Soho House founder Nick Jones has said the London luxury market is in need of “a slight reset”.
His comments follow his highly anticipated return to the hospitality industry, which saw the recent opening of the 90-bedroom St Clement hotel in London’s Temple, also featuring Café Clement from ex-River Café head chef Danny Bohan.
The hospitality entrepreneur told the 200 guests attending the launch of the 2027 Gold Service Scholarship at Four Seasons London Park Lane that the St Clement was prompted by his desire to have “one more go” in hotel operations after stepping back from Soho House in 2022 as a result of ill health.
Following his departure from the global members’ club, Jones was once again approached by long-term collaborator and property developer Mark Wadhwa, who was building a hotel next to Soho House’s 180 The Strand.
Jones said: “[Wadhwa] said would you be interested in looking at doing this with me, and it was an incredible building and an incredible location. And I just sort of thought – I don’t want to spend a life being a consultant or advising people. I wanted to sort of have one more go.”
The St Clement was a response to the changing demands of luxury customers, who Jones believes are seeking high quality service in a more “friendly and relaxed” environment, which makes the requirement of a “brilliant front of house team” much more important.
For example, he has removed the traditional reception desk and trained his front of house staff to be able to recognise a guest immediately and take them to their room, without the need for exchanging credit card details and passports upon their arrival.
“I think [luxury] just needs a slight reset… So I’m going against being obsessed about room rate, I’m going against being obsessed about lots of things that luxury hotels are necessarily obsessed about. I might, in a year’s time, be saying, I got that all wrong, but we’re going to give it a go,” he said.
He added: “London doesn’t need another hotel. Let’s face it – everyone sitting here could do with a bit more occupancy. But I think London is the greatest city in the world and London will have its moment again very, very soon.”
Jones was also optimistic about the resilience of the industry in the face of growing concerns over AI and automation, and believed in hospitality’s “great future”.
He said: “AI is not going to come in and give you a bed or give you a plate of food or be nice. But everyone needs to eat, drink and sleep every day. So we’re in an industry where everyone has to do it every day.
“I think hospitality is a great industry for young people to go into. And I know all the people here applying for this great scholarship will have such fun in this industry. You will meet lifelong friends, you will have laughs, you’ll travel the world if you want to. It’s an industry where you can progress quite quickly if you’re good and it really is a fantastic industry.”
Other speakers at the Gold Service Scholarship launch event included former scholars Joel Pennington and Isabella Condon, as well as Martin Kuczmarski, founder of expanding hospitality group Difficult Name, restaurant critic and broadcaster Grace Dent, and Sam Ward, managing director of Simon Rogan’s restaurant group.
The Gold Service Scholarship was founded in 2012 with the aim of inspiring and nurturing the UK’s next generation of front of house talent.
Candidates aged between 22 and 30 can enter the Gold Service Scholarship through this link.
Applications for the 2027 Gold Service Scholarship will close on Tuesday 6 October.
