Latest news with #RoccoForteHotels
Hospitality Net
03-06-2025
- Business
- Hospitality Net
Charlotte Weatherall has been appointed General Manager at Corinthia London
Effective July 1, 2025, Charlotte assumes the role following her tenure as Director of Sales and Marketing at the hotel, where she has led a team to deliver outstanding financial results while enhancing the hotel's reputation for exceptional and memorable guest experiences. Charlotte brings over two decades of luxury hospitality experience across the UK and UAE. She has held senior roles at prestigious brands including Rocco Forte Hotels, Mandarin Oriental, Starwood Hotels & Resorts and Langham.
Business Mayor
18-05-2025
- Business
- Business Mayor
Olga Polizzi is still going strong at her family's expanding Forte hotels empire
Olga Polizzi says with a wry smile that she has always been defined in relation to her famous family – the Forte hotel dynasty. As a young woman, she was known as the daughter of patriarch Charles, who founded the empire. After that, she was the sister of Rocco Forte, who runs the luxury hotel group of that name, where she is head of design and a significant investor. More recently, her identity is as the mother of Alex Polizzi, of Channel 5 TV series The Hotel Inspector. 'I was my father's daughter, then my brother's sister and now I am my daughter's mother,' she laughs. Feminists might object to a woman being seen primarily through her relationship to others. But Polizzi is such a powerful force she can afford to take it lightly. She is director of design and deputy chair of Rocco Forte Hotels, which she helped create. She also has three hotels of her own: the Tresanton in Cornwall, the Endsleigh in Dartmoor, Devon, and The Star, in Alfriston, East Sussex, near her home. All this, as she approaches her 80th birthday – she exudes the vitality of a much younger woman. Dynasty: Olga Polizzi says that she has always been defined in relation to her famous family Charles Forte, who died in 2007 aged 98, emigrated to the UK as a child but remained a traditional Italian male. It seems never to have entered his head that he could have chosen a daughter to succeed him. He made Rocco chief executive of the Forte Group, then a FTSE 100 company, in 1983 and handed the chairmanship to his son a decade later. Did Polizzi ever wish she had been given the chance? 'Well, not really,' she says. 'I was never brought up like that and it wasn't on offer. It was Rocco and five sisters, so it was always the little prince. Rocco was always meant to follow on. Read More Duluth Holdings reports mixed Q4 earnings; initiates FY23 outlook 'We daughters were going to marry someone and they were going to look after us, that was it.' She did get married, in 1966, to Count Alessandro Polizzi, an Italian marquess, and the couple had two daughters, Alex and Charlotte. But in 1980 he died. 'I had these two small daughters and their father was killed in a car crash,' she says. 'Then my father said… you've got to work.' She joined the family business, on the building and design side. In the 1990s, she and her brother found themselves in the throes of a hostile takeover. Losing the family business to the predatory Granada leisure and TV group riles Polizzi even now, as it does Rocco. 'It was ghastly, I was so upset and so angry. It still rankles. I hated them,' she says, adding of the late boss of Granada who led the bid: 'I did an Italian incantation against Gerry Robinson.' Granada no longer exists, but her family business lives on in Rocco Forte Hotels, founded in the aftermath. Its high-end properties include Brown's in London's Mayfair, where I meet Polizzi, The Balmoral in Edinburgh and the Hotel de Russie in Rome. Family firms like theirs, she says, 'is how Italy keeps going'. 'The country is always nearly bust but these businesses carry on,' she says. 'Would the UK be stronger if there were more family firms? Yes, I really think so.' Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni is, in Polizzi's view, 'the only good leader in Europe'. As for British politics, she says: 'I was cross with the Conservatives, but I am even more cross with this lot.' Labour, she says, is 'kicking business to death' with the increase in employers' National Insurance contributions. And Chancellor Rachel Reeves' decision to scrap the winter fuel allowance for pensioners strikes her as insane. 'I was getting it – I pay a lot of tax so it was quite nice – but I would have been very happy to send it back,' she says. But of those who need it, she adds: 'To take it away from other people is just mad. Every Labour government has been a disaster and they have always left us on our knees.' The strength of her bond with Rocco was forged in childhood, when, as the two eldest, they were often thrown together. 'I sometimes have different ideas from Rocco, but I know who's the boss,' she says. 'I trust my brother absolutely and I bend over backwards to help him.' Do they disagree on style? 'On the whole, we have the same taste though he is a bit more glitzy,' she says. Her design credo is to combine luxury with comfort and a sense of place. Not for her the formulaic hotel chains, where rooms are the same anywhere in the world. 'I want people to wake up in our hotel in Florence and know they are in Florence. I try to use local artisans and materials,' she says. 'Everyone is copying us in terms of sense of place.' How does she reconcile retaining individuality with creating an atmosphere that is identifiably Rocco Forte? 'We want to keep the names of the hotels, because some are famous,' she says. 'Subliminally, I try to put in RF on the towels and bits and pieces, but it probably isn't enough. 'Rocco, because he is recognised a lot, doesn't believe people don't know all the hotels are ours. It matters, because if people like one, they will want to stay in another Rocco Forte.' There are openings planned in Milan, Naples and Sicily. Business was always part of family life. Polizzi says: 'When my father came back in the evening, he would put his finger on the front bell and not take it off until the door was open. We would hear ring, ring, ring and would have to rush downstairs to greet him. Read More Deutsche leads gainers as European bank shares rebound 'When we were a certain age we would have dinner with him and talk business. There was always a mass of people around him. He always had acolytes, everywhere.' She is less gregarious than her father or second husband, the writer Sir William Shawcross, whom she married in 1993. She says: 'William is very much a people person. I am not, though I don't want to use the word shy because it is a bit stupid at my age.' She would rather not draw attention to her approaching 80th. Like Rocco, who is slightly older, and was doing triathlons into his 60s, the years have been kind. 'We do have a lot of energy,' she muses. As for retirement: 'I've got a lovely family and a lovely husband, but I have never been a home bod. I'm so used to getting up and going to work. I'm just not a lady who lunches. 'Now I am older I would like to have more days off, but somehow or other it doesn't happen.'
Daily Mail
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Olga Polizzi is still going strong at her family's expanding Forte hotels empire
Olga Polizzi says with a wry smile that she has always been defined in relation to her famous family – the Forte hotel dynasty. As a young woman, she was known as the daughter of patriarch Charles, who founded the empire. After that, she was the sister of Rocco Forte, who runs the luxury hotel group of that name, where she is head of design and a significant investor. More recently, her identity is as the mother of Alex Polizzi, of Channel 5 TV series The Hotel Inspector. 'I was my father's daughter, then my brother's sister and now I am my daughter's mother,' she laughs. Feminists might object to a woman being seen primarily through her relationship to others. But Polizzi is such a powerful force she can afford to take it lightly. She is director of design and deputy chair of Rocco Forte Hotels, which she helped create. She also has three hotels of her own: the Tresanton in Cornwall, the Endsleigh in Dartmoor, Devon, and The Star, in Alfriston, East Sussex, near her home. All this, as she approaches her 80th birthday – she exudes the vitality of a much younger woman. Charles Forte, who died in 2007 aged 98, emigrated to the UK as a child but remained a traditional Italian male. It seems never to have entered his head that he could have chosen a daughter to succeed him. He made Rocco chief executive of the Forte Group, then a FTSE 100 company, in 1983 and handed the chairmanship to his son a decade later. Did Polizzi ever wish she had been given the chance? 'Well, not really,' she says. 'I was never brought up like that and it wasn't on offer. It was Rocco and five sisters, so it was always the little prince. Rocco was always meant to follow on. 'We daughters were going to marry someone and they were going to look after us, that was it.' She did get married, in 1966, to Count Alessandro Polizzi, an Italian marquess, and the couple had two daughters, Alex and Charlotte. But in 1980 he died. 'I had these two small daughters and their father was killed in a car crash,' she says. 'Then my father said... you've got to work.' She joined the family business, on the building and design side. In the 1990s, she and her brother found themselves in the throes of a hostile takeover. Losing the family business to the predatory Granada leisure and TV group riles Polizzi even now, as it does Rocco. 'It was ghastly, I was so upset and so angry. It still rankles. I hated them,' she says, adding of the late boss of Granada who led the bid: 'I did an Italian incantation against Gerry Robinson.' Granada no longer exists, but her family business lives on in Rocco Forte Hotels, founded in the aftermath. Its high-end properties include Brown's in London's Mayfair, where I meet Polizzi, The Balmoral in Edinburgh and the Hotel de Russie in Rome. Family firms like theirs, she says, 'is how Italy keeps going'. 'The country is always nearly bust but these businesses carry on,' she says. 'Would the UK be stronger if there were more family firms? Yes, I really think so.' Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni is, in Polizzi's view, 'the only good leader in Europe'. As for British politics, she says: 'I was cross with the Conservatives, but I am even more cross with this lot.' Labour, she says, is 'kicking business to death' with the increase in employers' National Insurance contributions. And Chancellor Rachel Reeves' decision to scrap the winter fuel allowance for pensioners strikes her as insane. 'I was getting it – I pay a lot of tax so it was quite nice – but I would have been very happy to send it back,' she says. But of those who need it, she adds: 'To take it away from other people is just mad. Every Labour government has been a disaster and they have always left us on our knees.' The strength of her bond with Rocco was forged in childhood, when, as the two eldest, they were often thrown together. 'I sometimes have different ideas from Rocco, but I know who's the boss,' she says. 'I trust my brother absolutely and I bend over backwards to help him.' Do they disagree on style? 'On the whole, we have the same taste though he is a bit more glitzy,' she says. Her design credo is to combine luxury with comfort and a sense of place. Not for her the formulaic hotel chains, where rooms are the same anywhere in the world. 'I want people to wake up in our hotel in Florence and know they are in Florence. I try to use local artisans and materials,' she says. 'Everyone is copying us in terms of sense of place.' How does she reconcile retaining individuality with creating an atmosphere that is identifiably Rocco Forte? 'We want to keep the names of the hotels, because some are famous,' she says. 'Subliminally, I try to put in RF on the towels and bits and pieces, but it probably isn't enough. 'Rocco, because he is recognised a lot, doesn't believe people don't know all the hotels are ours. It matters, because if people like one, they will want to stay in another Rocco Forte.' There are openings planned in Milan, Naples and Sicily. Business was always part of family life. Polizzi says: 'When my father came back in the evening, he would put his finger on the front bell and not take it off until the door was open. We would hear ring, ring, ring and would have to rush downstairs to greet him. 'When we were a certain age we would have dinner with him and talk business. There was always a mass of people around him. He always had acolytes, everywhere.' She is less gregarious than her father or second husband, the writer Sir William Shawcross, whom she married in 1993. She says: 'William is very much a people person. I am not, though I don't want to use the word shy because it is a bit stupid at my age.' She would rather not draw attention to her approaching 80th. Like Rocco, who is slightly older, and was doing triathlons into his 60s, the years have been kind. 'We do have a lot of energy,' she muses. As for retirement: 'I've got a lovely family and a lovely husband, but I have never been a home bod. I'm so used to getting up and going to work. I'm just not a lady who lunches. 'Now I am older I would like to have more days off, but somehow or other it doesn't happen.'
Hospitality Net
15-05-2025
- Business
- Hospitality Net
From Systems to Strategy: How Tech Leaders Are Redefining the CIO Role in Hospitality
Technology no longer sits quietly in the background of hospitality — it is the business. And at the intersection of this transformation stands the modern CIO: no longer a systems custodian, but an architect of change, a translator of complexity, and increasingly, a strategist at the very core of decision-making. This shift was tangible at the first-ever HFTP CIO Summit EMEA in Barcelona. What began as a gathering to discuss AI, data, and infrastructure, quickly evolved into something more profound: a shared realization that the traditional CIO archetype is dissolving. The role is being reimagined in real-time — fluid, cross-functional, and increasingly guest-facing. We posed a deceptively simple question to attendees: "How is your role changing as technology evolves?" The answers were not only illuminating, they were revolutionary. It's no longer about tools. It's about timing. It's no longer about systems. It's about strategy. And it's no longer about tech support. It's about business leadership. From Infrastructure to Influence Andrew Evers of Rocco Forte Hotels captured the essence of this shift: "We're no longer just maintaining networks — we're shaping the future of the guest experience." In luxury hospitality, where meaning is often crafted through nuance, the convergence of guest service and technology is no longer theoretical — it's operational. Evers calls it "hand-thought" service: curated experiences delivered by humans, but enhanced by intelligent systems. At Watergate Bay Hotel, Judi Blakeburn sees AI not as a futuristic tool, but as a present-day necessity. "AI isn't a luxury — it's a necessity to protect our margins and help our teams do more with less," she explained. With labour constrained and expectations rising, she's deploying AI not as a replacement for human effort, but as an amplifier — particularly across marketing, HR, and legal. In her words: "AI empowers people. It helps us do more, better, with less friction." Operators or Orchestrators? What emerged in Barcelona was not simply a redefinition of responsibilities, but a reprogramming of mindset. CIOs are no longer operators. They're orchestrators. Mark Gage of Tanzerra Resorts, who rose through the ranks from bellman to executive director, is embedding operational empathy into his tech teams. "If you've never worked a front desk on a bad day, you won't understand IT priorities in hospitality," he said. His mission is to make IT think like operations — to reframe technical issues through the eyes of the guest. Leon Smallbone of Firmdale Hotels sees a growing decentralization of innovation. Departments are no longer passive recipients of technology — they're active participants. "Every department is becoming its own tech expert — our job is to enable, not dictate." This empowerment model is shifting IT from gatekeeper to guide, from rule-setter to collaborator. And Fergus Boyd — advisor, former CIO, and now strategic consigliere to startups and boards — doesn't mince words. "Running servers is boring. Real impact comes from connecting tech to customers and cash flow." He advocates for more CIOs to move into roles where they can shape commercial strategy, not just digital execution. His prediction? That robotic process automation (RPA), not generative AI, will have the most practical impact in the year ahead. "While AI steals headlines, RPA gets things done." AI: Beyond the Buzzwords It's easy to get lost in the glamour of AI, but many CIOs at the summit cut through the noise. Mustafa Gokcen of Cheval Collection is clear: the hype around guest-facing AI obscures its true utility. "The real power of AI lies in the back office," he says. Gokcen is focused on automation that frees up time for financial analysis and revenue strategy — not chatbots, but business intelligence. Yet he points to a serious bottleneck: integration. With over a hundred platforms under management, the challenge isn't acquiring data, but consolidating it into a single source of truth. "Innovation without integration is just noise. To build intelligence, we first need coherence." Marco Correia of Mercan Properties takes this one step further with a practical — and frankly brilliant — application: AI for housekeeping inspections. "Imagine filming a room and instantly knowing what's missing. That's the kind of AI that changes operations." It's real, it's measurable, and it's redefining quality control. But, as Correia reminds us, regulation looms large. Especially in Europe, where profiling guests with AI touches legal and ethical boundaries. The new CIO must be fluent not only in tech, but in compliance. Data, Control, and the New Tech Stack This new generation of tech leaders is asserting control — not just over infrastructure, but over the architecture of experience. At Belmond, Tiago Alves and Daniel Gonzalez have built their own booking engine to circumvent the limitations of commercial platforms. "We built our own booking engine to take full control — like Apple, but for hospitality." They now manage the full stack — from PMS integration to API layers — creating an ecosystem they can shape, secure, and scale. OKU Hotels, a young brand with ambitious goals, is placing its bets on cybersecurity. VP of Technology Alejandro Vidales is building a foundational platform that integrates fraud detection, threat response, and data loss prevention in one system. "Security isn't a back-office concern anymore. It's a business enabler. In hospitality, trust is currency." Perhaps the most paradigm-shifting insight came anonymously from a major international group: "The PMS is no longer the center—CRM is the new brain of the hotel tech stack." This thesis redefines where value is created—not in room assignments but in guest profiles, not in check-ins but in behavioral insights. CRM is no longer a marketing tool—it's the axis of personalization, loyalty, and lifetime value. The Bottom Line The CIO of yesterday kept the lights on. The CIO of today illuminates the path forward. The discussions in Barcelona weren't speculative. They were grounded, urgent, and unmistakably transformative. Hospitality has never needed CIOs more — but it has never needed this kind of CIO more than it does now: one who can lead with vision, listen like an operator, and execute like an engineer. CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE RELATED WORLD PANEL VIEWPOINT Next stop: HITEC 2025. Not just another conference — the next checkpoint in an industry being rewritten by its own technologists.
