VILAMOURA, Portugal — Martinhal Family Hotels & Resorts is a rare beast within the hospitality landscape, a brand that has genuinely succeeded in maximising the loyalty of its core market: families.
Speaking at the Resort and Residential Hospitality Forum the brand’s CEO Chitra Stern, explained that the hotel industry generally doesn’t do a good job with the family market.
“It’s incredible how challenging it is to find a hospitality product that caters for a family of four. When you look at all the different concepts our beautiful industry has, you then have the realisation that there is not a product fit for purpose for a family of four… it’s almost quite shocking, “ she said.
Chitra Stern first came to Portugal in 2001 with her Swiss-German husband Roman Stern in 2001. Since then they have developed and operated four family hotels and resorts, two in the Algarve and two in Lisbon. Their newest project is a suite of branded residences in the Park of Nations district in Lisbon.
“We came over as real estate developers and the important part of the story is that we started having children in 2002 and it became clear that the unique positioning of our first resort should be solving the pain point for families who want a luxury holiday with their children without compromising too much on what they want as parents,” said Stern. “We are having children later and later and people are focusing on their professional lives before. By the time they have children, they don’t want to give up the wonderful holidays they have been having.”
Expansion potential
Stern said there was certainly the scope the have two more Martinhal resorts in Portugal. Expanding the brand outside Portugal would have to be done through master franchising or manchising.
She added: “Our guests often ask us: ‘When are you going to open in the US or elsewhere in Europe?’ Today 70% of our rooms revenue is direct because we’ve developed a brand and loyalty through our product and always adding to it, continuous innovation, continuous improvement and investing in our people.”
Asked if the brand would change outside Portugal, Stern said: “Building this brand in Portugal - yes it has had benefits of the wonderful Portuguese people and it has a Portuguese feel. Now isn’t that the challenge of any brand going abroad? How do you bring the standards into another country? You’ll have to adapt. I think the secret of a strong family hospitality brand is the people.”
Stern continued: “Having the niche is where we have our success because it’s doing things very well for the multi-generational family market. But that doesn’t exclude couples and young people.” The Martinhal hotel and resort in Chiado, Lisbon, for example, has 35% non-family bookings.
At the new Martinhal Residences in the Park of Nations, Lisbon, 90% of the apartment have already been sold to a mixture of families, empty nesters and investors of different nationalities. The remaining units on the 10th, 11th and 12th floors are retailing for between €1.9 and €2.9 million.