Profile: John Spence
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Travel Daily chats with John Spence, chairman & CEO of Karma Resorts, about his life and business plans…
Q) What new development are Karma currently undertaking?
We have a whole plethora of new projects coming up. We’re currently renovating a chateau in the South of France, just outside St Tropez, and recently opened a beach club on Fiji’s Denarau Island. Next will be a beach club in the Gili Islands, off the coast of Lombok, and we’re developing a new resort behind Karma Kandara in Bali.
Also, we’ve received approval to build 80 new units at Rottnest Island in Australia, and we’re in the final stages of closing a new hotel in the UK. We’re also planning a new rugby bar at Twickenham and a spa in Norway.
Q) You appear to have a wide range of products and concepts – what ties them together?
Essentially we’re real estate developers. As an hotelier we’re owner-operators, so we’re masters of our own destiny. But we also want to expand horizontally, into spas, concerts, beach clubs and other areas. We want to be more than just a place to sleep – our job is to entertain!
Q) What type of guest is attracted to a Karma property?
We like to think of our resorts as offering a ‘five-star hippie’ experience! We attract people who are well-travelled and appreciate laid back luxury. Our hotels are boosted by a significant number of repeat visitors, and we generate a lot of organic growth through referrals. In our business we talk to a huge amount of people, and this also generates a lot of business. The real estate and hotel businesses feed off each other.
Q) You have three different hotel brands – Royal, Karma and Chakra. How do you differentiate them?
We started with Royal Resorts, which was intended to be a four-star, price-driven brand, then created the five-star Karma Resorts. But we saw a big demand for something in the middle. Chakra was launched to provide a 4.5-star brand, offering upscale products at a lower price, and it is now becoming our most popular brand.
The European recession has hit demand for the Karma brand, but we are seeing growing demand from Asian markets. We now have a lot of guests from Singapore, India and Australia. In fact the roles are now reversing. In the past, European visitors used to fuel demand for our Asian hotels, but now we’re seeing strong Asian demand for Europe.
But we remain fairly opportunistic. We don’t limit ourselves to one area. People come to me with proposals all the time, and I always like to consider new opportunities.
Q) You are a guest lecturer on architecture at Yale University. How big a part do architecture and design play in your hotels?
I’m not an architect, but I do like working with our teams to design new concepts. I approach it as a consumer, thinking about what I want out of a hotel. It has to be comfortable, striking a balance between formality and informality. I think some hotel architects now are sacrificing comfort for the sake of design. But you have to create customer satisfaction in whatever you do. At Karma we try to use natural, sustainable materials and make all our resorts relevant to their location.
Q) Which areas of Asia do you believe off the most potential for future development?
Bali is still a strong prospect. There are a lot of new hotels coming into the market, but it’s still a fantastic destination and Australia is such as strong natural source market. In Thailand we sold the Karma Samui, but we’re still looking at new sites in the country. If we were to return to Thailand it will be in Phuket, and I’m currently looking for a suitable site.
I also think that Australia has been enormously overlooked. Western Australia is really an extension of Southeast Asia, and holds huge potential. We have a piece of land in Palawan, in the Philippines, we’re keen to explore Vietnam, and India holds astronomical potential.
Q) Away from work, what do you do to relax?
Business is my hobby! I always enjoy my work, and it has led to other related things, like lecturing at Yale, addressing the ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ awards and working on philanthropic projects, including a school in Bangalore. I live on planes, which fortunately gives me time to read. But my big passion is wine.
Q) And when you travel, do you stay at Karma resorts?
I find it too difficult to switch off when I stay at my own resorts. That’s partly the reason we’ve never developed anything in the Maldives, which I love! In the summer I spend a lot of time in the Mediterranean, in Italy, Greece and the south of France. I’m 50 now, and still enjoy what I do. If I didn’t enjoy it, I’d stop. Maybe I’ll review the situation in 10 years, when I turn 60!
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