Last week, we revealed our 2024 Forbes Travel Guide Star Awards. Click here to see the list of winners.
Running a Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star hotel is like choreographing a world-class ballet. The team must show grace and fluidity, even if it’s carrying out difficult tasks. Actions need always be precise, and everyone must move in harmony. If one person is off, the whole production feels uneven.
Alan Fuerstman may not pirouette, but as the founder and CEO of Montage International, he moves about on the hospitality stage like a master ballerino. Fuerstman’s company was founded in 2002, with the debut of Montage Laguna Beach coming the next year. It has since expanded its posh portfolio to seven Montage properties, each stellar in its own way. With the 2021-opened Montage Big Sky earning a Five-Star distinction this year, the company becomes the only hotel brand in the world where every property has a Five-Star plaque. The honor is both a testament to Fuerstman’s vision and each address’ ability to precisely hit its marks every day.
Late dance icon Gregory Hines once said, “One of the things about working on stage — actually, about working in show business, that is — is that it’s such a collaborative effort.” As you’ll read in the following interview, Fuerstman, who also co-launched the successful Pendry hotel brand in 2014, wholeheartedly agrees. It’s the team that makes everything work, whether it’s on the stage or at a high-end stay.
Congratulations on such a wonderful Star Ratings performance for Montage. If you could point to a few things that really stand out for why your brand did so well, what would they be?
Montage has an incredible focus on learning and training. We focus on the relationships we build with our guests. And just the incredible performance of our associates, day in and day out. But it really starts with how we hire, how we orientate, how we train. It’s the ongoing training and the ongoing passion for customer service that has driven the brand.
When the idea for Montage came to your head 20-plus years ago, what void were you trying to fill in the luxury hotel space?
Twenty-plus years ago, my perception of Old World traditional luxury was that it was too stuffy and too pretentious. [I believed] the next generation of luxury travelers would be looking for a much more gracious and humble approach to luxury. So, we embedded that into the ethos of how we would deliver service. Much less scripted, highly personalized and with a clear focus on creating memories and experiences that would bond our guests with our hotels and resorts.
How has this new generation of travelers changed from those just a decade or two ago?
Over the last few decades, we’re seeing much more multi-generational travel. So, we see families that are traveling with varied interests. But what brings them together is a desire to spend quality time together. I think that’s really important.
I think we have a huge responsibility in curating experiences for our guests. Whether it’s what we do in Paintbox [Montage’s children’s program] for our young guests or whether it’s some of the programming we do in the local markets, I think it’s incredibly important. I think that our guests are looking for a true sense and spirit of place. Things that resonate well with guests are sometimes the little things like ukulele lessons and lei making in Maui and then at [coastal South Carolina’s] Palmetto Bluff, you might experience a shooting club for the first time. Being able to experience things that are of the place really helps satisfy the desire of our guests to experience locales in a unique, non-cookie-cutter fashion.
It’s funny that you say “multi-generational travel” because three generations of my family will be traveling to Montage Palmetto Bluff soon.
Exactly. The trick is programming our hotels and resorts for that guest because we know they’re coming and we know what they’re looking to do across those generations. It’s very important. It helps create a level of interest and excitement for all of our visitors.
Outside of COVID, what have been some of the biggest hills you’ve had to climb in making Montage what it is?
Well, we had the huge economic crisis in ’08, ’09 and ’10, which threw our industry into a little bit of a jolt, obviously. We recovered beautifully through that.
I think the biggest challenge is being able to scale, being able to translate the magic from one hotel to the next as we grow. The ways in which we do that is through the amazingly talented people in our organization. It’s the task force that we provide to new hotels that helps support the opening. We take some of our superstar associates from one hotel and they’ll help introduce a new hotel and a new market. We’ve also seen some of our associates start in a certain position and have had numerous promotions. It’s a combination of talent that has been mentored from within and talent that we’ve been able to recruit from outside. It’s a blend of both that delivers the kind of service levels that we pride ourselves on.
Speaking of new markets, where is Montage headed next?
We’ve got terrific growth in front of us. We’re under construction in the Bahamas, where we’re opening a private island, which is called Montage Cay. It’s going to open next year. Very excited about that. We’ve got a Montage resort in development in Punta Mita, which is near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It’s a phenomenal project there.
And we’re seeing tremendous growth in our brand as well. We’re seeing tremendous interest and demand for our hotels and resorts because of the experiences that we’ve been able to create for the consumers and for our investors.
When you aren’t meeting with investors or doing interviews, what kinds of things do you do to relax?
We’ve got five small grandchildren. They’re my pride and joy. They keep me active and busy. We love spending time doing that. We love to travel. I’m very interested in all kinds of sports and music, whether it’s playing golf or tennis. I have pretty diverse interests.
With regards to non-work-related travel, where do you want to go this year?
Ironically, most of our travel is in the pursuit of great Montage and Pendry destinations. So, we tend to combine our travel, looking for opportunities and enjoying the locales we go to. We enjoy going to Europe very much. Within the next year or so, we’d love to get over to Australia and New Zealand.
