Langham Hospitality Group continues to expand its portfolio, which includes its luxury Langham flag as well as the Cordis, Eaton and Ying'nFlo brands. Its latest addition will be The Langham, Custom House, Bangkok, which is accepting reservations for stays starting Dec. 20. Hotels editor Christina Jelski sat down with CEO Bob van den Oord to talk about what's next in the pipeline.
Bob van den Oord
Q: Tell me about the Bangkok project.
A: This hotel sits right on the Chao Phraya River. It's in the old Custom House, which was built in 1888 and was also the very first post office in Thailand. It's very historic. In the Custom House, we're going to have our restaurants, bars, function rooms and banquet facilities. We've got our own piers, and we'll have our own boats and our own fleet of Bentleys. Our Langham boats will take you across the river or to the closest BTS [train] station, and they'll be going regularly.
Q: What's next in the pipeline?
A: That will be followed by the Langham in Venice. That hotel will sit on the lagoon on Murano Island. We've acquired a beautiful glass factory, which is a [historical] building, and we've raised the ground level by 1.9 meters, so it's protected from the water. The hotel sits in a U-shape overlooking a courtyard with a swimming pool, which is quite unique in Venice. That will open the first quarter of 2028. Then we have a Langham in Kuala Lumpur coming up next to the Twin Towers, with 200 bedrooms and an infinity pool on the roof, and then a Langham in Riyadh as part of the Diriyah project. I'm hopeful that will also open in 2028.
Q: What's happening in the U.S.?
A: We started our renovations in the U.S. with The Langham, Boston, and that's now been open for a couple of years. We closed that hotel for two years and touched every inch of it. It's performing really well, and we're very pleased with the response. We then turned to The Langham Huntington, Pasadena, where we have a hotel on 24 acres of land. We renovated all the rooms, put in a second resort pool and spent $6 million just on the gardens. Now we're doing the public areas and the restaurants, so by the end of the year, that hotel will be fully renovated.
Q: How do you see the Cordis, Eaton and Ying'nFlo brands expanding into new markets?
A: In Southeast Asia, we see tremendous opportunity there for Cordis hotels. The beauty about a Cordis hotel is that it can be a city center hotel, a resort or an airport hotel. We're also very active in finding opportunities in Europe, and with the Riyadh opening, we should also be able to announce a couple more [Middle East] projects. Ying'nFlo, our budget brand, is resonating. We've got two in Hong Kong and five in China now, and we'll be opening another 10 over the next 12 months or so in China. The numbers for that brand could quadruple over the next five to 10 years. Then we have Eaton, which is a lifestyle brand. We've got one in D.C. and one in Hong Kong. We have the ambition to grow that brand; I think we can see that growing to eight or 10 hotels over time. But I've got no announcement there just yet.
Q: How's the group's advisor program faring?
A: We have our Couture by Langham program, and that's being very well received by the travel community. It gives them preferential rates, preferential commissions and certain amenities and benefits for their guests. We make the agent look good. The growth has been phenomenal, double digits year on year through our Couture program, and we'll continue to improve it and do better.
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This interview has been edited for length and clarity.