We have lots in wellness. We launched an anti-aging clinic. The first one is in Kaplankaya. Anti-aging from the inside out; not invasive, no Botox. We\u2019re drawing a connection between brain and skin. We have an advanced beauty piece to it, with what\u2019s going on in the brain. We worked on anti-aging with a very accomplished neuroscientist called Claudia Aguirre in drawing those connections in our anti-aging.<\/p>\n
On sustainability, the big one this year is we announced completely plastic-free by 2022. Already today, there are no bottles, so we\u2019ve been doing that for years. We don\u2019t have bottled water in our hotels; no Perrier, no Pellegrino, no nothing. That\u2019s not new for us; we\u2019ve always made our own water, and we don\u2019t import anything. But what\u2019s new is plastic generally, and it\u2019s not necessarily about the guest facing stuff; it\u2019s more the suppliers. The fishermen who come with the plastic crates with the fish, etc. It\u2019s about educating all our suppliers. In the kitchens, we were doing a lot of sous-vide. The problem is, every time you do a filet de poisson<\/em> sous-vide, it\u2019s a little plastic bag, so no more, we can\u2019t do it. We take it pretty seriously. That\u2019s our big mission this year to get everyone thinking in this frame that by 2022, it\u2019s over.<\/p>\n This was our biggest year ever. We opened seven hotels in one year. For us, that\u2019s a lot. We opened Kaplankaya, Bali, 2 urban hotels in Singapore. New York is not opened yet; that will open in April\/May 2020. We thought it would be first, but then these two beautiful projects came in from Singapore. They\u2019re sustainable from the point of view that they\u2019re old buildings that we\u2019ve restored, so we haven\u2019t knocked anything down. We do the same on the plastic, the same on the water. The building is an old building, so there\u2019s only so much you can do with an old building. There\u2019s no solar, for example; I can\u2019t do it because they\u2019re protected buildings. We have to do it within the operation.<\/p>\n We opened Fiji. Now Fiji is completely 100% solar and powered by Tesla batteries. All the storage of the solar power, if not consumed, is kept in these Tesla batteries. It\u2019s the first time I think they\u2019ve done a complete property just on those batteries. That is hugely sustainable, just from the construction, natural resources, power generation, alternative power sources, etc. It\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n Bhutan is opening now. Cambodia will open in January. Next year, I\u2019m very excited about Israel in the Negev Desert and we\u2019ll open in Istanbul and the Bosphorus. There are still lots of exciting things happening, and it allows to do more sustainable things.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n We don\u2019t always use the same people. There are one or two that we like who really understand us. For example, in the Doura Valley and Kaplankaya outside Bodrum, we used the same lady to renovate because both were existing hotels. She\u2019s out of New York; her name is Kloda, an Irish woman. We like to work with her because she\u2019s very organic, she\u2019s very sustainable, she understands wellness, she\u2019s a wellness practitioner, so she kind of gets it. That\u2019s not always the case, so we have to find designers who share our ethos. Sometimes we design ourselves, but I don\u2019t want to go everywhere. For example, we did Bhutan ourselves. We do a lot of spas ourselves. It\u2019s easier to do it ourselves and teach someone how to do it. We\u2019re designing the hotel in Ibiza ourselves. We have a few like in New York where we have a Parisian designer, Gilles & Boissier. We have R\u00e9da Amalou as an architect. He did C\u00f4n Dau for us. He\u2019s doing Kitzb\u00fchel for us, so we spread it around.<\/p>\n We have a Head of Sustainability in Bangkok. In every hotel, there\u2019s a directory of sustainability, so it\u2019s a huge commitment. You don\u2019t find that in most hotel companies. When we do a project, we insist with the new owner that they hire a sustainability consultant. That is a deal-breaker; if they say they don\u2019t want to do that, then there\u2019s no deal. I\u2019m not a great believer in accreditation, but sometimes when you are dealing with hotel owners, you need a minimum baseline. We have LEED-Silver as a minimum. In Europe, it\u2019s BREEAM. Those go into our contracts. They add value to our buildings. The owners don\u2019t always think so because they still think it costs so much more, but it doesn\u2019t cost so much more and you save so much money and it\u2019s the right thing to do.<\/p>\n What we do\u2014and it\u2019s in our contracts\u20140.5% of our revenue, our total income, has to go to a sustainability fund. It\u2019s not negotiable. If you don\u2019t want to do that, no deal. We\u2019ll go somewhere else. Every hotel has this fund within where they have to talk to us about where the money\u2019s going to spent and so on.<\/p>\n The funds stay locally. It\u2019s better that way. Initially, when we bought the company, the money came to a center and as a group, we spent it. But it\u2019s not right. When we bought the company, I felt that if the money is raised in Oman, it should stay in Oman, not go to Thailand or France or whatever. It needs to stay local, so we changed it. The General Manager decides, and he has to talk to us, so it\u2019s a collective decision.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve created meditation and yoga rooms. But it\u2019s so much more than that. Our programs are around sleep, around food, around integrated wellness. We tune into blood oxygen levels, there\u2019s a jet lag app that\u2019s been tested now. We work with the Harvard professor of sleep. We are looking in energy programs in South America, shamanic rituals, we have incredible yoga programs. I think we\u2019re really the leader in that. I don\u2019t think we have too many competitors, at least on our level.<\/p>\n When we took the Singapore hotel, it was very small. 48 rooms. A historic building. No spa, no nothing. Just 48 rooms, a reception desk, a lounge, a bar, a restaurant. That\u2019s it. I go, \u201cOh, what are we going to do here? How can I do Six Senses without wellness?\u201d I can\u2019t. We differentiate now: spa is spa, wellness is wellness. They\u2019re different things.<\/p>\n There is a little lounge, maybe 15 square meters where you can sit 3 or 4 people right next to the check-in desk. And it was like a little private meeting for drinks or for a meeting. I said we should get rid of it, just rip it out. The owner said I couldn\u2019t change anything; he said, \u201cIf you change anything, you pay for it.\u201d I said, \u201cOk. I\u2019m going to pay for it, but I need to rip out this lounge.\u201d<\/p>\n So I tore everything out and put in a Chinese doctor, full-time, and a cupboard that they call \u201cthe cupboard of 100 drawers.\u201d We put in a Chinese doctor so when you check in to the hotel, he comes and takes your pulse, and you do a consultation with the doctor. We\u2019re in Chinatown. It\u2019s complimentary. And it\u2019s amazing. Instead of a welcome drink, you have a singing bowl ceremony which people love.<\/p>\n In the rooms, we put a basket of wellness toys, a little book of wellness, a Tiger Balm, a foot massage thing\u2014all in the room. And the Chinese doctor works with the kitchen so we have one Chinese restaurant, and alongside the menu, we have a Chinese herbal health menu. All of a sudden, just with a bit of imagination, we have a lot of wellness going on in these 48 rooms. No spa.<\/p>\n The second one that opened on Sunday, we have a little spa. And it\u2019s two streets away, so if you\u2019re one, you can go to the other. They\u2019re two different hotels, two different buildings, but we call them Six Senses Singapore in two different buildings. One is very Chinese and one is very European.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/delporte-hospitality.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Six-senses-Fiji-Room.jpg\")
How did you find your architect and interior designer?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
How important is wellness to your hotels?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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