What SoHo House Going Public Says About the Future of Luxury Travel

The notoriously exclusive SoHo House, a global chain of members-only clubs known for favoring the creative class over financiers, is finally courting Wall Street in a second attempt to go public. SoHo House is working with Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan on a potential New York stock market listing that would value the company at as much as $3 billion, the British newspaper the Times reported late last week. The London-based members club ended plans to go public in 2018, when the company was then valued at $2 billion. It may not seem like the best time for a company like SoHo House to go public, given the world is nearly a year into a global pandemic that has temporarily suspended operations at many of the company’s 27 clubs and left 1,000 of its 8,000 employees without a job.

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But travel analysts see plenty of upside to the members-only model during the travel recovery, and there may be no better time to list than now, when travel stocks are soaring on optimism travel restrictions will lift in a matter of months and usher in a booming era of luxury travel. "More and more companies and groups are very eager to explore and expand the membership concept. It’s all been fueled by the pandemic and how that has impacted how we live, work, and play," said Gilda Perez-Alvarado, global CEO of JLL Hotels & Hospitality. "Maybe you travel to a certain city where there’s an exclusive space you can stay that’s giving you a more residential and very personal approach service. That’s the winning formula going forward." Membership clubs like SoHo House also stand to see gains in the recovery with more people working