Robin Brown is the founder and principal of Spot On Ventures. With over 40 years’ experience in design, financing, construction, branding, permitting, community relations, condominium sales and design, leasing, product launches, and hands-on property management, Mr. Brown has acquired an extraordinarily unique skill set for urban, mixed-use property development in luxury, lifestyle, convention and limited-service hospitality projects. Prior to launching Spot On Ventures, Mr. Brown spent 20 years with Four Seasons Hotels and served as General Manager of the Four Seasons Hotel Boston for 13 years, receiving numerous global accolades in his time there including the #1 Conde Nast ranking for guest service across hospitality and travel worldwide.

Describe your introduction to hospitality and what initially drew you to the industry.

Robin Brown: The desire to own a motorcycle at age 16 on my birthday and to get a motorcycle driver's license — that was the aspiration. It led me to a hotel job as a dishwasher while I was in high school. Two years working five nights a week washing saucepans... and saute pans being thrown at me by angry chefs! I was able to observe a lot about human nature and the Fawlty Towers version of English hospitality.‍

When considering the brand experience and design for a new hotel property, what specific elements or touchpoints are most critical in your approach?

Robin Brown: Authenticity — unique, deeply researched, and meticulously implemented. This means that the guest experience is truly one of a kind. It has true authenticity to either the history or the vision... but that future vision relies very heavily on historical authenticity. [For example, at the Omni], be it the transistor radio, the original piece of equipment that created the morse code, the telephone, the Polaroid camera (all designed and built at MIT) — we took those pieces and found a jewelry manufacturer and sculptor who embedded those original, authentic pieces in acrylic. Then, we were able to slice them like thin slices of bread and open up to the guests of the hotel a museum experience that was futuristic, respecting MIT, and yet mind-bogglingly interesting to experience what was inside [these devices]. One other example at the Omni was the [music experience] wall in the lobby. We were talking about the performing arts and sciences in Boston (and that's how we designed the hotel), but we didn't want to have traditional photography and traditional artwork. We wanted to make it modern and exciting, yet be respectful. So, the art wall (that took a year or more to create), was allowed to happen through the generosity of the Boston Symphony. We were given permission to use Beethoven's score that was played at the opening night of the symphony... and we recreated that music score into a perforated metal wall across the entire lobby and backlit it. So, we have that memorabilia and artwork — one of a kind pieces that talk to the brand. We feel that we try to push that far more than any other hotel company does and we've been blessed to be successful as a result.

‍How has your approach to the brand experience and design of hotel properties changed over
time?

Robin Brown: I don't think it has too much. When you're in a Four Seasons environment, I think the consumer would say that the general manager there would be focusing on bringing in a restauranteur from Paris to do a champagne tasting. That I never wanted to do. That wasn't of interest to me, personally. So, luxury and hospitality is not always the obvious [solution]. To me, it's always been about the basics. We still buy Four Seasons beds and pillows and no matter what, we believe in the best night's sleep, the hottest, fastest cup of coffee, and the enormous welcome and genuine smile from whoever greets you when you arrive. So, there are just a tiny handful of the basics. It just goes back to where I started and what I've always believed was important in how people interact and how the service and the product is delivered. In my years of starting in 1970 as that dishwasher, [my approach] hasn't changed.

‍How have the expectations of your guests changed and what role does brand strategy play in answering these changing expectations?

Robin Brown: Time is a luxury to everyone and speed equals value and success. So, without question: speed of service. That doesn't mean being rushed in and out, [however] waiting for a hostess, waiting for the menu, waiting for somebody to come by your table with water, waiting for your first course, waiting for your check, waiting to check in, waiting for more than three phone rings: [this is] horrendous, but technology is helping. We [do a deep] dive on our competitors and we try to stay relevant. We have strong convictions about what we know works and doesn't work with the consumer.

‍How does brand strategy influence your bottom line in terms of ROI?

Robin Brown: [We study] every single one of the hotels within several miles [of a property] and...deeply analyze their design, their amenities, the number of swimming pools, the size of the guest rooms, the length of the bathroom vanities, the showers, the decor, when it was renovated — and then we shop the room rates in high season and low season, we estimate occupancies, and then we target a STAR report to [both] an aspirational set and a direct set. At the very beginning, we start defining the hotel and the experience and the brand and the finishes to achieve a certain targeted rev par, which is the all-important Holy Grail of a hotel. So, you look at the competition and then you design your experience — you build the hotel or renovate the hotel or convert it into what you believe can outdo the market.

‍What do you see as the next frontier within the hospitality landscape and how can an integrated brand strategy respond to this evolution?

Robin Brown: Unfortunately, I think there's going to be a lot of distress in the next two years. I think a lot of hotels are underwater right now because they're going to be needing to refinance and I think the banks have been pushed to the wall with covid. So, I think lenders are going to have an undue amount of stress on their plate and owners are not going to be able to afford to refinance. So, I think there's going to be some stress in the industry and we see that opportunity to acquire hotels (branded or unbranded) and find a way to refinance, reestablish, and reset the parameters around the asset. We've got our eye on markets now that we think are going to grow... [locations where] we have good economics, good infrastructure, and future optimism. [We are looking] to find assets that we think we can enhance the performance through enhancing the customer experience. It’s very hard to build a new hotel today with interest rates and construction costs. So we think there’s a huge opportunity for us to be creative.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and originally appeared in the August 2024 Design Innovation Edition of the BU School of Hospitality Boston Hospitality Review.