With a collection of 13 hotels that includes the iconic King David in Jerusalem, Israel-based Dan Hotels is preparing to debut operations outside of the country when it launches its Den brand in Bangalore, India, in the second quarter of the year. Founded in 1947 and still controlled by the Federmann family, the company, which opened Tel Aviv's first luxury hotel in 1953, trades on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and employs about 3,700 people. Dan Hotels is headed by Jerusalem-born Raffi Sadeh, who ran Isrotel and the Fattal Hotel Group before being named Dan Hotels' CEO in 2014. Sadeh spoke with senior editor Danny King.
Q: How was room demand for the company's hotels last year?
Raffi Sadeh
A: The situation in Israel is improving constantly, but 2016 was OK, not great. All in all, the numbers were very close to 2015.
Q: Why choose Bangalore as your company's first location outside of Israel?
A: Bangalore is a city of high-tech, so the prospects were and still are very good for a hotel to be there. Our parent company [Federmann Enterprises] has other businesses in India, so we thought this would be a good place to start. We felt that a good business hotel would do well there.
Q: Why go with the name Den instead of the Dan brand?
A: We chose the name Den as we want the hotel to represent a place where people can congregate and come together, especially business travelers coming from abroad. We want the hotel to feel like home.
Q: How much are you looking to expand the chain there?
A: We've built [the Bangalore property] as a model. If this works out well, the aim is to try to create a small chain of hotels. Eventually, we're looking at four to five hotels in India.
Q: Do you think fear of terrorist attacks continues to deter some people from traveling to Israel?
A: The geopolitical situation [in the Middle East] is in the back of everyone's minds, but terrorists are everywhere these days. Many people who travel to Israel believe that at least the Israelis are trying to prevent anything from happening. They're saying, 'This would've never happened in Israel.' They know we're well-equipped to handle it. It's not a coincidence that when you go to every airport today you see a lot of the Israeli systems being adopted.
Q: Has Tel Aviv's reputation as an LGBT-friendly destination helped demand?
A: Yes. The gay community prefers to stay in Tel Aviv and enjoy all it has to offer. We have a very diverse and versatile clientele, and clients are from all over the world with their own religions and own beliefs. I remember when people asked me if you could see camels in the street. We have problems like every other country, but travelers know it's a modern country.
Q: What else do you have planned for Israel?
A: We're building another [hotel] in Tel Aviv. It's a hotel for the Y Generation, the millennials. It's going to open toward the end of the year, and it'll have about 100 rooms.
Q: Is there shareholder pressure to grow the company's number of hotels faster?
A: No. We are a very well-established company, and what we want to emphasize is quality. We're doing everything to remain the leading company in Israel. If you ask what the policy is, we want to maintain and upgrade our hotels, and we want to make sure the customers get the best quality service, food and environment to have great business meetings or vacations when they come to our hotels. That's why we spend more money than any other company to maintain our hotels rather than to grow.