Editors’ Note

A fourth-generation hotelier, Geoffrey Gelardi assumed his post at The Lanesborough one year prior to its opening in 1991. Previous to that appointment, he served as Managing Director of the Sorrento Hotel in Seattle and the Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles.

Property Brief

A five-star ultra-deluxe property situated on London’s Hyde Park Corner, The Lanesborough, a St. Regis Hotel, occupies an 1823 landmark building that was restored to its original grandeur. The 49 rooms and 46 suites are decorated in Regency style, evoking the ambience of a 19th-century townhouse. Located in elegant Knightsbridge, the property is minutes away from the exclusive shopping of Harrods and Sloane Street. The Lanesborough is also known for its afternoon tea in The Conservatory, a chic and airy restaurant offering international cuisine. Guests may also enjoy a drink in the Library Bar, which offers an extensive array of vintage cognacs. The hotel boasts a Spa Studio, a Fitness Studio, a business center, concierge services, and six venues for meetings and social events.

How has London’s hospitality industry, and The Lanesborough in particular, fared over the past year?

The growth for 2007 was good – better than we anticipated.

Renovations and refurbishments seem to be the norm for The Lanesborough. What new projects are on the horizon?

The hotel is in as good a shape as it has ever been. We are constantly looking at not just the physical side but also the technical side. We are going to totally change the concept of the restaurant in 2008, with close to £2 million in renovations. We are also in the throes of putting a new guest entertainment system in the rooms that is faster and easier to use. We are on our third-generation WiFi system. We keep on trucking.

The restaurant renovation must have been a significant undertaking. Why did you decide to revamp The Conservatory?

While the restaurant was a success, it wasn’t as successful as I would have liked it to be. So we hired Adam Tihany to redesign it and we are working on a food concept that will be new to London. Running a restaurant can be a hotelier’s most difficult task, but I believe a restaurant can be a great marketing tool for a hotel. A large portion of our room reservations are derived from local companies who are booking these rooms for their guests or are recommending the hotel to visitors. If you eat at a hotel’s restaurant, have a drink at its bars, or attend a private function there and have a bad experience, you will automatically think the rest of the hotel is operated poorly. Therefore, it’s important for a hotel’s restaurant, bar, and private dining facilities to be up-to-date, well maintained, creative, and, of course, to have great service, because otherwise, it will reflect badly on the rest of the hotel. Restaurants certainly affect how the rest of the property is perceived by the public.

What sort of spa services does The Lanesborough offer?

We opened the Spa Studio about two and a half years ago. We have three treatment rooms, plus the exercise area with a full range of equipment. We offer a vast range of massages, facials, and body treatments, as well as manicures and pedicures. Would I love to have a 10,000-square-foot spa? That would be wonderful. But we are limited by the footprint of the hotel itself and have little space to expand. That said, we are looking at some interesting developments for the hotel.

What are your biggest challenges in the human resources area? Are you able to recruit and retain the talented employees you need to run the hotel?

Recruiting the right people is getting more and more difficult. Prospective employees have far greater expectations these days, from both a salary point of view and a career advancement point of view. They want to move up the ranks quickly. So it is difficult to hold on to people, and that’s where our industry loses out – in the consistency of our staff. However, at The Lanesborough, consistency is the lifeblood of our service concepts. The only way to provide guest recognition is to staff the same people in the same jobs year after year. You can use all sorts of tricks to make guests feel recognized, but in the final analysis, if you walk into a hotel, and you really do know the doorman and the doorman really knows you, that’s real recognition.

How do you balance technological advances within the hotel with old-fashioned personalized services?

One is always torn between giving the guests more technology or ensuring more interaction with the staff, and that’s an issue I constantly revisit. We need to look at how we’re using technology to meet our guests’ needs, because many people like the ease of technology. I like to see my bill before I go downstairs. But there’s also a lot to be said for personalized service. Technology is changing very quickly, as are our guests’ needs. So we need to give guests the option to do things whichever way they want to.

Over the course of your career in hospitality, how has the role of the hotelier evolved?

It has definitely changed. There’s less time spent in the lobby. E-mail seems to take up a lot of my time – it’s so easy for people to contact me that way. So the role has certainly changed, and you have to change with the times, but you have to be careful to not let technology take over your life.

You’ve been with The Lanesborough for more than 15 years. What has kept you with the property for so long?

It’s always nice to operate the number-one hotel in a major city. The Lanesborough has been the number-one hotel in London for at least 15 years now. The ownership has always been very good to me, letting me operate the hotel in the way I see fit. I cannot remember ever being turned down for a major capital request. I’ve been able to maintain the property and keep it in the number-one position. There’s a great deal of satisfaction in performing well in the London market, which is one of the most competitive hotel markets in the world.

With so much success under your belt, do you ever think about slowing down?

I hope I don’t slow down. I like what I do, and I would prefer to do more, to be quite honest. It’s an exciting industry. I hope to still be around for another decade or two.