hospitalitystyle.com

(May 2008) posted on Wed Jul 09, 2008 EDT

Going international is the fastest—but not always the easiest—means of growing your portfolio.

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By Judi Ketteler

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London-based design firm Jestico + Whiles never set out to work on multiple continents. "It wasn't a strategy," says David Perera, associate director. The world, it seems, just came calling.

The designers had already done many hotels, restaurants and clubs in the U.K. In the 1990s, they began designing hotels in the Czech Republic. Soon, they set up an office in Prague. Suddenly, hotel operators and developers all over Europe started noticing their work. Indian clients approached them to build multiplex cinemas after seeing spreads of the firm's work in magazines. Ten Indian multiplex cinemas later, they've put in their first hotel design bid in India. "Working internationally just became more feasible over the years as we became experts," Perera says.

 

Timing Is Everything

Jestico + Whiles' path to globalization turns out to be somewhat typical of the hospitality industry. "Working all over the world is the nature of the business today," says Ilan Waisbrod, principal of Studio Gaia, a 14-person international design firm based in New York.

Studio Gaia started with a few high-profile restaurants on its home turf, but quickly caught the eye of Starwood Hotels & Resorts' W Hotels, which hired it to design the W in Seoul - the first six-star hotel in Asia. The goal was to create the hippest hotel in the country, Waisbrod says, and Studio Gaia delivered, as evidenced by 2005 Gold Key Awards in both the lobby/reception and guest room categories. Now, the firm has hotel projects on its drawing boards in Puerto Rico, Israel and Toronto, and two casino projects in Korea.

 

Where to Job Hunt

Designers looking to expand their portfolio may have to expand their international skill set. More and more, chains such as Brussels-based Rezidor Hotel Group are tapping the upside of multi-national penetration and diversification to fuel their pipelines. The math is simple: Focusing on international markets spreads the economic risk, says Gordon McKinnon, Rezidor's executive vp of brands. "It's a hugely profitable business if you can do it well," he says.

The ability to work beyond your domestic borders makes sense now because so many markets abroad are booming, particularly Eastern Europe (termed "the new Europe"), which was fairly closed off until the 1990s. For Rezidor, business is "fantastic" in Kiev, for example, in large part because it was the first international brand to enter the market. "It's given us a platform to spread throughout Eastern Europe," says McKinnon.