Skift Forum Europe: Ennismore CEO Sharan Pasricha on Reimagining Hospitality

Sharan Pasricha didn’t necessarily know he would become a hotelier. The CEO of London-based Ennismore got into the hospitality business by chance, after a failed attempt to purchase Soho House in 2006. It was then that he bought his first hotel in London’s Shoreditch neighborhood. Today, his company has a portfolio of eight hotels, seven under the flagship Hoxton brand, with two more Hoxtons on the way, as well as the launch of a new co-working brand later this year. Since that first hotel purchase, Ennismore’s Hoxton brand has come to epitomize a new breed of boutique hotels that are highly design driven yet accessible — both in terms of price point and the crowds they attract. The Hoxton brand operates on a somewhat elevated select-service model, if you will, placing heavy emphasis and investment on the amenities and features that bring guests the most return on investment, like complimentary continental breakfast delivered to their doors or Instagram-ready lobbies filled with dining and beverage outlets helmed by local chefs. It’s all part of the brand’s effort to reimagine the boutique and lifestyle hotel experience. Skift recently sat down with Pasricha in the lobby of one of his newest hotels, the Hoxton Williamsburg, which opened last year in Brooklyn, New York. Pasricha will speak on April 30 at Skift Forum Europe in London about that very topic — reimagining hospitality — and what’s next for the industry. Here’s a preview of what you might expect to hear from him there. Get Tickets Now Skift Editor’s Note: Please note this interview has been edited for clarity and length. Skift: What’s needed to reimagine hospitality and how did you go about that with Hoxton? Sharan Pasricha: So I guess it’s a couple of things. The first is consumers’ and guests’ habits are fundamentally changing. Where you stay today says a lot more about who you are as an individual than where you stayed 10 years ago. So people are a lot more socially aware of the place they’re staying in and as a result, are very selective about the choices they make when they’re staying. The second thing is that there’s no doubt that there’s a huge rise of experiential travel. People are tired of functional travel, and they want to ensure that when they go and visit places, whether it’s staying in an Airbnb or going to a key city or going to a new island, it reflects the place they're going and staying in. And I think we’ve s