Sir Rocco Forte is very much the lord of his manor. The only male heir to a family fortune valued in 2008 at US$733 million and the brother of five sisters, Sir Rocco followed his father, Lord Charles Forte, into the hospitality business and took the reins as CEO of the Forte Group in 1992.
Knighted in 1994 for his services to the hospitality industry, Sir Rocco was then faced with a hostile takeover bid, which ended when the Forte Group was taken over for $6.2 billion in 1996, leaving the Forte family with $529 million in spare change.
He established The Rocco Forte Collection shortly after and quickly acquired two landmark properties in the UK – The Balmoral in Edinburgh and Brown’s Hotel in London – which were refurbished under the direction of his sister, Olga Polizzi, who joined the firm as director of design.
The group now includes 13 hotels around Europe and is about to open its first hotel in the Middle East in Abu Dhabi, in late 2011. Today, Sir Rocco is every bit the titled British millionaire; he refers to each of his hotels in the loving and possessive tones of a proud father, and didn’t mind sharing his thoughts on everything from knighthood to fitness with DOTW News.
On being knighted
I was the same man before as I am now. Recognition is nice in all of its forms and it was particularly nice to be recognised in this way. It’s also good for the company that you represent. It does open doors sometimes. Travelling overseas, there is a lot of interest in British titles, so it creates an aura and somehow in the eyes of others it makes you a little bit more important. I would say the only thing that has changed for me is that now, when I wake up in the morning, I wake up next to a Lady!
On following in his father’s footsteps
I have learned so many lessons it’s difficult to pin-point one. My father’s integrity was very important, both in terms of the way he did business and the way he treated people. He is someone who always had time for people. His overall drive, his determination and his refusal to take no for an answer and find a way to do something when everybody else said it would be impossible – that’s very important and I try to be a little bit like that as well.
On working with his sister
There are only pros in this case and no cons. One of the nicest things about having this business is that I am working closely with Olga, whereas in the last organisation, it was so big that I very rarely interacted with her. Now she is very much an important part of the business. I probably get more involved now than I did in the early days, as I have clearer views about the decoration of hotels than I did then.
It was thanks to her that we embarked on the route of having a very strong design focus on our hotels, which was what gave us a bit of an advantage in the early days. We are very alike in many ways and I don’t think we have ever really disagreed on anything since we’ve been in business together.
On his athletic achievements
I have always been quite sporty. I got a “Blue” for fencing at Oxford, where I competed in the Varsity match for each of the three years I was there. I was university sabre champion and I was verging on joining the British team when I gave it up, which was a mistake. I ran marathons in the 80s when it was first fashionable and I did eight years of London Marathons. Ten years ago I took up triathlons. I trained very hard and I’ve done four World Championships.
I did Ironman in Klagenfurt six years ago, where I came second in my category and won the over-50s chief executive race. For the last year and a half I haven’t done much, but I’m hoping to start getting back into hard training again.
On maintaining an active lifestyle
I think being fit is quite important; it gives you more energy and enables you to work long hours and be more effective. If you do a sport competitively it forces you into a discipline of training, and it makes you want to work to get fitter than you otherwise would. Of course it can take over; when I did the Ironman, I found the training was too hard. With my results at Klagenfurt I qualified for the next event in Hawaii, but I didn’t do it because it meant another three months of training and it was interfering with my work – and that must come first.
On finding a work/life balance
I am not a great believer in work/lifestyle balance. If you are running a business or holding down an important job, that has to be your priority. You try to fit everything else in around it as best you can. That’s what I do.
If I train, I have to get up earlier in the morning than I would otherwise, but obviously the benefits are there and at the end of the day, that is why you do it. But this idea that there are only so many hours a day you can work, or should be allowed to work, is completely and utterly ridiculous. If something needs to be done, you do it.
On the financial crisis
I have never known a recession like this where sales collapsed almost overnight. Initially sales fell 40 percent compared with the previous year. Then it settled down at around 20 percent less.
There is very high operational gearing in hotels, so you lose off the top line and it goes straight down to the bottom. Whatever you save on costs is not going to make up for it, so we went through quite a difficult six months. Things have come back very quickly in the luxury sector. This last 12 months we are 12.5 percent up on the previous year, and that trend is continuing.
On luxury tourism in Europe
Generally in Europe the luxury market is strong again. We are in a number of cities and Germany is particularly strong. The slowest has been Russia and our hotel in Prague, in which the recovery started much later – it really didn’t start until last year, whereas everywhere else it started in the latter part of the previous year.
On running hotels
I’m privileged in that I get involved in every aspect. I’m involved in looking for the building sites, and then in the planning of the hotel and how it’s going to function, and finally setting it up and the day-to-day running. I get to interact with customers much more than I was able to in the past – customers in the sense of guests who I meet when I am in the hotels, but also the businesses that deliver business to me, which I never did before.
On visiting his hotels
I like going into the hotels – it’s like going into a lot of different homes that belong to me. I get a great buzz out of that. Last week I was sitting in the restaurant in the garden of the hotel in Rome, and it was busy and buzzing and obviously a very successful business. I thought back to 11 years ago, when there was nothing there, and felt a certain satisfaction at having made something like that happen.
On celebrating the good times
The key is to not to get complacent, which is very easy to do. You have to look at the things you couldn’t have afforded to do when the business was struggling and plan to do them. When things are difficult you tend to look internally at the business, rather than looking outside and seeing what the opportunities are and how you can grow the business.
On expansion
Hopefully my company will get bigger – maybe up to 30 or 40 hotels. There would be a slightly different way of doing business, but it would still be of a size where I could get involved and have an influence. There are some target destinations in Europe that I want to infiltrate, and that’s where we will have a lot of focus. I’d like to be in New York as well.
For the time being that would be the only place in the States I would like to go. We have a huge customer base from the States; 25 percent of our business comes from there. Americans are the best luxury customers for hotels in the world by far.
On moving into the Middle East
We have signed management contracts for five hotels in the Middle East: Abu Dhabi, Jeddah, Marrakech, Cairo and Luxor. The opportunity came and we took it. People came to me and said: ‘Will you manage my hotel?’ That’s how it happened.
With the old Trusthouse Forte Group, we had a lot of hotels in the region so I am quite familiar with it. We have a big customer base out there that come to our European hotels, so having a big visibility and presence out there is good for our European hotels as well.
On Verdura Golf & Spa Resort
It’s a baby and I have seen it grow. The golf courses there are fantastic – there are two championship golf courses designed by Kyle Phillips, who is one of the best modern architects around. When you’ve built it yourself, you look at the golf course in a slightly different way. Even if it weren’t my place I would recommend Verdura.
On travel indulgences
Sometimes on flights I do a bit of reading which I wouldn’t otherwise have time for. I’m not a great sightseer. When I go on holiday I like to have a rest, so I like to be in one place and I like to enjoy the things that I can do there. I play golf – actually I’m getting back into it now, so I get very fixated on that and I spend my time trying to get better. My in-laws have a very nice house in Tuscany, south of Pisa, and it’s great cycling country. I have a bicycle there and I spend quite a lot of time cycling. I am active but also resting and doing things I would not be able to do if I were working.
On leisure travel
Actually when I’m not travelling for business I like to stay put, much to my wife’s annoyance. She always wants to go on trips and I have to say, ‘Look, I’ve been travelling for the last few weeks non-stop and I’d like to have a bit of time at home.’
On children at hotels
We are very child-friendly. Obviously there are some people who don’t want screaming children running around the place and disturbing them but then hopefully one can control that as well. But at Verdura for example, it’s so spread out that if you want to be at peace you never need to see a child, even if there are plenty there.
On dogs
We are not dog-friendly as a company, which actually puts off a certain section of clientele. We don’t allow people to take dogs into their rooms or even into the restaurants. We will walk their dogs for them while they are in the restaurant, but we won’t allow them in the hotel.
On retirement
No. Not at all. I think they’ll take me out in a box.