16
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2017
Act.
16
de Maig
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2017
"Axel Hotels is a point of reference," says the CEO of the hotel chain, Albert Olivé. "It is a product aimed at the LGBT community," but it is also the hotel with the largest occupation rate in the city of Barcelona in the whole year. Specifically, last year it was 98%. It is a successful group that already has a presence in different European capitals -and from May 15 also in Vil·la in Ibiza- endinglast year with a turnover of 16 million euros.
A dream of tolerance
"It all began in 2003 with a dream," says the executive. Joan P. Julià Blanch, the president, noticed that there was a gap in the market and decided to invest his own funds to set up a hotel serving "the needs of the homosexual community at that time." Julià wanted to open a hotel chain aimed at the LGBT community that embraces "designer and cosmopolitan spaces in which atmosphere, diversity and respect were valued. In short, hotels with a heterofriendly philosophy," says Olivé.
The first hotel was built with the founder's own funds and started with 66 rooms on the corner of the Consell de Cent and Aribau streets. In 2010, they acquired the adjacent building and expanded the establishment to 105 rooms with a total surface area of almost 5,000 square metres because "the demand forced them to expand the existing offer," points out the executive. At the same time, the project began its internatonal expansion with a first hotel in Berlin.
Nowadays, Axel Hotels is a business project in full expansion with two hotels in Barcelona -the second opened in 2015- two more in the German capital, opened in 2009 and 2017, and the AxelBeach Maspalomas in Gran Canaria inaugurated in 2013, with an average yearly occupation rate of 98%.
"Our growth is aimed at being located where our public objective demands, and that means the main capitals of Europe and America -both South and North," points out the executive. Yet, the growth in demand means that over this time the company has had to reconsider its expansion plan and choose to double its offer in the cities it is present in. That's why they have two hotels in Berlin and two in Barcelona.
The first Axel was set up in the Catalan capital, an obligatory city to visit for the international gay community. And following this example, the company's expansion strategy has focused on being in the main European capitals "with an open and cosmopolitan mentality."
The company aims to open "at the least" in London, Paris, Rome and Amsterdam, while also studying other opportunities. At the same time, and bearing in mind that Axel's main client is North American, the companies intends -alongside an investment partner- to open in the United States, with hotels in the country's main cities, with New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Miami as the priorities.
Quick expansion
The chain also forecasts growing in Spain in 2017 with a first hotel in the Balearic Islands and then in June in Madrid, to coincide with the celebration of World Pride. With these projects, the chain targeted at the LGTB community hopes to raise its revenue by 52% this year and make a turnover of some 24.5 million euros in 2017.
Axel's growth plan will be based on renting buildings and also, to a lesser extent, management contracts, and does not include property investment. Olivé points out that the average investment in a rented hotel of 100 rooms costs around a million euros. In fact, the only hotel they own is the one on Consell de Cent street, because "we are not an investment company." The chain wants to grow quickly, ending this year with seven hotels and next year with 10.
The value of the intangible
The secret of their success, says Olivé, is "working to grow knowing that it is difficult to maintain oneself," and due to "a passion for service, the product and the naturalness with which we work." Olivé beleives that Axel is, with few assets, a leading example on a global scale "for having been the first company to be open in a clear and direct way to the LGBT community."
He admits that on many occasions he is asked why there aren't other similar companies: "I have no answer." And being the only ones openly addressing this market in Spain of 6.2 million tourists a year (40% more than business tourism) is an advantage. Especially when taking into account that gay tourism makes up 10% of worldwide tourism, and 15% of the total spending, some 185 billion dollars a year, according to the World Tourism Organization. In other words, gay people spend more than all Chinese tourists put together.
What is clear is that their public is loyal, with visitors not only looking for luxury "but for the added value we provide, which is not the product, but the intangible: surprise at a detail, a smile, naturalness and their needs anticipated."
What Axel Hotels want is for their clients to be ambassadors. The hotel chain's main guest travels freely all year round because "they have no family burdens." Normally, gay men known as DINKs (Dual Income, No Kids) can make plans at short notice. That is why "not just any place is valid, the tourist and cultural component has to be important, but the location is also vital so that the local and international gay community can find each other." Thus, Axel hotels act as a meeting point for the gay public in the cities they open in. In this they are helped, for example, by their restaurants or bars and hotel swimming pool open to the general public.
A model of success
That is true for the location. But inside the hotels, Axel also provides a whole series of associated services, as if were a holiday resort. Thus, apart from a restaurant with a Japanese/Peruvian fusion cuisine in the case of Barcelona, Axel Hotels also offer a 500 square-metre gym with spa.
This model of success means that last year the company's turnover rocketed by 23% with the four hotels in which working directly and indeirecgtly through partners -cleaning company, accommodation management, restaurants or gyms- there are some 135 people. Now, with the new openings another 120 new ecployees will double the total staff.
Despite the good figures and results, Olivé understands that the sector is competitive and the client increasingly demanding. "We mustn't think that we have done it all and that means we have to continually reinvent ourselves," he warns, adding that "every time we see a familiar face it means that we did something well and the client is rewarding us with their loyality."
The work behind the Axel Hotels model could be the answer to the question of why no one has copied the concept: "Hanging a rainbow flag on the front door does not make the gay public come."
A dream of tolerance
"It all began in 2003 with a dream," says the executive. Joan P. Julià Blanch, the president, noticed that there was a gap in the market and decided to invest his own funds to set up a hotel serving "the needs of the homosexual community at that time." Julià wanted to open a hotel chain aimed at the LGBT community that embraces "designer and cosmopolitan spaces in which atmosphere, diversity and respect were valued. In short, hotels with a heterofriendly philosophy," says Olivé.
The first hotel was built with the founder's own funds and started with 66 rooms on the corner of the Consell de Cent and Aribau streets. In 2010, they acquired the adjacent building and expanded the establishment to 105 rooms with a total surface area of almost 5,000 square metres because "the demand forced them to expand the existing offer," points out the executive. At the same time, the project began its internatonal expansion with a first hotel in Berlin.
Nowadays, Axel Hotels is a business project in full expansion with two hotels in Barcelona -the second opened in 2015- two more in the German capital, opened in 2009 and 2017, and the AxelBeach Maspalomas in Gran Canaria inaugurated in 2013, with an average yearly occupation rate of 98%.
"Our growth is aimed at being located where our public objective demands, and that means the main capitals of Europe and America -both South and North," points out the executive. Yet, the growth in demand means that over this time the company has had to reconsider its expansion plan and choose to double its offer in the cities it is present in. That's why they have two hotels in Berlin and two in Barcelona.
The first Axel was set up in the Catalan capital, an obligatory city to visit for the international gay community. And following this example, the company's expansion strategy has focused on being in the main European capitals "with an open and cosmopolitan mentality."
The company aims to open "at the least" in London, Paris, Rome and Amsterdam, while also studying other opportunities. At the same time, and bearing in mind that Axel's main client is North American, the companies intends -alongside an investment partner- to open in the United States, with hotels in the country's main cities, with New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Miami as the priorities.
Quick expansion
The chain also forecasts growing in Spain in 2017 with a first hotel in the Balearic Islands and then in June in Madrid, to coincide with the celebration of World Pride. With these projects, the chain targeted at the LGTB community hopes to raise its revenue by 52% this year and make a turnover of some 24.5 million euros in 2017.
Axel's growth plan will be based on renting buildings and also, to a lesser extent, management contracts, and does not include property investment. Olivé points out that the average investment in a rented hotel of 100 rooms costs around a million euros. In fact, the only hotel they own is the one on Consell de Cent street, because "we are not an investment company." The chain wants to grow quickly, ending this year with seven hotels and next year with 10.
The value of the intangible
The secret of their success, says Olivé, is "working to grow knowing that it is difficult to maintain oneself," and due to "a passion for service, the product and the naturalness with which we work." Olivé beleives that Axel is, with few assets, a leading example on a global scale "for having been the first company to be open in a clear and direct way to the LGBT community."
He admits that on many occasions he is asked why there aren't other similar companies: "I have no answer." And being the only ones openly addressing this market in Spain of 6.2 million tourists a year (40% more than business tourism) is an advantage. Especially when taking into account that gay tourism makes up 10% of worldwide tourism, and 15% of the total spending, some 185 billion dollars a year, according to the World Tourism Organization. In other words, gay people spend more than all Chinese tourists put together.
What is clear is that their public is loyal, with visitors not only looking for luxury "but for the added value we provide, which is not the product, but the intangible: surprise at a detail, a smile, naturalness and their needs anticipated."
What Axel Hotels want is for their clients to be ambassadors. The hotel chain's main guest travels freely all year round because "they have no family burdens." Normally, gay men known as DINKs (Dual Income, No Kids) can make plans at short notice. That is why "not just any place is valid, the tourist and cultural component has to be important, but the location is also vital so that the local and international gay community can find each other." Thus, Axel hotels act as a meeting point for the gay public in the cities they open in. In this they are helped, for example, by their restaurants or bars and hotel swimming pool open to the general public.
A model of success
That is true for the location. But inside the hotels, Axel also provides a whole series of associated services, as if were a holiday resort. Thus, apart from a restaurant with a Japanese/Peruvian fusion cuisine in the case of Barcelona, Axel Hotels also offer a 500 square-metre gym with spa.
This model of success means that last year the company's turnover rocketed by 23% with the four hotels in which working directly and indeirecgtly through partners -cleaning company, accommodation management, restaurants or gyms- there are some 135 people. Now, with the new openings another 120 new ecployees will double the total staff.
Despite the good figures and results, Olivé understands that the sector is competitive and the client increasingly demanding. "We mustn't think that we have done it all and that means we have to continually reinvent ourselves," he warns, adding that "every time we see a familiar face it means that we did something well and the client is rewarding us with their loyality."
The work behind the Axel Hotels model could be the answer to the question of why no one has copied the concept: "Hanging a rainbow flag on the front door does not make the gay public come."