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what personalized service really meant — focusing on the highest levels of detail ,” he said .
His star rose from there . He was eight years with a lodestar in luxury hospitality , Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts , where at his pinnacle he was director of food & beverage at the Four Seasons Resort Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt . “ I figured out that one of the key pillars of luxury is creating unparalleled experiences for guests , with many points of personalization ,” he remarked on his time and education with the luxury brand .
It ’ s as quixotic a quip as it is actual . Christmastime at the Four Seasons in Maui is an expectedly high-demand period . Acar remembers families wanting to dine at a certain time at a particular seaside restaurant , which created delays in service and a bottleneck in the kitchen . Acar
The Granville Suite at Raffles London at The OWO is named after Christine Granville , rumored to be Winston Churchill ’ s favorite spy .
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took an analog approach to remedy the situation . “ I went to the store and picked up a stack of radios ,” he said . The following day staff began taking orders from families on the beach , leaving each with a radio . They would then be called to the restaurant on the radio when their food was ready . “ We were turning tables three times faster , there was no waiting , the food was already on the table when they arrived and the kitchen was happy ,” he said .
Or in Sharm El Sheikh , when a VIP guest wanted to catch a fish in the Red Sea . Only there was a catch , the gentleman suffered from seasickness . The challenge : How to make sure that the fish bit in less than 20 minutes . A bit devious , Acar positioned underwater divers catching live fish . Once the boat arrived at the designated fishing point , and he threw his fishing line in , the divers put the
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live fish on the hook . “ He was so happy and never knew the lengths we went to make this dream possible ,” Acar said .
WINNING THE RAFFLE Making people happy and leading by example have carried Acar forward through his career . Post Four Seasons found him as general manager of arguably the most famous hotel in the world : Ritz Paris . There five years , he hopped from the 1st arrondissement to the 8th , becoming GM of Le Royal Monceau Raffles Paris , his first interaction with the brand that he would ultimately end up leading . As much as Fairmont has a Canadian heritage , Raffles ’ roots trace back to Asia Pacific , in Singapore , where the original Raffles Hotel opened in 1887 . ( The hotel is recognized as the birthplace of the Singapore sling cocktail .) In the span of 137 years , Raffles has taken on different iterations and ownership . In 2005 , Colony Capital bought Raffles Holdings for $ 1 billion from the Singapore government and a year later Raffles and Swissôtel joined Fairmont Hotels in a newly formed holding called FRHI Hotels & Resorts . In 2015 , Accor struck a deal to acquire FRHI Hotels & Resorts for more than $ 2.5 billion .
Beyond their different heritages , Fairmont and Raffles are distinct in their luxury delivery . Raffles hotels have been compared to jewel boxes , smaller room counts , with opulent amenities and extravagances , like butler
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service . And while the North America crowd is familiar with the Fairmont name , for a long stretch , Raffles was dormant in the region . That changed in 2023 with the opening of Raffles Boston , Raffles ’ only hotel in North America . The bulk of the 23-hotel portfolio is Europe , Middle East and Asia with notable recent openings including Raffles London at The OWO , located in what was the Old War Office building . This year , Raffles Jaipur opened and Raffles Sentosa Singapore and Raffles Jeddah are slated to open toward the end of the year . The recently announced Raffles Tokyo is scheduled for a 2028 opening and will occupy 46 floors of the city ’ s iconic World Trade Center building in the Hamamatsuchō district .
Properties like London , Raffles Makkah and , naturally , Raffles Singapore fit the brand mold , Acar said . “ We know our guests want to be at the most elegant address , so location is paramount for development .” At Accor , Raffles is known as “ the birthplace of stories and legends ”— but what happens at a Raffles hotel doesn ’ t have to stay at a Raffles hotel . “ We love a hotel where history echoes back at us ,” Acar said .
Without offering specifics , Acar did volunteer that “ exotic destinations ,” like in South America and the Caribbean , figured into future growth for Raffles , along with ski resort areas in North America and Europe . “ We have tremendous opportunity when it comes to
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62 hotelsmag . com September 2024 |