18 hotelsmag . com April 2018

Boustany took over management of the hotel in 1994 .

explains . Now CEO and majority stakeholder of Metropole Group , he never assumed he would work for his father , who died in 2009 . “ He was quite extraordinary , this man ,” says Boustany , who describes their relationship as close .

Nabil Boustany purchased the hotel ( for “ a lot of money ”) from British owner Grand Metropolitan . The original hotel was built in the late 1800s to attract gamblers from the glittering casino nearby ; Boustany père spent US $ 140 million , according to reports , gutting it and excavating three floors for a shopping mall .

Boustany fils , meantime , did a stint at U . S . construction giant Bechtel and earned an MBA from Cambridge University before joining the business , but his father ’ s management style , “ sit down and listen ,” didn ’ t resonate . His father eventually agreed to give him some responsibilities — and shortly afterward announced he was joining Lebanon ’ s government to reconstruct the country after its civil war .

A contract with Conrad Hotels ended in 1993 , and “ I was managing not just the hotel

but the group , starting in 1994 ,” Boustany says , laughing . “ It was …" He pauses . “ How can I say … it was a very average hotel .” He adds , “ I wouldn ' t say that at 27 I transformed the hotel , to be honest . But it allowed me to look at deficiencies and problems .”

TRANSFORMATION “ I was basically there on the day that Fadi said , let ’ s create a luxury hotel ,” says Jean- Claude Messant , now managing director of the Royal Mansour in Marrakech , Morocco . As GM , Messant was key in the development of the new vision . He describes Boustany as warm and friendly , lacking egotism but a tough manager . “ A lot of companies want to make money on day one . Fadi understood that … he will make money eventually , in year two , in year three . What he achieved is not for him but for his kids .”

A concept document describes the soul of the hotel : timeless , glamorous , with sophisticated and demanding clientele . The litmus test employed a muse of sorts : “ In whatever we did , we thought , would Audrey Hepburn be happy seeing this ? It worked ,”