October 27, 2025 • 13 mins
Montage International is a collection of luxury vacation properties consisting of 15 hotels and resorts with another 14 more currently in development. As an asset manager and operator, Montage's strategy includes long-term partnerships with owners, real estate partners, developers, investors and associates. Montage Hotels and Resorts is the only Forbes five star rated hotel brand.
Alan Fuerstman, the company's Founder, Chairman and CEO, discusses the state of the high-end leisure and travel market and how White House policies impact the company's access to workers in key markets. Alan speaks with Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec on Bloomberg Businessweek Daily.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and
Tim Stenovek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Jess pulling up at my Bloomberg taking a look at
shares of Hilton Worldwide. Stock's been up as much as
five percent today. Right now, with a gain of three
point five percent, it is among the top gainers of
the S and P five hundred. The stock rally after
the company boosted the lower end of its full year
outlook for expanding its hotel network. Our next guest him
also a big operator in the hospitality space.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
We got back with us Alan firstman, founder, chairman and
CEO of Montage International. It's home to fifteen at luxury
hotels and resorts. It also spans residences, golf courses and clubs,
all under the Montage and Pendri names. Based in Laguna Beach.
Allen joins us here in the studio. Welcome, How are you.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
I'm terrific. It's great to be here. Thanks. Howbosing business.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
We've been spending a lot of time on the road.
Things are packed, things are crowded. It seems like the
high end is doing very, very well.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
It has a luxury segment in general. Has we read
it's up three four percent over last year. We're actually
double that, about eight percent over previous year, and tremendous
interest in luxury product, especially ours.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Who's your customer?
Speaker 4 (01:16):
It varies from property to property. At the resorts, it's
people coming for leisure. We do high end meetings as well.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Global customers globally.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
Yeah, more North America base, but a fair amount of
international travel as well.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
How much is business versus fun?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Not that business isn't fun.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
It varies by season and time here, So in some
of the properties Hawaii, for example, it's almost all leisure.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Other properties we do.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Much more on the on the meeting side of it.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
So it's soo can vary.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
It could be as much as fifty percent each and
other properties excused more on the individual traveler.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Have you seen the demographic shift since over the last year,
basically since President Trump took office for the second term.
Somewhat of a crackdown on im well cracked on immigration,
but we've seen to a certain extent international travel from
Canada fall a little bit, got some numbers here in
New York too. Is that affecting you at all?
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Not?
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Really.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
We've heard some aecdotal stories here and there, a group
may have been planning on coming, but no, we really
have not felt that. And when we look at it quantitatively,
we were actually up. And we look at our group
booking pace, which is the best leading indicator for the future.
We look into next year right now and we're ahead.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Of previous years, so.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
All good indications, but we rely less on international travel
and then some of the other brands based on where
our hotels are located.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
What about demographics in terms of age of the people
who are coming to the resorts. Is it full of
people in their forties and fifties?
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Now, yeah, we've always family.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
We've always had an active, active clientele, and there's a
youthfulness to that. But we also see a lot of
multi generational travel the traditions, so grandparents bring in, every
grandparents bringing three generations.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
It's really great to see.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
I am curious to about just the administration some of
the policies how it's maybe impacted labor costs, food cost
building costs, because these are things, certainly that we talk
about a lot. When we look at some of the
inflationary pressures that we've seen in our economy.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Yeah, we read about it.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
Haven't really had the impact today in the operating costs.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yet, even labor costs and you're finding all the workers.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
You want, well, labor labor costs have gone up. That's
been a challenge market to market. But that that's that's
been happening for the last few years.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Right, So it continues.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
It hasn't gotten y, has not stopped.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Does push back on immigration make it even more tricky.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
No, Fortunately, we've been able to attract the cream of
the crop.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
It seems to be.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
But we keep an eye towards the challenge of finding great,
great associates I and it's it's it's the essence of
who we are as a company.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
But in all parts of the resorts, I'm talking in
kitchen housekeeping, still no issue with talent and labor there.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
It's market to market. Some some markets there's a real
scarcity and where where is that scared some of the
seasonal resorts.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
So we uh we rely on H two B visas
J one to support to bring in where we have
to fill gaps. Seasonality is the biggest challenge.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Will you still rely on those visas with the new
restrictions coming into play?
Speaker 4 (04:25):
The restrictions that have been talked to late have been
the H one Bsye, we rely in H two B,
so I.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Think we've been so you'll be okay.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
It appears that way. And as we're gearing up for
ski seasons. We have two great ski three great ski resorts,
Montage Deer Valley, the Penry in Park City and then
Montage Big Sky, and we've been we've been filling out
our roster there beautifully.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Well it's interesting too because I feel like, you know,
when there's a pushback by the administration gets an immigration
and then some of the construction and hospitality industries did
reach out to the administration. So has it well do
you feel like you're being heard or go ahead?
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Well, there's a concern obviously as new development and what
the cost will be associated with building the hotels. And
we have fifteen hotels today, but we have another fifteen
that are in various stages of development, so and some
of those costs haven't been are still being put together.
So there's an eye towards that. But it's unpredictable, I
(05:21):
think is the biggest challenge right now. We don't know
exactly where it's heating.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
We're talking to Ellen Firstman. He's founder, chairman and CEO
Montage International Luxury Hotels and Resorts. What are you guys
building because you do hotels, you do resorts, you do residences,
You've got golf courses, you've got clubs. Like, where's the
growth for you guys?
Speaker 4 (05:40):
Well, we're seeing a lot of international growth, and so
for example, in Mexico, we've got four new projects in development.
We're opening in Mexico City of Henry next year and
then the year after where we've got both a Montage
and a Penri opening in Puntemite.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
What would you say to people about because Mexico City,
as you know, can often be a target for concerns
about safety, But what would you say your experience?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
My experience has been terrific.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
We're developing in an area of town called Roma, which
is a beautiful location, very European and feel in a
market that's been underserved in luxury hotels, and I think
we'll do a great dining scene. It's going to be
a great addition and an entry for us to further
into Latin America.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Tell us about a place that you've considered developing and
you chose not to and why, well, the oppostion did
you pass on it?
Speaker 4 (06:34):
We pass on developing in markets where we don't think
we can get the rate to support the levels of
services we need to provide. And one of the biggest
disconnects luxury hotel brands have or if they put a
hotel in a market that has a rate ceiling, no
matter what they do, they can't get the rate. You
have an inherent disconnect where either you're going to have
an unhappy owner of the asset because you're not being
able to get the returns you want, or you'll find
(06:56):
those companies will reduce services commensurate with the rate they
can charge. So I want to stay true to markets
where I believe the luxury traveler will go.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Is there a base rate in US dollars that you
have to have for.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
A per night rate?
Speaker 2 (07:13):
I mean, I know it depends on where we are.
It absolutely depends on where the world, where you are
in the country.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Broadly speaking, Montage to make it work. Broadly speaking, Montage
runs an average rate north of twelve hundred dollars thirteen
hundred dollars a night, So we look at we should
be able to get a thousand dollars plus for a
montage a little less on the pendury, but we look
at those and then there's a factor based on the
labor costs and others in a particular destination or market,
(07:39):
but we all we factor that into where we think
the hotel is today and where we think the market
will be heading.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
What do you think of somebody? You know, it's interesting
the luxury space, you know, I was looking at some
of just the stories because there's been some concerns. Certainly
for some of the luxury retail space, they've been under
some pressure the Chinese consumer holding back. But it was interesting.
I think it was Amez reported this week, and I
was looking at our BI team who did some analysis,
(08:07):
and what they saw was certainly signs for an improved
second half. They saw twenty twenty five earnings per share jumping.
So when you think about the luxury space healthy, you
haven't seen any signs of weakness.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
We see it healthy.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
We look at the obviously the room rate as an indicator,
but also to spend on the property, what how our
guests are consuming our spas, and how they're consuming the
food and beverage and our restaurants.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
And we have a.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Customer and affluent guests that is looking for value, looking
for great services, great product offering, and they'll pay for it.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
What does value mean for luxury customer?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Yeah, it's well for thirteen hundred dollars a night at
what is value?
Speaker 3 (08:46):
It means we'll exceed your expectations.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
She's going to come there and you You'll be in
an environment we say, I'm made to feel special. The
amount of the amount of people I've interacted with, They're
focused on my likes and dis likes.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
The personal attention, the lack of.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
The human touch is a big part of what we're
offering and that relationship.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
So we that we strive to develop with our guests.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Are you talking at all or developing at all? This
is going to be sound weird, but developing it all.
For Instagram for social media was I was just at
a resort and underwent a thirty million dollar renovation. This
part of the resort looks different than the other part
of the resort and I went to it. It's the pool,
it overlooks the clips. I was like, this thing is
made for social media, Like they want people here taking
(09:34):
pictures and sharing this on social media.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
As we design hotels, we look at it does cross
our mind, what a great instagrammable spot it used to be?
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Where's a great photo shot?
Speaker 4 (09:45):
Wait, we look at that, we see how much energy
it creates, and it's excitement and so yeah, that's very
much a real thing.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
But the ability to see one of the things that.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Made launching hotel company for us in this age, what
helped level the playing field was the transparency that the
consumer today has. They can go online and see the hotel.
So a big, large conglomerate, large large company can spend
a lot more than we can, but we get the unfiltered, unbridled.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Responses of real people and that helps us.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Holiday bookings. You talked about bookings. Can you give us
just a little bit more color on holiday books?
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Very strong are the festive this year? I was talking
to our general manager from Cabo. Uh, we have a
record year coming up over Festive down in Montess, Cabo.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
So again something we're excited about.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
The ski destinations looked real strong heading into the pre
booking period. That's the booking period now, so we're optimistic.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Are people booking typically the same giving the same amount
of lead time when they book for a holiday, Are
they booking later well for.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
The holidays actually book earlier because we fill up and.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
We're actually trying to book.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
We get you to rebook before you leave because the
availability it's that special.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
And holidays are the best for family.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Traditions and great resource are the embodiment of family time
over holidays, and so we target that very very much.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Safe to say, no, you don't see any signs of
a recession or slow down in your space.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Or we're always I'm always worried. It's fine.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
I wake up every day, you know, is there something
in the world that's gonna put us on tilt? But no,
and I remain optimistic. I look at the signs of of.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Our the performance of our hotels, and and am optimistic.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
So things like the rate environment or anything in terms
of the build out, you're okay with it.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
I don't have a choice.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
I So we we focus on on delivering extraordinary service
and being a differentiated product. Luxury is not a commodity,
and if we can continue to perform at levels that
are extraordinarily high, I think we'll be able to continue
to weather economic challenges.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
You told us I don't want to blow up your spot,
But you told us you actually spend a lot of
time at one of the resorts. You live at one
of the resorts, so.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
You get I do.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
I live at Montage Luda Beach, which was the first
Montage we did, and I spend time virtually at all
of our.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Hotels excluding that one. Which is your favorite?
Speaker 4 (12:31):
It's like asking which is your favorite kid? And of
course then they say, okay, which one?
Speaker 3 (12:35):
But no. The thing about Montage is the consistency of
our products.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
We have seven Montage hotels, all seven are five star hotels.
And Forbes, who gives out the five stars, called me
two years ago and said, Allen, congratulations. You're the only
hotel company in the world where every hotel brand, every
hotel is five stars. And that speaks to why I
(13:00):
can't pick a favorite, because they're amazing and it's across
the portfolio.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
All right.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Well, so great to get some time with you. I
know it's been a couple of years, So good to
check in with you. Alan Firstman, founder, chairman and CEO
of Montage International, joining us right here in our New
York studio
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and
Tim Stenovek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Jess pulling up at my Bloomberg taking a look at
shares of Hilton Worldwide. Stock's been up as much as
five percent today. Right now, with a gain of three
point five percent, it is among the top gainers of
the S and P five hundred. The stock rally after
the company boosted the lower end of its full year
outlook for expanding its hotel network. Our next guest him
also a big operator in the hospitality space.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
We got back with us Alan firstman, founder, chairman and
CEO of Montage International. It's home to fifteen at luxury
hotels and resorts. It also spans residences, golf courses and clubs,
all under the Montage and Pendri names. Based in Laguna Beach.
Allen joins us here in the studio. Welcome, How are you.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
I'm terrific. It's great to be here. Thanks. Howbosing business.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
We've been spending a lot of time on the road.
Things are packed, things are crowded. It seems like the
high end is doing very, very well.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
It has a luxury segment in general. Has we read
it's up three four percent over last year. We're actually
double that, about eight percent over previous year, and tremendous
interest in luxury product, especially ours.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Who's your customer?
Speaker 4 (01:16):
It varies from property to property. At the resorts, it's
people coming for leisure. We do high end meetings as well.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Global customers globally.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
Yeah, more North America base, but a fair amount of
international travel as well.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
How much is business versus fun?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Not that business isn't fun.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
It varies by season and time here, So in some
of the properties Hawaii, for example, it's almost all leisure.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Other properties we do.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Much more on the on the meeting side of it.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
So it's soo can vary.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
It could be as much as fifty percent each and
other properties excused more on the individual traveler.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Have you seen the demographic shift since over the last year,
basically since President Trump took office for the second term.
Somewhat of a crackdown on im well cracked on immigration,
but we've seen to a certain extent international travel from
Canada fall a little bit, got some numbers here in
New York too. Is that affecting you at all?
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Not?
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Really.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
We've heard some aecdotal stories here and there, a group
may have been planning on coming, but no, we really
have not felt that. And when we look at it quantitatively,
we were actually up. And we look at our group
booking pace, which is the best leading indicator for the future.
We look into next year right now and we're ahead.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Of previous years, so.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
All good indications, but we rely less on international travel
and then some of the other brands based on where
our hotels are located.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
What about demographics in terms of age of the people
who are coming to the resorts. Is it full of
people in their forties and fifties?
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Now, yeah, we've always family.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
We've always had an active, active clientele, and there's a
youthfulness to that. But we also see a lot of
multi generational travel the traditions, so grandparents bring in, every
grandparents bringing three generations.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
It's really great to see.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
I am curious to about just the administration some of
the policies how it's maybe impacted labor costs, food cost
building costs, because these are things, certainly that we talk
about a lot. When we look at some of the
inflationary pressures that we've seen in our economy.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Yeah, we read about it.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
Haven't really had the impact today in the operating costs.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yet, even labor costs and you're finding all the workers.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
You want, well, labor labor costs have gone up. That's
been a challenge market to market. But that that's that's
been happening for the last few years.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Right, So it continues.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
It hasn't gotten y, has not stopped.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Does push back on immigration make it even more tricky.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
No, Fortunately, we've been able to attract the cream of
the crop.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
It seems to be.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
But we keep an eye towards the challenge of finding great,
great associates I and it's it's it's the essence of
who we are as a company.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
But in all parts of the resorts, I'm talking in
kitchen housekeeping, still no issue with talent and labor there.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
It's market to market. Some some markets there's a real
scarcity and where where is that scared some of the
seasonal resorts.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
So we uh we rely on H two B visas
J one to support to bring in where we have
to fill gaps. Seasonality is the biggest challenge.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Will you still rely on those visas with the new
restrictions coming into play?
Speaker 4 (04:25):
The restrictions that have been talked to late have been
the H one Bsye, we rely in H two B,
so I.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Think we've been so you'll be okay.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
It appears that way. And as we're gearing up for
ski seasons. We have two great ski three great ski resorts,
Montage Deer Valley, the Penry in Park City and then
Montage Big Sky, and we've been we've been filling out
our roster there beautifully.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Well it's interesting too because I feel like, you know,
when there's a pushback by the administration gets an immigration
and then some of the construction and hospitality industries did
reach out to the administration. So has it well do
you feel like you're being heard or go ahead?
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Well, there's a concern obviously as new development and what
the cost will be associated with building the hotels. And
we have fifteen hotels today, but we have another fifteen
that are in various stages of development, so and some
of those costs haven't been are still being put together.
So there's an eye towards that. But it's unpredictable, I
(05:21):
think is the biggest challenge right now. We don't know
exactly where it's heating.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
We're talking to Ellen Firstman. He's founder, chairman and CEO
Montage International Luxury Hotels and Resorts. What are you guys
building because you do hotels, you do resorts, you do residences,
You've got golf courses, you've got clubs. Like, where's the
growth for you guys?
Speaker 4 (05:40):
Well, we're seeing a lot of international growth, and so
for example, in Mexico, we've got four new projects in development.
We're opening in Mexico City of Henry next year and
then the year after where we've got both a Montage
and a Penri opening in Puntemite.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
What would you say to people about because Mexico City,
as you know, can often be a target for concerns
about safety, But what would you say your experience?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
My experience has been terrific.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
We're developing in an area of town called Roma, which
is a beautiful location, very European and feel in a
market that's been underserved in luxury hotels, and I think
we'll do a great dining scene. It's going to be
a great addition and an entry for us to further
into Latin America.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Tell us about a place that you've considered developing and
you chose not to and why, well, the oppostion did
you pass on it?
Speaker 4 (06:34):
We pass on developing in markets where we don't think
we can get the rate to support the levels of
services we need to provide. And one of the biggest
disconnects luxury hotel brands have or if they put a
hotel in a market that has a rate ceiling, no
matter what they do, they can't get the rate. You
have an inherent disconnect where either you're going to have
an unhappy owner of the asset because you're not being
able to get the returns you want, or you'll find
(06:56):
those companies will reduce services commensurate with the rate they
can charge. So I want to stay true to markets
where I believe the luxury traveler will go.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Is there a base rate in US dollars that you
have to have for.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
A per night rate?
Speaker 2 (07:13):
I mean, I know it depends on where we are.
It absolutely depends on where the world, where you are
in the country.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Broadly speaking, Montage to make it work. Broadly speaking, Montage
runs an average rate north of twelve hundred dollars thirteen
hundred dollars a night, So we look at we should
be able to get a thousand dollars plus for a
montage a little less on the pendury, but we look
at those and then there's a factor based on the
labor costs and others in a particular destination or market,
(07:39):
but we all we factor that into where we think
the hotel is today and where we think the market
will be heading.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
What do you think of somebody? You know, it's interesting
the luxury space, you know, I was looking at some
of just the stories because there's been some concerns. Certainly
for some of the luxury retail space, they've been under
some pressure the Chinese consumer holding back. But it was interesting.
I think it was Amez reported this week, and I
was looking at our BI team who did some analysis,
(08:07):
and what they saw was certainly signs for an improved
second half. They saw twenty twenty five earnings per share jumping.
So when you think about the luxury space healthy, you
haven't seen any signs of weakness.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
We see it healthy.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
We look at the obviously the room rate as an indicator,
but also to spend on the property, what how our
guests are consuming our spas, and how they're consuming the
food and beverage and our restaurants.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
And we have a.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Customer and affluent guests that is looking for value, looking
for great services, great product offering, and they'll pay for it.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
What does value mean for luxury customer?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Yeah, it's well for thirteen hundred dollars a night at
what is value?
Speaker 3 (08:46):
It means we'll exceed your expectations.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
She's going to come there and you You'll be in
an environment we say, I'm made to feel special. The
amount of the amount of people I've interacted with, They're
focused on my likes and dis likes.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
The personal attention, the lack of.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
The human touch is a big part of what we're
offering and that relationship.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
So we that we strive to develop with our guests.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Are you talking at all or developing at all? This
is going to be sound weird, but developing it all.
For Instagram for social media was I was just at
a resort and underwent a thirty million dollar renovation. This
part of the resort looks different than the other part
of the resort and I went to it. It's the pool,
it overlooks the clips. I was like, this thing is
made for social media, Like they want people here taking
(09:34):
pictures and sharing this on social media.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
As we design hotels, we look at it does cross
our mind, what a great instagrammable spot it used to be?
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Where's a great photo shot?
Speaker 4 (09:45):
Wait, we look at that, we see how much energy
it creates, and it's excitement and so yeah, that's very
much a real thing.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
But the ability to see one of the things that.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Made launching hotel company for us in this age, what
helped level the playing field was the transparency that the
consumer today has. They can go online and see the hotel.
So a big, large conglomerate, large large company can spend
a lot more than we can, but we get the unfiltered, unbridled.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Responses of real people and that helps us.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Holiday bookings. You talked about bookings. Can you give us
just a little bit more color on holiday books?
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Very strong are the festive this year? I was talking
to our general manager from Cabo. Uh, we have a
record year coming up over Festive down in Montess, Cabo.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
So again something we're excited about.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
The ski destinations looked real strong heading into the pre
booking period. That's the booking period now, so we're optimistic.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Are people booking typically the same giving the same amount
of lead time when they book for a holiday, Are
they booking later well for.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
The holidays actually book earlier because we fill up and.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
We're actually trying to book.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
We get you to rebook before you leave because the
availability it's that special.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
And holidays are the best for family.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Traditions and great resource are the embodiment of family time
over holidays, and so we target that very very much.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Safe to say, no, you don't see any signs of
a recession or slow down in your space.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Or we're always I'm always worried. It's fine.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
I wake up every day, you know, is there something
in the world that's gonna put us on tilt? But no,
and I remain optimistic. I look at the signs of of.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Our the performance of our hotels, and and am optimistic.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
So things like the rate environment or anything in terms
of the build out, you're okay with it.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
I don't have a choice.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
I So we we focus on on delivering extraordinary service
and being a differentiated product. Luxury is not a commodity,
and if we can continue to perform at levels that
are extraordinarily high, I think we'll be able to continue
to weather economic challenges.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
You told us I don't want to blow up your spot,
But you told us you actually spend a lot of
time at one of the resorts. You live at one
of the resorts, so.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
You get I do.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
I live at Montage Luda Beach, which was the first
Montage we did, and I spend time virtually at all
of our.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Hotels excluding that one. Which is your favorite?
Speaker 4 (12:31):
It's like asking which is your favorite kid? And of
course then they say, okay, which one?
Speaker 3 (12:35):
But no. The thing about Montage is the consistency of
our products.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
We have seven Montage hotels, all seven are five star hotels.
And Forbes, who gives out the five stars, called me
two years ago and said, Allen, congratulations. You're the only
hotel company in the world where every hotel brand, every
hotel is five stars. And that speaks to why I
(13:00):
can't pick a favorite, because they're amazing and it's across
the portfolio.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
All right.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Well, so great to get some time with you. I
know it's been a couple of years, So good to
check in with you. Alan Firstman, founder, chairman and CEO
of Montage International, joining us right here in our New
York studio
Hosts And Creators
Tim Stenovec
Carol Massar
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