Nick Carrier, Principal EMEA, WATG and Wimberly Interiors

Posted in People on 2 December, 2024

Repositioning a collection of hotels deemed more dated than destination is a complex business. Nick Carrier – the creative vision behind the ongoing transformation of Greek hotel group, Mitsis – explains why.

WORDS BY Emma Kennedy

It’s easy to lose all sense of time when viewing WATG and Wimberly Interiors’ extensive portfolio of high-end hospitality projects. With 500 designers working from nine offices across three continents, it casts its architectural design net far and wide – and with the recent acquisition of SOSH Architects, that reach is about to get even wider.
Its pioneering approach to architecture and design dates back to 1945 Honolulu with the renovation of the iconic Royal Hawaiian Resort, Waikiki, by founders George ‘Pete’ Wimberly and Howard Cook. A visual timeline on the WATG website provides a nostalgic snapshot of the studio’s rich history, with many of the projects looking as contemporary today as they did when conceived.

Mitsis Summer Palace. Photographs courtesy of WATG and Wimberly Interiors.

Joining the company soon after graduating from the University of Cape Town in 2005, architect and now Principal, Nick Carrier has played a significant role in WATG’s ongoing success. Greeting me at their London studio, he is warm and welcoming, with an abundance of easy humour and enthusiasm. Responsible for much of WATG’s work in Europe, his current focus is on repositioning and portfolio optimisation. Diving straight in, Nick begins by telling me in layman’s terms precisely what this means.

“Repositioning is basically taking an existing asset – in this case a hotel – that’s already had a previous life and giving it a new burst of life. Sometimes the aim is to simply refresh it and keep the same market and clientele. However, more often than not, it’s about taking those properties and making them appeal to a different market – and that’s what we’re referring to when we say ‘reposition’.”

At this point, the screen on the boardroom wall comes alive with a somewhat confusing array of images of dated hotels in undisclosed locations. Not quite the look I would usually associate with WATG, Nick is quick to explain the images are the ‘before’ shots of a recent project in Greece. “I love the before and after shots,” he says. “But we are reluctant to put them on the website in case people think they’re finished projects, and leave the site before seeing the ‘afters,’” he tells me feigning horror. I appreciate his concerns, especially given the images that follow are a strong collection of design-led properties, as part of an ongoing repositioning campaign for Greece’s largest privately owned hotel chain, Mitsis.

Founded in 1976 by entrepreneur Konstantinos Mitsis, the group revolutionised the Greek tourist industry with the introduction of the all-inclusive concept. Now under the leadership of the founder’s son Stavros, the hotels are undergoing dramatic structural and interior changes, through the creative lens of WATG.

Sea front guest room, Mitsis Summer Palace.

Mitsis Summer Palace hotel exterior.

“It’s been an interesting journey with Mitsis,” Nick begins. “They have a portfolio of 20 hotels around the Greek islands – most of which were designed for guests 20-30 years ago. Though well maintained and in good locations, over time the kind of amenities guests want, their habits – even the way we use a space has changed. Originally, we were approached by Kostas who was interested in what we could offer from a hospitality expertise point of view. After lengthy discussions and proposals, we began work on Mitsis Norida in Kos, which was essentially a whole repositioning design, which resulted in a huge increase in revenue, achieved through elevated rates in the year that followed. This marked the beginning of a whole new journey in terms of looking at the broader portfolio, and how we could reposition the entire Mitsis brand.” Energised by the clear financial gains, a new logo and fresh marketing material followed, as Mitsis targeted a slightly elevated market. “They started to reinvent themselves, in a way that was more aligned with ‘aspirational luxury’,” Nick concludes.

As images of beautiful beachside hotels and resorts continue to roll, it’s evident that six years on, Mitsis and WATG have been extremely productive. “Oh yeah,” Nick confirms, “I would say we are currently working on 10 to 12 projects – about half of their portfolio – which is great. Over the years we have built a relationship based on trust, and slowly but surely – starting with that one small project – it’s continued to grow.”

Restaurant, Mitsis Rinela.

Interested to hear about the process, I ask Nick what the starting point for the development of each property is and if there’s a formula. “There’s no formula as such,” he tells me, “But we always start by assessing the property with the Mitsis leadership team, to see exactly where its strengths and weaknesses lie. We listen closely to what they want to do and contribute our own thoughts – where we think arrivals should be, where to move the pool, a better position for guest rooms… and put together a proposal which covers all the different disciplines that are needed. In effect, we’re like a one-stop-shop providing an integrated design. It’s not ‘here’s the architecture, here’s the interiors, and here’s the landscape’. We essentially blend it all together to create a coherent design solution, which we then use as our road map.”

Because we’ve worked on so many projects together over the years, there’s a trust and an understanding of what each team is – or isn’t – going to do.

What I didn’t fully comprehend, was that given the seasonality of the hotels, depending on the complexity and scale of the proposed work, a single project can take four to five years to complete. Work begins as the property closes for the winter months, and timing is crucial. “To rebuild a hotel in one hit, would normally take around two years, so we split the work into bitesize chunks, and the demolition of an area will literally start as the last guest leaves. We have to be completely realistic with our timings, which as you can imagine can be quite stressful. But, like a chameleon, slowly but surely, the hotel is transformed into something quite different.”

Mitsis Summer Palace infinity pools.

With winter taken up overseeing the construction, regular site visits and all that a project with a hard-hat stop in April entails, the summer months are given over to design. “The beauty of this office is that we all sit in the same floor plate. We have sketching tables in the middle, where we all come together to draw, and it’s great having that kind of crossover between the different disciplines. It inevitably means we challenge and push each other a little bit further to create a coherent concept that complements the landscape, interiors, and architecture.”

With WATG at the helm of the architecture and landscape design, I ask Nick if Wimberly Interiors are always the vision behind Mitsis’ interiors. “Not always, but obviously when we can blend all the design services together at the planning stage, it brings about a much richer concept which I believe is more coherent. All the considerations that interior designers prioritise can be integrated into the design when we are aware of them. Because we’ve worked on so many projects together over the years, there’s a trust and an understanding of what each team is – or isn’t – going to do. We can challenge each other in ways that elevate the product even further, and the result is a project that feels as though it’s been drawn by one hand and considered by one mind.”

Pool area fringed with planting at Mitsis Rinela.

Luxury aside, each property in the Mitsis ‘after’ pictures, has a different aesthetic. “There are occasional similarities between the properties,” Nick explains, “but essentially, we treat each one as a completely new project. We like to celebrate the local culture, the local site, the local cuisine, even the local climates of each hotel, and of course the vernacular of the architecture. Where possible materials are sourced locally, which means they blend in with the topography of the surrounding landscape, and it all feels more seamless.”

From a sustainability perspective, realising an existing property’s full potential far outweighs the option of building something new. From an architect’s perspective, I wonder if it’s as clearcut. Taking time to consider the question, Nick hesitates before answering. “If we started with a blank page, it would obviously be much easier to get everything working as you would like it to. But I really enjoy these challenges, because of the constraints that you need to work within. And you know what? – you’re probably not going to get it exactly how you want it. But that means you have to be quite creative in terms of finding opportunities that aren’t always obvious. I think that makes these projects interesting to work on.”

In my experience, it’s rare for an architect to mention RevPAR statistics in an interview, but Nick clearly enjoys this aspect of the role. Since RevPAR is a measurable outcome of his design decisions, it’s not surprising and we close the interview discussing what’s next on the horizon. Looking genuinely excited about the future, he chooses his words thoughtfully – careful not to give too much away. “Well, we are in discussions with several European entities similar to Mitsis, including owner-operators and major investment funds. When they see our work, especially the numbers, they take notice.”

And taking a final look at the projects as the slide show comes to an end, I doubt they’re the only ones taking notice.

watg.com