Mandarin Oriental’s Alex Schellenberger on luxury growth without compromise

As luxury hospitality faces unprecedented brand proliferation and intensifying competition, one message emerges with striking clarity from leading travel and hospitality management consultancy PACE Dimensions’ conversation with Alex Schellenberger, Chief Brand and Marketing Officer for Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group: the brands that will thrive aren’t those creating the most properties—they’re those embedding distinctive experiences from the earliest stages of development.

One thing becomes immediately apparent within minutes of speaking with Alex Schellenberger: his perspective on brand differentiation challenges conventional hospitality wisdom at its core. The seasoned marketing executive brings rare insight to his role at Mandarin Oriental, having spent twenty years building brands across consumer goods, retail, and hospitality—and he’s adamant that luxury hotel companies must fundamentally rethink how they approach growth.

Schellenberger’s career path reveals the breadth of experience he brings to hospitality. Starting with Procter & Gamble in 2005, he spent twelve years in various marketing, sales, and commercial roles across Europe and Asia, learning the fundamentals of contemporary brand management. A four-year stint at Swarovski provided deep retail experience in London and Zurich, teaching him how physical environments create distinctive brand experiences.

His entry into hospitality came through Accor, where he served as Global Chief Marketing Officer for a portfolio spanning 46 brands. “I could really combine, I think, on one hand this contemporary brand management that you learn in companies like Procter and Gamble, and this idea of experiences, and dedicated, really, customer focus in retail,” Schellenberger reflects. “So it was a really nice coming together of different dots across the past.”

A year ago, that convergence of skills brought him to Mandarin Oriental at what he describes as a critical juncture in the brand’s evolution. The luxury hotel group, with dual Asian roots in Hong Kong (1963) and Bangkok (1876), currently operates 43 hotels whilst harbouring ambitions to more than double its portfolio over the next eight to ten years.

“We have already more than 30 hotels signed with heads of terms, and another, equally, astounding number in the pipeline,” Schellenberger reveals. “So the likelihood of success is very high, I would say, over the next couple of years.”

The brand-led growth imperative

This accelerated expansion creates a fundamental challenge that most luxury hotel companies struggle to navigate: maintaining brand integrity and legendary service whilst making the brand accessible to more guests globally. Schellenberger’s solution challenges industry norms about when and how brands should influence property development.

“We’re rolling out into more key destinations. And what is also key—once we’re doing that, we’re doing it through a brand lens,” he explains. “We’re really going very deep when it comes to brand understanding and infusing brands at the very beginning of the journey when we sign hotels, as early as LOI stages.”

This represents a significant departure from conventional practice. “In a lot of cases in hospitality, the brand infusion is one of the last steps, like one or two years before opening, when a lot of the critical decisions have already been made,” Schellenberger observes. “And we want to change the paradigm a little bit, and do that very early on in the process, so that the product that ends up being opened is actually one that the brand ultimately can be proud of.”

The approach demands that brands influence space allocation, design decisions, and operational planning from the earliest stages—ensuring that properties become authentically Mandarin Oriental rather than generic luxury boxes with logos added as finishing touches.

“We want to make sure that brand has a say when space allocation is done, for example,” Schellenberger emphasises. This early involvement means some projects may never reach completion, and development work could be wasted. “But I think you have to accept that, almost in service of the greater good, because what it will ultimately also mean is that you will build a better product. You’ll build a better experience.”

Global awareness with focused footprint

Despite operating just 43 properties—modest compared to major competitors—Mandarin Oriental has achieved remarkable brand recognition. Recent brand studies reveal 93% global awareness amongst ultra-high net worth individuals, positioning the brand as number one ahead of many competitors with substantially larger portfolios.

“The brand, despite its actually relatively small footprint, probably has by now what we know, in the ultra-high net worth target group, around 93% global awareness, so incredibly high,” Schellenberger notes. “That, of course, helps to develop the brand. Because having high awareness also means that you could get customers through conversion at a higher rate.”

This awareness stems partly from Mandarin Oriental’s Asian heritage. The founding hotels in Hong Kong and Bangkok remain institutions in their markets, their reputation preceding the brand globally. “Those two founding hotels are really institutions in their specific definition, and that reputation precedes you in a way,” Schellenberger observes.

The brand’s key source markets reflect this global reach: the United States leads, followed by Greater China, major European markets (UK, Germany, France, Italy), and the Middle East. Schellenberger expects this pattern to continue despite current geopolitical disruptions and tariff uncertainties.

“I would continue to think that the US will remain the number one global source market for us, especially into our hotels in Europe and Southeast Asia,” he predicts. The brand is simultaneously doubling down on its European stronghold—currently 17-18 hotels across EMEA—whilst developing further in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

The future portfolio will rebalance urban versus resort properties. “We currently have, I would say around 60% urban, 40% resorts,” Schellenberger explains. “We’re balancing that in our future pipeline a little bit more, so going more into resort, slower, lower key count, stronger focus on experiences, wellness.”

The experience-first development philosophy

Schellenberger’s critique of industry development practices reveals fundamental tensions between customer demand and commercial imperatives driving brand proliferation. He identifies mid-scale and premium sectors as particularly susceptible to brand creation driven by development opportunities rather than genuine market need.

“Specifically, also in the premium and mid-scale sector, there is a lot of hotel brands that are being created, not necessarily because of customer demand, but because of development demand,” he observes. Major hotel groups identify ADR gaps in markets and create brands to capture those price points, securing investor interest regardless of customer preference.

“They see an ADR gap in the market. And that gives them almost a development permission, in a way, because for sure, they will find somebody to invest into a specific opportunity to capture a part of that market,” Schellenberger explains. “And so they go ahead and develop a brand that fits that specific bracket of price.”

Mandarin Oriental pursues the inverse approach: building experiences first, with ADR emerging as an outcome rather than a starting point. “We try to build an experience first, and a product in a luxury sector that reflects, of course, our positioning, and the service that you can expect,” Schellenberger describes. “And the ADR is an outcome of the experience and the product and the service that you get. And that’s maybe, I mean, at least from our point of view, a better and more sustainable way to think about it.”

This philosophy extends to the critical question of brand differentiation in an increasingly crowded marketplace. When hotels become interchangeable—guests unable to distinguish one brand from another—the solution lies not in superficial branding but in fundamental experience design.

“More often than not, what happens is it’s almost one or two years before the opening of one of those brands, they decide what logo goes on top, and that’s where the experience becomes interchangeable,” Schellenberger observes. “The brands that will continue to flourish, especially in this high-end luxury segment that we’re competing in, is starting to think with the brand and the customer and the experience in mind as soon as you have signed an LOI.”

The test of success becomes straightforward: “Every new opening, this could and should have only been a Mandarin Oriental, then we have done a good job.”

Navigating conversions versus new builds

Mandarin Oriental pursues both new development and strategic conversions, each requiring different approaches to brand infusion. The pipeline’s 30-plus signed hotels represent new builds in key destinations—opportunities to embed brand DNA from conception.

Conversions present different challenges, recently demonstrated by the Hotel Lutetia rebranding in Paris. The iconic property, celebrating 115 years in December, required careful integration of Mandarin Oriental touches whilst respecting its heritage.

“What we’re trying to do now is infusing those little touches that Mandarin Oriental, in terms of legendary service, for example, can bring to the table to build a consistent guest experience that is on par with the rest of the Mandarin Oriental properties around the world,” Schellenberger explains. “So that people, when they enter the hotel, yes, they know they are in the iconic Lutetia in Paris, the only Palace on the left bank, but they also know that they have come home to one of the Mandarin Oriental hotels around the world.”

This balance—maintaining local identity whilst ensuring brand consistency—reflects broader tensions luxury operators must navigate as they expand globally.

Consumer trends reshaping luxury hospitality

Schellenberger identifies several profound shifts in how guests engage with luxury hospitality, each carrying significant implications for product development and service delivery.

Multi-generational travel has become increasingly prevalent, with families spanning three generations travelling together. “People travelling with their children, with their parents, which means, in terms of product and guest experience, more interconnected rooms, more suite stays, longer stays, potentially,” Schellenberger notes.

The bleisure trend—blending business and leisure—continues evolving. “People mix leisure and their business meetings overall, staying, maybe potentially, for the weekend, staying a little bit longer, taking their family along,” he observes. This requires rethinking how properties accommodate extended stays combining work and relaxation.

Wellness evolution represents perhaps the most significant shift. Post-pandemic wellness focus has morphed into comprehensive well-being encompassing entire guest journeys rather than being confined to spa facilities.

“Wellness is no longer confined to the wellness area, in a way. It’s more of a general, I would say, lifestyle change, and to the extent almost that now even business travellers, when they go on business travel, they almost want to come back more refreshed, rather than being more drained,” Schellenberger explains.

This challenges luxury operators to create wellness experiences throughout properties. “How do you create food experiences that are really geared towards better and healthier lifestyle choices, for example,” he asks. “These are all things that we’re seeing and that we’re talking about.”

Mood boarding—the trend of guests seeking specific emotional experiences rather than specific destinations—fascinates Schellenberger from a marketing perspective. “There is a growing trend that people want to feel a certain way when they go somewhere, and that becomes much more important than the destination itself,” he observes.

This could fundamentally transform how luxury brands present themselves digitally. “All of a sudden, I think it opens up much more interesting ways to even design your website in a way which, at this point in time, is very transactional, right?” Schellenberger notes. “You come onto a landing page, and it’s almost like, where do you want to stay, where do you want to book and show me your dates and your destination.”

Alternative approaches might ask: “How do you actually want to feel, or what view do you want to wake up to in the morning? Is it seaside? Is it nature? Is it city skyscrapers?” This reframes the entire booking journey around emotional outcomes rather than logistical parameters.

Cultural nuances in luxury consumption

Regional differences in how consumers value luxury experiences demand sophisticated marketing approaches. Schellenberger identifies meaningful distinctions between American and Eastern consumers.

“There are, interestingly, some differences when it comes to, for example, what American consumers will ultimately be convinced by—usually a little bit more by the hardware,” he explains. Eastern consumers demonstrate different priorities. “If you maybe go more into the eastern part of the world, it’s probably a little bit more service-oriented,” Schellenberger observes. “So there are also different ways in terms of how you want to, or how you have to show up as a brand and the content that you want to show to these audiences, because there are slight cultural differences in the way that people value their experience.”

Both approaches are valid, but recognising these distinctions enables more effective brand communication and content strategy.

Sustainability: Doing the right thing versus commercial imperative

The role of sustainability in luxury hospitality reveals interesting tensions between corporate responsibility and commercial motivations. Schellenberger positions Mandarin Oriental as a sustainability leader whilst acknowledging market realities.

“I’m proud to say that Mandarin Oriental has always been, for the last even 10 years, at the forefront of embedding sustainability into their practices,” he notes. The brand eliminated single-use plastics along guest journeys and established targets for 2030 and 2050 to reduce CO2 emissions, reviewing progress quarterly with the CEO.

However, these commitments stem from corporate values rather than consumer demand. “That’s more about, I think, doing the right thing as a brand and as a corporation overall,” Schellenberger explains. “It’s not that anybody has asked us to do that. We are doing it because we believe it’s the right thing to do.”

Current evidence suggests sustainability hasn’t become a decisive booking criterion for luxury consumers. “At this point in time, we don’t see it necessarily as being one of the decisive criteria for consumers yet,” Schellenberger acknowledges. “It might change in the future, right? As you said, there is a changing of the guard. And eventually, the younger generations, I think, are more astute and are more attuned to that.”

The imperative comes from different sources. Corporate RFPs increasingly incorporate sustainability criteria, with companies like Siemens requiring rigorous environmental performance measures. More significantly, investors and lenders now evaluate sustainability practices as part of financing decisions.

“Especially as we’re in this asset-light model, for investors in order to get financing, banks might look at your sustainability practices as part of the overall lending process,” Schellenberger notes.

Mandarin Oriental maintains Green Key certification across most properties, sources amenities from sustainable vendors, and implements rigorous processes throughout supply chains. “Throughout the entire guest journey, all of the items that you find in the hotel at this point in time are being sourced from vendors that comply with sustainability criteria,” Schellenberger explains, citing slippers as a challenging example requiring alternatives to plastic whilst maintaining quality standards.

Beyond points: Recognition versus traditional loyalty

Mandarin Oriental’s approach to guest loyalty challenges industry orthodoxy around points-based programmes. Schellenberger questions whether frequency-based incentives genuinely create brand affinity—particularly in luxury segments.

“We don’t really use points as a system,” he states. “There is, and we don’t call it loyalty, there’s a guest recognition programme.” This semantic distinction reflects philosophical differences in approach.

The brand is refreshing its Fans of MO guest recognition programme, launching the first Mandarin Oriental app in late April. “Why is it not a loyalty programme? Because you don’t collect points and then redeem them for a hotel stay or anything else,” Schellenberger explains. “And secondly, I think you’re right. I mean, that’s not how loyalty is generally created.”

He acknowledges the commercial logic behind points programmes for larger groups. “For the big guys that we know who they are, it becomes their commercial and distribution engine, which helps them to onboard new brands into the system relatively quickly, and bring customers to those properties around the world,” Schellenberger observes. “So I understand the mechanism in a way, because it helps them, and it’s a very convincing argument.”

Mandarin Oriental pursues different priorities: “Money can’t buy experiences—access to things that you will probably not get access to unless you are part of our Fans of MO guest recognition programme, and you have reached a certain tier,” Schellenberger describes. These exclusive benefits and unique access create differentiation that simple point accumulation cannot replicate.

The personalisation infrastructure

The new app and Fans of MO refresh serve broader strategic objectives around communication and personalisation. “It actually is a tool for communication, pre, post, during their stays, throughout the stays, until your next stay,” Schellenberger explains.

More significantly, the technology consolidates customer data across all properties. “We’ve consolidated all of our customer data in the background, which means now Tim Davis has one customer profile, one guest profile across all Mandarin Oriental properties around the world,” Schellenberger describes.

This unified profile enables genuine personalisation. “When you arrive after a 13-hour flight from London here in Hong Kong, and you have stayed with us before, we will know what to put into your room upon arrival,” he explains. “Be it a bottle of champagne, or be it something more invigorating, because you have told us before based on your preferences, this is what you like.”

The experience extends throughout stays. “You will then find little surprises that are based on your personalised, individual preferences,” Schellenberger notes. “Everybody, ultimately, I think, just wants to be seen for who they truly are. And it goes such a long way when you walk through a hotel and people address you by your name and know exactly what you have been up to during the entire day.”

Marketing evolution: AI as productivity enabler

Schellenberger’s perspective on marketing’s evolution emphasises AI’s role as productivity tool rather than creative replacement. After twenty years in marketing, he sees fundamental principles remaining constant whilst execution mechanisms transform dramatically.

“The fundamentals are still in place in a way. But of course, the means and the how has significantly changed, and it will continue to change, because also the pace of change is accelerating,” he observes.

AI’s immediate impact centres on operational efficiency. “What it will come down to is AI will be, is already a huge enabler, will become an even bigger enabler in terms of productivity,” Schellenberger predicts. “Things like media plans, for example, targeting anything in terms of performance marketing, in a way, can be automated.”

Creative execution for performance marketing particularly benefits. “Creatives can be built for performance marketing by AI, probably much better than humans will be able to do it,” he suggests. “The creativity will need to continue to come from us, luckily, in a way, I would argue.”

His philosophy emphasises AI handling tasks machines perform better whilst humans focus on inherently human capabilities. “Anything that can be done by a machine ultimately will probably be done better by a machine through AI learning over the next five years,” Schellenberger states. “The machines will probably do a much better job at targeting going forward.”

AI targeting will become increasingly sophisticated. “They will be targeting with specific KPIs in mind, so it won’t be random at all. It will be and they will continue to learn. It will be very much focused and very much laser-targeted, bringing you the best ROI or ROAS,” he explains.

This productivity enhancement liberates marketers for higher-value work. “That also means we as marketers can really focus, continue to focus on our core job, which is to drive creativity number one and number two, to continue to create more value for the brand and ultimately for customers,” Schellenberger notes.

Implementation challenges and considerations

Despite enthusiasm about AI’s potential, Schellenberger acknowledges substantial barriers to effective implementation. “We’re ready to embrace it. But there are security concerns,” he states. “How much data do you want to put in? How much of that is confidential, how much of that will ultimately also go and feed into the big machine, and then is also available to others.”

Data security, privacy, and confidentiality concerns require careful navigation. Beyond security, organisations face overwhelming choice in AI tools and platforms.

“There’s just a vast amount of supply at this point in time to weed out which exactly for your specific purposes, is the best tool to use,” Schellenberger observes. “What you probably don’t want is that everybody in your company, which probably to an extent is happening, is using something else and you get a mishmash of everything.”

Effective AI adoption requires clear strategy and governance. “Having a stance and having a point of view and giving out clear guidelines and communicating transparently about it, and acknowledging that it’s a reality is probably key,” he advises. “The ones that are able to figure this out rather quickly, will also be benefiting much more quickly from the productivity gains.”

Strategic priorities: Fresh identity for future growth

Schellenberger’s immediate priorities centre on preparing Mandarin Oriental for accelerated expansion whilst maintaining brand integrity. The past year focused on defining the brand’s vision and mission, cascading this understanding to 15,000 colleagues globally.

“We’re now ready to tell the world,” he announces. The brand is rolling out a new visual identity and evolved brand expression—fresh logo, new primary colours, the Fans of MO refresh, and the inaugural app launch.

“The brand is appearing in a slightly, I would say, modernised and contemporary way, building on very good foundations, which is great, and now we’re preparing for the future,” Schellenberger explains.

The refresh balances global consistency with local relevance—essential for authentic expansion. “The way we’ve designed this brand refresh is that there’s some consistency globally, but there’s a relatively large amount that leaves freedom for the individual hotels to connect to local culture,” he describes.

This approach manifests in bespoke design elements. “One of the beautiful things that this brand exemplifies is every hotel has a unique and bespoke fan, which, on the other hand, also infiltrates into the corporate identity of each and every hotel,” Schellenberger notes.

The overarching ambition remains clear: “Continue to support this accelerated brand mission. And as I said before, it’s to embed the brand-led, guest-centric thinking from the very start,” he emphasises. “That’s ultimately what I think will make the difference for us, and which will also help to roll out and achieve our ambition by more than doubling the portfolio in a consistent yet locally relevant manner, so that more people around the world can hopefully stay with this beautiful brand and experience this incredible service.”

Life in Hong Kong: East meets West

Beyond professional responsibilities, Schellenberger’s personal experience reflects the unique character of Mandarin Oriental’s headquarters location. Having moved from Paris with his family—children aged six and three—he describes Hong Kong as offering extraordinary juxtapositions.

“We live on Hong Kong Island, but not on the part where the city is, but you go above the peak and then basically down, and you have a really nice couple of stretches of beach,” he explains. “So we live close to the beach. It’s only 15 minutes from downtown.”

This proximity creates remarkable contrasts. “You have this incredible juxtaposition, almost, of being in one of the busiest, most populated places on this earth, and then you drive 15 minutes and you’re on one of the most pristine beaches in this area,” Schellenberger notes.

Hong Kong’s natural environment surprises many. “What many people don’t know is that you have almost 200 little islands in front of Hong Kong. So you have an incredible combination of nature. 70% of Hong Kong is actually preserved nature and this incredibly cool city.”

The cultural blend particularly fascinates him. “Which still to me, is an incredible combination of East and West. Of course, due to British colonialism for 140 years,” he observes—a heritage that informs both the city’s character and Mandarin Oriental’s own cultural positioning.

Looking ahead: The brand differentiation imperative

As our conversation draws to a close, Schellenberger’s conviction about brand-led development emerges as the defining theme. For luxury hospitality facing unprecedented competition and brand proliferation, the solution lies not in creating more properties but in creating more distinctive experiences.

His critique of industry practices—where brands get added as afterthoughts to largely predetermined developments—challenges conventional wisdom about hotel development efficiency. The alternative he advocates demands greater upfront investment, longer development timelines, and acceptance that some projects may never reach completion.

Yet this approach represents the only sustainable path for luxury brands seeking genuine differentiation. In markets where guests genuinely cannot distinguish one property from another, where brand names become interchangeable labels on similar products, competitive advantage requires authentic experience design embedded from conception.

Mandarin Oriental’s ambition to more than double its portfolio whilst maintaining legendary service and brand integrity provides a test case for whether luxury brands can achieve scale without sacrificing distinctiveness. The early involvement of brand teams in space allocation, design decisions, and operational planning represents structural innovation in hotel development.

Whether this approach succeeds will determine not just Mandarin Oriental’s competitive position but potentially influence how luxury hospitality thinks about growth fundamentally. If brand-led development from LOI stage proves commercially viable whilst delivering superior guest experiences, other luxury operators may need to adopt similar practices to remain competitive.

For an industry that has long treated brand application as a final development stage—logos and soft goods added after fundamental decisions were made—Schellenberger’s vision represents genuine paradigm shift. His insistence that every new opening “could and should have only been a Mandarin Oriental” sets a standard that few luxury brands currently achieve.

Having spent time with Schellenberger, several insights resonate with particular clarity: luxury differentiation in an increasingly crowded market requires brands to influence development from the earliest stages, that distinctive experiences emerge from brand integration throughout the development process rather than superficial branding exercises, and that maintaining integrity during accelerated growth demands systematic approaches to brand infusion that most hospitality companies haven’t developed.

Those who embrace the transformation he describes—embedding brand DNA from LOI stages, building experiences first with pricing as outcome, creating recognition rather than points-based loyalty, leveraging AI for productivity whilst preserving human creativity—will find themselves well-positioned for luxury hospitality’s future.

The question isn’t whether luxury brands need to differentiate more effectively in crowded markets—that imperative is clear. The question is whether they possess the discipline and patience to influence development from the earliest stages, accept that some projects won’t proceed, and resist the temptation to simply add logos to generic luxury products.

Schellenberger’s year at Mandarin Oriental has positioned the brand for an ambitious expansion that will test whether luxury hospitality can achieve scale without sacrificing the distinctive experiences that justify premium pricing. If successful, Mandarin Oriental’s approach may prove that the path to sustainable luxury growth runs not through brand proliferation but through rigorous brand integration from the earliest development stages.

PACE Dimensions is expert in opportunity identification and prioritisation, business architecture and design, operating model design, transformation delivery, and change management. Find out more about how PACE Dimensions can help your business excel at www.pacedimensions.com