Powerscourt puts on the Ritz

If you were to try to guess Simon Cooper's profession or background by simply paying attention to his appearance and listening to him speak, a number of clues would point you in the right direction fairly quickly.

First, you have the mixture of accents, betraying his English roots, his Canadian career and his current base in the US.

Next, you notice his fine suit and polished appearance, a sign that he likes quality and operates in an environment where other people do too.

You might then delve deeper and discover he is the son of a Saville Row wool merchant, who eschewed the world of fabric sales to go sailing around the world in his early 20s.

As for the finishing touches, the cuff-links, with the crown and lion's head, should give it away. They represent the logo of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, of which Cooper has been president since 2001. They also represent this week's expansion of the Republic's five-star hotel market with the announcement of the first Irish Ritz-Carlton at Powerscourt, Co Wicklow.

The property is to be developed by Treasury Holdings, then operated by Cooper's team of "ladies and gentlemen" under a long-term management agreement. Cooper acknowledges the investment requires "a leap of faith on both sides" but he is also obviously confident.

"That building is going to be standing in 50 years," he says.

The €120 million structure in question is a sweeping arc-shaped building designed in the neo-classical style. Its terrace will overlook the Sugarloaf mountain, thus reflecting what Cooper calls "a sense of place".

Like Treasury, Ritz-Carlton has been eyeing a hotel for Powerscourt for about five years. Cooper says plans for an investment were progressing nicely in 2001, before the September 11th attacks put things on hold.

Now that it's finally moving, it is perhaps unfair to point out that by waiting, Ritz-Carlton has missed out on two or three years of Irish revenues at a time when the Republic's economy was performing better than most parts of the world.

Competing hotel groups such as the Four Seasons and Starwood (through the Westin) have meanwhile been cleaning up in Dublin's five-star luxury market.

Cooper says that if the past few years have proved anything, it is that demand for luxury has grown at the expense of other hotel types. In other words, he thinks Ritz-Carlton will be catching the boat rather than missing it when it opens in Powerscourt in late 2006 or early 2007.

His thesis that luxury will be the winner in the dog-eat-dog hotel market already carries some weight in Dublin, with Jurys Doyle's four-star properties known to be struggling to compete against the growing band of five-stars in the market.

Cooper identifies Dublin's exclusive Merrion hotel as a property that gets it right in this punishing game. Having stayed there himself this week, he should know. He also says the Shelbourne, when renovations have been completed, will be a hefty competitor.

As for Powerscourt, Cooper says the guests who will be lured to the new site will break down clearly between midweek and weekend custom.

Midweek, the hotel (which will be beside two golf courses) will be betting on lucrative group meetings, many of which will be drawn from the local multinational companies that have operations on the south side of Dublin or in Wicklow itself.

Dell in Bray and Cherrywood and Microsoft in Sandyford and Leopardstown respectively offer prime examples of the rich pickings that should be on offer, particularly because the Ritz-Carlton brand will already be known to many executives.

Weekend leisure (or "leesure", as Cooper, with his English/US/Canadian twang, would say) will be other big business, hence Ritz-Carlton's decision to include one of the world's biggest spas in the plans.

Cooper expects home-grown wealth to play a very large part in making the Powerscourt hotel a success. Americans, he suggests, will provide no more than 15 per cent of overall occupancy.

Treasury and Ritz-Carlton have estimated that the hotel will generate revenues of up to €60 million per year for the Republic's tourism industry.

Rather than being a number picked at random, this €60 million is based on estimated revenues at the hotel, associated expenditure on air tickets and other transport and then the average amount spent by visitors to the Republic, based on official figures.

"We don't think that people are going to cocoon themselves in the hotel," says Cooper, pointing to the nearby attractions of Wicklow. Near the top of this list will be the Powerscourt House and gardens, owned by the Slazenger family.

He also expects that the hotel itself will create a boon in "spin-off" developments such as local restaurants and B&Bs.

The Ritz name boasts considerable history, dating back to 1927 when the then mayor of Boston decided a world-class hotel should be built in the city. A building was selected and the Ritz-Carlton name was used with the permission of the Ritz hotels in Paris and London.

The resultant hotel was something of a trailblazer in US hospitality, introducing the first private bathrooms in bedrooms and a la carte dining. The martinis were (and still are) stirred 12 times and the glassware was (and still is) stylish in cobalt blue.

The Ritz-Carltons of today are different in one way, however, in that they come under the umbrella of giant hotelier Marriott. This has been the situation since 1996, although the brands are run separately. In fact, says Cooper, the only real impact of the Marriott takeover was the injection of new funds that the larger company brought.

Thus Ritz-Carlton has been able to embark on a huge expansion plan which sees 20 hotels in development at the moment, many of them in Asia.

Cooper, who has been in hotels for more than 30 years (he abandoned sailing aged 26 and moved to Canada - "you can't do that forever"), knows how fickle a commodity luxury can be however. Twenty years ago, he says, when 80 per cent of guests were males dressed in suits, the demand was for old-fashioned comfort and formal dining with English china.

Today, he says, customers come equally from both sexes and are as likely to be dressed in T-shirts and shorts and have three children in tow. This creates a need for more casual surroundings and food options, while time-poor executives have a demand for on-site diversions such as spas.

The cost of such services is of course reflected in the price of staying at Ritz-Carlton hotels. Cooper says this ranges between $300 and $400 (€245 and €327) for a double room, with Powerscourt likely to come in at the higher end, reflecting the facilities and the "experience and memories" Cooper promises the site will deliver.