Keeping Calm and Carrying On

Dorchester Collection president Christopher Cowdray on sustainability, the importance of staff, and lessons learned from the pandemic

- Sahar Khan

WHEN THE PANDEMIC hit, the Dorchester Collection closed seven of its nine hotels but did not lay off any staff members. Guiding the hotel management company through the pandemic was CEO Christopher Cowdray, who has been at its helm since 2007. "We demonstrated as a company that we were going to not only look after you financially, but also make sure that you had total job security," he says. "We communicated that to ensure employees were brought along on that journey."

The Dorchester Collection operates iconic hotels such as The Dorchester in London, Hôtel Plaza Athénée in Paris, The Beverly Hills Hotel, and Hotel Eden in Rome. This fall, the group will debut its latest property-The Lana in Dubai, housed in a building designed by Norman Foster.

Last year was the most profitable in the company's history, despite its top earner, The Dorchester, being shuttered during most of 2022. Although Cowdray says much of that success was because "the top had come off the pressure cooker" after two years of travel restrictions, he also credits the company's emphasis on happy staff-a key tenet of its We Care philosophy-with helping the hotels bounce back quickly post-pandemic. "We know how very important our people are to our success and to the relationships with our guests," he says.