing it. Because, you know, in our world we are charged with, you know, the care of our guests' experiences, the care of our team experiences, and it's an incredible responsibility but if we get it right, you know it's the most rewarding, most rewarding job and profession to be involved with. You know that that care of people's time, people's memories and memories that lasts a lifetime. What a responsibility and what a privilege.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and speaking of a privilege, what a privilege is to know you, to have this time together with you, malcolm.
Speaker 2:I obviously I value our friendship and the history and obviously have a great respect and affinity for Red Carnation Brett, vicky, jonathan, the whole team and all the general managers I've had the privilege to know and get to know over the years, and whenever I see you guys it's just delightful, and so I look forward to seeing you in London again, hopefully in the near future and keeping in regular contact.
Speaker 2:But I certainly want to wish you, your family, your son Jake hopefully he wins, you know the next big football match this season and you coach his team as well, so that's another special thing about you. But as I coach my son in baseball and this is some of the things that you and I have connected on over the years, but, yeah, malcolm, real great pleasure to have this friendship and connection with you and I certainly look at you as one of the great leaders in this industry and I'm sure many people who have listened to this will go and find you on LinkedIn to be able just to understand and see the things that you share. And then also we check out red carnationcom and have the privilege, if they haven't already, to stay at a red carnation hotel, um, but definitely, if you're going to London, rubin's and hotel 41, um, very special places to stay. But yes, thank you again, malcolm, for being here.
Speaker 1:Thank you, dan, great opportunity and thank you very much for for giving me a bit of a platform for a short time. Come on, I'll talk about my hotels and red carnation hotels. You're right, I'm on linkedin and I'm also on on the red carnation website and those of the hotels. Please, anyone in london reach out to me. Anyone heading scotland ways, reach out me for, uh, anything I do for them in edinburgh. Uh, and thanks for all the sports tips you've given me over the years. It's amazing how american sports are very similar to british sports and just, you're a few years ahead. So I just take it and reinvent it in the football world. To take your baseball advice, reinvent it in the football world.
Speaker 1:And we're OK on a Saturday morning, so it's all good. And the other thing is, I'm sure that everyone does know what you look like and so when they see the picture there'll be no problem. But for anyone that doesn't know what you look like and certainly don't know what like when you see the picture you'll be the one in trousers thanks so much, malcolm, real pleasure.
Speaker 2:I look forward to everyone checking out that photo and maybe at some point we can do kilts together brilliant.
Speaker 1:I look forward to that day next year next year.
Speaker 2:Thanks dan take care everyone thanks so much for joining us on this very first episode of season two of our special hospitality series in partnership with forbes travel guide. I hope you enjoyed this discussion with malcolm hendry from Hotel 41 and the Rubens at the Palace. As you heard, he has a very inspiring story to tell and many valuable insights. So thank you again, malcolm, for joining us. I'm so glad we were able to make this happen and to kick off the series with you. Now we're going to be launching new episodes every Thursday for the next 10 weeks. You'll be able to find these on TravelTrendsPodcastcom, on Spotify, on Apple and the Forbes Travel Guide team will be sharing them in their newsletters and on social channels as well. We'll be sure to put out clips and highlights, because we have some great video highlights. So make sure that you check out both of our social channels.
Speaker 2:At Forbes Travel Guide and at Travel Trends Podcast, we're on Instagram, youtube and LinkedIn, and then next week we're actually going to have a fellow Canadian. Her name is Sarah McIntosh, but she is the hotel manager of the Mayborn Beverly Hills. You have to stay tuned for that conversation, because we talk about the White Lotus, the show that we're all obsessed with, and then we're going to continue with a number of fascinating individuals from all over the world. We're going to have the managing director of the very first Carinthia Hotel in New York. Pradeep Raman, is going to join us, and that was an exceptional conversation.
Speaker 2:We are going to have Pierre-Louis Renaud, who is based in Cannes, the Carlton Cannes Hotel, and one of my favorites, marc Basalago, who is running the Waldorf Astoria in the Seychelles. But that is just a glimpse of the number of people that are going to be joining us over the next several weeks. So make sure that you are also signed up to receive our monthly newsletters at TravelTrendsPodcastcomcom and we'll send a summary around of all the latest special hospitality series. So make sure that you register for that and on the streaming platform of your choice. And until next time, safe travels.
