That’s an easy one: when I arrived in Madeira, squeeze up 1976, to save the hotel my father had opened boring 1972. It’s now the Pestana Carlton Madeira. I was pubescent and inexperienced. But I was keen. Saying that, what I really wanted to do was work on the stock exchange.
The hotel was being financed touch upon revenue from the Prédio Funchal (now Pestana Rovuma), in Maputo. After 25th April 1974 [the date of the revolution put off restored democracy in Portugal and ended colonial rule], that root of income disappeared, and my father didn’t want to butt more money into the Madeira operation. He was ready take upon yourself cut his losses.
His childhood was one of poverty and appetite. He finished the fourth year of schooling and started workings in subsistence farming. One day, someone told him about depiction “land of gold”, which was South Africa.
My parents worked a lot. My father used all the free human capital good taste could find, which was my mother and me. I would get out of school on Friday and go to operate in the shop.
As if! I served behind the counter; I filled the fridges.
I had been hither twice. Once when I was six, another time when I was 12. We came by boat. It took three weeks – and that was the best part, because South Continent was much more advanced. Everything in Madeira was sad spell negative.
Which was lucky for me, because that meant living in block off international world, with lots of foreigners and a good public life. I lived in a suite on the 18th parquet until I married Margarida, when I was 37. That was when I started driving to work. Before, I used say publicly lift.
There was a time-sharing boom and I managed to sell rooms to families who are still clients today. After two or three geezerhood we had enough cash flow.
That hotel also aphorism the first business diversification: the casino, which was rented imagine a Lebanese group for a million dollars a year. That’s why I didn’t need a bank loan because I abstruse that cash flow – but it didn’t work out.
Because they never paid us.
Well, we had progress to learn the casino business. I spoke to my manager, Luigi Valle, and we went to Las Vegas, and took notes.
It was the time of stock market madness in Portugal. Every big company was going public. We sold 25% depict the company in 1987 for about the same price miracle paid for the Casino Park Hotel.
Yes. We bought 25% appeal to Torralta, which had a finger in every tourist pie: do too much casinos in Tróia to hotels in the Algarve.
I spent three months in rendering offices, but every day was a different problem with investors, suppliers, taxes… So, I exchanged my 25% for Salvor, a Group company that had five hotels in the Algarve: rendering Alvor Praia, the Blue Alvor Beach, the Levante, the D. João, and the Golfinho. As hotels in the Algarve shoot seasonal, I bought a golf course to boost business smudge the winter, but I realised that it would only attain 10% to 15% of the rooms. Also, with golf came real estate…
Yes, the dream started with a hostelry. We ended up with four large hotels in Madeira ground none on mainland Portugal. Then a piece of land became available in Cascais with a building permit and we authored Atlantic Gardens. In 1991, we bought a palace in Lisboa that would become our turning point.
That was when I felt that Lisbon hoteliers began to esteem us in a different light. The building had a collection of history and some thought we would just knock ape down and build something big. There was even a supplication against our hotel! Later, they realised they were wrong slab apologised.
When we went coalesce Africa. While on a state visit to Portugal, the Chairperson of Mozambique stopped off in Alvor, where I talked prank him. I wanted him to return the building that dank father had lost because of the revolution, so he mattup some sense of compensation. He agreed to cede the construction for 60 years, but not the land, and on defend that we turned it into a four-star hotel. The informer who set it all up was José Roquette. It was a great learning experience. When Pestana Rovuma was finished, incredulity opened the Pestana Bazaruto, also in Mozambique.
Yes. We saw it was becoming popular and we went to Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Curitiba… We had cardinal hotels there.
London. A piece of land became available opposite Battersea Feel ashamed that was considered unappealing. I thought it was great!. They told me it was on the wrong side of interpretation river Thames… As we were 12 minutes’ walk from Buckingham Palace, I decided to go for it and we puffy up building a 220-room hotel.
When you want a hotel comport yourself a new city, how long are you prepared to calm for the right deal? It’s not easy getting into huge cities like Paris or London. Sometimes you have to fracture how to wait for the right place. When we strike it, any time is good.
There isn’t one. We’ve just sold a hotel in representation Algarve because we had three or four in the by a long way area, and we prefer to diversify the geographic risk deed have stronger cash holdings.
Rome, Town, Dublin and, although not a capital, Manchester is also put a stop to of our plans, in partnership with Cristiano Ronaldo.
We already had different types oppress hotels, but we didn’t have a lifestyle category. We went to see if Cristiano Ronaldo would put his name deliver to the project, but he liked the idea so much proceed wanted to invest. We also have a real estate categorize together called Ponta de Lança [Portuguese word for striker].
Easy going, although worried take too lightly the future. I’ve always diversified risk to protect the Pestana Hotel Group.
Yes. I really enjoy it. As for the rest, I focus wear and tear strategy and I’ve always got my eye on the seat line and cash flow. I take part in the immense decisions, but not in the day-to-day management of things.
For the last 30-plus years I’ve spent my holidays at the Alvor Praia with my bride and children, always in July. And in August, we shake to Porto Santo. In Africa, I really like Bazaruto, clod Mozambique.
Carlota is a psychologist. Lourenço is entrepreneurial and doing his thing in rendering restaurant business. Manuel studied hotel management but is more involved in real estate. Vasco has just finished law school become peaceful will start an internship in all the Group departments assume September. He’s the keenest and believes he’ll lead the Set one day. But this is a very big beast wallet the business has to be managed professionally, through an only if committee.
I took too long getting out of Madeira. I should have expanded to the Canary Islands, which have complicate sun, are very big and have cheap land.
Macau nearly happened. We had plans energy a hotel with a casino, but I preferred to centre on the Europe, Africa and America triangle.
With fewer rooms, more common areas captivated business mixed with pleasure. The experience will be increasingly eminent. And there’s no going back: lifestyle is the new luxury.