Based in Hong Kong, Gordon Oldham is a UK-trained lawyer who has recently created his own hotel group.
The Pavilions Hotels & Resorts celebrate Oldham's love of of design, life, nature, history, conservation, adventure and culture. Since launching, the group has rapidly expanded, with boutique locations now including Amsterdam, Madrid, Rome, Lisbon and Niseko, as well as a unique pop-up adventure camp in Mongolia.
A keen adventure traveller, throughout his life and career, Oldham has ventured to some of Asia’s most remote and beautiful locations. It was through these experiences that he developed the idea for Pavilions.
1. The hotel industry/market is quite a saturated one - tell me what The Pavilions brings to the market that was not already available?
The experience. Luxury is not about how much money you spend, it’s about the experiences you have. That can mean something as simple as relaxing with your partner by your private pool in an ultra-comfortable and exclusive villa in Phuket or as exotic as riding over the Mongolian Steppes on the trail of Genghis Khan at our new Pavilions Mongolia pop-up camp. You can rebalance the Universe with 200 Tibetan monks in Pavilions Himalayas or take it easy in a spacious nature-inspired luxury home in Niseko with snow-capped mountains as your backdrop. Like beauty, luxury is in the eye of the beholder and all our properties offer a distinct luxury of their own. The luxury of exclusive adventure.
2. What distinguishes a Pavilions hotel?
I look for experienced architects and designers when conceptualising the style of property I intend to build, and I look for a deep understanding of the nature and culture of the location where I want to build it. These are critical components to get right. Too many hotel rooms are just boxes with a bed with not even lip service to their location. The hotel sets the tone for the quality of the experience. Then comes the software if you like, and these are all experience driven. All Pavilions properties offer experiences that are enshrined in the spirit of adventure, art, culture or romance. There are different emphasis depending on the project, hotel, residence and its location. But they are our guiding lights.
3. It’s an incredibly varied destination list where you have properties - tell me about how you choose where in the market to open hotels?
I seek out properties that are in excellent locations and embody one of our four brand-pillars: adventure, romance, art and culture. My core passions have always been traveling and adventure, so the opportunity to create something new and inspiring in places where people love to explore made perfect sense. If you build it, they will come. If you create magic, they will come back! We always select locations for their unique beauty and charm. We take delivery of two boats at the end of the year one for the Indonesian archipelago and one for Burma. Needless to say the theme is Adventure in luxury. Since I still first started publishing Action Asia magazine dedicated to adventure travel in 1992 these sort of faraway places have been second nature, and the idea is to do them now but without needing a rough sleeping bag and blister cream.
4. What - for you - makes for a memorable stay in a hotel?
Service. Service is all about being looked after by people who enjoy looking after you. It’s not just the place. It’s the human element and a mindful service culture are more important than the number of threads on your sheets – although that helps. We try to give our guests back time: to spend with their loved ones, focus on wellness, focus on adventure, focus on just being or focusing on what matters most to them instead of waiting for room service dishes to be collected, followed by housekeeping, followed by engineers and a caravan of assorted staff!
5. Where and how do you plan to expand The Pavilions?
We are always looking for opportunities. We recently expanded our branded-residences concept in Phuket by building six new luxury villas, so we are continuing to leverage the success of our flagship resort in Asia. We recently expanded to Niseko in Hokkaido, which is the northern most island in Japan and a place of exceptional beauty renowned for some of the world’s best powder snow. The skiing is superb and relatively unknown in Europe. There we are building a resort in the foothills of Mount Yotei, which will be complemented by villas for sale and a retail and an adventure concierge component. We are expanding into two of the most aspirational destinations in the globe - Nepal and Mongolia – where we just opened a tented camp in the latter and are preparing to open a climbing lodge on the trail to Everest Basecamp and expanding Pavilions Himalayas in Pokhara. I have always loved the mountains, but I am fascinated by the sea and recently secured two boats for travellers looking to explore two of the world’s most undiscovered dive destinations in Raja Ampat in Indonesia and the Mergui Archipelago in Myanmar. Bali is always close to my heart too, and we recently opened a wellness retreat there called Revivo. We are also very active in Europe and with hotels in Amsterdam (The Toren), in Rome (The First Luxury Art Hotel) with an additional two to come, Madrid (The Pavilions Madrid) and Lisbon (The Pavilions Lisbon), where we will also have residences for sale. Over the last two and a half years we have invested $120 million in our expansion.
6. I was struck by this explanation: “The Pavilions is not restricted to the development, sales and marketing of hotels. The Pavilions has evolved to include residences such as villas, apartments, penthouses, the conservation, restoration, and conversion of historical buildings to create commercially viable developments and provide a heritage experience.” Can you talk to me a little bit more about the latter part of this description - about the conservation/restoration of historical buildings?
Sustainability is fundamental to The Pavilions philosophy. You only have to look at our locations to see why. All our hotels resorts and residences are either surrounded by stunning natural scenery or magnificent human heritage. In both types of destination, our aim is always to enhance, preserve and respect the location and to support the local environment and culture.
The Pavilions Lisbon – our stunning property that opens in 2020 – will incorporate two stand-alone 19th-century- listed buildings with important historical significance, so we have to adhere to strict building codes in order to preserve the original architecture. The buildings feature fabulous artworks and mosaics, but it’s quite a challenge to create a hotel with operational functionality. The final result will offer guests a beautiful stay in the Portuguese capital and a totally unique experience.
7. When you’re sitting next to someone at a dinner party - how do you articulate what it is you do?
Well my other full-time job besides being a hotelier is being a lawyer and because I tend to have the floor most of the day with clients, I need to listen more than talk at dinner parties. If pressed, I tell them that half the time I get paid for arguing with strangers and alienating myself and the other half of my time I try to excel in hospitality and being nice to strangers . Sometimes I get them mixed up.
Is there a piece of advice you’ve been given or something you’ve learned along your journey as an entrepreneur that has distinctly changed the way you do business?
Yes. Never give advice unless you are asked because everybody is more determined to prove that they know best and they don’t need advice or the value of experience. It worked for me although I wish I could have short circuited some of it!
