As president and chief operating officer of Toronto-based Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Chris Cahill oversees properties that have become a traditional favorite for business groups and meetings. In part, the popularity stems from the prestige of such historic properties as Chateau Lake Louise and The Empress in Victoria, and such urban icons as The Fairmont San Francisco. But it’s also because of a reputation for stellar quality and service.

Cahill, who also serves as vice-chairman of the Canadian Tourism Commission, served as Fairmont’s executive vice president and vice president of sales before he took on his current role January 1, 1998. In the decade since, he’s led the company through mergers and acquisitions, changes and challenges, as he’s managed the hotels’ day-to-day operations.

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts was formed in 1999 when the seven-property Fairmont chain merged with Canadian Pacific Hotels & Resorts. In 2006, Fairmont was acquired by Colony Capital, LLC, and Kingdom Hotels International, was taken private, and merged with Raffles Hotels.

Today’s Fairmont portfolio includes more than 50 hotels across the globe, with an additional 20 properties in development and plans to open more in destinations like Cairo, Shanghai, Dubai, and Beijing over the next few years.

All that growth presents Cahill with the challenge of maintaining each property’s distinctive sense of place and personality, while developing a brandwide consistency. Here he discusses what’s happening in hospitality, how Fairmont is responding to today’s trends, and how it affects the meetings industry.


Q: It seems that hotels and resorts are becoming continually more luxurious. What’s going on with these five-star wars, and how does Fairmont set itself apart in the category?

A: Consumers have increased buying power, so they are predisposed to knowing what life can be like. They are getting more aspirational. They expect a lot, and they are willing to pay more for it—but it has to be well done. All that is raising the bar on the industry’s standards.

Compared to others in that luxury tier, our hotels are more group-oriented. They are typically larger than most luxury hotels. In addition, Fairmont hotels are not “cookie cutter”— they have a sense of local authenticity in everything from the menus to the architecture. Our hotels typically have a presence that reflects its place, a sense of grandeur, and a connection with the community.

The service we provide is another point of difference. We want to offer warm, engaging service from the heart— but not subservience. At the end of the day, quite often the “hardware”—that is, the product—looks the same. The “software” is key—that is, the service. Service makes the difference.

Q: How do you stay on top of guest’s growing demands?

A: We do monthly surveys and focus groups to stay ahead of customer’s expectations. We’ve learned that the most important part of a guest’s stay happens in the first five minutes and the last five minutes. If they arrive and everything is efficient, and everything is smooth upon checkout—that’s 90 percent of their perceived experience. And that goes for leisure as well as business travelers.

We are getting a lot of requests for multi-unit accommodations, especially for multigenerational travel. Hotels are becoming part of people’s lifestyles, so customers are demanding dock stations for iPods and wireless technology. We have a large pipeline of new properties coming on, and there will be more of these kinds of things in place with our newer products.

As we develop the brand, we are aiming to simplify operating standards and continue to raise the bar for an even higher level of service. We do need to get more religion on consistency of delivery on a brandwide basis. We want to build long-term relationships with our customers—not merely react to the trend of the day. We want to be hardwired to what guests really want.

Q: What about your relationship with business groups and meeting planners?

A: The beauty of working with professional meeting planners is they are knowledgeable and savvy. They are very demanding, and they know what they want—which we find helpful. In many ways they are easier to deal with than individual consumers, who have all different expectations.

Luxury meetings are our core competency, our bread and butter, what we are known for. So it’s an area where we have to do well. But our goal is the same as with any guest: to address their needs and enhance their experience.

We know where we sit from a quality standpoint, but we are continually looking for ways to improve on the product. And here again, we are looking to adjust our policies and procedures for more consistency from property to property. With that in mind, we have created a new position—a director of conference service for the entire brand.

Q: What are the latest trends and issues in the hospitality and meeting industries?

A: Actually, the major hospitality trend has been going on for the last three years: the environment. Of course, for Fairmont, an environmental focus is nothing new, but there’s a lot more talk about it lately. And that’s moved to meetings, as well. Attendees are asking about eco-friendly meetings a lot more—it’s gone from zero to 60 overnight.

The jury is out as to how it will affect the industry—we don’t know if all the focus will actually change consumer behavior, or what the impact will be from a business perspective.

Fairmont has a strong environmental program, and we have been doing eco-meeting programs for a number of years. The issue is to help meeting planners sell eco-meetings internally; we need to help them explain it.

Q: Fairmont has been environmentally proactive for many years, even before it became such a trend. What is behind your leadership in that area?

A: In the ‘80s, Fairmont started by operating in national parks in Canada, so we had to learn to be good shepherds of these assets. Our environmental programs started back then.

Then it became a cultural thing with our employees. Every hotel has employee “Green Teams” that drive the program. We recognize extra environmental performance at our annual awards program—we give awards to hotels that create new initiatives. So we don’t have to mandate an environmental focus—we just have to manage it.

We just printed the updated third edition of our environmental textbook, The Green Partnership Guide. It’s full of case studies and examples of what we have done. The focus is on bringing all hotels up to higher environmental standards.

The book is a step-by-step guide, so it wouldn’t be difficult for other hotels to copy what we’ve done. They would just need to implement it. We’ve actually sold about 200 of these to other hotel companies. I think developing a program today is not a lot of effort compared to even five years ago. And it’s such a socially responsible thing to do. From top left: The Fairmont Scottsdale Princess, The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, The Fairmont Empress, and Le Montreux Palace.

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