Markus Engel, CEO and Founder of dynamic hotel group Urban Resort Concepts, on the changing expectations of corporate travellers, the need for authenticity, and crafting hotels that put the guest experience first. 

After a successful career working for the who’s who of the hospitality world, what inspired you to create your own brand and what were the principal motivations behind that bold move?

It has always been a dream to create something of depth, quality and longevity, not specific to one particular profession or calling. Something that is real, that people positively engage in, that they enjoy or even admire, something expressive that creates a canvas for exchange, conversation, growth and development. Hospitality is one of these expressions and importantly one that allows me to create and cultivate a meaningful experience for our guests, my colleagues and the industry at large. At the time of Urban Resort Concepts’ (URC) creation, few, if any, luxury hotel brands were embracing an entirely new and resolutely guest-centric experience paired with a contextual design and aesthetic. This has resulted in a growing following for our brand.

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How important is the corporate traveller to Urban Resort Concepts?

Corporate travellers constitute approximately 60% of our clientele. The overwhelming majority comes from luxury fashion and accessory brands as well as from the technology, banking, pharmaceutical and automotive industries.

Many major cities in China are near the saturation point when it comes to hotels. How do properties better differentiate themselves?

Without exception, URC hotels are located in prime locations in their respective cities and are designed to accommodate 21st-century business travellers with state-of-the-art facilities. Importantly, these are paired with a design and aesthetic that exudes a calm resort atmosphere, in order to create a soothing haven in the middle of bustling metropolitan environments. This, combined with our new guest-centric Hostmanship guest service philosophy, which amongst others includes unprecedented benefits in our rates, are critical differentiating factors from the expected generic stereotypes associated with a conventional luxury hotel. All of these aspects reflect and pay tribute to the noticeable changes in consumer behaviour that have occurred over the past several years.

Hotel brands are trying to break away from the cookie-cutter approach – with varied success. How do your properties offer guests a sense of place?

URC was founded on the back of realising that conventional and traditional luxury hotel brands are largely employing a formulaic approach to their product, placing little emphasis on authenticity and location context in their design and product. We wanted to be different. A URC hotel is conceived starting with a blank piece of paper and every aspect of its design and guest experience is entirely bespoke to context, customer and destination. We go through a long process of determining and establishing the potential angles and components that add to the overall hotel concept while engaging the world’s foremost design teams and consultants to implement that strategy. Tributes to this philosophy are naturally found not only in the design, the materiality and aesthetic, but equally in all other aspects of the hotel, including the food and beverage and wellness offerings, as well as all other activities offered to guests.

The Lobby of The PuLi Shanghai

When creating your flagship property, the PuLi in Shanghai, you devised a hotel that really busted the urban hotel mould. What were you trying to achieve and what lessons did you learn along the way?

I have always believed that running a hotel is an artisanal craft that requires talent, training, skill, passion, dedication, commitment, the right tools and materials and expertise that is acquired over long periods of experience. My focus is exclusively guest and quality-centric and aims to create an overall experience with depth, longevity and a disruptive quality.

“The business travel industry has been undergoing a period of massive change, fuelled by a technological evolution and the unique needs of a younger, dynamic and ultra-connected demographic group in search of creativity, innovation and interactivity and the blurring of lines between work and leisure.”

The numerous international awards and accolades that The PuLi has garnered since its opening, which have consistently placed it amongst the best hotels in the world, and a repeat guest ratio of 42% tells me that we are on the right path. It also tells me that our customers value our product.

Notwithstanding, the operation of The PuLi has also given us very valuable insights into how consumer behaviour is constantly evolving, how expectations towards luxury hotels continue to change. We fail on occasion just as every business does, but we learn from our mistakes and continue listening, learning and evolving our product based on our customers and will continue pushing the envelope further on inclusions and intuitiveness of the guest experience.

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Explain to us your concept of “Hostmanship”.

The central premise of the URC guest service philosophy is the exclusive focus on our guests on all levels. This means creating an environment that is more personal, more generous, more intuitive and more engaging. This is achieved through a corporate culture in which staff are truly empowered and become true custodians of the guest experience. Additionally, the systems and processes of the hotel were “re-engineered” to meet our guest’s need as opposed to making our operations easier for us.

This means the elimination of any undue bureaucracy and petty charges. This means all of our hotels now include revolutionary benefits included in their rates, ranging from 24 hours check-in and check-out flexibility; URC & LUXE City Guide app for qualifying rates; daily breakfast (At The RuMa and The PuXuan); and fully-stocked complimentary minibar; through to laundry and pressing service of up to three pieces per room per day; secretarial services; use of meeting room for up to two hours; local calls; John Lobb signature shoe care ritual and service (currently only at The PuLi, with URC-wide rollout to follow soon); and Rimowa cleaning and repair service (currently only at The PuLi, with URC-wide rollout to follow soon).

Guest Room at The PuXuan

Your group has ventured into residences; who do these properties appeal to and is it something we will see more from Urban Resort Concepts?

Importantly, we strive to fully integrate any of our developments’ residences into the service and amenity infrastructure of the respective hotel, thus creating a true and homogenous luxury living experience. The idea of branded residences is not new; their complete integration into a luxury hotel infrastructure is. The professional management of each unit through the hotel and importantly, the unit’s long-term asset appreciation through its association with one of its destination’s leading luxury hotels make this a very unique residence and investment opportunity and is certainly a concept we hope to see more under the right set of collaborative circumstances.

Which Chinese cities are you looking to develop in and why?

China has become one of the world’s most important travel and tourism economies, and we are gearing up to triple our footprint by 2025 in key Chinese gateways such as Shenzhen, Hangzhou, and Chengdu. Equally, many opportunities exist in some of China’s more beautiful and unspoilt regions to develop top tier URC luxury resorts.

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How about further afield in other Asian destinations?

We are mindful that, at some point, we are likely to exhaust Chinese cities in which we can command the rates we do, so it is exciting to see how we will become part of developments elsewhere in Asian, Middle Eastern and European destinations such as Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Gulf States, and Europe.

What’s more important to expand rapidly, the inventory, or the image?

The two most fundamental questions we ask ourselves before getting involved in a project is the relationship with the developer and the proposed location. URC hotels are designed to compete with the best in class and therefore require A-grade locations. Equally as important though is a shared vision between the developer and URC. Only if both interests are fully aligned are we able to deliver a top-quality product. Growth at any cost has never been a driving factor for our company. The singular purpose is to create some of the world’s leading luxury hotels and this is only possible in a collaborative relationship with hotel owners/developers. In this respect, we are kissing many frogs before finding a prince.

The RuMa Kuala Lumpur

Unlike many large groups, your hotels all have their own distinctive identity – one could even be forgiven for not knowing that they were part of the same group. Was this by design and how does it influence the guest experience?

Contrary to other hotel brands, we do not believe in propagating one brand but in developing hotels that evolve to become individual brands in their own right. Knowledge has become the new currency of luxury consumers and it is therefore important to stand out through individual product quality and to not simply make hollow and repetitive brand promises that are generally not kept. The sense of place that we instill in each of our properties makes our hotels very individual and bespoke, while at the same time binding them together through our commitment to Hostmanship and guest experience and considered aesthetic that is consistent throughout all our properties and recognisably URC.

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The business travel industry has been undergoing a period of massive change, fuelled by a technological evolution and the unique needs of a younger, dynamic, and ultra-connected demographic group in search of creativity, innovation and interactivity and the blurring of lines between work and leisure. Corporate guests will find that, while many aspects of what made The PuLi successful over the years have endured, we have continued to evolve and adapt in our pursuit of singular experiences that always remain relevant to the needs of today’s traveller.

“Our belief is that the true quality of the guest experience is determined by the human interaction between our staff and our guests, and while we might adapt some aspects of our roles and permanently adopt them beyond the crisis, that ultimately cannot happen meaningfully without face time.”

The implementation of URC’s Hostmanship is just one example where, beyond creating an environment that is more personal, more generous, and more engaging, the provision of extra benefits not typically included in room rates is a central premise of the commitment to putting the needs of guests first.  Countless other initiatives are in place, including strategic collaborations with luxury brands to create enriching and differentiated experiences and the cultivation of immersion tours that give more intimate access to a destination.

The PuYun

What can you tell us about your new Moganshan property and what about this hotel would appeal to business travellers?

Located 45 kilometres northeast of Zhejiang province’s capital, Hangzhou, and 130 kilometres southwest of Shanghai, Moganshan’s cool mountain air and idyllic, natural setting provides the perfect backdrop for our first villa-only resort, where state-of-the-art amenities blend the soothing properties of exquisite indoor and outdoor spaces with an abundance of activities, dining options, and awe-inspiring sights. This is the perfect leisure and MICE destination, offering guests a culturally authentic, diverse, unique, and memorable experience inspired by the region’s vibrant past and present.

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In a new era defined by social distancing and what we know will be a greater focus on wellness, hygiene, and safety, hotels need to up their game when it comes to safeguarding the health and wellbeing of guests. In addition to all the enhanced hygiene protocols already in place at all our hotels, we are looking into new ways of harnessing technology in our sanitation and screening processes, while remaining unobtrusive, so as to not negatively affect the luxury hotel guest experience.

As at all URC hotels, wellness and providing a safe haven have always been an integral cornerstone of a true urban resort experience and we are investing significant time and resources in research and development in order to retain a nimble and adaptable offering that continues to evolve and that embraces the latest consumer sentiment and behaviour, hygiene and sanitation best practices adopted from several world-leading epidemiology experts, as well as engaging new technology.

The PuLi Shanghai

There are many conversations in the industry about contact-free hospitality, due to the need for social distancing. Our belief is that the true quality of the guest experience is determined by the human interaction between our staff and our guests, and while we might adapt some aspects of our roles and permanently adopt them beyond the crisis, that ultimately cannot happen meaningfully without face time. While the current pandemic is exerting a terrible toll on mankind, therapeutic progress is being made that will ultimately lead to a vaccine and perhaps as importantly, awaken the world to our vulnerabilities and the dangers of some of our current practices. Consequently, I am confident that we will ultimately return to an environment that allows for safe human interaction and that, as history has shown following cataclysmic events, we will usher in a time of unprecedented change for the better in many aspects of society.

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