When I spoke with Nicholas Yarnell, he was General Manager of Six Senses Douro Valley in Portugal. The book notes that he has since become General Manager of Six Senses London.
Yarnell speaks to three different subjects in the book, and in each case he gave me an operator’s account rather than a philosophy. On the pursuit of excellence, he was honest about the stress that comes with it. He told me the trick is to keep from being overwhelmed by it, that opening hotels teaches you this, and that the first few years of a hotel’s existence are a messy, organic business in which turnover typically runs over 50 percent. I took from our conversation that the stress is evidence the operator is working at the standard the work requires, and that what matters is how the operator processes it so it does not become illness, fatigue, cynicism or burnout.
“Stress always accompanies the pursuit of excellence.” Nicholas Yarnell, then General Manager, Six Senses Douro Valley
On knowing the guest, Yarnell gave me a story from the small, quiet end of the practice. A young American woman with a serious peanut allergy arrived at the hotel, came nervously to her first meal, and was told by the server that the team was expecting her and the chefs already knew. As she left, the server handed her a card on which he had written a note in Portuguese, so she could hand it to the manager of any local restaurant and be understood. The property had read a need she had not expressed and may not have realized she had.
“That simple thoughtful act cost nothing, but it brought tears to her eyes.” Nicholas Yarnell, then General Manager, Six Senses Douro Valley
On the future of the segment, his Douro Valley property was already running more than thirty complimentary experiences a week, from pickling workshops in an Earth Lab to singing bowl meditation and a resident azulejo artist teaching tile painting. He told me the team spends a great deal of time and effort crafting experiences that will delight and surprise guests. The analysts call it experiential luxury. Yarnell was describing his week.
In the book, Nicholas Yarnell appears in Chapter 7, In Pursuit of Perfection, on living with the stress that accompanies the standard; in Chapter 9, Knowing Your Guest, with the story of the allergy card; and in Chapter 14, The Future of Luxury and Craft, as an operator who was building experiential luxury before the reports named it.