Rosewood Hotels & Resorts was acquired by the family of billionaire Henry Cheng in 2011 for $229.5 million and since then the company has been on an aggressive expansion plan. The hotel, however, still keeps to its hyper attention to detail and focus on an excellent guest experience, thanks to its CEO Radha Arora.
The 60 year old was trained at one of the finest hospitality schools in the world - Les Roches Global Hospitality Education in Switzerland. He learned about all the various aspects of running a hotel business and soon after cut his teeth working for some of the premier brands in the industry including the Four Seasons and the Savoy in London. He also spent some time with Intercontinental.
If there’s one thing Arora thinks is key to the uniqueness and success of Rosewood, it’s the theme of incorporating aspects of the local culture into the guest experience. He calls it creating a “sense of place”. He stated in a recent interview, “We mean everything that speaks to sense of place. Be it working with the local community, local artisans, the way we punctuate our properties, to uniforms, designs, accessories, amenities and the people that we hire. So it has to be for guests, it has to be an all-holistic experience.”
Expansion for the company is expected to come primarily in Asia and Europe, which means many days of travel for the Los Angeles, CA resident. Ahora has his system down – he exercises before and after the flight to ensure he recharges physically and mentally for the day. He also makes sure to look the part, frequently wearing a bespoke blue suite, as after all, he is the most important ambassador for the Rosewood brand.
