west elm Hotels is a partnership between lifestyle retailer west elm and leading hospitality management team DDK.

For me, building the right culture sits at the center of building an amazing hotel brand. Because west elm Hotels is a brand rooted in the idea of wholehearted hospitality, we aren’t going to be a hotel run by manuals and procedures. We are a brand focused on doing the right thing and, whether you are an employee or guest, making every individual that walks through our doors feel uniquely valued.

I’ve spent 31 years working in the hotel industry – I started as a bellman and worked my way 
up to building and launching some of the most interesting and well-regarded hotel brands in the world. Throughout it all, the one thing that has kept me going is my passion for truly delighting people. With west elm Hotels, we’re not focused on building a hotel that’s cool. We’re not focused on building a hotel that has incredible design. We’re building a hotel that’s about delivering on wholehearted hospitality that just so happens to be cool and incredibly designed. And that distinction, around what comes first, is what makes this the most exciting opportunity of my career.

I believe that today’s traveler wants an experience that is connected to the place that they are in, and immerses them in the local community. west elm Hotels is responding with an alternative to the experience offered by the huge brands – when where you stay feels the same, whether you’re in Kuala Lumpur or Charlotte, NC. We will offer today’s traveler a collection of hotels that are both well curated and independently minded.

With west elm Hotels, investors should expect full transparency and a relationship where we are partners, working together, for mutual success. We’re not interested in creating an owner-operator dynamic where we are each making decisions based on what serves individual best interests. It’s all about creating a symbiotic relationship where, together, we set out to build something that is special and successful.

What makes this team different is the level of personal commitment. Each member of the executive team will be personally involved in not only seeing your hotel cross the finish line, but also making sure it continues to thrive once it opens. With any other hotel brand, the team that sells you on the dream probably won’t be the same team standing next to you on the day your doors open, which probably won’t be the team standing next to you one month or one year after you open. That just isn’t the case with west elm Hotels. We will be taking this journey with you, and will be in lockstep on every meaningful decision to ensure that the long-term vision for this hotel is realized to its fullest potential.

For me, the most important thing in a partner is that we are like-minded. In order to create a brand that has such strong DNA, you have to work with someone who not only understands, but also believes in, the concept. west elm Hotels is as much a lifestyle brand as it is a hotel brand – and if we aren’t aligned with our partners on that, it makes it hard to have an effective long-term relationship.