BERLIN—With the opening act warming up, Hard Rock Hotels & Casinos executive Josh Littman is ready to crank up the pace for expanding the brand into Europe and the Middle East.
Littman, Hard Rock’s director of development for the EMEA, said during a break at last month’s International Hotel Investment Forum that expanding in the region is critical for the brand.
“In Europe, the brand awareness for cafes definitely outpaces the awareness of the hotels, and we’re out to change that,” he said. “We can penetrate consumers in a much broader environment than just the hotel space, but hotels tend to be more recognizable, highly visible assets, and we want to leverage that.”
Hard Rock has 179 venues in 55 countries—including 19 hotels with approximately 11,500 guestrooms.
The company has no hotels in Europe or the Middle East, but that will change in May when Spain-based Palladium Hotel Group opens the 493-room Hard Rock Hotel Ibiza in the Balearic Islands. The architects for the project are Jestico & Whiles, which is well known for creating iconic bars at hotels, among other things.
Littman said Hard Rock is looking at other opportunities with Palladium around the world. Palladium owns 48 hotels in Spain, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Italy and Brazil. It operates seven brands: The Royal Suites by Palladium, Palladium Hotels & Resorts, Fiesta Hotels & Resorts, Ayre Hoteles, Mallorca Rocks Hotel, Ushuaia Beach Hotel and Agroturismo Sa Talaia.
Hard Rock’s second hotel in the EMEA region—the 378-room Hard Rock Hotel Abu Dhabi owned by Aabar Properties, is a new-build project slated to open in 2017.
“When we get a couple hotels up and running in the region, the deal flow will be much faster,” Littman said. “The market seems to be shifting a little bit as investors are looking for different types of deals and separating themselves from the crowd.”
Looking for new markets
Littman said he has spent the first 20 months of his tenure in Europe letting people know there’s an Hard Rock representative on the ground there. A perfect scenario would be adding two to three projects a year to the pipeline, he said.
The company is working on a couple of projects in Europe, including one in the heart of Munich, that could be announced once one or two details are ironed out, according to the executive.
Littman said Hard Rock is looking to expand in key capital and gateway cities in Europe and the Middle East.
“In those markets we want to be in triple-A locations,” he said. “We don’t necessarily want to use our brand as a catalyst for development; we need to be around synergistic activities.”
He cited London, Amsterdam, Paris and Barcelona, Spain, as high-profile markets in which the brand would like to have a hotel presence. He later said Malta, the Canary Islands, Scotland, Ireland and mainland Spain are desired locations.
The brand also has struck a chord in resort locations with an international feel—places such as Ibiza and other resort islands around the Mediterranean, Mexico and the Caribbean.
Littman stressed the individuality of HRH is one of the chief reasons he sees a big opportunity in the EMEA.
“A hotel is a hotel … that shell, the envelope is the same,” Littman said. “Where we differ is the interior design and the feel. The colors, the textures, and things like that—that’s what makes it different.”
The company prefers to manage assets owned by others, but franchising or leasing might make sense in some locations, Littman said.
“We have the infrastructure in place, and no one can manage our brand the way we can,” Littman said. “Our first instinct in Europe is everyone wants to do a safe real estate lease, but now people are talking about wanting the upside, so we will see how it plays out.”
The hotels reflect their location through design
“We have brand standards, but most of them are on the design side to make sure we have enough space,” Littman said. “That allows us to work with some unique buildings and funky spaces.”
Music is the calling
It’s no surprise that Hard Rock’s hotels are focused on music. The May 18 opening of the Ibiza property coincides with the Ibiza International Music Summit.
“Music resonates with people; it’s not all about rock ‘n’ roll,” Littman said. “Wherever we are the music is relevant to that location. You can adjust your business to target the local culture.”
Hard Rock bills itself as owning the largest collection of rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia, which differentiates the hotel brand in a sea of chains trying to be unique and different.
“That’s the hand we play with developers,” Littman said. “That’s the new norm in our competitive space. … Everyone wants to be different. We’re in the music space (and) no one can step in without copying us.
“We operate the hotels like any other hotel, but we promoted over 25,000 live music events last year,” he added. “Think about what we can tap into with that presence in the hotel space. We really are a lifestyle brand above and beyond a hotel experience. It is really hard to operate in the lifestyle space and stay relevant and different from your competitors. We’ve been able to do that through music.”