While many hospitality-related companies are bemoaning the downturn in travel spending, Six Senses Resorts and Spas sees the current situation as an excellent opportunity to build on its market-leading position to pursue new expansion initiatives.
As the only leading hotel group whose properties have twice won the Conde Nast Traveller Best of the Best accolade, and with positions at the top of its competitive peer group in most of its locations, Six Senses believes that opportunities to take over troubled resorts will come its way in the coming months.
“We are extremely selective about taking on existing properties,” says Chief Executive Sonu Shivdasani, “as they have to be able to take on our style and genre, not just in the physical product but also in terms of our service standards and commitment to quality”. Nonetheless, he feels that a number of ecologically-sensitive high-end resorts may seek the protection of a global brand with a proven reputation and is open to discussions with them.
At the same time, Six Senses is looking at identifying financial partners with which to launch a vehicle that can buy into troubled resorts and resort developments seeking capital. Simon Allison, the group’s Chief Financial Advisor notes: “We believe there will be excellent returns to be made in this sector in the next five years from acquiring top-end properties in strong locations at highly competitive prices. We would like to find financial partners that will drive this initiative with us. While we would be prepared to sell a small amount of equity to cement such an alliance, in the current market conditions Six Senses is not really keen on selling shares, but rather on finding like-minded growth partners who will focus on the real estate angle of the deals, while we bring our management and marketing skills to the table”.
