Scattered across the Randstad are six hotels that seemingly have nothing to do with each other. Take a Renaissance near Schiphol-East. A Moxy in The Hague. A Mercure in Amersfoort. But behind this diversity lies a clever strategy of entrepreneur Bas Blommaart. In an exclusive interview, he, along with his director Remco Gerritsen, gives a behind-the-scenes look at his company, International Hotel Capital Partners.
Renaissance Schiphol celebrates its fifth anniversary today, and the champagne is ready to be uncorked. But before that happens, the man with whom it all began, Bas Blommaart, welcomes Hospitality Management. In a meeting room next to the lobby, he allows himself to be interviewed for the first time about the establishment of his company and his plans for the future. His right-hand man, Remco Gerritsen, is naturally present. Since Blommaart’s former partner Martin Lindelauf retired, Gerritsen has served as a sparring partner and led the operation.
Practicing What You Preach
Blommaart made his first hotel investment 20 years ago when he was still building the software company Hotel Concepts, later Itesso. “I had been developing hotel software since 1994. With that, I essentially preached about the working methods hotels should follow. I felt that I should do it myself at least once. In 2003, I had the opportunity to invest in the hotel operation of the Ramada City Centre Hotel in Amsterdam, along with Christian Westers, his father Harry Westers from WestCord Hotels, and their then-business partner Cees van der Schoot. It was the beginning of electronic distribution, and I could test all the ideas we had within Hotel Concepts in practice. I still had my software company, but in the hotel, I enjoyed dealing with distribution and yield management. I found it exciting! Later, with the same partners, we took over Hotel New York in Rotterdam. But WestCord found it difficult to have a hotel that wasn’t entirely theirs, so eventually, I sold everything to WestCord, and Christian and I went our own way.”
After this initial introduction to the operational side of the hotel industry, Blommaart became a financial partner of the Vincent Hotel Group, which developed eleven hotels in the Netherlands. The portfolio was sold to the English division of WestMont Hotels in 2015.
IHCP’s Unique Approach IHCP
(International Hotel Capital Partners) has a unique approach to new construction and conversion projects. Instead of finding one contractor for the entire project, the workload is divided into pieces. The work is then distributed among specialized subcontractors, and IHCP, led by construction & asset manager Ernst Verduin, takes on the role of the main contractor. In practice, this approach provides more control over the work and saves on the tail costs that would exist with a single contractor. The downside is that, in the chosen scenario, the risk is also on the client.
From Zero to a Thousand Rooms
Martin Lindelauf, a top hotelier, was crucial to the start of IHCP. Blommaart knew him as a customer of Itesso and had temporarily asked him to manage the Hotel City Centre in Amsterdam. When Lindelauf started his own hotel in Amersfoort in 2010, Blommaart joined as his financial partner on a fifty-fifty basis. It served as his transition from the software business to the hotel industry. “Itesso had become large, in part due to the integration of Brilliant software. In 2015, it was ready for acquisition by Amadeus. Around the same time, the Renaissance Hotel opportunity arose. I knew the developer, and I took over the project from him. This time, Martin Lindelauf became my partner on the operational side. Three years later, I bought him out at his request, and he stayed on as director. Having such an experienced hotelier by my side was beneficial. For banks, it matters to see that you bring familiarity with the hotel world.”
In 2020, Remco Gerritsen took the place of Martin Lindelauf. The development of Moxy Hotel Schiphol Airport was already in full swing at that time. Blommaart and Gerritsen subsequently developed Moxy Hotel The Hague and Residence Inn The Hague, both located in the Muzentoren. “It was such a large building that we turned it into two hotels. They opened in 2022. Then I thought: now I’ll take a break. Because developing your own hotel is hard work, especially in times of COVID. I underestimated that, but it also has its advantages. Otherwise, I might never have started.”
Blommaart and Gerritsen, however, always keep their eyes and ears open and seize a good opportunity when it arises. In May, they heard that the Hilton Garden Inn in Leiden was for sale. After an exciting purchase process, during which it unexpectedly turned out that the property would be auctioned, the hotel could be added to IHCP’s collection. “We set a goal to have a thousand rooms in the Netherlands. That goal has now been achieved.”
Strong Brands
With Hilton in the portfolio, IHCP now operates with three different, strong brands. It’s a deliberate choice that also has drawbacks. “We could have saved ourselves the high fees, but from my Itesso days, I know that it’s very challenging for independent hoteliers to establish a chain of hotels unless you’re called Van der Valk. Bastion has successfully done that, but it took time. That’s why I opt for strong brands.”
The choice of the brand depends on the location. “We first choose a location and then eliminate based on what the local market can handle. For the Schiphol location, Accor was ruled out because it is already well represented here. Hilton also has a large hotel at the terminal, as does Sheraton. But Marriott had nothing here, at least not before the Marriott and Starwood merger. Then you look at sub-brands. Hilton has about ten, Accor has between fifteen and twenty, and Marriott has thirty. We chose Renaissance because it’s hip and contemporary. It’s also one of Marriott’s softer brands, and we thought we could give it our own touch at limited costs. That turned out differently. Essentially, you hand over your checkbook to such a hotel brand. Marriott’s design team had just developed a beautiful Renaissance in Dubai for half a million per room, and they wanted the same here. That can never work, so we had to convince Marriott that we could build at much lower costs than they were used to. For example, instead of a permanent emergency power supply, we created an additional connection, where a backup generator could be connected if necessary. We had to negotiate everything. The first time was challenging, but by the second hotel, it became much easier.”
Risk Diversification
IHCP doesn’t make it easy for itself by working with different brands. Why is that? Gerritsen explains, “By doing so, we cater to different markets. Muzentoren in The Hague shouldn’t have had 300 Moxy rooms; The Hague can’t handle that. Now, the first eight floors are Moxy, with a Moxy bar, fairly loud music, and jovial staff. And if you enter the building from the other side, you take the elevator straight to the ninth floor, and there you enter a large lobby