Housing Residential Business Model - Four Seasons Residence

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Housing Residential Business Model - Four Seasons Residence

The Four Seasons Residence is owned by Four Seasons Hotels Limited with 52 residence locations across 47 countries. The company's business model focuses on culture, management, service, and integrity. Details of our findings have been provided below.

Background

  • The Four Seasons is the ultimate parent of the hotel, resort, and residence chain which was founded in 1961 when the first hotel opened in Toronto.
  • The company began development of residence offerings in the 1980s when they transitioned from focusing on an owner-operator company to a management company, leaving them with the opportunity to create mixed-use developments.
  • When developing new residence locations, the company uses third-party developers who use the trademarks and tradenames under a license from Four Seasons Hotels Limited.
  • The company currently has 119 hotels and resorts and 44 major residential properties with 8 additional rural properties across 47 countries. In addition, the company currently has more than 50 projects that are in the planning or development stages.

Locations

  • The company has 52 residence locations globally broken down by region as follows:
    • North America: 29
    • Central/South America: 3
    • Europe: 3
    • Middle East/Africa: 7
    • APAC: 10

Business Model

  • In recent years, the company rebranded by implementing four key initiatives to define their business model including defining the culture, minimizing hotel size, focusing on service, and becoming private.
  • The company defined their culture in one simple concept; the Golden Rule. They stated that the most important thing was to treat others like you want to be treated and that the company had to show that they meant it.
  • Another move that the company made was to commit to managing only medium-sized hotels in order to maintain the view of "managing" not "owning," as it is important to the company to maintain the standard of service they promise.
  • In addition, the company stated that they strive to have service be the distinguishing feature of the company.
  • In 2007, the company decided that the company would benefit from the individuality and integrity they could achieve by becoming private.
  • The company stated, "One way to characterize Four Seasons service would be to call it an exchange of mutual respect performed with an attitude of kindness."

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