Virgin Group enters luxury hotel business with Virgin Hotels
23 Sep 2010
Billionaire Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group has entered the luxury hotels business by launching Virgin Hotels that hopes to cater to high end customers.
The $18-billion turnover Virgin Group, which has businesses ranging from air carrier to Internet to media, will be launching a new four-star lifestyle hotel brand by investing as much as $500 million over the next three years in developing and operating up to 25 hotels within seven years.
Capitalising on the Virgin brand name, the initial cities on Virgin Hotels target list includes cities in North America like New York, San Francisco, Miami Los Angeles, Boston and Washington DC.
The first such hotel is expected to open in a major city in North America within 18 months. It will have 150 to 400 guest rooms, restaurants, and communal public spaces.
Virgin Hotels will be run by Raul Leal, an hotelier with 25 years experience, who will be the president and chief operating officer, and Paul Whetsell, an executive director who will advise Virgin Hotels on operations and acquisitions.
London-based Virgin Group has formed a property venture with Alberto Beeck, a Florida-based entrepreneur and real estate investor Diego Lowenstein, for acquiring properties as well as partners in Virgin Hotels.
True to Branson's flamboyant lifestyle, Virgin Hotels new website opens with the line ''Fancy getting into bed with Virgin'' and outlines the project as ''our next (ad)venture.''
