To become a Brown Hotel, there has to be an inherent set of values, aesthetics and experiences – it’s not just about planting flags, said Co-Founder Leon Avigad, who along with Nitzan Perry created the Tel Aviv-based boutique hotel company in 2010. Today, Brown Hotels has some 20 properties under three sub-brands open across Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Croatia and a budding portfolio in Greece. All of the hotels are affectionately referred to as “Brownies,” as is the team, Avigad said, because they all put a lot of tender loving care and soul into the repositioned assets that thrive on having exceptional local appeal. “They are our babies. We have our language and our way of doing things,” Avigad added. So far, despite the pandemic, “brownie” style appears to be working.
Avigad, 50, is a hotel lifer who collected hotel brochures as a child and has worked for the local Dan Hotels chain, as well as some classic luxury properties across Europe, including Badrutt’s Palace in St Moritz, Switzerland, The Ritz in London and even as part of the entertainment team at Club Med. “I’m just in love with the profession; this is what I do, breathe, dream about, for many, many years,” he added.
This dream-come-true came after walking away from operations to start his own consultancy, where feasibility studies failed to overcome his desire to be an operator. With the help of some friends and the bank, he took a huge loan and mortgaged his life to buy his first property, where in 2010 he brought that same infectious attitude and a new style of hospitality to Tel Aviv. He and his partner opened Brown TLV with a sense of place in the design, food and atmosphere – all reflective of the neighborhood.
The second, third and fourth hotel followed, after which he fortuitously teamed up with the Weizman family that controls Grand City hotels in Germany, as well as many other hotels such as the W in Amsterdam. With some wind in their sails, the team moved toward owning and operating 20 hotels, and by next year Brown Hotels will top 25 in Israel alone. “We will have 15 in Greece, one in Croatia, three in Germany and a couple in Cyprus, and we’re moving on,” said Avigad, who has moved his family to Athens to manage the big growth push there.
Browns equally owns, leases or operates as a management company for other partners and investors in both urban and resort settings, ranging anywhere between 18- to 300-room properties – again showing a fair amount of flexibility that helps feed growth. Brown has sub-brands such as Lighthouse, a work hard, play hard concept with very dark and modern looks; Brown Beach House, which is a coastal laid back leisure hotel with a vintage feel; the upper-tier Villas concept is for smaller hotels in historic buildings across Germany, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem; and at the opposite end is entry-level Dave (son of Brown), which is a super fun, hipster and eclectic concept with a very sexy bordello look, according to Avigad.
Most deals are conversions to shorten the process, and what the Brown team usually does is take either old hotels or those in need of some retouching, or office buildings that can easily be turned into hotels.
Looking ahead past a big 40-hotel pipeline in Greece, Avigad said Budapest is a fun city Brown would like to add, and Italy is very high on its must-have list. Brown almost had a deal in Miami before COVID and has since delayed a move to the States.
Creativity matters
Of course, everyone has suffered through the pandemic and COVID has delayed many a plan, but again Brown Hotels made another key move, having before the pandemic sold a 20% stake to a large institutional insurance company in Israel. “It was an amazing show of confidence to what we do,” Avigad said. “Never has any institutional, listed company in the very strong stock market of Israel backed up a hotel business, and especially a boutique hotel business. This was a huge stamp of faith in what we do, and we’re very proud of it.” It also proved very important to sustain their growth with COVID hitting hard.
Avigad and his team, like so many, also pivoted during COVID, launching extended-stay programs that attracted families and people of all ages looking to get away. “Brown was first intended to be funky, cool, savvy, fun-loving party-going spot for 35- to 55-year-olds. And all of a sudden, we’re attracting families, empty nesters and long stays – segments we never touched before. And this is what helped us overcome the pandemic.”
Understanding early on that the pandemic was not going to be short-lived, the Brown team started calling suppliers to ask for some relief, as well as landlords and banks. Then it continued to search for different target markets, tapping the locals, as well as divorcees and plastic surgery patients – and it paid off, Avigad said.
Brown Hotels even dedicated one full hotel just to kids, after a focus group that included Avigad’s daughter and some of her friends taught them Play Doh is not an experience they want to offer. They created virtual reality and selfie stations, as well as Nintendo and TikTok options. “This is how we survived the summer,” he said. “We just discovered more and more niches and were very dynamic. Where other hotel chains just started to be very introverted and cutting costs – and we did cut costs, too – we just kept finding new market niches.”
What COVID has also taught Avigad is more humility and to yield the most from every meter. “Being more open to other people’s opinion was a very humbling experience at the age of 50. COVID teaches you better,” he admitted, adding for the moment that the company’s appetite for risk has been toned down some.
Perhaps the group’s secret sauce to better fight through COVID has been its ongoing immersion into local cultures. It was integral in coming to Greece, where the principals had no connections. But Avigad said they go out into the community wherever they develop and work only with locals – from architects to graphic designers and chefs. “There’s nothing better than actually getting down on the ground meeting people, going out developing more and more circles of friends,” Avigad said, adding they immediately start to post to their social media accounts to increase the buzz. “We know the DJs, the drag queens, the creative people, the ‘it’ girls. This is what we do. We love hosting. This is when it’s genuine – it comes out, you know.”
Throwing the parties and delivering content is one thing, but Avigad said getting hotel basics right is just as important. “We’re working hard on our sleep experience with very good mattresses and bath experiences, as well as an amazing breakfast with a big local emphasis,” he said, adding the F&B is operated separately because it is a different business than rooms.
But like so many today, Brown has recognized the value of content, even throwing funky and sponsored pre-Shabbat parties in Jerusalem. “We donate our rooftops very freely to pop-ups, fashion designers, artists… Then the rumors start and locals know that it’s not just a marketing decision… It’s something that comes from the bottom of the heart. This is who we are,” Avigad said “And when we recruit our management team and our content managers, it’s genuine. I think that we are the only hotels in the world with job descriptions like director of good times.”
It should come as no surprise, then, that Avigad winces when hotels are referred to as simply assets. Yes, he realizes he needs to sell rooms, but he wants it to be more than that. “I admire authenticity and believing in it in what you do wholeheartedly,” he said. “I admire people that do things very passionately. I think that being cool is great, but being too cool to the extent of not really caring is not fun. I would like all my hotels to be real, to reflect real experiences, real emotions and to be soulful.”
Maybe that is why Avigad closed by talking about training his teams not to smile without genuine emotion. “But just to open your eyes and to have a mimic or gesture that will reflect openness rather than just smiling in a fake way.”