The man behind the magic: The Dorchester hotel’s luxury upgrade
Luca Virgilio has been given the keys to The Dorchester hotel, one of London’s most iconic addresses. Andy Silvester finds out what he’s done with the place.
Some interviews, you don’t mind being pushed back slightly.
As I enter The Dorchester, I’m informed that the hotel’s general manager is held up; the ‘big boss’ of the hotel group needs a bit more of his time. Sat in the newly light-filled lobby of an iconic London hotel, this isn’t too painful. The people-watching – and shopping bag-watching, more to the point – is spectacular.
When we do meet, Luca Virgilio is every bit the luxury hotelier, all elegance, charm and Italian charisma. Apologies for the slight delay delivered and sat in a banquette chair overlooking the hotel’s very own ‘promenade’, he is in his element – eyes wandering for every detail. After a career in some of the world’s finest hotels – including an eight-year stint at The Dorchester Collection’s Hotel Eden in Rome – why did Virgilio take this one?
“When I had the phone call saying we wanted to bring you over to The Dorchester, I said it’s a yes from me, but I have to call my wife. She was travelling in America,” he recalls.
“And she said ‘Luca, what do you want me to say? It’s The Dorchester’.”
The Ritz, the Savoy, The Dorchester: the three London hotels that have set the standard for decades. The Dorchester is now at an inflection point, however, coming to an end of a substantial renovation that Luca says will give the historic hotel a welcome touch of modernity.
It is the biggest piece of work on the hotel since 1989 and it’s almost finished, with only the coup de grace – the conversion of the ninth floor into a roof terrace and members’ club – to be completed. Food and beverage outlets have been reimagined, and the place is packed with residents and visitors alike on a Thursday afternoon.
Virgilio is keen to make the point this was more than just a very grand paint job.
“We wanted to make sure we were protecting our heritage but we wanted to bring it to the modern age. Everything evolves, so how do we create a space that speaks to the people who have loved this hotel for such a long time but also to those people who are ready to discover it?
“We had a clear brief for the designers. We wanted to create a place with a little more lightness, a little more playfulness,” he says. Looking around it appears to have worked – particular “sophistication without snobbery,” as he puts it. A table of mid-twenties ladies who lunch next to us are enjoying afternoon tea; the other way, at reception, a grande dame who looks to have walked straight out of the ateliers of St German is checking in.
London has become a more competitive hotel market in recent years, especially at this end of the market, with Raffles at the Old War Office and the Peninsula hotel gaining rave reviews. For Luca, though, The Dorchester has a unique fingerprint.
Since the hotel was established in the early 1930s, he says, “this has been the London address for people who make the world turn,” he says. “I like to say we are a little piece of the Union Jack.
“We are reflective of London. We want to speak the language of the city, of London.”
Perhaps that’s why Brits are the second-largest group of residents of the hotel, after Americans.
Running a hotel is no easy task, let alone a hotel as multi-faceted and grand as The Dorchester. Does it still get Virgilio excited?
“It’s not rhetoric. I really love what I do. I feel blessed every day. I wake up every day and I’m excited to go to work.”
He credits the energy of the building with the people around him. Hiring the very best has got harder in recent years – “Brexit hasn’t helped” – but things are recovering, and The Dorchester’s training programme he says is second to none. The team has played a big part in the recent transformation and modernisation, and he’s taken ideas from them, too. Has it worked?
“Well, we thought it was a reimagining not just a renovation. And we’ve seen a huge change in demographics – much younger. We have to attract the kids as well as the parents.”
Judging from the occupation stats and this buzzing lobby, things seem to be working. Is it?
Virgilio smiles. “It’s nothing to do with me – this place has been around a long time. I’m just the guardian.” It appears the Park Lane institution is in good hands.