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Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts

Four Seasons Hotels Limited, trading as Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, is a Canadian luxury hotel and resort company[3] headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.[4] Four Seasons currently operates more than 100 hotels and resorts worldwide.[5] Since 2007, Bill Gates (through Cascade Investment) and Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal (through Kingdom Holding Company) have been majority owners of the company.[6] As of January 2022, Cascade Investment owns 71.25% and Kingdom Holding Company owns 23.75% of the hotel and resort company.[7]

Trade name

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts

Private

Hospitality

21 March 1961 (1961-03-21)

Isadore Sharp

Toronto, Ontario
,
Canada

129 properties in 44 countries

Isadore Sharp (Chairman)
Alejandro Reynal (CEO)

Increase US$4.3 billion (2015)[1]

Cascade Investment
Kingdom Holding Company
Triples Holding

45,000 (2018)[2]

www.fourseasons.com

Business model[edit]

Four Seasons does not own any of its properties;[27] it operates them on behalf of real estate owners and developers. For example, its New York Downtown hotel/residence is owned by Silverstein Properties, and its Las Vegas hotel is part of the Mandalay Bay complex. The contracts between Four Seasons and property owners typically permit the company to participate in the design of the property and run it with nearly total control over every aspect of the operation.[5]


Four Seasons generally earns three percent of the gross income and about five percent of profits from the properties it operates. Property owners are required to additionally contribute money for marketing, chain-wide sales, reservations systems and renovations. Four Seasons hotels have larger staffs than competing chains, and the company maintains separate reserve accounts for each hotel to cover upkeep costs. Profit margins are relatively low, but the brand attracts developers through the hotels' reputation as solid assets for loan collateral or resale.[5]

Residential rentals[edit]

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts began offering vacation rentals in June 2014. Titled Residential Rentals, the properties are available in: North America (Costa Rica, Houston, Jackson Hole, Nevis, Punta Mita, San Diego, Whistler, Vail). Africa (Marrakech, Mauritius, Seychelles, Sharm El Sheikh), Europe (Cap-Ferrat) and Asia (Bali at Jimbaran Bay, Jakarta, Chiang Mai, Koh Samui, Bangkok). The first stand alone Four Seasons Private Residences opened in London at 20 Grosvenor Square, Mayfair in July 2019. It will be the third Four Seasons venue in London.[28]


Residential Rentals provide the same services as Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts in a residential setting. Customers are mainly multi-generational vacationers and small group travellers.[29]

Locations[edit]

North America and the Caribbean[edit]

Four Seasons has a total of 52 hotels in North America and the Caribbean:

Thailand: Opened in 1978 as The Peninsula Bangkok, it became Regent Bangkok in 1982, with Four Seasons retaining that name after it bought Regent from 1992 to 2003.[164] Four Seasons ended its management contract in 2015, and the hotel was rebranded under owner Minor Hotels' Anantara brand.[165]

Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok

Four Seasons Hotel , Germany: Opened in 1996, management terminated in 2004. It was subsequently rebranded Regent Berlin.[166]

Berlin

Syria: Opened in 2005 and financed by Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal (who is a joint stakeholder at the company) and Syrian businessman Samer Foz. The hotel remained affiliated with the hotel chain years after the start of the Syrian Civil War, which saw Canada severing ties with Syria, until 2019, when the United States put sanctions on Foz for his ties with Bashar Al-Assad. The hotel continues to call itself Four Seasons, despite no longer being associated with it.[167]

Four Seasons Hotel Damascus

Ireland: Opened in 2001, management terminated in 2014. It was rebranded as an InterContinental effective on 1 January 2015.[168]

Four Seasons Hotel Dublin

Four Seasons Hotel , Indonesia: Opened in 1995 as Regent Jakarta, a Four Seasons Hotel, the hotel was rebranded a proper Four Seasons in 2004. The hotel was closed in 2014, initially for renovations that were expected to be completed by 2018.[169] However, it never reopened as a Four Seasons again. Management of the hotel was eventually assumed by Marriott International, which rebranded it as The St. Regis Jakarta in 2022.[170] The name "Four Seasons Hotel Jakarta" now refers to another hotel that the chain opened in 2016.

Jakarta

Saint Petersburg, Russia. Opened in 2013 in a renovated palace that dates back to 1820. It left the chain in 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, though it continues to call itself Four Seasons.[171]

Four Seasons Hotel Lion Palace

United Kingdom: Opened in 1999, left the chain in 2016. It is currently known as the Canary Riverside Plaza.[172]

Four Seasons Hotel London at Canary Wharf

Russia: Opened in 2014 on top of a demolished hotel called Hotel Moskva, which operated from 1935 to 2004. Like its counterpart in Saint Petersburg, it left the chain following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but continues to call itself Four Seasons.[171]

Four Seasons Hotel Moscow

Four Seasons Hotel , United States: Opened in 1983, management terminated in 2015.[173] Hilton Worldwide eventually took over the management; it is currently known as The Logan, a Curio Collection by Hilton.

Philadelphia

Four Seasons Hotel , Brazil: Opened in 2018, management terminated in 2020. Marriott International assumed partnership with the hotel in 2022 and rebranded it as JW Marriott Sao Paulo.[174]

Sao Paulo

Four Seasons Hotel , China: Opened in 2002 as the first Four Seasons hotel in China. In 2020, the company announced that the hotel would be closed for renovations, which commenced in June 2022. It has since been delisted from the company's website, making its future uncertain.[175]

Shanghai

Four Seasons Hotel Shanghai Pudong, China: Opened in 2012. Management was taken over by in 2020, which rebranded it Regent Shanghai Pudong.[176]

IHG Hotels & Resorts

Four Seasons Hotel at Chinzan-so, Japan: Opened in 1992. It was the first Four Seasons Hotel to open in Asia and Pacific region, but it left the chain in 2012. It is currently known as Hotel Chinzan-so Tokyo.

Tokyo

Four Seasons Hotel , Canada: Opened in 1978 as a rebranding of the former Hyatt Regency Toronto, which had opened six years prior. The hotel closed in 2012, in conjunction with the opening of a new Four Seasons property in Toronto nearby, and was converted to a condominium.[177]

Toronto

Canada: Opened in 1976, it was one of the few Four Seasons hotel directly owned by the chain, as opposed to being operated on behalf of a third-party. After 44 years in service, the hotel closed in 2020 following a legal dispute with its landowners.[178]

Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver

United States: Opened in 1986 by the USAA, management was terminated in 2022. Marriott International subsequently assumed control, branding it as a Ritz-Carlton in 2024.[179]

Four Seasons Resort Dallas at Las Colinas

Four Seasons Resort Great at Emerald Bay, the Bahamas: Opened in 2003 as part of the Great Exuma's Emerald Bay resort development, management was terminated in 2009. Several months later, it reopened as Sandals Emerald Bay.[180]

Exuma

Toronto, Canada: Opened in 1963 as the company's first luxury hotel, a prototype to the Four Seasons brand. It suffered a decline in the 1980s, ultimately leaving the chain in 1996 and being converted to a Holiday Inn. The hotel closed in 2005 and has since been demolished.[9]

Inn on the Park

Regent , a Four Seasons Hotel: Opened in 1988 as the Pavilion Inter-Continental Singapore, converted to Regent and taken over by Four Seasons from 1992 to 2018, making it the last Regent property under Four Seasons to retain its name.[19] The hotel is currently managed by Hilton Worldwide as Conrad Singapore Orchard.[181]

Singapore

United States: Opened in 1975, the hotel joined the Four Seasons chain in 1977. Despite its name, it was not originally affiliated with The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company (which did not exist at the time; the name "Ritz-Carlton" was carried under a license). It left the chain in 2013 before joining Marriott International in 2015, under which it began operating as a proper Ritz-Carlton.[182]

The Ritz-Carlton Chicago, a Four Seasons Hotel

Ships[edit]

In September 2022, the Four Seasons announced it was launching Four Seasons Yachts, with its first super yacht scheduled to hit the high seas in 2025.[183] In June 2023, the company confirmed plans for a second ship due for delivery in 2026.[184]


In 2003, Four Seasons Explorer, a luxury three-deck catamaran with 11 rooms, began to sail in the Maldives. Visitors from the Maldives' two Four Seasons resorts, Kuda Huraa and Landaa Giraavaru, could either book rooms or charter the entire ship for trips that lasted from three to seven days.[185] After two decades, the ship left the Maldives in 2023 for Palau, where Four Seasons began offering tours at the end of that year.[186]

 

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