Neil Jacobs' luxury lessons learned

Travel Weekly

02-07-2025

Arnie Weissmann
A few weeks before the July 1 announcement that Neil Jacobs would be stepping down after 13 years as CEO of Six Senses, he and I met in a Manhattan coffee shop. He told me the news then but asked me to hold off reporting it until the official announcement.
I've always enjoyed interviewing Jacobs because he often takes an original and contrarian view of how luxury hospitality should evolve. Before his stint with Six Senses, Jacobs had spent 14 years as a Four Seasons executive and had been president of Starwood Capital Group during the period that the Baccarat and 1 Hotel brands were formulated.
As we talked about the direction luxury was heading, he brought up the concept of "scarcity value." Of course, the idea that high net worth consumers desire what's rare or exclusive is not new, but he applied the term to luxury brands themselves. In an industry where unlimited growth always seems to be the goal, he sees the value in restraint.
"When I came to Six Senses, we had 11 hotels. Today we have 28, with about that same number under development. So three, four, five years from now, there will be 60 hotels. And that, frankly, is where it should be. I've had many conversations with IHG [owner of Six Senses] about how many is too many.
"A big part of my role was to protect the brand and be sure that it didn't become too corporate or lose the elements that made it successful in the first place," he continued, "and IHG has been pretty good about that."
During an earlier interview shortly after he went to Six Senses, he had spoken to me about what changes he was seeing in luxury travelers and, using himself as an example, said that he was done with meals at three-star Michelin restaurants.
"I'm even more passionate today," he said. "I'm fed up with traditional luxury because it's not exciting. It's extremely homogenous. We talk about five or six great luxury brands; they're all great brands, but they're all the same. Variations on a theme. There's not a huge narrative other than beautiful design, great food, comfortable bed, wonderful service.
"If that's not there, you're not even in the game, right?" he continued. "So, what's the differentiator? The customer is looking for personality-driven properties. There's about two dozen of them, just chipping away at traditional luxury because it's more exciting. And people who can afford to stay in these hotels are, today, much younger than they were 12 years ago."
While Jacobs said he believes that Six Senses and IHG were a good match, he doesn't always see a positive outcome when a large company buys a boutique brand. "The sad thing is, there are lots of examples of great companies buying tiny brands for all the right reasons but then messing it up because they don't let it be. They want the efficiencies, and over time it just dilutes. The boutiques can be so cool, but they get dumbed down."
That process begins when the parent company begins to modify the small brand to try to appeal to more people.
"The thing about these little brands is that people will love them or they won't," he said. "There are people who would never go to a Six Senses. They'd say, 'It's not for us, it's too organic.'"
Many hotels have tried to imitate the Six Senses model. When it reaches 60 properties, I asked, what will be its differentiator?
Jacobs said that each Six Senses has unique offerings that vary from one property to the next but that always connects to its environment or culture.
"We put a tree-climbing program into our Douro Valley [Portugal] property because we have a forest next door," he said. "So, we take 60-year-olds -- 80-year-olds! -- up these huge oak trees, 30 feet in the air. And they're sobbing. It's taking them back to a place and time that is really emotional. They may not remember the Michelin-star dinner that they had, but I assure you, they'll never forget being at the top of that tree. Every property tries to create moments like that."
Hearing his excitement when talking about Six Senses, I had to ask: Why would you want to leave it?
"I got to a point where I thought, if I were going to do something else, there's no point in waiting," he replied. "I'm too old to say I'll do it in five years or eight years. What's next will probably be the last gig, so to speak, before I go to the beach or something. So, I talked to IHG about it. I said we're at a point where it has momentum and really good people who love and cherish the brand. It's important to me that it didn't just fall into another hole."