Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts
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| Private | |
| Industry | Hospitality, tourism, hotel |
| Founded | March 21, 1961 |
| Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
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Number of locations
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101 |
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Key people
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Isadore Sharp (Founder & Chairman) J. Allen Smith (President & CEO) Bart Carnahan (Executive Vice President, Global Business Development) Christian Clerc (President, Global Operations) Sarah Cohen (Executive Vice President and General Counsel) Mike Crawford (President, Portfolio Management & Owner Relations) John Davison (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer) Ed Evans (Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer) Peter Nowlan (Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer) Simon Casson (President, Hotel Operations-Europe/Middle East/Africa) Vince Parrotta (President, Hotel Operations-The Americas) Rainer Stampfer (President, Hotel Operations-Asia/Pacific) |
| Revenue |
 US$ 4 billion (2013) |
| Owner |
Cascade Investment Kingdom Holding Company Triples Holding |
|
Number of employees
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34,000 (2013) |
| Website | www |
Four Seasons Hotels Ltd., trading as Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, is a Canadian international luxury hospitality company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. It operates more than 100 hotels worldwide. Since 2007, Bill Gates and Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal have been majority owners of the company.
Canadian businessman Isadore Sharp founded Four Seasons in 1960. While a young architect working for his father, Sharp designed a motel for a family friend; its success motivated him to try creating his own hotel. He bought a large parcel of land in a run-down area of Toronto and planned a stopover for business travelers; the Four Seasons Motor Hotel opened in 1961.
Four Seasons built more hotels, including the 1963 Inn on the Park, a $4 million two-story resort hotel in suburban Toronto that housed Canada's first discotheque.
Upscale luxury became part of the brand when the company expanded to London. When a developer approached Four Seasons about building a hotel in London, Sharp planned it to compete with the city's old-world, elite hotels, such as Claridge's and The Connaught. The hotel opened in 1970.
In 1974, cost overruns at a Vancouver property nearly led the company into bankruptcy. As a result, the company began shifting to its current, management-only business model, eliminating costs associated with buying land and buildings. The company went public in 1986. In the 1990s, Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton began direct competition, with Ritz-Carlton emphasizing a uniform look while Four Seasons emphasized local architecture and styles with uniform service; in the end Four Seasons gained market share.
The first full-service spa was introduced in 1986 at Four Seasons Resort and Club Dallas at Las Colinas. Today, nearly all Four Seasons hotels and resorts have spa facilities, and the remainder offer spa services. Many of the hotels have also integrated high-end restaurants.
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Wikipedia