David Fattal rose from starting out as a waiter and bellboy to a fortune of around $1.3bn
The Midland is one of Manchester's most luxurious and iconic hotels – a favourite with high-flyers, celebrities and politicians.
Set on its own block by St Peter's Square, the hotel is turning 120 later this year and recently underwent a £14m transformation as it emerged from the pandemic.
But while The Midland is a familiar name to most in and around the city, the secretive billionaire who snapped it up for £115m towards the end of 2018 is less well known.
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David Fattal started out as a waiter and bellboy – and has a built fortune of around $1.3bn after founding his hotel chain aged 41 in 1998.
Fattal Hotels is the largest chain in his native Israel and now counts more than 40 sites and over 10,500 rooms in its portfolio.
That includes The Midland in Manchester as well as the Leonardo Hotels at Great Ancoats Street and Great Bridgewater Street.
His empire stretches across 30 different towns and cities in the UK but, according to one of his top bosses, plans are afoot to increase that number, including in Manchester.
Following its acquisition for £115m in 2018, The Midland has been part of the wider Leonardo Hotels chain – which itself is part of Mr Fattal's growing empire.
Ahead of The Midland's historic anniversary, Leonardo Hotels' UK and Ireland boss sat down with the Manchester Evening News to talk about the challenges of maintaining the historic building, and how the chain is emerging from the pandemic 'stronger than ever' as well as expansion plans for the future.
Jason Carruthers first set foot in the iconic hotel as an assistant food and beverage manager in the mid 1990s when it was then a Crowne Plaza.
Since then he has risen through the ranks of the industry and has been with the business since 2015.
Leonardo Hotels recently rebranded its Jurys Inn sites and now counts over 50 hotels among its portfolio.
In the North West, the group also runs a Leonardo Hotel in Keel Wharf, Liverpool.
All in all, the group has over 852 rooms in Manchester, a figure that Mr Carruthers is keen to add to.
"We would very clearly consider other opportunities in the city", he said. Because we know the city well, we can be very specific around exactly which locations would work for us. We would look at existing hotels and developments."
The group has recent form for expansion after acquiring the Dilly hotel in central London and The Grand Hotel in Brighton.
It has also acquired a site in Liverpool for the development of a NYX hotel close to Liverpool ONE.
"It's a hotel that I have a great affection for so when we had the opportunity to acquire it I was very keen to do so," Jason says of The Midland.
One of the group's jewels in the crown, The Midland is marking 120 years in 2023 and underwent a £14m renovation from 2020 through to the middle of 2021. But owning such a prized asset does not come without its challenges.
"It's a period property and it's nearly 120 years old so it constantly needs upkeep on things like the façade and the windows", Mr Carruthers said.
"We're always working through a planned maintenance programme for the hotel anyway.
"The fabric of the building, and maintaining that, is one of the major challenges that we face.
"It's a very important part of The Midland experience. It sits on its own block and it such a prominent place.
"Seeing the façade renovated and the lighting levels restored to how they should have been historically, as well as making the most of the heritage of the hotel, is a pleasure."
Like all businesses, Leonardo Hotels' portfolio was hit hard by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
But like so many other hotel chains, it has been able to weather the storm and get back to where it was in 2019.
"By April 2022 The Midland and the vast majority of our hotels were ahead of where they were in 2019 in terms of occupancy levels and revenue", Mr Carruthers said.
"Even during Omicron the new reservations that were being made on a daily basis were almost at the normal levels despite the fact that the hotels were on a restricted opening. That trend continued throughout the whole of the year.
"I was a little bit concerned that it could have been a summer phenomenon because we had people who maybe did not want to travel abroad and there were still some restrictions in some countries.
"But after September the core ramped up and meetings and events became a very important segment for us."
But getting back to where it was before the pandemic does not mean that the chain has not changed since the first UK lockdown in March 2020.
Mr Carruthers said the pandemic gave the company an opportunity to review its offer to guests and one change seems to have stuck for good.
He added: "It was a good period of time to review the offer. If there was a way to make things easier for the guests and ourselves and make things more efficient then we took the opportunity to go through the whole customer journey.
"One of the things we looked at the was pre-arrival check in. In some of our hotels, including in Manchester, we have self check in terminals in the lobby so guests don't have to go through the normal process at a desk.
"We took that one step further and now invite guests to check in before they get to the hotel so they just have to get a key issued when they arrive.
"We've found that between 30% to 40% of people have taken this option and done the same to check out.
Manchester in particular is seeing an influx of new hotels opening, with a strong pipeline stretching into the near future.
As well as mid-market hotels Leonardo has to contend with, The Midland also competes with the likes of the Kimpton Clocktower, Lowry and Radisson Edwardian, which is just down the road.
But Mr Carruthers isn't too concerned about the increased competition.
He said: "In most of the big cities there is a pipeline of new openings of hotels and Manchester is no different.
"First and foremost, we have very strong locations so if new hotels open on the edge of the city I think they would find it more difficult than the central hotels.
"The important thing is to make sure the customer experience is where it needs to be so you're always a the top of people's mind in any selection criteria.
"But generally we welcome competition because when there is increased competition it's usually for a reason.
"There's a huge amount of development in Manchester in terms of residential and commercial space and we have an exceptionally busy airport.
"There are some fundamentals within the city that give me confidence. Yes there is new supply coming into the city but I don't foresee that there will be a reduction in occupancy levels because there is enough development to support the demand."
Overall, the UK and Ireland boss is confident for the future of the hotel industry as it shakes the last of the pandemic off.
"I think we're in a good state. When I talk about us being back to 2019 levels, that year was actually a high point in the evolution of hotel performance", he said. To be back at that level is a significant achievement.
"There's optimism within our industry as there's a huge amount of hotel development in all of the key cities that we operate in which is because there's positivity around it as a segment.
"We've proven that as an industry we're very adaptable and we've ridden the storm very well."
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