Alain Grangé is widely recognized by the international hospitality & Residential Real Estate industries as a foremost authority in the development of major luxury hotels and resorts. Credited with applying major innovations within traditional brands by introducing, structuring, developing and marketing shared ownership/membership and branded residences concepts, alternative hospitality models and assets maximization.
Over forty years, the Grangé Group has earned its place at the apex of the international hospitality industry with a celebrated history of accomplishments spanning over multiple successful hotels, resorts and real estate developments in over fifty countries and five continents. Generating several billion dollars in revenues and record profits for its investors, partners and affiliates, the Grangé Group have a proud heritage of success in the luxury and other arenas, with a diverse portfolio of engagements from the conventional to the alternative and the specialized.
This has allowed the Grangé Group to forge precious alliances and partnerships with a great many of the industry’s most established companies and the world’s most famous brands, while also building precious friendships and powerful relationships with the entrepreneurs and executives driving their respective companies to this day.
Proud to have been successfully engaged in a broad array of conventional hospitality ventures, the Grangé Group have also applied a considerable pioneering factor to the evolving industry and have shaped the innovation being applied within the branded residences, destination clubs, vacation clubs and other alternative real estate or hospitality models created over the years and adopted by the big brands.
Born in France with an inherent passion for hospitality, Alain believed that understanding the fundamental characteristics of the industry required more than academia could offer, and while attending the French Hotel School System and studying finance and accounting at Paris’s CNAM, he began his career at its absolute foundation.
As a bus boy, waiter, etc., at the uber luxurious Plaza Athénée in Paris, Alain stepped onto the first rung of the industry within the hallowed halls of a storied place at a legendary time, and in the 70’s served the demanding countries leaders, shipowners, financiers, industrialists, the glitterati and the jet-set of a golden age.
As he aspired to climb each rung with a resolute determination to learn every nuance and understand each facet of a complex business, Alain applied his core principles in the belief excellence was the only way, irrespective of the task at hand.
While his education took him through the Splendido, George V, Savoy, Carlton, Excelsior, Imperial and many other fabled names of the golden era of luxury hotels, he eventually reached an executive level back at the Plaza Athénée, with an encyclopedic understanding of the customer and an intimate knowledge of the industry.
His executive engagements allowed him to perform at a senior level with Intercontinental Hotel Group, Grand Metropolitan, Steingenberger, Trust House and Forte , Holiday Inn amongst others, but his talent and entrepreneurial flair was eventually recognized by some of the largest corporations in the USA.
He served as President & CEO of U.S. listed companies such as Cendant Int’l RG, RCI Int’l, Starwood VO Int’l and Managing Director of Geller & Co. His entrepreneurial spirit allowed him to create and lead Luxury Leisure Properties International in partnership with with Strategic Hotels & Resorts , the owner of Four Seasons, Ritz Carlton, Fairmont and Intercontinental , Marriott Hotels in over twenty locations and engaged numerous new ventures within the industry.
Alain remains one of the top experts in the industry dealing with shared ownership, members clubs , branded residences, residential country clubs communities and other hybrid real estate based hotel, residential products, and founded, developed, marketed and sold several branded residences developments with Four Seasons, Ritz Carlton, Banyan Tree, Fairmont, Rosewood and other conventional brands to incorporate thisnew form of product into their traditional models of hotel operations and management.
Alain was a founder of Vistana International which together with Vistana inc, was listed on NYSE and eventually bought by Starwood and while with Geller & Co, was part of the initial founders team creating Strategic Hotels (NYSE) which would eventually be bought by Blackstone. He has enjoyed and continues to employ his talents within a diverse and expansive array of projects within the hospitality and real estate industry but also beyond.
As the world evolves and the landscape of the industry shifts with changing economic circumstances, consumer requirements adapt to more demanding standards or the sustainability zeitgeist of our time, the Grangé Group has adapted to allow the next generation steered by Alain-Alexandre Grangé to forge a modern direction by harnessing Alain’s precious historical experience and applying it into a new avenue of possibilities.
