NEW YORK— Fairmont Hotels & Resorts has plans for a number of new hotels throughout North America, and even in Europe and Asia, according to Tom Storey, newly named executive vp/business development strategy for Canadian Pacific Hotels & Resorts (CPH&R), parent company of Fairmont Hotels & Resorts. Storey was on hand May 9 at New York’s Plaza Hotel, a Fairmont property, to attend a Fairmont corporate-wide program called “Adopt A Shelter,” through which company hotels will contribute used furniture and soft goods to local shelters for battered women. Prior to the event, Storey sat with HOTEL BUSINESS® to discuss his new position at the CPH&R, and the company’s plans for expansion. “We need resorts in Florida, we need a property in the Washington, DC area and we could probably use a good hotel in Atlanta,” said Storey, adding that Fairmont would also like to be in major gateway cities. “And, we continue to look at London, and we would love to do Asia,” he said. While noting the desire to expand globally, “the United States is our focal point,” he said. Fairmont presently has 10 properties in the U.S., he noted. Being in expansion mode is not necessarily a bad thing in a softening economy, noted Storey. “It could be a challenge from an operations perspective, but assets become more reasonably priced,” he said. Storey said that Fairmont has good access to capital because of its relationship with Legacy, a Canadian REIT of which it owns 35%. “We can take hotels and sell them to the REIT, which frees up cash,” said Storey, who noted that REITs in Canada operate under different laws from those in the United States. Fairmont hotels in the marketplace are positioned above brands like Marriott and Hyatt, and below Ritz-Carlton, said Storey. The typical size of Fairmonts, which tend to be in the 500-key range, are larger than Ritz-Carlton’s average 350 keys, and larger than Four Seasons’ 250 keys. This advantage in size gives Fairmont a leg up when it comes to entertaining large groups, said Storey. Moreover, Fairmont hotels are unique because they tend to have eight to 10 different room types at each property, he said. “So we don’t make rooms the same size, like Ritz-Carlton or Four Seasons. We take a certain number of rooms and make them so that they’re over the top, [for example], our suites, or the rooms on our Entree Gold [concierge]floor. So with big groups we can have CEOs in the suites, and everyone else in rooms that are great. So our goal is not to beat Ritz-Carlton or Four Seasons. Our goal is to provide a locale so people can host a big event at a certain level of luxury.” Prior to joining CPH&R full time, Storey was a consultant for the company for a year-and-a-half, most recently working on e-commerce initiatives that include a broad-reaching customer relationship management program that enables customer preferences to be recognized from one Fairmont hotel to the next. Fairmont has the technological infrastructure to support up to 200 hotels, said Storey, who noted that plans are for him to remain in technology projects at the company. As for the “Adopt A Shelter” program, Fairmont has established a system through which each of its hotels will now systematically channel used luxury goods like beds, towels, sheets and dressers, which would ordinarily be disposed of, to shelters in their local areas. New York’s Plaza Hotel, for example, will systematically give away goods as it refurbishes, to shelters for battered women throughout the city’s five boroughs. Shelter sites are kept confidential to protect those staying there.
