Meeting… Trevor Horwell, Nobu Hospitality
Relying on a devoted fanbase with an enduring appetite for Chef Nobu’s Japanese-inspired restaurants, Nobu Hospitality converts long-term diners into hotel guests. CEO Trevor Horwell tells Nicole Trilivas how.
From Miami to Moscow, Marbella to Manila, the Nobu name needs little introduction among the beau monde these days. First entering into the collective lexicon in 1994, when Chef Nobuyuki ‘Nobu’ Matsuhisa opened his rule-defying Japanese-meet-Peruvian titular restaurant in New York, the brand reached new heights in 2013 when it opened the doors of its first hotel within Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Since then, the group has gone on to plant flags in all regions, with each new addition tapping into the locale while honouring its Japanese roots.
“When we went into hotels, we didn’t set out to reinvent the hotel experience,” says Trevor Horwell, who in 2009 joined as CEO of Nobu Hospitality alongside shareholders Chef Nobu, Robert De Niro and Meir Teper. “Nobu was already a gamechanger 25 years ago, so our aim was to bring the brand’s culture and service to the hotel sector to create a 24/7 experience.”
This strategy is largely hinged on the brand’s well-defined culture and loyal customer base. “We have five-million customers dining at Nobu restaurants every year,” continues Horwell. “So we only really need to convert 10-15% to hotel guests and we’ve filled all our rooms.”
With revenue projections slated to exceed US$600 million over the next five years, you could say it’s working – so much so that not even a pandemic can’t dim this brand’s future.
EXPANSION DURING CONTRACTION
Despite the challenges of 2020, Nobu Hospitality managed to launch not one but three multi-million-dollar hotels, with Nobu Hotel Chicago, Nobu Hotel Warsaw and Nobu Hotel London Portman Square, the second London site for the brand, which already has a presence in Shoreditch. While these properties didn’t suffer any major pandemic-related opening delays, there was a series of stops and starts from ever-changing restrictions to contend and Horwell was pleasantly surprised by the reception when the doors opened. “We couldn’t believe the number of bookings we were getting from locals,” he says of Warsaw property, the brand’s first hotel in Eastern Europe; and it was the same in other markets, with even Chicago’s outdoor rooftop restaurant turning over 100-150 covers per day in freezing December temperatures. “Despite everything, we were very encouraged, which gives us confidence for the future. We know that when our venues are fully open, they will perform well,” he predicts.
Local restaurant business has always been key to new openings and has aided initial triumphs: “Sometimes, hotels don’t stabilise until the third or fourth year,” Horwell explains. “We’re very fortunate because once we open the doors of the restaurant, we build a significant local following. Around 70-80% of our restaurant business is from locals, and we’ve been able to convert some of those customers to stay with us too. A lot of hotel companies lose money in food and beverage, but that’s a strong element of our business model.”
GLOBAL RECOGNITION, LOCAL APPEAL
The fact that locals are coming into Nobu hotels also adds a native infusion into the global brand’s identity. “It’s the locals coming in that creates a different experience, which in turn brings a different type of customer into the hotel; it becomes a 365-degree holistic experience.”
With this in mind, Nobu Hospitality hires its back- and front-of-house team from the community: “We bring in local employees to drive what the local experience is about. If you go to Cabo for example, you want to live the Mexican experience; we do this by adding local dishes to the menu and programming site-specific events with the help of native curators. Even the music is selected according to the destination.”
And yet, while each property has its own character, Horwell stresses that the hotels must be definitively and immediately Nobu. This is largely achieved via coherent design: “We tend to work with a few select designers for all of our projects; Rockwell Group designed the Las Vegas debut and Miami Beach hotel having already devised a number of our restaurants, while Studio PCH have worked on our properties in Cabo San Lucas, Malibu and Warsaw,” Horwell explains. “For the new London opening, we enlisted David Collins Studio. These designers understand the Nobu aesthetic.”
In many instances, location and real estate dictate the early stages of design; North America sees more newbuilds as there are better options in terms of space and availability, whereas European cities are more likely to be conversions. “It’s always good to build from scratch because you can create exactly what you want,” says Horwell. The upcoming Nobu Hotel & Residences Toronto, the first residential offer from the brand, is one of the more ambitious newbuilds: “We’re developing twin towers which will feature 660 residential units and 36 hotel suites as well as a lifestyle space known as Nobu Centre,” he says of the Teeple Architects-designed project. A podium at the base will retain the classic brick façade of the original Pilkington Glass Factory while the two 45-storey towers rise above. Though it’s still under construction, the project is already hugely successful: “We sold all the residences within three months, probably at some of the highest prices ever paid per square foot in Toronto,” Horwell notes.
FUTURE FACING
Along with Toronto, Horwell says there are ten projects currently in development around the world including Riyadh, Tel Aviv, São Paulo, Atlanta and Hamburg. One of the most anticipated is the brand’s entry into Africa. Nobu Hotel Marrakech is located in the Hivernage district, steps from the historic heart of the city, and will house 71 guestrooms along with a variety of dynamic dining venues and rooftop spaces. The venture is a collaboraion with Hivernage Collection and MC Hotels, the latter being co-owners of Nobu Hotel Ibiza Bay. “An increasing number of hotel owners today want to maintain the integrity of their properties whilst having an appetite to work with us to enable complete differentiation, revenue advantage, and leveraging our food and beverage prowess,” says Horwell. “The global health and economic crisis have underscored this, and with Nobu’s strong appeal to the local market as well as the international traveller, we are pleased to provide such advantage.”
Having planted flags in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, the group plans to bolster its presence in key destinations. New markets are determined by economic prospects (for example, in some European submarkets average room rates are just too low to be considered desirable), and also by the restaurant’s viability. “The restaurant has to work,” says Horwell. “We don’t want to open a hotel in a city where we’re not going to get local F&B business; that’s the starting point for everything we do.”
The restaurant-first approach plots the course for the future growth of the hotel business. “We have 45 restaurants in 20 countries; we’re aiming to get to the same level with our hotels within the next five years or so,” says Horwell. It’s an ambitious plan in the current climate, but one that the team are deeply committed to. And as for that impressive revenue projection? “$600 million is what we can achieve, but for us, it’s really about each hotel being successful as a standalone, and that’s how we’re moving forward as a brand.”
Since the time of writing, Nobu has announced details for Nobu Hotel Elbtower Hamburg, a collaboration with Signa Real Estate and David Chipperfield Architects. The 64-storey property will feature 191 guestrooms and suites, a 200-cover Nobu restaurant, and a terrace bar and lounge with views of the River Elbe, while Elbtower’s other floors will comprise office space as well as retail shops, restaurants and co-working.
Since 2009, Trevor Horwell has been working alongside Nobu Hospitality shareholders Chef Nobu Matsuhisa, Robert De Niro and Meir Teper to migrate the trendy Nobu fine-dining concept into an international hotel empire, starting with the first hotel in Las Vegas in 2013.
Now, with 13 hotels open and 10 in development across five continents, Horwell’s international expertise – hewed from stints as Global Head of Hotels for Hard Rock Hotels and CEO of Como Investment – has ensured that the Japanese-minimalistic Nobu identity is never lost in translation.
Recent Openings: Nobu Hotel Warsaw; Nobu Hotel Chicago; Nobu Hotel London Portman Square
Upcoming Openings: Nobu Hotel Marrakech (2021); Nobu Hotel Riyadh (2021); Nobu Hotel Atlanta (2022); Nobu Hotel & Residences Toronto (2023), Nobu Hotel Hamburg (TBA)
