Founder, Owner, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at VERTU Hotels and Resorts, Gérald Lampaert carries an extensive background in various areas of the upscale & luxury service and hospitality industry. Half Belgian-half Swiss and born in 1970 in Brussels, Gérald started his life with an international mindset, first by learning multiple languages, then by living and working in several countries around the world.
Spending most of his professional career in hotels and in the meeting and event industry, he rapidly realised that the key factors for success in his day to day operations, is to be customer centric with an excellence in service, perfection in product craftsmanship and a particular attention to details.
His passion for luxury hospitality came about already during his early work experiences and this is mostly because this sector allows him to truly surprise people and make them leave with stars in their eyes.
He worked in different sectors of the hospitality industry, such as theme parks, conference centers, hotels and luxury hospitality.
However, the latter is the area in which he has truly been able to unleash his professionalism and creativity with the establishment of VERTU HOTELS AND RESORTS.
Gérald Lampaert thinks that this industry has evolved considerably over the past thirty years, bust most of all in the last five years. The pandemic had a major impact on hospitality, with the digitization of many tasks that are usually performed daily by people in the hotel industry. He believes that the old-school hotel industry is disappearing in favor of a modern, dynamic hotel industry that is designed for the new generation. Nevertheless, he thinks that there is still a a luxury hotel industry which requires a personalized experience, man-to-man, to keep the original hospitality DNA.
“Clearly, a brand that wants to succeed in the hotel industry, and especially in the luxury sector, needs to focus on the human touch, bringing that warmth that doesn’t exist in other areas of the hotel industry and that is important for a certain type of clientele” – continues Gérald. “In the luxury hotel industry, we must continue to have this human relationship that makes all the difference”.
The idea behind VERTU Hotels and Resorts was to create as human-scale hotel business, focused on boutique hotels, a market that is of less interests to the big brands, but which is very important today. VERTU’s main goal today is to offer a friendly in a cozy and comfortable venue.
A VERTU partner is a property that blends in the local landscape, that offers culinary experiences, using local products, that is also conscious of sustainability, implementing “green” initiatives, a hotel where human relationships are very important. Also, a VERTU venue is a unique product, not one that can be found elsewhere, with a certain personality and that takes an interest in the local heritage.
VERTU’s future is obviously to grow, to increase its network of affiliated and managed hotels. Internationally, the team has already set their sights on North America and Middle East. Today VERTU Hotels and Resorts has forty-one venues, managed and affiliated, but there is a management perspective on four promising groups that could even carry the VERTU’s logo on their flag.
Watch the entire video interview.
