When the inaugural World’s 50 Greatest Lodges rating was revealed in September 2023, three Rosewood properties, every positioned in a distinct continent, featured on the record. Taking the quantity two spot and incomes the excellence of “The Greatest Resort in Asia” was Rosewood Hong Kong. Rosewood Sao Paulo ranked at quantity 27, whereas Resort de Crillon in Paris rounded up the record at quantity 50.
The achievement is “an enormous recognition to the staff and all the hassle they’ve put into the model,” mirrored Sonia Cheng, CEO of Rosewood Resort Group. “For 3 of our properties to be recognised, and for Rosewood Hong Kong to be quantity two on the earth, that may be a important recognition.”
Cheng, 43, hails from one among Hong Kong’s billionaire household dynasties. Her grandfather, the late Cheng Yu-tung, based actual property and funding conglomerate, New World Growth. The elder Cheng’s rags-to-riches story started when he turned a Macau gold store into the now famend Chow Tai Fook Jewelry chain. His son, and Cheng’s father, Henry Cheng, is now chairman of the companies.
After pursuing a profession in banking and finance, Cheng, who graduated from Harvard with a serious in utilized arithmetic, joined the household fold on the age of 28 to move up its hospitality enterprise. In 2011, New World Hospitality acquired Rosewood Lodges & Resorts, then based mostly in Texas, US, for a reported US$229.5 million. Again then, whereas the Rosewood title was acquainted amongst North American travellers, it was not well-known on a world scale.
Underneath Cheng’s management, Rosewood has since developed into a world participant within the luxurious hospitality house, with openings in key cities together with Beijing, London, Abu Dhabi, Munich and extra. Its portfolio of 33 one-of-a-kind luxurious resorts in 21 international locations additionally consists of legendary properties similar to The Carlyle in New York, and the Resort de Crillon in Paris, each of which have undergone a metamorphosis below Rosewood.
There are at the moment one other 27 resorts within the pipeline, with Cheng describing the subsequent two years as Rosewood’s “peak opening years”, the place it would proceed to increase in Europe, Japan, the Center East, China, Mexico, New Zealand and extra. “The subsequent couple of years is absolutely thrilling. Key gateway cities have at all times been our goal, however we additionally discover new locations and tasks that we predict match the Rosewood philosophy. These tasks will not be in gateway places that travellers anticipate, however I feel what travellers are in search of at the present time is for Rosewood to take them on a journey to discover new locations.”
