The Sunday Times Magazine – 7 May 2017

Rich List 2017

The Sunday Times Magazine • 89

STRANGE HABITS

Kit on Tim

We have five dogs.

Every mealtime

they sit in a perfect

semicircle around

Tim’s chair, not mine.

I wonder why?

Tim on Kit

Kit’s always laughing.

She finds even

the most obscure

situations delightfully

amusing, which is not

always delightful

and craftsmen. As developers, we

reap more of the increase in value

of a property when it is finished.

It also means we can borrow a little

bit to start with.

Once the building is finished,

we run the hotel ourselves. We are

our own tenant — and we have to

be a successful tenant to justify

owning and maintaining the

property. It also means that, in a

downturn, there won’t be someone

knocking on the door saying,

“Sorry, it’s over.”

I learnt the importance of being

in control when I once took on too

much and overexpanded. I did it

very early on in a recession.

Somebody had gone bust and

I was offered property in different

locations. I took it on, but I wasn’t

able to do the refurb. I just wasn’t

set up to do it. I learnt that you

need the team, the whole thing.

We train our hotel staff ourselves

in our training school in London.

We tell them to give our guests

complete choice. If you go to an

InterContinental hotel, there’s

still the attitude that “Hmm ...

breakfast is from 7.15am to 9.15am.”

And at night-time, they’re already

laying out the teacups for breakfast.

It’s just horrible. People don’t want

that. What they want is to be able

to say, “You know, it’s such a lovely

sunny day and I see this ray of

sunshine coming through the

window, I’d like my tea and toast

there.” And “there” is just outside

the kitchen or in the hallway.

Normally, you’d get someone

saying: “No, sorry. Health and

safety. You can’t do that.” There

are a lot of “can’ts” in this world.

We try to be the opposite. You

should be able to have whatever

you want, as long as you’re

reasonable and you don’t interfere

with other guests.

Kit jokes that I would like to live

in a minimalist white cube, but

I’ve grown to like soft furnishings.

I do like comfort. I’m very critical

of chairs and tables and things that

are the wrong height and the

wrong rake.

I’m distraught about Brexit. It’s

a terrible decision. Our EU staff

were all very upset. They felt

unwanted. We decided we would

support everybody that was able

to apply for passports and pay

their costs. I’m not sure about

English people, to be honest. I’m

not sure that English people are

the best people that walk this earth.

Kit and I have been unbelievably

lucky. We’re looking for new sites

for hotels in London, New York

and Los Angeles, although I don’t

think that Kit is massively keen

on a new project right now.

We’ve just climbed one cliff face

DAVID VINTINER FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE in Manhattan n