“Well you clearly don’t like the hotel,” he blurted out. I’ve rattled him. This is my first big interview and I have pissed my interviewee off. No, I splutter, I’m simply playing devil’s advocate to try to get to the bottom of this. But I can tell he’s unimpressed and I move swiftly on.
Since the Hoxton Hotel opened in 2006 there have been a thousand and one complimentary reviews probably written by the same people who voted the hotel to an astonishing third straight victory as the Guardian and Observer hotel of the year.
I could go down a similarly superficial route of describing the clean cut and sophisticated décor, or raving about the free wifi and international calls, or perhaps bringing up the quirky fact that the mattresses are made by the same company that makes the Queen’s.
But most of those critics won’t have Sinclair Beecham, visionary owner of the hotel and founder of fast food giant, Pret A Manger, starting to take a distinct disliking to them down the other end of the phone.
If nothing else, I’ve got his full attention now. I could hear the tapping of a keyboard before, but now the background is eerily quiet. No doubt I am an inconvenience to Beecham (he is notoriously private); there seems to be a sharpness to his tone that doesn’t match up with the softness of his features I’ve seen in pictures.
Beecham founded Pret A Manger back in 1986 with a £17,000 bank loan, a gift few would be afforded now. He and his business partner Julian Metcalfe made significant loses in their first few years but he’s got it in his head that I think he had it easy. “Look, making money now is no harder than it was back then. You just have to spot the opportunity and have the courage to follow through with it.” I can’t help but think that sounds incredibly easy.
Yet Beecham and Metcalfe made bold and noble decisions to distinguish Pret from the grotty, lower class image of fast food giants such as McDonalds and Burger King. Surplus food is handed out to the homeless at the end of every day and a democratic system of hiring new staff is employed, whereby potential new staff are voted on by the staff. I ask him whether this integrity was ingrained in him as a child. "It's as simple as this. I created a business I would want to work for." And that's it. It all sounds so obvious out loud.
But to most it is not obvious. The Hoxton Hotel’s success has been built on a pricing system stolen from airline companies, yet no other hotelier ever thought of it before. Every room is identical but the further away from the date you book, the cheaper it is. Rooms can range from £59 months in advance to £199 on the day. But here’s the real clincher: every month 5 bedrooms are given away for just £1. So don’t guests get jealous of what others have paid? “Obviously not because they keep coming back,” he bluntly retorts. A 98 per cent occupancy rate would suggest it is a good point well made.
The rise of the hotel has coincided with the birth of Silicon Valley, but Beecham refuses to take credit for the area’s reinvigoration. “I got lucky,” he claims, “I was attracted to the area’s buzz. There are some wonderful little bars and restaurants around and it’s never quiet. We encourage our guests to take a look for themselves.”
And of the hotel’s latest success? “The awards are great for the staff so that they know they are on the right track. But I’m far more concerned with the million and one things we have to get right on a day to day basis that means the hotel can enjoy the bigger successes.” One gets the feeling it is all business for Beecham, much like this interview.
