[ENGLISH] Started from the bottom now we here, with Diego Calvo from Hotel Concept Group | LOBBY Talks - For hospitality builders

Description

Hi guys, this time it's in English, but last week I was in Ibiza and I had the chance to sit down with Diego Calvo, the co-founder of Concept Hotel Group. If you ever stayed in one of their hotels, you know they don't just build hotels actually, they build like massive worlds. Each property has its own story, its own soundtrack, its own attitude. They've created a real scene in Ibiza, not just for guests, but for the island itself. We talked about the early days, building a brand with guts, how you keep the soul alive as you grow, and why hospitality should never be boring. Here's my conversation with Diego. You're listening to Lobby Talks.

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Transcription

Speaker #0
Hello everyone, I am Kevin Le Goff, founder of Lobby, an idea office dedicated to artisan hospitality with which we create brands and spaces to make our places a real destination and through this podcast I am delighted to share with you the reading of those who give life to these places, share their story and the soul that we find there. conversations with architects, photographers, owners, designers and artists to feed us on how to make our places real destinations. A podcast to be found every 15 days on your favorite platforms. Thank you all. Listen to you.
Speaker #1
The podcast of the lobby.
Speaker #0
Hi guys, this time is in English, but last week I was in Ibiza and I had the chance to sit down with Diego Calvo, the co-founder of concept hotel group. If you ever stayed in one of their hotels you know they don't just build hotels actually they build like massive worlds. Each property has its own story, its own soundtrack, its own attitude. They've created a real scene in Ibiza not just for guests but for the island itself. We talked about the early days, building a brand with guts, how you keep the soul alive as you grow and why hospitality should never be boring. Here's my conversation with Diego. You're listening to Lobby Talks.
Speaker #1
Hello.
Speaker #0
Hello. Thanks for having us, man.
Speaker #1
It's such a pleasure.
Speaker #0
I appreciate it. First time for us in one of your hotels. And the idea, as I was saying, you know, right before we start the podcast, the idea is to get a conversation about how you built everything and how you started Concept Hotel Group.
Speaker #1
Yes.
Speaker #0
But my first question would be, what should I know about you to better understand how you ended up in hospitality? Yes.
Speaker #1
Well, I'm a rebel boy. I like to do things always different. I don't like to follow trends and I like just to be real to the things. I love, and that's how also I created the company with another friend called Talent Planets in 2013. And we always follow, create brands that are very related with the things we love. So, yes, I mean, I was doing already... I'm into the hotel industry since 1999 when I was studying hotel management but at the same time I was starting to work in different hotel groups around different places in Europe just to get the proper experience but 2013 we started and yes I'm a boy from the Mediterranean.
Speaker #0
Yeah so you actually study like...
Speaker #1
hospitality and hotel management yes i did hotel management that it was the first year in in spain that was officially like i don't know how to say in english well diplomatura so that was in mallorca in 1998 and then i i did four years and then i also did a master in hotel management again in in barcelona in outside barcelona in san paul de mar which is the the most classic hotel school in Spain.
Speaker #0
Okay. And how do you end up like starting your own place? Like what was the move, you know, to from working for others to actually be like, OK, I'm going to start my own.
Speaker #1
Always in my in my head, no? I mean, my my first objective when I was doing when I was studying was to run a hotel that I like. No, that was my first dream. No, hopefully one day I'm a hotel manager for a hotel that I love. That was very important, a hotel that I loved, because I've always been a person that my passions, apart from hotels, are music, are fashion, are cinema, are art, are design. I also wanted to be an interior designer. That was one of the things that was always in my head, that I'm actually lucky to be able to work in the interiors of the hotels for my own company. But that was my first objective, be a hotel manager of a hotel I love. But then I was remembering I was working for a very traditional hotel group. First I was commercial director, then I was in the general management also. But I was not feeling the passion I want to feel in life. I mean, I'm a super... I'm a passionate person in life in general, with love, with my friends, with everything I do. It's all about attitude and passion. So I was not feeling very happy about that. And then one day, with my friend Talen, we decided, why not? Let's try. We didn't have money at all. We just did a very good deal with a property. a little bit with the bank a little bit another things so we make it a contract happen and and it was the time when ibiza was starting to to change because it was was coming from the traditional tool operation all inclusive and the first hotels uh they realized okay we need to change exactly so we took that wave and uh because we were also doing something different And from that day we've been growing quite fast.
Speaker #0
So what's the first hotel you started in Ibiza? The first of the group? Yes.
Speaker #1
The first of the group actually is not existing anymore. It used to be called Santos. Okay. That was in 2013. But we did a 10-year leasing. And finally the property, they learned from us. And they... They open again with another name, but also with experience they had having us in their property. It's sad that we don't have that place anymore. But sometimes in life, it's like having a girlfriend you love, then you have a problem. For a time, you are very sad because you're not with her anymore. But then you forget about her and it comes something better after. So at the moment we are running eight hotels in Ibiza. It's one of them with a different identity. I mean, you can see that are in the same family, but each one of them is having a very strong identity.
Speaker #0
Yeah, we'll talk about it later, because I've got a few questions on that.
Speaker #1
Yeah, no problem.
Speaker #0
Regarding the first hotel you opened, what's interesting is, could you share, if you remember the first steps, getting into your own place like you talked about the bank about the first deal of us the you know the first contract and everything like how do you stop yes that that time obviously I was coming from the hotel industry and I and I and I had
Speaker #1
I was lucky I I was in I would say that in every position possible in a hotel no I worked there the service reception night director, commercial director, groups, I did everything. So it was quite easy for me to adapt to the operations into my own business. And I remember obviously the first year I was doing everything. I was a purchase arrive, putting information in the system or a booking or just doing a check into a client. I was super excited and I just wanted the hotel to to work but i remember that time i mean i i can say i still have the same passion every morning but when you love something and you and you do it with passion uh i think works it works better definitely yes and and what's the you know the the business model of what you developed do
Speaker #0
you own like the building the real estate or do you are no no we don't we don't we don't know we don't know
Speaker #1
that rich. What we do is basically we find a building that is not in a good condition or is not working very well, we try to reach a good deal with the property. Sometimes we have invested, then we do at the moment we do a long-term rent like 25 years. We agree The lowest rent possible considering that we are going to put money into the property because we do most of the investments of our rentals. At the moment we are also working, for example, in Hotel Monjibello. That is a very big hotel. We are doing this with a big investment fund. We are working there only as operators. I mean, it's our soul, it's our decoration project, it's our management. but it's not uh we are not the property okay and for example also in this uh in this hotel that is quite big this is 113 rooms los felices we are sharing also the property with another investors and at the same time we are also uh running the the operation of course we thought that we have them the main uh comparison We are all like the dream team is in the main office, all the brands register in the main office. So that's the operation company. The operation company provides service to every hotel. So for the hotels that we participate in, all of them except in Mongibello, then we provide the service as operations.
Speaker #0
And what made you choose the fact that you actually built like different brands?
Speaker #1
and not just one yeah that was yeah that's very interesting question because from the first moment the idea was to create a group of hotel brands not a hotel chain so i like to say always we are a hotel group not a hotel chain because hotel chain is more when you scale and you do all the hotels similar no and that was not into in our um plans and in our feelings, no? So we decided more to create groups. Obviously now I can explain you how we have the structure of the brand to work more for the future because now concept hotel group will be the umbrella and then we have the concept hotels that are the hotels that are going to be unique. You will not find another Cubanito or you will not find another Los Felices, okay? So that's the concept hotels. Then we have Mongibello, which is actually build the brand to scale and to be always in a destination where you have the sea. For example, Mallorca or Costa Brava, or we can go to a point in France also. But always with the sea. The concept is super, super strong. But it's been since the first day to opening more destinations. And then we have another brand that is... We've actually been talking about this brand for the last, I think, eight years. And we don't have one hotel yet, but we will. This is more a lifestyle urban. Okay, more to get into the league of the standard hotels or Soho House, Hoxton, Ace Hotels. Lifestyle, do it in our own style. Try and break the market in the cities. Our aim, I mean, we would like to... the first hotel to be in Madrid or Barcelona because we are a company from Spain and I think it's important for us to experience first Madrid or Barcelona and then be ready maybe to jump into another city but that brand, I'm super excited it's going to be so powerful, I mean we have it done and we are updated updating the brand every one year, one year and a half because we travel a lot, we get so many ideas the hotel industry is changing a lot and it's going to be very powerful
Speaker #0
And are you waiting because you didn't find the right place or you just want to empower the brand like years after years and get the right concept?
Speaker #1
There's a few reasons. Now I'm having also a new talent, my friend who founded the company with me left the company last year. We're still super good friends, but he's not working in the company anymore and he's not participating. And now I'm sharing the company 50-50 with another good friend. that is called Marraola, who is very good in terms of also doing a strategy for companies, not only financially, also in the way how companies should grow. So together we are making such a good team together. First because we have the inside, we're very different, we wear very different clothes, but inside we are quite similar, you know. And And we have a way of thinking that each way of thinking makes together a very strong team. And at the moment we say, OK, let's do a couple of years to make the company very strong in terms of structure, team, financially, you know, and then be ready to grow. because if you think about The last 10 years, I mean, we grow so fast. Even we had two years of COVID. Yeah. And we grow very quick, no? So now we are in a moment of getting more professional and improve. And then we will be back for sure.
Speaker #0
How many people are in the group right now? Like the headquarter?
Speaker #1
Yeah. Well, headquarter. Headquarters, we are not so many. Headquarters, in total, we are around, let's say, 15 people.
Speaker #0
Managing the brands?
Speaker #1
15. Well, because we work a lot with external services, especially for marketing. We are 15 in... In the main office, but in total in the whole company, we are 500 people at the moment.
Speaker #0
Okay. And what was the, I mean, as you were saying, you grow super fast and from one to eight hotel. And what was the difficult part, like from growing to one to the second one or the third one?
Speaker #1
You would say maybe like every year. The most difficult part? did you face like some strong strong part like being like okay we're just gonna do three hotels yeah no i mean in in our mind uh we didn't have an objective of number of hotels no this is a i think i always say no uh that being passion for hotels is like you are being passion for music or for paint or for painting or for cinema you always want to create instead of of course You need to make the hotels work and lucky we are that all our hotels are profitable, you know, but to create for us is super important because that's our petrol to live, no? And well, for sure when we had the crisis it was in a moment that it was very very difficult for us because we had the obligations of paying rental, of paying the staff. We didn't own the places. We generate the cash flow with the business. The business was not there so we finally managed to find ways to survive. And of course, Mark was a very important person and part of the company to be able to survive. But,
Speaker #0
yeah. I can get it. And then. What would be your advice for someone like... We have couples of... I told you before, we have the... At Lobby, we also have the Lobby Members Club, which is like a community of hotel owners. Some of them got small groups from two to six, ten hotels. But what would be the cool advice to share about like, all right, guys, be careful on this point because it can cost a lot.
Speaker #1
For me, one of the most important is that you build a... First, the passion. and make something you love not make something because the market says you should do that no make something because you you love it because then you are going to create it good in a good way and you are also going because it's not only about create a product and you open yeah then you have to leave it and you have to bring your soul there you know that's how i think because otherwise yeah it could work but you will not enjoy it also no but then i'm a I consider myself a super positive person, but I like to be also conservative, you know, when you study a business, no? Sometimes I've been a bit too positive, but I think you have to be, you have to build a business plan where you are conservative. You're positive, you say you're going to make it and you believe what you have in mind to do. But in the business plan you have to be conservative because then you will pay if not. Because the paper accepts everything, but then you have to reach it. For example, now in Ibiza you have so many international brands in the league. They just opened and they said, OK, I'm going to Ibiza, I'm going to make this. So many millions. And then they don't reach the numbers they say and then they have a big problem. So also if you run your own business, you have to be very careful with the projections. Make sure financially you are covered and protect always. If you are the creator of the brand, you need to always protect your brand. That's super important.
Speaker #0
And you're talking about passion and all that stuff. and I'm in. I'm a member of this team, definitely. And I got so many questions sometimes from newcomers that are saying like, how do you get like a profitability in investing in community, in something that is not on your business plan actually, you know? And that's very difficult to give an answer on that because you're talking about the soul, about the feeling, about the experience and everything. and this is something not measurable that much.
Speaker #1
That's what you are talking about is like my favorite part of the game because I'm a super super believer of the things that are not touchable i mean the intangible i don't know how you say yeah intangible so i think for a business and for a brand this is the 50 percent of the power because and this is i think we we work a lot in the company you know sometimes it's a bit difficult to explain but i think in the in at the end you can feel it and you can get the feedback from the people, from the media, from many things. And we can talk about that a lot. But I like to create a lifestyle around the brand, creating a community of people that understands and represents the things we do. So that's why it's so important that the things you do You understand that. For example, if we do a fashion hotel, for example, and we need to create a list of fashion designs, it needs to make sense. You cannot just do things without sense. And you also will know about that because you're also a creator of brands. But for me, it's super important that sometimes you do things that they don't bring you money directly, but they bring... they make your brand stronger and they will make you in the future be able to sell more expensive than the neighbor next door is not doing these things this is super important i think and in the long term and situations where um there is so many people in the in the in the many competitors if you make a difference then you will get your award no yeah it's it's you know there's this quote saying like stop stop
Speaker #0
building walls like everybody can build walls and more complicated to build souvenirs so okay yeah and this is exactly this i like that i like that yeah and uh and how like this was my question like you were talking about it in the beginning of the podcast but you brought passion into each of your hotel. Like mainly from California, the US, like how did you make this choice, you know, to actually get into this scene, like Palm Springs, you know, the vibe we've got at Los Felices.
Speaker #1
Yes, I mean, in the time we started Ibiza, it was quite everything looking very similar, you know, very white, very Mediterranean, same style. Now it's still happening also. But I said, why don't we create a world that could be in the movies, that could be very fresh and very summer. And for a person that maybe is, let's say, in Manchester with a grey sky and wants holidays, is looking at our hotel and saying, OK, I want to be there because it's very colourful, it's very powerful. so and then I wanted to do something that is different, no? So, of course, there is a lot from the US, like Palm Springs, also the South Beach, Miami, also all the Route 66. But also there is like somewhere within Mongibello, it's more Amalfi Coast in the 60s. Within Cubanito, it's like Havana in the 50s. I mean, it was more about what I was watching in the movies, in the series, in the books, how I listen to the music, how I imagine, for example, this is a... I think, well, that is quite impressive. My first time in US was three years ago. I didn't go before. So many people told me, OK, Diego, don't go now, because you already imagine how it is. But I decided to make a long trip to California, where I was in Palm Springs and in other places, to visit all these hotels, like the Parker Hotel in Palm Springs, or the Madonna Inn, or also in California, or we went to Vegas. I mean, it took so many to visit there and see how it's in reality. but The main thing was be colorful, be different, and you build the hotels as you could build your job. or the set of a movie. Yeah.
Speaker #0
And you are also passionate about music. What's the importance of music into your place? Yeah.
Speaker #1
This is also super important. Every hotel is having a different playlist of music. For example, if you go later, I would recommend you to go to the rooftop of Cubanito for the sunset because you have more Cuban music. No? Yeah. If you go to Monjibello, you have more music that is more Italian, elegant. 60s, 70s, night style, no? So every hotel is having a different identity of music, okay? If you ask myself, I like most types of music, obviously the main music I like, you can imagine, is rock and roll. We are actually also promoters of live music and we have the only rock and roll party in Ibiza, it's called Rock Nights. is actually, we started in 2005. And we're celebrating now, actually on the 17th of July, we do 20 years anniversary. And we've been, for the last 12 years, we've been at Hotel Pikes, which is also a super legendary place, like you could say, like Chateau Mormont in LA. Yeah,
Speaker #0
okay. And do you, like, when you say you're a promoter, like, how does it work? You're managing artists, you're bringing artists over there, you...
Speaker #1
We organize, I mean... And Rocknights is also one of the brands of the company because at the beginning I was doing Rocknights and Concept Hotel. So Rocknights was not part of the group. But then one day I decided I'm more in the new era that we are now together with me and Mark. I said, OK, let's run. Rocknights is also from the main office because it's part of the same universe. So we have three lifestyle brands that are not hotels, which is Rocknights. It's promotion, doing parties and live music. We have Venice Bay, that is an area that we have for cultural events. Where, for example, we had last couple of weeks ago, we have Dani León, which is the skater that went to the Olympic Games, for example, to do an exhibition. And we have this area also with the brand Red Bull. We have a live stage for live music. We have a basketball, we did also a campaign with Adidas there. So multicultural area to do. events that are part also of the DNA of our hotels. And then we have a new brand that just came out last month. It's called Cana Cana Design. So Cana Cana is going to be our brand where we design products that then you will find in hotels. For example, now you can see that we have like, how do you say, in-flight tables, like for the pool. Like a donut or a chase that are for the pool. and we have one design per hotel. We're doing it together with a fabric in Barcelona. It's called Elo and we partner together. And it's the way to create our own brand standards, our own product. I mean, you could get one of these designs and products and maybe, okay, let's say Soho House wants this in the pool of Soho House. Okay, you can have it and you can do your own design, but with the creation we did. So it's a way of then starting to get royalties of the things we create because we experience so many things where maybe another company takes our idea and then you know or copies so this okay let's do one collection per year and then for next year we have a I cannot say yet but we have a new collection of things that you will see also in every hotel.
Speaker #0
Okay and how do you defend this kind of idea like you as the co-founder, CEO, are you like, this is part of the business plan and we're going to make money of it? Or this is just something that's going to empower?
Speaker #1
Yes, I mean, first you think about...
Speaker #0
How is the meeting?
Speaker #1
Yeah, first, I think it's more about, it's going to make our brand stronger, because we're going to have a lot of media of that. And it's talking about the product, but at the same talking about the hotels, no? So I always... trying to to make it also profitable and not risky for the for the company but uh i mean we don't have uh problems with that no no but that's cool they are actually this is why support and have same thinking with my partner i mean we have a we have a board of five people we actually had one this morning but this is is mark and i and then three three other persons that we have we trust and And when we do abort, they bring. you represent ideas or we talk about things and everyone gives the opinion no and there are no partners but we try to always agree something are the the board members from uh
Speaker #0
They're not investors? No,
Speaker #1
they are involved in the company also.
Speaker #0
And the profile of the board member, would you say that you need to have different types of people into the board?
Speaker #1
Regarding product, we don't have. Me and Marc also care about the product a lot. But it's lawyer, financial and operations.
Speaker #0
No, but that's interesting. And what are the next steps for you and the group?
Speaker #1
We are going to continue creating hotel brands. We have another building in Ibiza to be opened soon. I cannot say the place, the concept and when exactly it's going to happen, but it will happen quite soon. so yeah we already made the deal and and then hopefully we will be make the second destination for mongivelo yeah uh this will take maybe also a couple of years and also uh starting the cities starting the cities and the most important is continue to enjoy you're
Speaker #0
right and and uh do you wanna i mean starting the cities but regarding concept hotel uh do you wanna stay in ibiza or
Speaker #1
Yeah, for the, I think we are okay, I mean, for the Mongevelo brand, we need to go to, like, Mallorca, Costa Brava, or I was saying, like, maybe France, for sure, and the cities, Mitico needs to be in the cities. So, yeah, I mean, we are happy to keep growing in Ibiza, but, yeah, I really want to experience to open outside Ibiza, yes.
Speaker #0
Just to come back quickly on Ibiza, how is the scene actually on Ibiza? How do you see the scene evolving?
Speaker #1
We've been talking a lot in the last weeks. The market at the moment is so many brands in the league. I mean, I am happy, I like it that there is a lot of competition because I like competition. and I like to... Competition makes you... work harder and be more different.
Speaker #0
More creative.
Speaker #1
More creative. Because if it's easy, then maybe you can relax. But at the same time, it's complicated because it's more difficult for the staff, it's more competitive because there are a lot of new five stars in Ibiza that they will need to make a lot of offers that will affect us because we are good four stars. We are not five stars. so you know At the moment, I mean, you have Six Senses, you have The Standard, you have Nobu, you have, I heard that Four Seasons is also going to open in Ibiza. So many W's, so many international brands. If you think about that 10 years ago, wow, you say, the same is happening with the restaurants. There is so many places new and this is not easy, you know.
Speaker #0
And mainly like all the area on the island or you've got... Yeah,
Speaker #1
all around. Yeah, all around. Yes, all around, all around.
Speaker #0
And we didn't talk about it, but you've got like all the F&B part on your hotels also. You've got restaurants, bars. Yes. All of them?
Speaker #1
Yes, we run, we have, well, for example, here we have in Los Felices, we have a partnership with Gros Napoletano, which is the biggest pizza chain in Spain. But it's like super good pizza, but maybe the aesthetic of the brand was not really what we wanted. So we partnered with them and we created interior design and the branding. And we partnered and it's also nice because it's like a gluten-free pizza, but it's like official. That in Ibiza you don't have places for celiacs. And for example, my daughter, my small daughter is celiac and I get so crazy because you don't find places. so and we got the stamp so pizza lovers are celiacs come so yeah that's the deal you you made with them they brought the operation yes then we we create another brand but we create our it's called sorella that we created for uh mongivelo because the idea as we want to grow with mongivelo if we open another mongivelo in mallorca let's say so sorella will be the the restaurant.
Speaker #0
Amazing. Yes. And is it the same thing? I mean, you've got... a brand on each restaurant that is different than the hotel to bring like you know yes we have let's say two brand restaurants at the moment because then we we call
Speaker #1
For example, in Romeos, the diner, we call it the Mandis, you know, but it's not like a strong brand that we promote. It's having a different Instagram and it's having their own communication. As independent communication, we're building these two brands. But, of course, this is a thing that I am quite... that we need to improve because also if we want to start in the cities, the F&B part is super important. So, but in Ibiza, you know, as we... do most of the business F&B during the day in the pools so we didn't care much in the past you know to have a super
Speaker #0
I mean we have basic but well done and how the seasonality looks like in Ibiza like is it like a full year round or do you have like no no no in the past was
Speaker #1
more about five months okay May and September. Now we're doing seven months. For example, we opened on the first of April, we closed at the end of October.
Speaker #0
Okay, so you closed most of them.
Speaker #1
And then in the winter we closed because there are no flights coming to Ibiza. Flight connections, you don't have tourists. So we closed the hotel, but this is something also I like because when you close, For example, myself, I work more in the winter than in the summer. In the summer, it's more about PR, make sure the operation works, go to the hotels, be with the people, famous person arrives, you are with him, things like that. But in the winter is when we build the business, we want the business how to be.
Speaker #0
The foundation.
Speaker #1
The manuals, the budgets, the team. So we work a lot in the winter. and then we... Also work in improving the products because sometimes when you run a you have a hotel in the city and you work 12 months You don't have the moment to stop because every day And you need to to do the daily daily obligations daily work You know and it's good in life when you have a moment to stop and see oh, I should do that Oh out this project. Oh, you know, I'm it's also in Ibiza that for example, I work more in the winter I have less social life. So I have My mind is more creative in the winter than in the summer.
Speaker #0
Interesting. And we almost did 45 minutes already. Okay.
Speaker #1
That's good. Great.
Speaker #0
What are the cool stuff going on this summer at Concept Hotel Groups?
Speaker #1
Okay. Yeah, well, we're doing this a lot all the time because...
Speaker #0
I know.
Speaker #1
Yeah, we have so many events happening.
Speaker #0
But if you have one to pick up... Ah,
Speaker #1
okay. Come on. I will say the 20th. Rock Night's anniversary on the 17th of July where we do a big concert and then the party at Pikes. Also we're doing with L'Officiel and La Cos this 50 seat cool dinner on Saturday here at Los Felices. We are doing also a very cool event with four chefs from different points in Spain that will do a cool dinner at Monjibello one per month. and But, you know, we have so many, we have actual cultural agenda that with around 13, 14 events we create.
Speaker #0
Okay.
Speaker #1
For example, I invite you to go to the salsa classes today at Cubanito, or we do also today a documentary at the Cinema of Gran Paradiso. So always cultural things going on that don't compete with the typical things of Ibiza. You know, we are not hands up clubbing, you know, we are more about... providing cultural content to the hotels.
Speaker #0
That's something, that's a claim that you have like with your team like saying okay if we have to create an event it has to be different from the Ibiza scene.
Speaker #1
Exactly, 100%. Okay. And we also trying to, I'm gonna tell you one cool thing we're doing, yes. I like to do not only maybe events in the hotels, we are doing in partner with a very cool shop of Madrid, it's called, I can say, they will be happy I mentioned it, it's called Mini Shop and they did in Madrid. A super cool thing you should do in France this because it's like a tennis tournament. Okay. Okay with different teams The teams are for example the one they did in Madrid It was like one team primavera sound the festival the other team a program that Is called la revuelta, which is the most seen program in the main spanish tv then another one is a live band a rock band and then In every team was people from that company, but also maybe one celebrity that was playing, you know? That's cool. And this is one day, okay, with obviously they involve brands, and it's like... It's for fun, but then people get serious. And then you play like Davis Cup, but instead of playing sets, you play tie-breaks.
Speaker #0
Okay.
Speaker #1
So I'm also a tennis player lover. I played tennis until I did Balearic Champion, and then I stopped. My brother was the good one, not me. I was okay, but my brother was the big one. And then I stopped playing 25 years, and then I decided to play again. And these people from Madrid, we became... We came. like friends and we say okay let's do the Ibiza edition and 17th September Ibiza edition so it's going to be different types of people from their life for example the guys from Silencio they're going to be one team, Pykes is going to be another team, Concept is going to be another team then the restaurant John Dahl for example maybe will be another team so like are you the one curating lifestyle lifestyle brands from the from Ibiza meet one day networking visibility because then all the press they want to talk about that because it's something very different so i love that idea is that you this is what we were talking about that okay doesn't bring you it's not giving you money but it's going to give you a lot of visibility you know so yes that's i'm excited are you the one curating the team or i'm creating the team together with the people of madrid you know because they they partnered we're more like a strategic partner in ibiza and the main concept of the group is going to have a lot of presence maybe one of the courts, we call it Los Felices court and we can bring the umbrellas to the court, the towels and make it nice I was going to ask,
Speaker #0
where are going to be the courts? Have you seen the... you have this place close to... was it close to Palm Springs? Ah,
Speaker #1
Indian Wells? Yes,
Speaker #0
exactly, with the court, like the super nice one Yeah,
Speaker #1
it's not, I mean, I... one day i would love to have a hotel with a couple of courts maybe one pink court another one but here in ibiza we're gonna play in uh just in a in a small club uh here close to the hotels awesome i invite you to come i would love to we
Speaker #0
should do like a lobby team diego thank you very much I appreciate your time and having more insight from the group and super cool for having us and glad we made it to Ibiza
Speaker #1
You're welcome to come anytime Thanks man,
Speaker #0
thank you very much Thank you very much for listening to us so far. And if you enjoyed this exchange, don't hesitate to leave a note and subscribe to your favorite platform. It helps me to go back in the rankings and to make the podcast known. We'll see you very soon for a new exchange. See you soon on Lobby Talks.

About LOBBY Talks - For hospitality builders

Je suis Kevin Le Goff, fondateur du studio de création LOBBY, et aujourd’hui je vous présente un podcast qui vise à explorer et faire parler l’univers de l’hospitality, pour comprendre comment développer votre projet personnel, en faisant parler celles et ceux qui inventent des lieux hors du commun.

Dans cette nouvelle saison de Lobby Talks, j’ai voulu rencontrer ces personnalités qui créent des lieux uniques. Ces fameux lieux qu’on imagine ne pas exister, jusqu’à tomber dessus et se dire que c’est exactement ce qu’on aurait aimé créer ou voir à côté de chez soi.

Des lieux de vie dans lesquels séjourner, travailler, partager des moments.

Des lieux construits sur l’expérience, souvent imaginé par des passionnés.

L’idée est d’aller creuser et vous partager le cheminement créatif et entrepreneurial qu’il y a derrière chacun de ces projets, pour que vous puissiez vous aussi, bénéficier de leur expertise et peut-être, ouvrir cette nouvelle adresse qu’on image ne pas exister.

Hébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

About LOBBY Talks - For hospitality builders

Des lieux de vie dans lesquels séjourner, travailler, partager des moments.

Des lieux construits sur l’expérience, souvent imaginé par des passionnés.

Hébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

Description

Hébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

Transcription

Speaker #0
Hello everyone, I am Kevin Le Goff, founder of Lobby, an idea office dedicated to artisan hospitality with which we create brands and spaces to make our places a real destination and through this podcast I am delighted to share with you the reading of those who give life to these places, share their story and the soul that we find there. conversations with architects, photographers, owners, designers and artists to feed us on how to make our places real destinations. A podcast to be found every 15 days on your favorite platforms. Thank you all. Listen to you.
Speaker #1
The podcast of the lobby.
Speaker #0
Hi guys, this time is in English, but last week I was in Ibiza and I had the chance to sit down with Diego Calvo, the co-founder of concept hotel group. If you ever stayed in one of their hotels you know they don't just build hotels actually they build like massive worlds. Each property has its own story, its own soundtrack, its own attitude. They've created a real scene in Ibiza not just for guests but for the island itself. We talked about the early days, building a brand with guts, how you keep the soul alive as you grow and why hospitality should never be boring. Here's my conversation with Diego. You're listening to Lobby Talks.
Speaker #1
Hello.
Speaker #0
Hello. Thanks for having us, man.
Speaker #1
It's such a pleasure.
Speaker #0
I appreciate it. First time for us in one of your hotels. And the idea, as I was saying, you know, right before we start the podcast, the idea is to get a conversation about how you built everything and how you started Concept Hotel Group.
Speaker #1
Yes.
Speaker #0
But my first question would be, what should I know about you to better understand how you ended up in hospitality? Yes.
Speaker #1
Well, I'm a rebel boy. I like to do things always different. I don't like to follow trends and I like just to be real to the things. I love, and that's how also I created the company with another friend called Talent Planets in 2013. And we always follow, create brands that are very related with the things we love. So, yes, I mean, I was doing already... I'm into the hotel industry since 1999 when I was studying hotel management but at the same time I was starting to work in different hotel groups around different places in Europe just to get the proper experience but 2013 we started and yes I'm a boy from the Mediterranean.
Speaker #0
Yeah so you actually study like...
Speaker #1
hospitality and hotel management yes i did hotel management that it was the first year in in spain that was officially like i don't know how to say in english well diplomatura so that was in mallorca in 1998 and then i i did four years and then i also did a master in hotel management again in in barcelona in outside barcelona in san paul de mar which is the the most classic hotel school in Spain.
Speaker #0
Okay. And how do you end up like starting your own place? Like what was the move, you know, to from working for others to actually be like, OK, I'm going to start my own.
Speaker #1
Always in my in my head, no? I mean, my my first objective when I was doing when I was studying was to run a hotel that I like. No, that was my first dream. No, hopefully one day I'm a hotel manager for a hotel that I love. That was very important, a hotel that I loved, because I've always been a person that my passions, apart from hotels, are music, are fashion, are cinema, are art, are design. I also wanted to be an interior designer. That was one of the things that was always in my head, that I'm actually lucky to be able to work in the interiors of the hotels for my own company. But that was my first objective, be a hotel manager of a hotel I love. But then I was remembering I was working for a very traditional hotel group. First I was commercial director, then I was in the general management also. But I was not feeling the passion I want to feel in life. I mean, I'm a super... I'm a passionate person in life in general, with love, with my friends, with everything I do. It's all about attitude and passion. So I was not feeling very happy about that. And then one day, with my friend Talen, we decided, why not? Let's try. We didn't have money at all. We just did a very good deal with a property. a little bit with the bank a little bit another things so we make it a contract happen and and it was the time when ibiza was starting to to change because it was was coming from the traditional tool operation all inclusive and the first hotels uh they realized okay we need to change exactly so we took that wave and uh because we were also doing something different And from that day we've been growing quite fast.
Speaker #0
So what's the first hotel you started in Ibiza? The first of the group? Yes.
Speaker #1
The first of the group actually is not existing anymore. It used to be called Santos. Okay. That was in 2013. But we did a 10-year leasing. And finally the property, they learned from us. And they... They open again with another name, but also with experience they had having us in their property. It's sad that we don't have that place anymore. But sometimes in life, it's like having a girlfriend you love, then you have a problem. For a time, you are very sad because you're not with her anymore. But then you forget about her and it comes something better after. So at the moment we are running eight hotels in Ibiza. It's one of them with a different identity. I mean, you can see that are in the same family, but each one of them is having a very strong identity.
Speaker #0
Yeah, we'll talk about it later, because I've got a few questions on that.
Speaker #1
Yeah, no problem.
Speaker #0
Regarding the first hotel you opened, what's interesting is, could you share, if you remember the first steps, getting into your own place like you talked about the bank about the first deal of us the you know the first contract and everything like how do you stop yes that that time obviously I was coming from the hotel industry and I and I and I had
Speaker #1
I was lucky I I was in I would say that in every position possible in a hotel no I worked there the service reception night director, commercial director, groups, I did everything. So it was quite easy for me to adapt to the operations into my own business. And I remember obviously the first year I was doing everything. I was a purchase arrive, putting information in the system or a booking or just doing a check into a client. I was super excited and I just wanted the hotel to to work but i remember that time i mean i i can say i still have the same passion every morning but when you love something and you and you do it with passion uh i think works it works better definitely yes and and what's the you know the the business model of what you developed do
Speaker #0
you own like the building the real estate or do you are no no we don't we don't we don't know we don't know
Speaker #1
that rich. What we do is basically we find a building that is not in a good condition or is not working very well, we try to reach a good deal with the property. Sometimes we have invested, then we do at the moment we do a long-term rent like 25 years. We agree The lowest rent possible considering that we are going to put money into the property because we do most of the investments of our rentals. At the moment we are also working, for example, in Hotel Monjibello. That is a very big hotel. We are doing this with a big investment fund. We are working there only as operators. I mean, it's our soul, it's our decoration project, it's our management. but it's not uh we are not the property okay and for example also in this uh in this hotel that is quite big this is 113 rooms los felices we are sharing also the property with another investors and at the same time we are also uh running the the operation of course we thought that we have them the main uh comparison We are all like the dream team is in the main office, all the brands register in the main office. So that's the operation company. The operation company provides service to every hotel. So for the hotels that we participate in, all of them except in Mongibello, then we provide the service as operations.
Speaker #0
And what made you choose the fact that you actually built like different brands?
Speaker #1
and not just one yeah that was yeah that's very interesting question because from the first moment the idea was to create a group of hotel brands not a hotel chain so i like to say always we are a hotel group not a hotel chain because hotel chain is more when you scale and you do all the hotels similar no and that was not into in our um plans and in our feelings, no? So we decided more to create groups. Obviously now I can explain you how we have the structure of the brand to work more for the future because now concept hotel group will be the umbrella and then we have the concept hotels that are the hotels that are going to be unique. You will not find another Cubanito or you will not find another Los Felices, okay? So that's the concept hotels. Then we have Mongibello, which is actually build the brand to scale and to be always in a destination where you have the sea. For example, Mallorca or Costa Brava, or we can go to a point in France also. But always with the sea. The concept is super, super strong. But it's been since the first day to opening more destinations. And then we have another brand that is... We've actually been talking about this brand for the last, I think, eight years. And we don't have one hotel yet, but we will. This is more a lifestyle urban. Okay, more to get into the league of the standard hotels or Soho House, Hoxton, Ace Hotels. Lifestyle, do it in our own style. Try and break the market in the cities. Our aim, I mean, we would like to... the first hotel to be in Madrid or Barcelona because we are a company from Spain and I think it's important for us to experience first Madrid or Barcelona and then be ready maybe to jump into another city but that brand, I'm super excited it's going to be so powerful, I mean we have it done and we are updated updating the brand every one year, one year and a half because we travel a lot, we get so many ideas the hotel industry is changing a lot and it's going to be very powerful
Speaker #0
And are you waiting because you didn't find the right place or you just want to empower the brand like years after years and get the right concept?
Speaker #1
There's a few reasons. Now I'm having also a new talent, my friend who founded the company with me left the company last year. We're still super good friends, but he's not working in the company anymore and he's not participating. And now I'm sharing the company 50-50 with another good friend. that is called Marraola, who is very good in terms of also doing a strategy for companies, not only financially, also in the way how companies should grow. So together we are making such a good team together. First because we have the inside, we're very different, we wear very different clothes, but inside we are quite similar, you know. And And we have a way of thinking that each way of thinking makes together a very strong team. And at the moment we say, OK, let's do a couple of years to make the company very strong in terms of structure, team, financially, you know, and then be ready to grow. because if you think about The last 10 years, I mean, we grow so fast. Even we had two years of COVID. Yeah. And we grow very quick, no? So now we are in a moment of getting more professional and improve. And then we will be back for sure.
Speaker #0
How many people are in the group right now? Like the headquarter?
Speaker #1
Yeah. Well, headquarter. Headquarters, we are not so many. Headquarters, in total, we are around, let's say, 15 people.
Speaker #0
Managing the brands?
Speaker #1
15. Well, because we work a lot with external services, especially for marketing. We are 15 in... In the main office, but in total in the whole company, we are 500 people at the moment.
Speaker #0
Okay. And what was the, I mean, as you were saying, you grow super fast and from one to eight hotel. And what was the difficult part, like from growing to one to the second one or the third one?
Speaker #1
You would say maybe like every year. The most difficult part? did you face like some strong strong part like being like okay we're just gonna do three hotels yeah no i mean in in our mind uh we didn't have an objective of number of hotels no this is a i think i always say no uh that being passion for hotels is like you are being passion for music or for paint or for painting or for cinema you always want to create instead of of course You need to make the hotels work and lucky we are that all our hotels are profitable, you know, but to create for us is super important because that's our petrol to live, no? And well, for sure when we had the crisis it was in a moment that it was very very difficult for us because we had the obligations of paying rental, of paying the staff. We didn't own the places. We generate the cash flow with the business. The business was not there so we finally managed to find ways to survive. And of course, Mark was a very important person and part of the company to be able to survive. But,
Speaker #0
yeah. I can get it. And then. What would be your advice for someone like... We have couples of... I told you before, we have the... At Lobby, we also have the Lobby Members Club, which is like a community of hotel owners. Some of them got small groups from two to six, ten hotels. But what would be the cool advice to share about like, all right, guys, be careful on this point because it can cost a lot.
Speaker #1
For me, one of the most important is that you build a... First, the passion. and make something you love not make something because the market says you should do that no make something because you you love it because then you are going to create it good in a good way and you are also going because it's not only about create a product and you open yeah then you have to leave it and you have to bring your soul there you know that's how i think because otherwise yeah it could work but you will not enjoy it also no but then i'm a I consider myself a super positive person, but I like to be also conservative, you know, when you study a business, no? Sometimes I've been a bit too positive, but I think you have to be, you have to build a business plan where you are conservative. You're positive, you say you're going to make it and you believe what you have in mind to do. But in the business plan you have to be conservative because then you will pay if not. Because the paper accepts everything, but then you have to reach it. For example, now in Ibiza you have so many international brands in the league. They just opened and they said, OK, I'm going to Ibiza, I'm going to make this. So many millions. And then they don't reach the numbers they say and then they have a big problem. So also if you run your own business, you have to be very careful with the projections. Make sure financially you are covered and protect always. If you are the creator of the brand, you need to always protect your brand. That's super important.
Speaker #0
And you're talking about passion and all that stuff. and I'm in. I'm a member of this team, definitely. And I got so many questions sometimes from newcomers that are saying like, how do you get like a profitability in investing in community, in something that is not on your business plan actually, you know? And that's very difficult to give an answer on that because you're talking about the soul, about the feeling, about the experience and everything. and this is something not measurable that much.
Speaker #1
That's what you are talking about is like my favorite part of the game because I'm a super super believer of the things that are not touchable i mean the intangible i don't know how you say yeah intangible so i think for a business and for a brand this is the 50 percent of the power because and this is i think we we work a lot in the company you know sometimes it's a bit difficult to explain but i think in the in at the end you can feel it and you can get the feedback from the people, from the media, from many things. And we can talk about that a lot. But I like to create a lifestyle around the brand, creating a community of people that understands and represents the things we do. So that's why it's so important that the things you do You understand that. For example, if we do a fashion hotel, for example, and we need to create a list of fashion designs, it needs to make sense. You cannot just do things without sense. And you also will know about that because you're also a creator of brands. But for me, it's super important that sometimes you do things that they don't bring you money directly, but they bring... they make your brand stronger and they will make you in the future be able to sell more expensive than the neighbor next door is not doing these things this is super important i think and in the long term and situations where um there is so many people in the in the in the many competitors if you make a difference then you will get your award no yeah it's it's you know there's this quote saying like stop stop
Speaker #0
building walls like everybody can build walls and more complicated to build souvenirs so okay yeah and this is exactly this i like that i like that yeah and uh and how like this was my question like you were talking about it in the beginning of the podcast but you brought passion into each of your hotel. Like mainly from California, the US, like how did you make this choice, you know, to actually get into this scene, like Palm Springs, you know, the vibe we've got at Los Felices.
Speaker #1
Yes, I mean, in the time we started Ibiza, it was quite everything looking very similar, you know, very white, very Mediterranean, same style. Now it's still happening also. But I said, why don't we create a world that could be in the movies, that could be very fresh and very summer. And for a person that maybe is, let's say, in Manchester with a grey sky and wants holidays, is looking at our hotel and saying, OK, I want to be there because it's very colourful, it's very powerful. so and then I wanted to do something that is different, no? So, of course, there is a lot from the US, like Palm Springs, also the South Beach, Miami, also all the Route 66. But also there is like somewhere within Mongibello, it's more Amalfi Coast in the 60s. Within Cubanito, it's like Havana in the 50s. I mean, it was more about what I was watching in the movies, in the series, in the books, how I listen to the music, how I imagine, for example, this is a... I think, well, that is quite impressive. My first time in US was three years ago. I didn't go before. So many people told me, OK, Diego, don't go now, because you already imagine how it is. But I decided to make a long trip to California, where I was in Palm Springs and in other places, to visit all these hotels, like the Parker Hotel in Palm Springs, or the Madonna Inn, or also in California, or we went to Vegas. I mean, it took so many to visit there and see how it's in reality. but The main thing was be colorful, be different, and you build the hotels as you could build your job. or the set of a movie. Yeah.
Speaker #0
And you are also passionate about music. What's the importance of music into your place? Yeah.
Speaker #1
This is also super important. Every hotel is having a different playlist of music. For example, if you go later, I would recommend you to go to the rooftop of Cubanito for the sunset because you have more Cuban music. No? Yeah. If you go to Monjibello, you have more music that is more Italian, elegant. 60s, 70s, night style, no? So every hotel is having a different identity of music, okay? If you ask myself, I like most types of music, obviously the main music I like, you can imagine, is rock and roll. We are actually also promoters of live music and we have the only rock and roll party in Ibiza, it's called Rock Nights. is actually, we started in 2005. And we're celebrating now, actually on the 17th of July, we do 20 years anniversary. And we've been, for the last 12 years, we've been at Hotel Pikes, which is also a super legendary place, like you could say, like Chateau Mormont in LA. Yeah,
Speaker #0
okay. And do you, like, when you say you're a promoter, like, how does it work? You're managing artists, you're bringing artists over there, you...
Speaker #1
We organize, I mean... And Rocknights is also one of the brands of the company because at the beginning I was doing Rocknights and Concept Hotel. So Rocknights was not part of the group. But then one day I decided I'm more in the new era that we are now together with me and Mark. I said, OK, let's run. Rocknights is also from the main office because it's part of the same universe. So we have three lifestyle brands that are not hotels, which is Rocknights. It's promotion, doing parties and live music. We have Venice Bay, that is an area that we have for cultural events. Where, for example, we had last couple of weeks ago, we have Dani León, which is the skater that went to the Olympic Games, for example, to do an exhibition. And we have this area also with the brand Red Bull. We have a live stage for live music. We have a basketball, we did also a campaign with Adidas there. So multicultural area to do. events that are part also of the DNA of our hotels. And then we have a new brand that just came out last month. It's called Cana Cana Design. So Cana Cana is going to be our brand where we design products that then you will find in hotels. For example, now you can see that we have like, how do you say, in-flight tables, like for the pool. Like a donut or a chase that are for the pool. and we have one design per hotel. We're doing it together with a fabric in Barcelona. It's called Elo and we partner together. And it's the way to create our own brand standards, our own product. I mean, you could get one of these designs and products and maybe, okay, let's say Soho House wants this in the pool of Soho House. Okay, you can have it and you can do your own design, but with the creation we did. So it's a way of then starting to get royalties of the things we create because we experience so many things where maybe another company takes our idea and then you know or copies so this okay let's do one collection per year and then for next year we have a I cannot say yet but we have a new collection of things that you will see also in every hotel.
Speaker #0
Okay and how do you defend this kind of idea like you as the co-founder, CEO, are you like, this is part of the business plan and we're going to make money of it? Or this is just something that's going to empower?
Speaker #1
Yes, I mean, first you think about...
Speaker #0
How is the meeting?
Speaker #1
Yeah, first, I think it's more about, it's going to make our brand stronger, because we're going to have a lot of media of that. And it's talking about the product, but at the same talking about the hotels, no? So I always... trying to to make it also profitable and not risky for the for the company but uh i mean we don't have uh problems with that no no but that's cool they are actually this is why support and have same thinking with my partner i mean we have a we have a board of five people we actually had one this morning but this is is mark and i and then three three other persons that we have we trust and And when we do abort, they bring. you represent ideas or we talk about things and everyone gives the opinion no and there are no partners but we try to always agree something are the the board members from uh
Speaker #0
They're not investors? No,
Speaker #1
they are involved in the company also.
Speaker #0
And the profile of the board member, would you say that you need to have different types of people into the board?
Speaker #1
Regarding product, we don't have. Me and Marc also care about the product a lot. But it's lawyer, financial and operations.
Speaker #0
No, but that's interesting. And what are the next steps for you and the group?
Speaker #1
We are going to continue creating hotel brands. We have another building in Ibiza to be opened soon. I cannot say the place, the concept and when exactly it's going to happen, but it will happen quite soon. so yeah we already made the deal and and then hopefully we will be make the second destination for mongivelo yeah uh this will take maybe also a couple of years and also uh starting the cities starting the cities and the most important is continue to enjoy you're
Speaker #0
right and and uh do you wanna i mean starting the cities but regarding concept hotel uh do you wanna stay in ibiza or
Speaker #1
Yeah, for the, I think we are okay, I mean, for the Mongevelo brand, we need to go to, like, Mallorca, Costa Brava, or I was saying, like, maybe France, for sure, and the cities, Mitico needs to be in the cities. So, yeah, I mean, we are happy to keep growing in Ibiza, but, yeah, I really want to experience to open outside Ibiza, yes.
Speaker #0
Just to come back quickly on Ibiza, how is the scene actually on Ibiza? How do you see the scene evolving?
Speaker #1
We've been talking a lot in the last weeks. The market at the moment is so many brands in the league. I mean, I am happy, I like it that there is a lot of competition because I like competition. and I like to... Competition makes you... work harder and be more different.
Speaker #0
More creative.
Speaker #1
More creative. Because if it's easy, then maybe you can relax. But at the same time, it's complicated because it's more difficult for the staff, it's more competitive because there are a lot of new five stars in Ibiza that they will need to make a lot of offers that will affect us because we are good four stars. We are not five stars. so you know At the moment, I mean, you have Six Senses, you have The Standard, you have Nobu, you have, I heard that Four Seasons is also going to open in Ibiza. So many W's, so many international brands. If you think about that 10 years ago, wow, you say, the same is happening with the restaurants. There is so many places new and this is not easy, you know.
Speaker #0
And mainly like all the area on the island or you've got... Yeah,
Speaker #1
all around. Yeah, all around. Yes, all around, all around.
Speaker #0
And we didn't talk about it, but you've got like all the F&B part on your hotels also. You've got restaurants, bars. Yes. All of them?
Speaker #1
Yes, we run, we have, well, for example, here we have in Los Felices, we have a partnership with Gros Napoletano, which is the biggest pizza chain in Spain. But it's like super good pizza, but maybe the aesthetic of the brand was not really what we wanted. So we partnered with them and we created interior design and the branding. And we partnered and it's also nice because it's like a gluten-free pizza, but it's like official. That in Ibiza you don't have places for celiacs. And for example, my daughter, my small daughter is celiac and I get so crazy because you don't find places. so and we got the stamp so pizza lovers are celiacs come so yeah that's the deal you you made with them they brought the operation yes then we we create another brand but we create our it's called sorella that we created for uh mongivelo because the idea as we want to grow with mongivelo if we open another mongivelo in mallorca let's say so sorella will be the the restaurant.
Speaker #0
Amazing. Yes. And is it the same thing? I mean, you've got... a brand on each restaurant that is different than the hotel to bring like you know yes we have let's say two brand restaurants at the moment because then we we call
Speaker #1
For example, in Romeos, the diner, we call it the Mandis, you know, but it's not like a strong brand that we promote. It's having a different Instagram and it's having their own communication. As independent communication, we're building these two brands. But, of course, this is a thing that I am quite... that we need to improve because also if we want to start in the cities, the F&B part is super important. So, but in Ibiza, you know, as we... do most of the business F&B during the day in the pools so we didn't care much in the past you know to have a super
Speaker #0
I mean we have basic but well done and how the seasonality looks like in Ibiza like is it like a full year round or do you have like no no no in the past was
Speaker #1
more about five months okay May and September. Now we're doing seven months. For example, we opened on the first of April, we closed at the end of October.
Speaker #0
Okay, so you closed most of them.
Speaker #1
And then in the winter we closed because there are no flights coming to Ibiza. Flight connections, you don't have tourists. So we closed the hotel, but this is something also I like because when you close, For example, myself, I work more in the winter than in the summer. In the summer, it's more about PR, make sure the operation works, go to the hotels, be with the people, famous person arrives, you are with him, things like that. But in the winter is when we build the business, we want the business how to be.
Speaker #0
The foundation.
Speaker #1
The manuals, the budgets, the team. So we work a lot in the winter. and then we... Also work in improving the products because sometimes when you run a you have a hotel in the city and you work 12 months You don't have the moment to stop because every day And you need to to do the daily daily obligations daily work You know and it's good in life when you have a moment to stop and see oh, I should do that Oh out this project. Oh, you know, I'm it's also in Ibiza that for example, I work more in the winter I have less social life. So I have My mind is more creative in the winter than in the summer.
Speaker #0
Interesting. And we almost did 45 minutes already. Okay.
Speaker #1
That's good. Great.
Speaker #0
What are the cool stuff going on this summer at Concept Hotel Groups?
Speaker #1
Okay. Yeah, well, we're doing this a lot all the time because...
Speaker #0
I know.
Speaker #1
Yeah, we have so many events happening.
Speaker #0
But if you have one to pick up... Ah,
Speaker #1
okay. Come on. I will say the 20th. Rock Night's anniversary on the 17th of July where we do a big concert and then the party at Pikes. Also we're doing with L'Officiel and La Cos this 50 seat cool dinner on Saturday here at Los Felices. We are doing also a very cool event with four chefs from different points in Spain that will do a cool dinner at Monjibello one per month. and But, you know, we have so many, we have actual cultural agenda that with around 13, 14 events we create.
Speaker #0
Okay.
Speaker #1
For example, I invite you to go to the salsa classes today at Cubanito, or we do also today a documentary at the Cinema of Gran Paradiso. So always cultural things going on that don't compete with the typical things of Ibiza. You know, we are not hands up clubbing, you know, we are more about... providing cultural content to the hotels.
Speaker #0
That's something, that's a claim that you have like with your team like saying okay if we have to create an event it has to be different from the Ibiza scene.
Speaker #1
Exactly, 100%. Okay. And we also trying to, I'm gonna tell you one cool thing we're doing, yes. I like to do not only maybe events in the hotels, we are doing in partner with a very cool shop of Madrid, it's called, I can say, they will be happy I mentioned it, it's called Mini Shop and they did in Madrid. A super cool thing you should do in France this because it's like a tennis tournament. Okay. Okay with different teams The teams are for example the one they did in Madrid It was like one team primavera sound the festival the other team a program that Is called la revuelta, which is the most seen program in the main spanish tv then another one is a live band a rock band and then In every team was people from that company, but also maybe one celebrity that was playing, you know? That's cool. And this is one day, okay, with obviously they involve brands, and it's like... It's for fun, but then people get serious. And then you play like Davis Cup, but instead of playing sets, you play tie-breaks.
Speaker #0
Okay.
Speaker #1
So I'm also a tennis player lover. I played tennis until I did Balearic Champion, and then I stopped. My brother was the good one, not me. I was okay, but my brother was the big one. And then I stopped playing 25 years, and then I decided to play again. And these people from Madrid, we became... We came. like friends and we say okay let's do the Ibiza edition and 17th September Ibiza edition so it's going to be different types of people from their life for example the guys from Silencio they're going to be one team, Pykes is going to be another team, Concept is going to be another team then the restaurant John Dahl for example maybe will be another team so like are you the one curating lifestyle lifestyle brands from the from Ibiza meet one day networking visibility because then all the press they want to talk about that because it's something very different so i love that idea is that you this is what we were talking about that okay doesn't bring you it's not giving you money but it's going to give you a lot of visibility you know so yes that's i'm excited are you the one curating the team or i'm creating the team together with the people of madrid you know because they they partnered we're more like a strategic partner in ibiza and the main concept of the group is going to have a lot of presence maybe one of the courts, we call it Los Felices court and we can bring the umbrellas to the court, the towels and make it nice I was going to ask,
Speaker #0
where are going to be the courts? Have you seen the... you have this place close to... was it close to Palm Springs? Ah,
Speaker #1
Indian Wells? Yes,
Speaker #0
exactly, with the court, like the super nice one Yeah,
Speaker #1
it's not, I mean, I... one day i would love to have a hotel with a couple of courts maybe one pink court another one but here in ibiza we're gonna play in uh just in a in a small club uh here close to the hotels awesome i invite you to come i would love to we
Speaker #0
should do like a lobby team diego thank you very much I appreciate your time and having more insight from the group and super cool for having us and glad we made it to Ibiza
Speaker #1
You're welcome to come anytime Thanks man,
Speaker #0
thank you very much Thank you very much for listening to us so far. And if you enjoyed this exchange, don't hesitate to leave a note and subscribe to your favorite platform. It helps me to go back in the rankings and to make the podcast known. We'll see you very soon for a new exchange. See you soon on Lobby Talks.

About LOBBY Talks - For hospitality builders

Des lieux de vie dans lesquels séjourner, travailler, partager des moments.

Des lieux construits sur l’expérience, souvent imaginé par des passionnés.

Hébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

About LOBBY Talks - For hospitality builders

Des lieux de vie dans lesquels séjourner, travailler, partager des moments.

Des lieux construits sur l’expérience, souvent imaginé par des passionnés.

Hébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

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Hébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

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Speaker #0
Hello everyone, I am Kevin Le Goff, founder of Lobby, an idea office dedicated to artisan hospitality with which we create brands and spaces to make our places a real destination and through this podcast I am delighted to share with you the reading of those who give life to these places, share their story and the soul that we find there. conversations with architects, photographers, owners, designers and artists to feed us on how to make our places real destinations. A podcast to be found every 15 days on your favorite platforms. Thank you all. Listen to you.
Speaker #1
The podcast of the lobby.
Speaker #0
Hi guys, this time is in English, but last week I was in Ibiza and I had the chance to sit down with Diego Calvo, the co-founder of concept hotel group. If you ever stayed in one of their hotels you know they don't just build hotels actually they build like massive worlds. Each property has its own story, its own soundtrack, its own attitude. They've created a real scene in Ibiza not just for guests but for the island itself. We talked about the early days, building a brand with guts, how you keep the soul alive as you grow and why hospitality should never be boring. Here's my conversation with Diego. You're listening to Lobby Talks.
Speaker #1
Hello.
Speaker #0
Hello. Thanks for having us, man.
Speaker #1
It's such a pleasure.
Speaker #0
I appreciate it. First time for us in one of your hotels. And the idea, as I was saying, you know, right before we start the podcast, the idea is to get a conversation about how you built everything and how you started Concept Hotel Group.
Speaker #1
Yes.
Speaker #0
But my first question would be, what should I know about you to better understand how you ended up in hospitality? Yes.
Speaker #1
Well, I'm a rebel boy. I like to do things always different. I don't like to follow trends and I like just to be real to the things. I love, and that's how also I created the company with another friend called Talent Planets in 2013. And we always follow, create brands that are very related with the things we love. So, yes, I mean, I was doing already... I'm into the hotel industry since 1999 when I was studying hotel management but at the same time I was starting to work in different hotel groups around different places in Europe just to get the proper experience but 2013 we started and yes I'm a boy from the Mediterranean.
Speaker #0
Yeah so you actually study like...
Speaker #1
hospitality and hotel management yes i did hotel management that it was the first year in in spain that was officially like i don't know how to say in english well diplomatura so that was in mallorca in 1998 and then i i did four years and then i also did a master in hotel management again in in barcelona in outside barcelona in san paul de mar which is the the most classic hotel school in Spain.
Speaker #0
Okay. And how do you end up like starting your own place? Like what was the move, you know, to from working for others to actually be like, OK, I'm going to start my own.
Speaker #1
Always in my in my head, no? I mean, my my first objective when I was doing when I was studying was to run a hotel that I like. No, that was my first dream. No, hopefully one day I'm a hotel manager for a hotel that I love. That was very important, a hotel that I loved, because I've always been a person that my passions, apart from hotels, are music, are fashion, are cinema, are art, are design. I also wanted to be an interior designer. That was one of the things that was always in my head, that I'm actually lucky to be able to work in the interiors of the hotels for my own company. But that was my first objective, be a hotel manager of a hotel I love. But then I was remembering I was working for a very traditional hotel group. First I was commercial director, then I was in the general management also. But I was not feeling the passion I want to feel in life. I mean, I'm a super... I'm a passionate person in life in general, with love, with my friends, with everything I do. It's all about attitude and passion. So I was not feeling very happy about that. And then one day, with my friend Talen, we decided, why not? Let's try. We didn't have money at all. We just did a very good deal with a property. a little bit with the bank a little bit another things so we make it a contract happen and and it was the time when ibiza was starting to to change because it was was coming from the traditional tool operation all inclusive and the first hotels uh they realized okay we need to change exactly so we took that wave and uh because we were also doing something different And from that day we've been growing quite fast.
Speaker #0
So what's the first hotel you started in Ibiza? The first of the group? Yes.
Speaker #1
The first of the group actually is not existing anymore. It used to be called Santos. Okay. That was in 2013. But we did a 10-year leasing. And finally the property, they learned from us. And they... They open again with another name, but also with experience they had having us in their property. It's sad that we don't have that place anymore. But sometimes in life, it's like having a girlfriend you love, then you have a problem. For a time, you are very sad because you're not with her anymore. But then you forget about her and it comes something better after. So at the moment we are running eight hotels in Ibiza. It's one of them with a different identity. I mean, you can see that are in the same family, but each one of them is having a very strong identity.
Speaker #0
Yeah, we'll talk about it later, because I've got a few questions on that.
Speaker #1
Yeah, no problem.
Speaker #0
Regarding the first hotel you opened, what's interesting is, could you share, if you remember the first steps, getting into your own place like you talked about the bank about the first deal of us the you know the first contract and everything like how do you stop yes that that time obviously I was coming from the hotel industry and I and I and I had
Speaker #1
I was lucky I I was in I would say that in every position possible in a hotel no I worked there the service reception night director, commercial director, groups, I did everything. So it was quite easy for me to adapt to the operations into my own business. And I remember obviously the first year I was doing everything. I was a purchase arrive, putting information in the system or a booking or just doing a check into a client. I was super excited and I just wanted the hotel to to work but i remember that time i mean i i can say i still have the same passion every morning but when you love something and you and you do it with passion uh i think works it works better definitely yes and and what's the you know the the business model of what you developed do
Speaker #0
you own like the building the real estate or do you are no no we don't we don't we don't know we don't know
Speaker #1
that rich. What we do is basically we find a building that is not in a good condition or is not working very well, we try to reach a good deal with the property. Sometimes we have invested, then we do at the moment we do a long-term rent like 25 years. We agree The lowest rent possible considering that we are going to put money into the property because we do most of the investments of our rentals. At the moment we are also working, for example, in Hotel Monjibello. That is a very big hotel. We are doing this with a big investment fund. We are working there only as operators. I mean, it's our soul, it's our decoration project, it's our management. but it's not uh we are not the property okay and for example also in this uh in this hotel that is quite big this is 113 rooms los felices we are sharing also the property with another investors and at the same time we are also uh running the the operation of course we thought that we have them the main uh comparison We are all like the dream team is in the main office, all the brands register in the main office. So that's the operation company. The operation company provides service to every hotel. So for the hotels that we participate in, all of them except in Mongibello, then we provide the service as operations.
Speaker #0
And what made you choose the fact that you actually built like different brands?
Speaker #1
and not just one yeah that was yeah that's very interesting question because from the first moment the idea was to create a group of hotel brands not a hotel chain so i like to say always we are a hotel group not a hotel chain because hotel chain is more when you scale and you do all the hotels similar no and that was not into in our um plans and in our feelings, no? So we decided more to create groups. Obviously now I can explain you how we have the structure of the brand to work more for the future because now concept hotel group will be the umbrella and then we have the concept hotels that are the hotels that are going to be unique. You will not find another Cubanito or you will not find another Los Felices, okay? So that's the concept hotels. Then we have Mongibello, which is actually build the brand to scale and to be always in a destination where you have the sea. For example, Mallorca or Costa Brava, or we can go to a point in France also. But always with the sea. The concept is super, super strong. But it's been since the first day to opening more destinations. And then we have another brand that is... We've actually been talking about this brand for the last, I think, eight years. And we don't have one hotel yet, but we will. This is more a lifestyle urban. Okay, more to get into the league of the standard hotels or Soho House, Hoxton, Ace Hotels. Lifestyle, do it in our own style. Try and break the market in the cities. Our aim, I mean, we would like to... the first hotel to be in Madrid or Barcelona because we are a company from Spain and I think it's important for us to experience first Madrid or Barcelona and then be ready maybe to jump into another city but that brand, I'm super excited it's going to be so powerful, I mean we have it done and we are updated updating the brand every one year, one year and a half because we travel a lot, we get so many ideas the hotel industry is changing a lot and it's going to be very powerful
Speaker #0
And are you waiting because you didn't find the right place or you just want to empower the brand like years after years and get the right concept?
Speaker #1
There's a few reasons. Now I'm having also a new talent, my friend who founded the company with me left the company last year. We're still super good friends, but he's not working in the company anymore and he's not participating. And now I'm sharing the company 50-50 with another good friend. that is called Marraola, who is very good in terms of also doing a strategy for companies, not only financially, also in the way how companies should grow. So together we are making such a good team together. First because we have the inside, we're very different, we wear very different clothes, but inside we are quite similar, you know. And And we have a way of thinking that each way of thinking makes together a very strong team. And at the moment we say, OK, let's do a couple of years to make the company very strong in terms of structure, team, financially, you know, and then be ready to grow. because if you think about The last 10 years, I mean, we grow so fast. Even we had two years of COVID. Yeah. And we grow very quick, no? So now we are in a moment of getting more professional and improve. And then we will be back for sure.
Speaker #0
How many people are in the group right now? Like the headquarter?
Speaker #1
Yeah. Well, headquarter. Headquarters, we are not so many. Headquarters, in total, we are around, let's say, 15 people.
Speaker #0
Managing the brands?
Speaker #1
15. Well, because we work a lot with external services, especially for marketing. We are 15 in... In the main office, but in total in the whole company, we are 500 people at the moment.
Speaker #0
Okay. And what was the, I mean, as you were saying, you grow super fast and from one to eight hotel. And what was the difficult part, like from growing to one to the second one or the third one?
Speaker #1
You would say maybe like every year. The most difficult part? did you face like some strong strong part like being like okay we're just gonna do three hotels yeah no i mean in in our mind uh we didn't have an objective of number of hotels no this is a i think i always say no uh that being passion for hotels is like you are being passion for music or for paint or for painting or for cinema you always want to create instead of of course You need to make the hotels work and lucky we are that all our hotels are profitable, you know, but to create for us is super important because that's our petrol to live, no? And well, for sure when we had the crisis it was in a moment that it was very very difficult for us because we had the obligations of paying rental, of paying the staff. We didn't own the places. We generate the cash flow with the business. The business was not there so we finally managed to find ways to survive. And of course, Mark was a very important person and part of the company to be able to survive. But,
Speaker #0
yeah. I can get it. And then. What would be your advice for someone like... We have couples of... I told you before, we have the... At Lobby, we also have the Lobby Members Club, which is like a community of hotel owners. Some of them got small groups from two to six, ten hotels. But what would be the cool advice to share about like, all right, guys, be careful on this point because it can cost a lot.
Speaker #1
For me, one of the most important is that you build a... First, the passion. and make something you love not make something because the market says you should do that no make something because you you love it because then you are going to create it good in a good way and you are also going because it's not only about create a product and you open yeah then you have to leave it and you have to bring your soul there you know that's how i think because otherwise yeah it could work but you will not enjoy it also no but then i'm a I consider myself a super positive person, but I like to be also conservative, you know, when you study a business, no? Sometimes I've been a bit too positive, but I think you have to be, you have to build a business plan where you are conservative. You're positive, you say you're going to make it and you believe what you have in mind to do. But in the business plan you have to be conservative because then you will pay if not. Because the paper accepts everything, but then you have to reach it. For example, now in Ibiza you have so many international brands in the league. They just opened and they said, OK, I'm going to Ibiza, I'm going to make this. So many millions. And then they don't reach the numbers they say and then they have a big problem. So also if you run your own business, you have to be very careful with the projections. Make sure financially you are covered and protect always. If you are the creator of the brand, you need to always protect your brand. That's super important.
Speaker #0
And you're talking about passion and all that stuff. and I'm in. I'm a member of this team, definitely. And I got so many questions sometimes from newcomers that are saying like, how do you get like a profitability in investing in community, in something that is not on your business plan actually, you know? And that's very difficult to give an answer on that because you're talking about the soul, about the feeling, about the experience and everything. and this is something not measurable that much.
Speaker #1
That's what you are talking about is like my favorite part of the game because I'm a super super believer of the things that are not touchable i mean the intangible i don't know how you say yeah intangible so i think for a business and for a brand this is the 50 percent of the power because and this is i think we we work a lot in the company you know sometimes it's a bit difficult to explain but i think in the in at the end you can feel it and you can get the feedback from the people, from the media, from many things. And we can talk about that a lot. But I like to create a lifestyle around the brand, creating a community of people that understands and represents the things we do. So that's why it's so important that the things you do You understand that. For example, if we do a fashion hotel, for example, and we need to create a list of fashion designs, it needs to make sense. You cannot just do things without sense. And you also will know about that because you're also a creator of brands. But for me, it's super important that sometimes you do things that they don't bring you money directly, but they bring... they make your brand stronger and they will make you in the future be able to sell more expensive than the neighbor next door is not doing these things this is super important i think and in the long term and situations where um there is so many people in the in the in the many competitors if you make a difference then you will get your award no yeah it's it's you know there's this quote saying like stop stop
Speaker #0
building walls like everybody can build walls and more complicated to build souvenirs so okay yeah and this is exactly this i like that i like that yeah and uh and how like this was my question like you were talking about it in the beginning of the podcast but you brought passion into each of your hotel. Like mainly from California, the US, like how did you make this choice, you know, to actually get into this scene, like Palm Springs, you know, the vibe we've got at Los Felices.
Speaker #1
Yes, I mean, in the time we started Ibiza, it was quite everything looking very similar, you know, very white, very Mediterranean, same style. Now it's still happening also. But I said, why don't we create a world that could be in the movies, that could be very fresh and very summer. And for a person that maybe is, let's say, in Manchester with a grey sky and wants holidays, is looking at our hotel and saying, OK, I want to be there because it's very colourful, it's very powerful. so and then I wanted to do something that is different, no? So, of course, there is a lot from the US, like Palm Springs, also the South Beach, Miami, also all the Route 66. But also there is like somewhere within Mongibello, it's more Amalfi Coast in the 60s. Within Cubanito, it's like Havana in the 50s. I mean, it was more about what I was watching in the movies, in the series, in the books, how I listen to the music, how I imagine, for example, this is a... I think, well, that is quite impressive. My first time in US was three years ago. I didn't go before. So many people told me, OK, Diego, don't go now, because you already imagine how it is. But I decided to make a long trip to California, where I was in Palm Springs and in other places, to visit all these hotels, like the Parker Hotel in Palm Springs, or the Madonna Inn, or also in California, or we went to Vegas. I mean, it took so many to visit there and see how it's in reality. but The main thing was be colorful, be different, and you build the hotels as you could build your job. or the set of a movie. Yeah.
Speaker #0
And you are also passionate about music. What's the importance of music into your place? Yeah.
Speaker #1
This is also super important. Every hotel is having a different playlist of music. For example, if you go later, I would recommend you to go to the rooftop of Cubanito for the sunset because you have more Cuban music. No? Yeah. If you go to Monjibello, you have more music that is more Italian, elegant. 60s, 70s, night style, no? So every hotel is having a different identity of music, okay? If you ask myself, I like most types of music, obviously the main music I like, you can imagine, is rock and roll. We are actually also promoters of live music and we have the only rock and roll party in Ibiza, it's called Rock Nights. is actually, we started in 2005. And we're celebrating now, actually on the 17th of July, we do 20 years anniversary. And we've been, for the last 12 years, we've been at Hotel Pikes, which is also a super legendary place, like you could say, like Chateau Mormont in LA. Yeah,
Speaker #0
okay. And do you, like, when you say you're a promoter, like, how does it work? You're managing artists, you're bringing artists over there, you...
Speaker #1
We organize, I mean... And Rocknights is also one of the brands of the company because at the beginning I was doing Rocknights and Concept Hotel. So Rocknights was not part of the group. But then one day I decided I'm more in the new era that we are now together with me and Mark. I said, OK, let's run. Rocknights is also from the main office because it's part of the same universe. So we have three lifestyle brands that are not hotels, which is Rocknights. It's promotion, doing parties and live music. We have Venice Bay, that is an area that we have for cultural events. Where, for example, we had last couple of weeks ago, we have Dani León, which is the skater that went to the Olympic Games, for example, to do an exhibition. And we have this area also with the brand Red Bull. We have a live stage for live music. We have a basketball, we did also a campaign with Adidas there. So multicultural area to do. events that are part also of the DNA of our hotels. And then we have a new brand that just came out last month. It's called Cana Cana Design. So Cana Cana is going to be our brand where we design products that then you will find in hotels. For example, now you can see that we have like, how do you say, in-flight tables, like for the pool. Like a donut or a chase that are for the pool. and we have one design per hotel. We're doing it together with a fabric in Barcelona. It's called Elo and we partner together. And it's the way to create our own brand standards, our own product. I mean, you could get one of these designs and products and maybe, okay, let's say Soho House wants this in the pool of Soho House. Okay, you can have it and you can do your own design, but with the creation we did. So it's a way of then starting to get royalties of the things we create because we experience so many things where maybe another company takes our idea and then you know or copies so this okay let's do one collection per year and then for next year we have a I cannot say yet but we have a new collection of things that you will see also in every hotel.
Speaker #0
Okay and how do you defend this kind of idea like you as the co-founder, CEO, are you like, this is part of the business plan and we're going to make money of it? Or this is just something that's going to empower?
Speaker #1
Yes, I mean, first you think about...
Speaker #0
How is the meeting?
Speaker #1
Yeah, first, I think it's more about, it's going to make our brand stronger, because we're going to have a lot of media of that. And it's talking about the product, but at the same talking about the hotels, no? So I always... trying to to make it also profitable and not risky for the for the company but uh i mean we don't have uh problems with that no no but that's cool they are actually this is why support and have same thinking with my partner i mean we have a we have a board of five people we actually had one this morning but this is is mark and i and then three three other persons that we have we trust and And when we do abort, they bring. you represent ideas or we talk about things and everyone gives the opinion no and there are no partners but we try to always agree something are the the board members from uh
Speaker #0
They're not investors? No,
Speaker #1
they are involved in the company also.
Speaker #0
And the profile of the board member, would you say that you need to have different types of people into the board?
Speaker #1
Regarding product, we don't have. Me and Marc also care about the product a lot. But it's lawyer, financial and operations.
Speaker #0
No, but that's interesting. And what are the next steps for you and the group?
Speaker #1
We are going to continue creating hotel brands. We have another building in Ibiza to be opened soon. I cannot say the place, the concept and when exactly it's going to happen, but it will happen quite soon. so yeah we already made the deal and and then hopefully we will be make the second destination for mongivelo yeah uh this will take maybe also a couple of years and also uh starting the cities starting the cities and the most important is continue to enjoy you're
Speaker #0
right and and uh do you wanna i mean starting the cities but regarding concept hotel uh do you wanna stay in ibiza or
Speaker #1
Yeah, for the, I think we are okay, I mean, for the Mongevelo brand, we need to go to, like, Mallorca, Costa Brava, or I was saying, like, maybe France, for sure, and the cities, Mitico needs to be in the cities. So, yeah, I mean, we are happy to keep growing in Ibiza, but, yeah, I really want to experience to open outside Ibiza, yes.
Speaker #0
Just to come back quickly on Ibiza, how is the scene actually on Ibiza? How do you see the scene evolving?
Speaker #1
We've been talking a lot in the last weeks. The market at the moment is so many brands in the league. I mean, I am happy, I like it that there is a lot of competition because I like competition. and I like to... Competition makes you... work harder and be more different.
Speaker #0
More creative.
Speaker #1
More creative. Because if it's easy, then maybe you can relax. But at the same time, it's complicated because it's more difficult for the staff, it's more competitive because there are a lot of new five stars in Ibiza that they will need to make a lot of offers that will affect us because we are good four stars. We are not five stars. so you know At the moment, I mean, you have Six Senses, you have The Standard, you have Nobu, you have, I heard that Four Seasons is also going to open in Ibiza. So many W's, so many international brands. If you think about that 10 years ago, wow, you say, the same is happening with the restaurants. There is so many places new and this is not easy, you know.
Speaker #0
And mainly like all the area on the island or you've got... Yeah,
Speaker #1
all around. Yeah, all around. Yes, all around, all around.
Speaker #0
And we didn't talk about it, but you've got like all the F&B part on your hotels also. You've got restaurants, bars. Yes. All of them?
Speaker #1
Yes, we run, we have, well, for example, here we have in Los Felices, we have a partnership with Gros Napoletano, which is the biggest pizza chain in Spain. But it's like super good pizza, but maybe the aesthetic of the brand was not really what we wanted. So we partnered with them and we created interior design and the branding. And we partnered and it's also nice because it's like a gluten-free pizza, but it's like official. That in Ibiza you don't have places for celiacs. And for example, my daughter, my small daughter is celiac and I get so crazy because you don't find places. so and we got the stamp so pizza lovers are celiacs come so yeah that's the deal you you made with them they brought the operation yes then we we create another brand but we create our it's called sorella that we created for uh mongivelo because the idea as we want to grow with mongivelo if we open another mongivelo in mallorca let's say so sorella will be the the restaurant.
Speaker #0
Amazing. Yes. And is it the same thing? I mean, you've got... a brand on each restaurant that is different than the hotel to bring like you know yes we have let's say two brand restaurants at the moment because then we we call
Speaker #1
For example, in Romeos, the diner, we call it the Mandis, you know, but it's not like a strong brand that we promote. It's having a different Instagram and it's having their own communication. As independent communication, we're building these two brands. But, of course, this is a thing that I am quite... that we need to improve because also if we want to start in the cities, the F&B part is super important. So, but in Ibiza, you know, as we... do most of the business F&B during the day in the pools so we didn't care much in the past you know to have a super
Speaker #0
I mean we have basic but well done and how the seasonality looks like in Ibiza like is it like a full year round or do you have like no no no in the past was
Speaker #1
more about five months okay May and September. Now we're doing seven months. For example, we opened on the first of April, we closed at the end of October.
Speaker #0
Okay, so you closed most of them.
Speaker #1
And then in the winter we closed because there are no flights coming to Ibiza. Flight connections, you don't have tourists. So we closed the hotel, but this is something also I like because when you close, For example, myself, I work more in the winter than in the summer. In the summer, it's more about PR, make sure the operation works, go to the hotels, be with the people, famous person arrives, you are with him, things like that. But in the winter is when we build the business, we want the business how to be.
Speaker #0
The foundation.
Speaker #1
The manuals, the budgets, the team. So we work a lot in the winter. and then we... Also work in improving the products because sometimes when you run a you have a hotel in the city and you work 12 months You don't have the moment to stop because every day And you need to to do the daily daily obligations daily work You know and it's good in life when you have a moment to stop and see oh, I should do that Oh out this project. Oh, you know, I'm it's also in Ibiza that for example, I work more in the winter I have less social life. So I have My mind is more creative in the winter than in the summer.
Speaker #0
Interesting. And we almost did 45 minutes already. Okay.
Speaker #1
That's good. Great.
Speaker #0
What are the cool stuff going on this summer at Concept Hotel Groups?
Speaker #1
Okay. Yeah, well, we're doing this a lot all the time because...
Speaker #0
I know.
Speaker #1
Yeah, we have so many events happening.
Speaker #0
But if you have one to pick up... Ah,
Speaker #1
okay. Come on. I will say the 20th. Rock Night's anniversary on the 17th of July where we do a big concert and then the party at Pikes. Also we're doing with L'Officiel and La Cos this 50 seat cool dinner on Saturday here at Los Felices. We are doing also a very cool event with four chefs from different points in Spain that will do a cool dinner at Monjibello one per month. and But, you know, we have so many, we have actual cultural agenda that with around 13, 14 events we create.
Speaker #0
Okay.
Speaker #1
For example, I invite you to go to the salsa classes today at Cubanito, or we do also today a documentary at the Cinema of Gran Paradiso. So always cultural things going on that don't compete with the typical things of Ibiza. You know, we are not hands up clubbing, you know, we are more about... providing cultural content to the hotels.
Speaker #0
That's something, that's a claim that you have like with your team like saying okay if we have to create an event it has to be different from the Ibiza scene.
Speaker #1
Exactly, 100%. Okay. And we also trying to, I'm gonna tell you one cool thing we're doing, yes. I like to do not only maybe events in the hotels, we are doing in partner with a very cool shop of Madrid, it's called, I can say, they will be happy I mentioned it, it's called Mini Shop and they did in Madrid. A super cool thing you should do in France this because it's like a tennis tournament. Okay. Okay with different teams The teams are for example the one they did in Madrid It was like one team primavera sound the festival the other team a program that Is called la revuelta, which is the most seen program in the main spanish tv then another one is a live band a rock band and then In every team was people from that company, but also maybe one celebrity that was playing, you know? That's cool. And this is one day, okay, with obviously they involve brands, and it's like... It's for fun, but then people get serious. And then you play like Davis Cup, but instead of playing sets, you play tie-breaks.
Speaker #0
Okay.
Speaker #1
So I'm also a tennis player lover. I played tennis until I did Balearic Champion, and then I stopped. My brother was the good one, not me. I was okay, but my brother was the big one. And then I stopped playing 25 years, and then I decided to play again. And these people from Madrid, we became... We came. like friends and we say okay let's do the Ibiza edition and 17th September Ibiza edition so it's going to be different types of people from their life for example the guys from Silencio they're going to be one team, Pykes is going to be another team, Concept is going to be another team then the restaurant John Dahl for example maybe will be another team so like are you the one curating lifestyle lifestyle brands from the from Ibiza meet one day networking visibility because then all the press they want to talk about that because it's something very different so i love that idea is that you this is what we were talking about that okay doesn't bring you it's not giving you money but it's going to give you a lot of visibility you know so yes that's i'm excited are you the one curating the team or i'm creating the team together with the people of madrid you know because they they partnered we're more like a strategic partner in ibiza and the main concept of the group is going to have a lot of presence maybe one of the courts, we call it Los Felices court and we can bring the umbrellas to the court, the towels and make it nice I was going to ask,
Speaker #0
where are going to be the courts? Have you seen the... you have this place close to... was it close to Palm Springs? Ah,
Speaker #1
Indian Wells? Yes,
Speaker #0
exactly, with the court, like the super nice one Yeah,
Speaker #1
it's not, I mean, I... one day i would love to have a hotel with a couple of courts maybe one pink court another one but here in ibiza we're gonna play in uh just in a in a small club uh here close to the hotels awesome i invite you to come i would love to we
Speaker #0
should do like a lobby team diego thank you very much I appreciate your time and having more insight from the group and super cool for having us and glad we made it to Ibiza
Speaker #1
You're welcome to come anytime Thanks man,
Speaker #0
thank you very much Thank you very much for listening to us so far. And if you enjoyed this exchange, don't hesitate to leave a note and subscribe to your favorite platform. It helps me to go back in the rankings and to make the podcast known. We'll see you very soon for a new exchange. See you soon on Lobby Talks.

About LOBBY Talks - For hospitality builders

Des lieux de vie dans lesquels séjourner, travailler, partager des moments.

Des lieux construits sur l’expérience, souvent imaginé par des passionnés.

Hébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

About LOBBY Talks - For hospitality builders

Des lieux de vie dans lesquels séjourner, travailler, partager des moments.

Des lieux construits sur l’expérience, souvent imaginé par des passionnés.

Hébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

Description

Hébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

Transcription

Speaker #0
Hello everyone, I am Kevin Le Goff, founder of Lobby, an idea office dedicated to artisan hospitality with which we create brands and spaces to make our places a real destination and through this podcast I am delighted to share with you the reading of those who give life to these places, share their story and the soul that we find there. conversations with architects, photographers, owners, designers and artists to feed us on how to make our places real destinations. A podcast to be found every 15 days on your favorite platforms. Thank you all. Listen to you.
Speaker #1
The podcast of the lobby.
Speaker #0
Hi guys, this time is in English, but last week I was in Ibiza and I had the chance to sit down with Diego Calvo, the co-founder of concept hotel group. If you ever stayed in one of their hotels you know they don't just build hotels actually they build like massive worlds. Each property has its own story, its own soundtrack, its own attitude. They've created a real scene in Ibiza not just for guests but for the island itself. We talked about the early days, building a brand with guts, how you keep the soul alive as you grow and why hospitality should never be boring. Here's my conversation with Diego. You're listening to Lobby Talks.
Speaker #1
Hello.
Speaker #0
Hello. Thanks for having us, man.
Speaker #1
It's such a pleasure.
Speaker #0
I appreciate it. First time for us in one of your hotels. And the idea, as I was saying, you know, right before we start the podcast, the idea is to get a conversation about how you built everything and how you started Concept Hotel Group.
Speaker #1
Yes.
Speaker #0
But my first question would be, what should I know about you to better understand how you ended up in hospitality? Yes.
Speaker #1
Well, I'm a rebel boy. I like to do things always different. I don't like to follow trends and I like just to be real to the things. I love, and that's how also I created the company with another friend called Talent Planets in 2013. And we always follow, create brands that are very related with the things we love. So, yes, I mean, I was doing already... I'm into the hotel industry since 1999 when I was studying hotel management but at the same time I was starting to work in different hotel groups around different places in Europe just to get the proper experience but 2013 we started and yes I'm a boy from the Mediterranean.
Speaker #0
Yeah so you actually study like...
Speaker #1
hospitality and hotel management yes i did hotel management that it was the first year in in spain that was officially like i don't know how to say in english well diplomatura so that was in mallorca in 1998 and then i i did four years and then i also did a master in hotel management again in in barcelona in outside barcelona in san paul de mar which is the the most classic hotel school in Spain.
Speaker #0
Okay. And how do you end up like starting your own place? Like what was the move, you know, to from working for others to actually be like, OK, I'm going to start my own.
Speaker #1
Always in my in my head, no? I mean, my my first objective when I was doing when I was studying was to run a hotel that I like. No, that was my first dream. No, hopefully one day I'm a hotel manager for a hotel that I love. That was very important, a hotel that I loved, because I've always been a person that my passions, apart from hotels, are music, are fashion, are cinema, are art, are design. I also wanted to be an interior designer. That was one of the things that was always in my head, that I'm actually lucky to be able to work in the interiors of the hotels for my own company. But that was my first objective, be a hotel manager of a hotel I love. But then I was remembering I was working for a very traditional hotel group. First I was commercial director, then I was in the general management also. But I was not feeling the passion I want to feel in life. I mean, I'm a super... I'm a passionate person in life in general, with love, with my friends, with everything I do. It's all about attitude and passion. So I was not feeling very happy about that. And then one day, with my friend Talen, we decided, why not? Let's try. We didn't have money at all. We just did a very good deal with a property. a little bit with the bank a little bit another things so we make it a contract happen and and it was the time when ibiza was starting to to change because it was was coming from the traditional tool operation all inclusive and the first hotels uh they realized okay we need to change exactly so we took that wave and uh because we were also doing something different And from that day we've been growing quite fast.
Speaker #0
So what's the first hotel you started in Ibiza? The first of the group? Yes.
Speaker #1
The first of the group actually is not existing anymore. It used to be called Santos. Okay. That was in 2013. But we did a 10-year leasing. And finally the property, they learned from us. And they... They open again with another name, but also with experience they had having us in their property. It's sad that we don't have that place anymore. But sometimes in life, it's like having a girlfriend you love, then you have a problem. For a time, you are very sad because you're not with her anymore. But then you forget about her and it comes something better after. So at the moment we are running eight hotels in Ibiza. It's one of them with a different identity. I mean, you can see that are in the same family, but each one of them is having a very strong identity.
Speaker #0
Yeah, we'll talk about it later, because I've got a few questions on that.
Speaker #1
Yeah, no problem.
Speaker #0
Regarding the first hotel you opened, what's interesting is, could you share, if you remember the first steps, getting into your own place like you talked about the bank about the first deal of us the you know the first contract and everything like how do you stop yes that that time obviously I was coming from the hotel industry and I and I and I had
Speaker #1
I was lucky I I was in I would say that in every position possible in a hotel no I worked there the service reception night director, commercial director, groups, I did everything. So it was quite easy for me to adapt to the operations into my own business. And I remember obviously the first year I was doing everything. I was a purchase arrive, putting information in the system or a booking or just doing a check into a client. I was super excited and I just wanted the hotel to to work but i remember that time i mean i i can say i still have the same passion every morning but when you love something and you and you do it with passion uh i think works it works better definitely yes and and what's the you know the the business model of what you developed do
Speaker #0
you own like the building the real estate or do you are no no we don't we don't we don't know we don't know
Speaker #1
that rich. What we do is basically we find a building that is not in a good condition or is not working very well, we try to reach a good deal with the property. Sometimes we have invested, then we do at the moment we do a long-term rent like 25 years. We agree The lowest rent possible considering that we are going to put money into the property because we do most of the investments of our rentals. At the moment we are also working, for example, in Hotel Monjibello. That is a very big hotel. We are doing this with a big investment fund. We are working there only as operators. I mean, it's our soul, it's our decoration project, it's our management. but it's not uh we are not the property okay and for example also in this uh in this hotel that is quite big this is 113 rooms los felices we are sharing also the property with another investors and at the same time we are also uh running the the operation of course we thought that we have them the main uh comparison We are all like the dream team is in the main office, all the brands register in the main office. So that's the operation company. The operation company provides service to every hotel. So for the hotels that we participate in, all of them except in Mongibello, then we provide the service as operations.
Speaker #0
And what made you choose the fact that you actually built like different brands?
Speaker #1
and not just one yeah that was yeah that's very interesting question because from the first moment the idea was to create a group of hotel brands not a hotel chain so i like to say always we are a hotel group not a hotel chain because hotel chain is more when you scale and you do all the hotels similar no and that was not into in our um plans and in our feelings, no? So we decided more to create groups. Obviously now I can explain you how we have the structure of the brand to work more for the future because now concept hotel group will be the umbrella and then we have the concept hotels that are the hotels that are going to be unique. You will not find another Cubanito or you will not find another Los Felices, okay? So that's the concept hotels. Then we have Mongibello, which is actually build the brand to scale and to be always in a destination where you have the sea. For example, Mallorca or Costa Brava, or we can go to a point in France also. But always with the sea. The concept is super, super strong. But it's been since the first day to opening more destinations. And then we have another brand that is... We've actually been talking about this brand for the last, I think, eight years. And we don't have one hotel yet, but we will. This is more a lifestyle urban. Okay, more to get into the league of the standard hotels or Soho House, Hoxton, Ace Hotels. Lifestyle, do it in our own style. Try and break the market in the cities. Our aim, I mean, we would like to... the first hotel to be in Madrid or Barcelona because we are a company from Spain and I think it's important for us to experience first Madrid or Barcelona and then be ready maybe to jump into another city but that brand, I'm super excited it's going to be so powerful, I mean we have it done and we are updated updating the brand every one year, one year and a half because we travel a lot, we get so many ideas the hotel industry is changing a lot and it's going to be very powerful
Speaker #0
And are you waiting because you didn't find the right place or you just want to empower the brand like years after years and get the right concept?
Speaker #1
There's a few reasons. Now I'm having also a new talent, my friend who founded the company with me left the company last year. We're still super good friends, but he's not working in the company anymore and he's not participating. And now I'm sharing the company 50-50 with another good friend. that is called Marraola, who is very good in terms of also doing a strategy for companies, not only financially, also in the way how companies should grow. So together we are making such a good team together. First because we have the inside, we're very different, we wear very different clothes, but inside we are quite similar, you know. And And we have a way of thinking that each way of thinking makes together a very strong team. And at the moment we say, OK, let's do a couple of years to make the company very strong in terms of structure, team, financially, you know, and then be ready to grow. because if you think about The last 10 years, I mean, we grow so fast. Even we had two years of COVID. Yeah. And we grow very quick, no? So now we are in a moment of getting more professional and improve. And then we will be back for sure.
Speaker #0
How many people are in the group right now? Like the headquarter?
Speaker #1
Yeah. Well, headquarter. Headquarters, we are not so many. Headquarters, in total, we are around, let's say, 15 people.
Speaker #0
Managing the brands?
Speaker #1
15. Well, because we work a lot with external services, especially for marketing. We are 15 in... In the main office, but in total in the whole company, we are 500 people at the moment.
Speaker #0
Okay. And what was the, I mean, as you were saying, you grow super fast and from one to eight hotel. And what was the difficult part, like from growing to one to the second one or the third one?
Speaker #1
You would say maybe like every year. The most difficult part? did you face like some strong strong part like being like okay we're just gonna do three hotels yeah no i mean in in our mind uh we didn't have an objective of number of hotels no this is a i think i always say no uh that being passion for hotels is like you are being passion for music or for paint or for painting or for cinema you always want to create instead of of course You need to make the hotels work and lucky we are that all our hotels are profitable, you know, but to create for us is super important because that's our petrol to live, no? And well, for sure when we had the crisis it was in a moment that it was very very difficult for us because we had the obligations of paying rental, of paying the staff. We didn't own the places. We generate the cash flow with the business. The business was not there so we finally managed to find ways to survive. And of course, Mark was a very important person and part of the company to be able to survive. But,
Speaker #0
yeah. I can get it. And then. What would be your advice for someone like... We have couples of... I told you before, we have the... At Lobby, we also have the Lobby Members Club, which is like a community of hotel owners. Some of them got small groups from two to six, ten hotels. But what would be the cool advice to share about like, all right, guys, be careful on this point because it can cost a lot.
Speaker #1
For me, one of the most important is that you build a... First, the passion. and make something you love not make something because the market says you should do that no make something because you you love it because then you are going to create it good in a good way and you are also going because it's not only about create a product and you open yeah then you have to leave it and you have to bring your soul there you know that's how i think because otherwise yeah it could work but you will not enjoy it also no but then i'm a I consider myself a super positive person, but I like to be also conservative, you know, when you study a business, no? Sometimes I've been a bit too positive, but I think you have to be, you have to build a business plan where you are conservative. You're positive, you say you're going to make it and you believe what you have in mind to do. But in the business plan you have to be conservative because then you will pay if not. Because the paper accepts everything, but then you have to reach it. For example, now in Ibiza you have so many international brands in the league. They just opened and they said, OK, I'm going to Ibiza, I'm going to make this. So many millions. And then they don't reach the numbers they say and then they have a big problem. So also if you run your own business, you have to be very careful with the projections. Make sure financially you are covered and protect always. If you are the creator of the brand, you need to always protect your brand. That's super important.
Speaker #0
And you're talking about passion and all that stuff. and I'm in. I'm a member of this team, definitely. And I got so many questions sometimes from newcomers that are saying like, how do you get like a profitability in investing in community, in something that is not on your business plan actually, you know? And that's very difficult to give an answer on that because you're talking about the soul, about the feeling, about the experience and everything. and this is something not measurable that much.
Speaker #1
That's what you are talking about is like my favorite part of the game because I'm a super super believer of the things that are not touchable i mean the intangible i don't know how you say yeah intangible so i think for a business and for a brand this is the 50 percent of the power because and this is i think we we work a lot in the company you know sometimes it's a bit difficult to explain but i think in the in at the end you can feel it and you can get the feedback from the people, from the media, from many things. And we can talk about that a lot. But I like to create a lifestyle around the brand, creating a community of people that understands and represents the things we do. So that's why it's so important that the things you do You understand that. For example, if we do a fashion hotel, for example, and we need to create a list of fashion designs, it needs to make sense. You cannot just do things without sense. And you also will know about that because you're also a creator of brands. But for me, it's super important that sometimes you do things that they don't bring you money directly, but they bring... they make your brand stronger and they will make you in the future be able to sell more expensive than the neighbor next door is not doing these things this is super important i think and in the long term and situations where um there is so many people in the in the in the many competitors if you make a difference then you will get your award no yeah it's it's you know there's this quote saying like stop stop
Speaker #0
building walls like everybody can build walls and more complicated to build souvenirs so okay yeah and this is exactly this i like that i like that yeah and uh and how like this was my question like you were talking about it in the beginning of the podcast but you brought passion into each of your hotel. Like mainly from California, the US, like how did you make this choice, you know, to actually get into this scene, like Palm Springs, you know, the vibe we've got at Los Felices.
Speaker #1
Yes, I mean, in the time we started Ibiza, it was quite everything looking very similar, you know, very white, very Mediterranean, same style. Now it's still happening also. But I said, why don't we create a world that could be in the movies, that could be very fresh and very summer. And for a person that maybe is, let's say, in Manchester with a grey sky and wants holidays, is looking at our hotel and saying, OK, I want to be there because it's very colourful, it's very powerful. so and then I wanted to do something that is different, no? So, of course, there is a lot from the US, like Palm Springs, also the South Beach, Miami, also all the Route 66. But also there is like somewhere within Mongibello, it's more Amalfi Coast in the 60s. Within Cubanito, it's like Havana in the 50s. I mean, it was more about what I was watching in the movies, in the series, in the books, how I listen to the music, how I imagine, for example, this is a... I think, well, that is quite impressive. My first time in US was three years ago. I didn't go before. So many people told me, OK, Diego, don't go now, because you already imagine how it is. But I decided to make a long trip to California, where I was in Palm Springs and in other places, to visit all these hotels, like the Parker Hotel in Palm Springs, or the Madonna Inn, or also in California, or we went to Vegas. I mean, it took so many to visit there and see how it's in reality. but The main thing was be colorful, be different, and you build the hotels as you could build your job. or the set of a movie. Yeah.
Speaker #0
And you are also passionate about music. What's the importance of music into your place? Yeah.
Speaker #1
This is also super important. Every hotel is having a different playlist of music. For example, if you go later, I would recommend you to go to the rooftop of Cubanito for the sunset because you have more Cuban music. No? Yeah. If you go to Monjibello, you have more music that is more Italian, elegant. 60s, 70s, night style, no? So every hotel is having a different identity of music, okay? If you ask myself, I like most types of music, obviously the main music I like, you can imagine, is rock and roll. We are actually also promoters of live music and we have the only rock and roll party in Ibiza, it's called Rock Nights. is actually, we started in 2005. And we're celebrating now, actually on the 17th of July, we do 20 years anniversary. And we've been, for the last 12 years, we've been at Hotel Pikes, which is also a super legendary place, like you could say, like Chateau Mormont in LA. Yeah,
Speaker #0
okay. And do you, like, when you say you're a promoter, like, how does it work? You're managing artists, you're bringing artists over there, you...
Speaker #1
We organize, I mean... And Rocknights is also one of the brands of the company because at the beginning I was doing Rocknights and Concept Hotel. So Rocknights was not part of the group. But then one day I decided I'm more in the new era that we are now together with me and Mark. I said, OK, let's run. Rocknights is also from the main office because it's part of the same universe. So we have three lifestyle brands that are not hotels, which is Rocknights. It's promotion, doing parties and live music. We have Venice Bay, that is an area that we have for cultural events. Where, for example, we had last couple of weeks ago, we have Dani León, which is the skater that went to the Olympic Games, for example, to do an exhibition. And we have this area also with the brand Red Bull. We have a live stage for live music. We have a basketball, we did also a campaign with Adidas there. So multicultural area to do. events that are part also of the DNA of our hotels. And then we have a new brand that just came out last month. It's called Cana Cana Design. So Cana Cana is going to be our brand where we design products that then you will find in hotels. For example, now you can see that we have like, how do you say, in-flight tables, like for the pool. Like a donut or a chase that are for the pool. and we have one design per hotel. We're doing it together with a fabric in Barcelona. It's called Elo and we partner together. And it's the way to create our own brand standards, our own product. I mean, you could get one of these designs and products and maybe, okay, let's say Soho House wants this in the pool of Soho House. Okay, you can have it and you can do your own design, but with the creation we did. So it's a way of then starting to get royalties of the things we create because we experience so many things where maybe another company takes our idea and then you know or copies so this okay let's do one collection per year and then for next year we have a I cannot say yet but we have a new collection of things that you will see also in every hotel.
Speaker #0
Okay and how do you defend this kind of idea like you as the co-founder, CEO, are you like, this is part of the business plan and we're going to make money of it? Or this is just something that's going to empower?
Speaker #1
Yes, I mean, first you think about...
Speaker #0
How is the meeting?
Speaker #1
Yeah, first, I think it's more about, it's going to make our brand stronger, because we're going to have a lot of media of that. And it's talking about the product, but at the same talking about the hotels, no? So I always... trying to to make it also profitable and not risky for the for the company but uh i mean we don't have uh problems with that no no but that's cool they are actually this is why support and have same thinking with my partner i mean we have a we have a board of five people we actually had one this morning but this is is mark and i and then three three other persons that we have we trust and And when we do abort, they bring. you represent ideas or we talk about things and everyone gives the opinion no and there are no partners but we try to always agree something are the the board members from uh
Speaker #0
They're not investors? No,
Speaker #1
they are involved in the company also.
Speaker #0
And the profile of the board member, would you say that you need to have different types of people into the board?
Speaker #1
Regarding product, we don't have. Me and Marc also care about the product a lot. But it's lawyer, financial and operations.
Speaker #0
No, but that's interesting. And what are the next steps for you and the group?
Speaker #1
We are going to continue creating hotel brands. We have another building in Ibiza to be opened soon. I cannot say the place, the concept and when exactly it's going to happen, but it will happen quite soon. so yeah we already made the deal and and then hopefully we will be make the second destination for mongivelo yeah uh this will take maybe also a couple of years and also uh starting the cities starting the cities and the most important is continue to enjoy you're
Speaker #0
right and and uh do you wanna i mean starting the cities but regarding concept hotel uh do you wanna stay in ibiza or
Speaker #1
Yeah, for the, I think we are okay, I mean, for the Mongevelo brand, we need to go to, like, Mallorca, Costa Brava, or I was saying, like, maybe France, for sure, and the cities, Mitico needs to be in the cities. So, yeah, I mean, we are happy to keep growing in Ibiza, but, yeah, I really want to experience to open outside Ibiza, yes.
Speaker #0
Just to come back quickly on Ibiza, how is the scene actually on Ibiza? How do you see the scene evolving?
Speaker #1
We've been talking a lot in the last weeks. The market at the moment is so many brands in the league. I mean, I am happy, I like it that there is a lot of competition because I like competition. and I like to... Competition makes you... work harder and be more different.
Speaker #0
More creative.
Speaker #1
More creative. Because if it's easy, then maybe you can relax. But at the same time, it's complicated because it's more difficult for the staff, it's more competitive because there are a lot of new five stars in Ibiza that they will need to make a lot of offers that will affect us because we are good four stars. We are not five stars. so you know At the moment, I mean, you have Six Senses, you have The Standard, you have Nobu, you have, I heard that Four Seasons is also going to open in Ibiza. So many W's, so many international brands. If you think about that 10 years ago, wow, you say, the same is happening with the restaurants. There is so many places new and this is not easy, you know.
Speaker #0
And mainly like all the area on the island or you've got... Yeah,
Speaker #1
all around. Yeah, all around. Yes, all around, all around.
Speaker #0
And we didn't talk about it, but you've got like all the F&B part on your hotels also. You've got restaurants, bars. Yes. All of them?
Speaker #1
Yes, we run, we have, well, for example, here we have in Los Felices, we have a partnership with Gros Napoletano, which is the biggest pizza chain in Spain. But it's like super good pizza, but maybe the aesthetic of the brand was not really what we wanted. So we partnered with them and we created interior design and the branding. And we partnered and it's also nice because it's like a gluten-free pizza, but it's like official. That in Ibiza you don't have places for celiacs. And for example, my daughter, my small daughter is celiac and I get so crazy because you don't find places. so and we got the stamp so pizza lovers are celiacs come so yeah that's the deal you you made with them they brought the operation yes then we we create another brand but we create our it's called sorella that we created for uh mongivelo because the idea as we want to grow with mongivelo if we open another mongivelo in mallorca let's say so sorella will be the the restaurant.
Speaker #0
Amazing. Yes. And is it the same thing? I mean, you've got... a brand on each restaurant that is different than the hotel to bring like you know yes we have let's say two brand restaurants at the moment because then we we call
Speaker #1
For example, in Romeos, the diner, we call it the Mandis, you know, but it's not like a strong brand that we promote. It's having a different Instagram and it's having their own communication. As independent communication, we're building these two brands. But, of course, this is a thing that I am quite... that we need to improve because also if we want to start in the cities, the F&B part is super important. So, but in Ibiza, you know, as we... do most of the business F&B during the day in the pools so we didn't care much in the past you know to have a super
Speaker #0
I mean we have basic but well done and how the seasonality looks like in Ibiza like is it like a full year round or do you have like no no no in the past was
Speaker #1
more about five months okay May and September. Now we're doing seven months. For example, we opened on the first of April, we closed at the end of October.
Speaker #0
Okay, so you closed most of them.
Speaker #1
And then in the winter we closed because there are no flights coming to Ibiza. Flight connections, you don't have tourists. So we closed the hotel, but this is something also I like because when you close, For example, myself, I work more in the winter than in the summer. In the summer, it's more about PR, make sure the operation works, go to the hotels, be with the people, famous person arrives, you are with him, things like that. But in the winter is when we build the business, we want the business how to be.
Speaker #0
The foundation.
Speaker #1
The manuals, the budgets, the team. So we work a lot in the winter. and then we... Also work in improving the products because sometimes when you run a you have a hotel in the city and you work 12 months You don't have the moment to stop because every day And you need to to do the daily daily obligations daily work You know and it's good in life when you have a moment to stop and see oh, I should do that Oh out this project. Oh, you know, I'm it's also in Ibiza that for example, I work more in the winter I have less social life. So I have My mind is more creative in the winter than in the summer.
Speaker #0
Interesting. And we almost did 45 minutes already. Okay.
Speaker #1
That's good. Great.
Speaker #0
What are the cool stuff going on this summer at Concept Hotel Groups?
Speaker #1
Okay. Yeah, well, we're doing this a lot all the time because...
Speaker #0
I know.
Speaker #1
Yeah, we have so many events happening.
Speaker #0
But if you have one to pick up... Ah,
Speaker #1
okay. Come on. I will say the 20th. Rock Night's anniversary on the 17th of July where we do a big concert and then the party at Pikes. Also we're doing with L'Officiel and La Cos this 50 seat cool dinner on Saturday here at Los Felices. We are doing also a very cool event with four chefs from different points in Spain that will do a cool dinner at Monjibello one per month. and But, you know, we have so many, we have actual cultural agenda that with around 13, 14 events we create.
Speaker #0
Okay.
Speaker #1
For example, I invite you to go to the salsa classes today at Cubanito, or we do also today a documentary at the Cinema of Gran Paradiso. So always cultural things going on that don't compete with the typical things of Ibiza. You know, we are not hands up clubbing, you know, we are more about... providing cultural content to the hotels.
Speaker #0
That's something, that's a claim that you have like with your team like saying okay if we have to create an event it has to be different from the Ibiza scene.
Speaker #1
Exactly, 100%. Okay. And we also trying to, I'm gonna tell you one cool thing we're doing, yes. I like to do not only maybe events in the hotels, we are doing in partner with a very cool shop of Madrid, it's called, I can say, they will be happy I mentioned it, it's called Mini Shop and they did in Madrid. A super cool thing you should do in France this because it's like a tennis tournament. Okay. Okay with different teams The teams are for example the one they did in Madrid It was like one team primavera sound the festival the other team a program that Is called la revuelta, which is the most seen program in the main spanish tv then another one is a live band a rock band and then In every team was people from that company, but also maybe one celebrity that was playing, you know? That's cool. And this is one day, okay, with obviously they involve brands, and it's like... It's for fun, but then people get serious. And then you play like Davis Cup, but instead of playing sets, you play tie-breaks.
Speaker #0
Okay.
Speaker #1
So I'm also a tennis player lover. I played tennis until I did Balearic Champion, and then I stopped. My brother was the good one, not me. I was okay, but my brother was the big one. And then I stopped playing 25 years, and then I decided to play again. And these people from Madrid, we became... We came. like friends and we say okay let's do the Ibiza edition and 17th September Ibiza edition so it's going to be different types of people from their life for example the guys from Silencio they're going to be one team, Pykes is going to be another team, Concept is going to be another team then the restaurant John Dahl for example maybe will be another team so like are you the one curating lifestyle lifestyle brands from the from Ibiza meet one day networking visibility because then all the press they want to talk about that because it's something very different so i love that idea is that you this is what we were talking about that okay doesn't bring you it's not giving you money but it's going to give you a lot of visibility you know so yes that's i'm excited are you the one curating the team or i'm creating the team together with the people of madrid you know because they they partnered we're more like a strategic partner in ibiza and the main concept of the group is going to have a lot of presence maybe one of the courts, we call it Los Felices court and we can bring the umbrellas to the court, the towels and make it nice I was going to ask,
Speaker #0
where are going to be the courts? Have you seen the... you have this place close to... was it close to Palm Springs? Ah,
Speaker #1
Indian Wells? Yes,
Speaker #0
exactly, with the court, like the super nice one Yeah,
Speaker #1
it's not, I mean, I... one day i would love to have a hotel with a couple of courts maybe one pink court another one but here in ibiza we're gonna play in uh just in a in a small club uh here close to the hotels awesome i invite you to come i would love to we
Speaker #0
should do like a lobby team diego thank you very much I appreciate your time and having more insight from the group and super cool for having us and glad we made it to Ibiza
Speaker #1
You're welcome to come anytime Thanks man,
Speaker #0
thank you very much Thank you very much for listening to us so far. And if you enjoyed this exchange, don't hesitate to leave a note and subscribe to your favorite platform. It helps me to go back in the rankings and to make the podcast known. We'll see you very soon for a new exchange. See you soon on Lobby Talks.

About LOBBY Talks - For hospitality builders

Des lieux de vie dans lesquels séjourner, travailler, partager des moments.

Des lieux construits sur l’expérience, souvent imaginé par des passionnés.

Hébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

About LOBBY Talks - For hospitality builders

Des lieux de vie dans lesquels séjourner, travailler, partager des moments.

Des lieux construits sur l’expérience, souvent imaginé par des passionnés.

Hébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

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