BANGKOK—When Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas unveiled plans to add five new-build resort properties across five countries last month, it marked a dramatic expansion for the luxury brand. The Bangkok-based Six Senses already operates nine resorts, including three under the Evason brand, in far-flung destinations in Asia and the Middle East, ranging from Thailand to Oman and Vietnam to Jordan. Two more are under construction, including one that will mark the brand’s entry into China.
But the plans unveiled last month include Six Senses’ Western Hemisphere debut with resorts planned for St. Lucia and the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean and Colombia in South America. All are scheduled for completion by 2016.
Fueling the wave of growth at Six Senses, which was founded nearly 15 years ago, is the support of Pegasus Capital Advisors, LP, a U.S.-based private equity firm. Pegasus affiliates acquired Six Senses almost a year ago, seeing its potential to become a truly global luxury brand.
From its founding, Six Senses’ business model has primarily been—and will continue to be—as a manager on behalf of third-party owners, rather than as an owner in its own right. “That said, we will likely also take an ownership position based on the project, partners and location. These days, a lot of owners want to see the operator have some skin in the game,” explained CEO Neil Jacobs, noting that the ownership stake could be as small as sliver equity.
Jacobs, a 30-year hospitality veteran, was brought in by Pegasus to run the business earlier this year. Unlike other luxury resort brands, the spa
component is at the heart of the Six Senses concept, on an equal footing with other elements of the resort experience, and is not something Jacobs ever sees changing.
“The spa component is hugely important to the brand. It’s been our DNA from day one,” Jacobs told Hotel Business, noting that the company also operates 29 freestanding spas under the Six Senses name that are separate and independent of the resorts.
Asked to describe Six Senses’ approach to spas, Jacobs distinguishes the company’s approach from what many consumers imagine. “In many ways, ‘spa’ is a limiting word because many people tend to think just ‘beauty,’ ‘body treatment’ and so on. Our focus is wider than that. It includes a wellness platform that is physical, in terms of exercise, and the spiritual, meaning such self-actualization techniques as yoga and meditation,” Jacobs said.
Going forward, he said he expected the self-actualization offerings to be even more dominant. “With the increase in holistic lifestyles, people are being much more health-conscious. They may talk about it, but not everyone embraces all aspects of it,” he noted.
At the same time, Jacobs said he and the Six Senses team remain cognizant that today’s luxury travelers book with a certain expectation of the comfort and amenities that await them. Prior to joining Six Senses, Jacobs was president of global hotel operations for the Starwood Capital Group and, before that, spent 14 years at Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, stepping down as SVP of operations for the Asia-Pacific region.
“Consequently, luxury is part of the experience we provide, though perhaps executed in a slightly different way. You don’t find a lot of conventionally luxe materials, for example.
Rather, it’s a bit more organic and natural in terms of the environment, sustainability being a huge part of our make-up as well,” he explained.
Looking to the future, the brand is open to new-builds and conversions, including adaptive reuse projects. Jacobs looks forward to establishing the Six Senses brand in urban settings, where the brand is already known in cities like London and Paris from its freestanding spas.
He acknowledged that it’s easier to develop in a resort setting, however, since developers have more land at their disposal. Jacobs resists the idea that spas have to have many treatment rooms to be successful. “It’s about the programs; urban spas can be very tailored,” he said.
Given its global aspirations, Jacobs and his team try to customize each hotel and spa to the local market—to a degree. “We want to be contextual. If it’s a destination that has a history and tradition of the healing arts such as China, Thailand, Indonesia or India, for example, you clearly want to reflect that tradition in the interior design and the modalities of the treatments,” he noted.
“Having said that, if I’m in the Middle East and the spa offers a hammam treatment, which is native to that region, the guests it will appeal to most are likely to be international visitors. They want a Middle Eastern kind of experience. If, on the other hand, I’m a Middle Eastern visitor, I might like a European facial. In other words, you can’t just keep your offerings locally or regionally based. It’s a balance,” he said.
Like the CEOs of other aspiring global brands, Jacobs would like Six Senses to have a presence in the U.S. “It’s key to the long-term success of the company. The U.S. is one of the most important markets—if not the most important—in the world. After all, one way to have more North Americans visit our international properties is to have properties closer to their homes, so they can become familiar with the product and the brand,” he reported.
New York is high on Jacobs’ wish list for an urban center, as are Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago. “The type of product we offer would appeal to those markets, particularly to the California markets, considering the kind of organic nature of what we do,” Jacobs said.
“As for Manhattan, everything flies as long as you do something interesting and relevant. There’s that much demand.”