“ When you travel noW , it ’ s more than just going to find a place to stay . you ’ re looking for an alternate office for the period of time you ’ re there . you ’ re looking for entertainment . you ’ re looking to experience the city you ’ re in . so what we ’ re trying to do is create these community hubs that kind of bring that together .” – Brad Wilson
The InTervIew : Brad Wilson
Now , in L . A ., we have kind of a roof garden that feels like somebody ’ s backyard , and that ’ s where people hang out . It probably wouldn ’ t work in New York .
H : Who is your target guest today , and has that changed over time ?
BW : Our customer isn ’ t so defined by an age group . It ’ s defined by this interest in culture and community . So it really is a very broad span , from the 50- or 60-yearold gallery owner to the 20-something seeing America for the first time . H : Has it always been that diverse ? BW : Yeah . When Alex founded the
American Trade Hotel established Ace ’ s presence in Panama . The brand is looking at continued expansion in Central and South America .
“ When you travel noW , it ’ s more than just going to find a place to stay . you ’ re looking for an alternate office for the period of time you ’ re there . you ’ re looking for entertainment . you ’ re looking to experience the city you ’ re in . so what we ’ re trying to do is create these community hubs that kind of bring that together .” – Brad Wilson
company , his approach was pretty simple : that Ace would be the high card and the low card in the deck . When they opened Ace Seattle , there were small rooms with shared bathrooms , but there were also private rooms with full bathrooms that were sort of luxurious . Our hotel in New York has everything from a small bunk room all the way up to a corner loft suite that ’ s spectacular , and CEOs stay in it . We ’ re inclusive of everybody , and that ’ s always been how we plan things .
H : F & B accounts for a significant portion of your revenues . How have you achieved this , and what is its impact on your overall profitability ?
BW : In F & B , we ’ re fortunate enough to run pretty high margins because we attract a lot of our customers from outside the hotel . We focus our restaurants as having a different point of view from the hotel . They ’ re never hotel restaurants — they ’ re always restaurants for the location . Things like being focused on place work very well in the restaurant business . You have to understand your customer , and you have to build an environment they want to be in . It can ’ t ever be secondary to the hotel — it has to be a primary business on its own .
H : Do you work with third parties when it comes to restaurants ?
BW : Everything we do , we partner . From a florist in London to our juice bar in Los Angeles , we ’ re always working with partners . Part of our absolute creed is that everything is better when there are more minds involved . Everything we do , we have collaborators .
H : How do you choose the right collaborators ?
BW : It ’ s really about like-minded people and people who enjoy what they ’ re doing . We ’ re not a company out searching for celebrity chefs . We ’ re a company rooted in the idea of friends making hotels for friends , so a lot of our partnerships are about people we know , we like , that are doing great things , and we want to share that .
H : What is Ace ’ s focus in terms of marketing ? Is there more emphasis on social media and all its emerging formats given the nature of the brand ?
BW : We have a deep understanding of social media — it is our platform . We are represented in almost every social-media space . We have our own blog that ’ s very active . We are very active in social media sharing things we think are interesting . It includes hotel stuff , but a lot of it is not even relevant to the hotel .
H : Why has Ace focused on more “ off-thebeaten path ” locations for expansion ?
BW : We like interesting projects , so we tend to get drawn to buildings and neighborhoods that are interesting to us . Our next opening is in Pittsburgh , where we ’ re renovating a historic YMCA . That property kind of called to us . It ’ s in a new area that ’ s redeveloping called East Liberty just out of downtown , and it ’ s an amazing little building . We don ’ t necessarily start with the idea we need a hotel in Pittsburgh , but we start with seeing what ’ s interesting — buildings we think can be creatively repositioned .
H : There ’ s obviously some risk to entering
46 HOTELS January / February 2015 www . hotelsmag . com