The head of a prestige hospitality brand has admitted the sector faces “major problems” still being felt from the crippling coronavirus pandemic.
But, speaking at an event in Belgium on 9 April, Laurent Gardinier, the new president of Relais & Chateaux, also voiced optimism that the industry can withstand challenges such as hiring new recruits.
He still believes horeca/hospitality is a “highly attractive” and “rewarding” career option for young people.
The sector has taken a buffeting in recent years, struggling to cope with an energy and health crisis and ever-rising labour costs.
In a wide-ranging interview the French entrepreneur accepted that the industry, not least traditional travel agencies, will have to “evolve and adapt” and in order to succeed in the future.
In the case of restaurants, he could mean, for instance, opening one or two fewer days and offering fewer services than in the past in order to cut costs.
But Gardinier, owner of two top-rated addresses in France – Domaine Les Crayeres in Reims and Le Taillevent restaurant in Paris – insists that members of his association are “very well placed” to lead the industry though “difficult” times.
This includes, he told this website, the four Relais & Chateaux properties in Belgium: two restaurants in Brussels and a hotel in Bruges and also Kasteel van Ordingen in Sint-Truiden, from where he was speaking at a special briefing for travel journalists and specialists.
“I am not saying that, post pandemic, there are still not difficulties facing the sector,” he conceded but adding, “There are but the luxury market, which we represent, is generally doing well.”
“Horeca remains undoubtedly a fantastic industry and offers huge opportunities, including young entrants, for those who are prepared to work hard.”
Relais & Chateaux, headquartered in Paris, is a luxury brand that has grown from relatively modest origins to the biggest organisation of its kind in the world, with members joining all the time (30 new ones in 2024 alone). It unites a prestige collection of hotels and restos, all operated by independent owners.
The networking body, launched in 1954, now has 580 members worldwide with combined annual sales of some €3.3 billion. They employ 42,000 people, half working in food and beverage and the rest in hospitality.
The alliance celebrated its 70th anniversary last year having started with 50 properties in France. Its first non-French members came from Belgium which Gardinier describes as a “very important market for us.”
Kasteel van Ordingen, a sprawling estate located at the heart of a fruit-growing area in Limburg in the east of Belgium, was, he said, an “excellent example” of the “values” his association seeks to foster.
Such values include supporting local communities in their efforts to preserve and develop their cultural and craft heritage.
After five years in the making, Relais and Chateaux last year drafted an updated set of commitments, described as “commandments” by Forbes, as guidance for its members throughout the world. These commitments and their 12 pillars will, said Gardinier, serve as guidelines for him and his team in all actions carried out by the brand.
The association, which has members in 65 countries, has teamed up with UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization which aims to promote peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture.
Gardinier, whose family group has an impressive track record in the art of hospitality, said he met UNESCO’s secretary general Audrey Azoulay last week where he reinforced his association’s commitment to protecting the planet.
Azoulay paid tribute to the association’s efforts, saying “its commitments clearly underline the importance of the interconnection between food, health and the environment.”
“With one voice, UNESCO and Relais & Chateaux are calling for us all to change our perspectives and practices regarding food.”
A new initiative has just been agreed by the association: the roll out in September of a new “digital tool” designed to help Relais & Chateaux members reduce their carbon footprint, an issue especially close to its president’s heart.
“This,” he noted, “is a significant development as it can have a very useful and positive impact all over the world.”
Sustainability has become a buzzword for the industry in recent years but he said his association and its members are not just paying lip service to this but, rather, implementing practical and “concrete” measures on a day-to-day basis in the management of hotels and restaurants.
Cooperation is required to make this happen and this must include all stakeholders, including suppliers, producers and also guests themselves, he says.
“UNESCO has wholeheartedly endorsed our commitments in this regard because it knows that we are serious about implementing them,” he added.
In 2019, a petition, signed by the association’s chefs, was presented to the European Parliament calling for a ban on electric pulse trawling.The controversial fishing technique was banned two years later.
Gardinier, who has also served several terms as an elected politician, pointed out that all Relais & Chateaux properties are subject to an exhaustive and increasingly refined 500-point “checklist” that is designed to put their sustainability credentials to the sternest possible test. The goal, he said, is to preserve “our exceptional DNA.”
Depending on their size, its members can pay tens of thousands of euros for membership but Relais & Chateaux membership affords significant global prestige and practical benefits to a hotel or restaurant. The association boasts the largest network of starred restos in the world and has 377 stars in the Michelin guide.
The sustainability mantra is one being actively pursued by the properties it represents, some of whom sent representatives to Belgium for the media briefing at Kasteel van Ordingen.
These include Hotel Grad Ototcec in Slovenia which, said Gorazd Soster, has its own organic garden to source its restaurant and which employs beekeepers to produce honey.
Another Relais & Chateaux property represented at the day-long event was Zornitza family estate near Sandanski in Bulgaria whose general manager Yavor Kirov said, “Sustainability is easy to talk about but it means everything for us and the way we operate.”
His comments were echoed by Jane Drotter, general manager of La Maison Bleue in Egypt, who said the owners grow their own fresh, organic produce, including tomatoes, herbs and cucumbers by using “vertical farming and hydroponic systems.” I
It also has its own greenhouse producing ingredients for use in the hotel restaurant, another example of “it doing its bit” in order to align itself with the association’s values.
Lawyer-turned-entrepreneur Florian Amereller is the man behind the amazing transformation of Al Moudira, a luxury hotel in Egypt, who was among the 15-strong Relais & Chateaux member delegation attending the event.
In the three years he has owned the 54-room property it as won multiple awards, including being voted one of the world’s best hotels by the Telegraph newspaper in the UK, partly for its commitment to sustainability.
Florian told this site, “We try to keep this very much in mind in everything we do.”
Examples of this commitment include a series of workshops next to the property which is a space for everything from carpenters and upholsterers to weavers, paper-makers and a tailor, all in quarters subsidised by the hotel. Some of the remaining acreage is allocated to solar power and the aim is to have the hotel running on 100 per cent renewable energy within another two years.
Little wonder that the Financial Times last year described the property as a “place reborn.”
