Mark Bego - Living the Luxe Life: The Secrets of Building a Successful Hotel Empire

Copyright 2019 by Efrem Harkham and Mark Bego

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Paul Qualcom

Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-4086-0

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-4087-7

Printed in the United States of America.

This book is dedicated to my children, Aron, Benjamin, and Natalie, who are the lights of my life and the inspiration for all I do. To my father, the teacher, who drives my thirst to keep learning and to continue bringing educational opportunities to those in need. I also dedicate this book to my Mum, who gave me a sense of self and a desire to welcome others into my tent.

I want to thank so many people who helped me along the way, starting with my brother, Terry, for having absolute faith in my capabilities and confidence. He truly put the wind in my sails. Thank you to my other dear siblings: Sue, David, Ben, Uri, Rebecca, and Sophie and all my incredible, loving nieces and nephews with whom I have lifelong connections. To my father, Aba Nagi, who has been the greatest influence in my life, I thank you for everything. Thank you to my children, Aron, Ben, and Natalie: you inspire me the most, every day.

I also owe so much to Joan Giles, the buyer at Rockmans department stores. She propelled us to stardom. The power of one individual can make all the difference in the world. Thanks to Joan, I learned the importance of having persistence and dreaming big.

My appreciation extends to Barbara Shore, event manager extraordinaire, whom I met at one of her first events at one of my hotels thirty years ago. She encouraged me to write this book and introduced me to bestselling author Mark Bego.

I would like to thank Joy Berry, our COO, who has inspired and supported me to maintain the highest level of excellence in hospitality. Thanks to William Cygnor for navigating the numbers as our CFO, Kerry Cooper, our Director of Operations, and Bianca Barga, our VP of Membership, Performance and Distribution. To my super sales team that includes Michelle Freedman, VP of Global Sales, Lucy Alvarez, Evan Anderson, Lmi Unson, and Miranda LeeI appreciate all your efforts and hard work. Thank you to Adrienne Crag-Aziz, Aaron Peaslee, Chef Olivier Rouselle, Judith Feldman, Hudith Castro, Alberto Mendez, Lulu Juarez, and Bobby Kuhns for their dedication to the Luxe Rodeo Drive and Sunset Boulevard hotels. To the Luxe Hotels and Luxe Collection international team members, Melissa Brown in New York, Lisa Iaquez in Florida, Fiona Rose in Australia, Nicoletta Pillardi in London, Gonzalo Ocejo and Patricia Rubiano in Madrid, Adeline Surault in Italy, Sylvia Fletcher in Frankfurt, Mauricio Menendez in South America, and Garrick Yang in Shanghai, you are the incredible colleagues who continue to forge ahead and create a revolution in the hospitality industry. I thank my entire team for their dedication and continued loyalty throughout all these years. I also want to acknowledge all the former employees who, over the years, have added to the layers of our success with their expertise.

Thank you to Joel Fishman, Neil Schwartz, and Shel Brucker, my business mentor and personal friends, respectively. To the late Paul Pollack, who is survived by his daughter, Eileen, and her husband, Charlie Weber, I appreciate their patience and support in numerous Los Angeles City Council hearings. The Pollack home is adjacent to my hotel property in Bel Air, and he and his family gave the term love thy neighbor a totally new meaning for me. My gratitude goes out to Dr. Wesley and Pat Moore for their support as our Sunset Hotel next-door neighbors.

I would like to acknowledge my friends and family for their continued love and support: Joanne Novell, John Aguilar, Riny Punderika, Kami Soltani, Angie and Moise Hendeles, Laibl Wolf, Philip Diskin, David and Louise Elias, Moshe Benzaquen, Paul Mir, Kam and Lily Babaoff, Sheri Rashidi, Fred and Dina Leeds, Vera and Brian Liebenthal, Marty Cooper, David Weiss, Eric Abelev, Jonathan Tessler, Rich Reinis, Rick Richman, Jackie Harell, Vince Calcagno, Tony Gronroos, Agustin Garza, Neel Muller, Karen Fisher, and Jac and Carol Stulberg. I also would like to thank everyone at Harkham-GAON AcademyDr. Debora Parks, Yosef Miller, and the rest of the dedicated and talented administration shaping the next generations of our leaders.

A special thank you to my very good friend Todd Black, who is blessed with the gift of empathy and really helped me become aware of my context, for which I will always be grateful. Jordana Miller, thank you for your continued friendship and help with this book. I appreciate my nephew, Richie Harkham, for partnering with me at Harkham Wines and the Hark Angel Foundation, where we have built schools in impoverished countries serving over 1,500 children. Thank you to Yigal Kutai for your friendship and wisdom. I am very grateful to Deborah Roberts for her patience, care, and support through this incredible process.

To Mark Bego, who has been on this extraordinary journey with me in helping me put my story together, and David Marken in leading the way to get this book picked up, I thank you for your dedicated efforts and unrelenting guidance. I am forever indebted to Jay Cassell at Skyhorse for believing in the story and encouraging me to shape it. Sarah Clark, thank you so much for all your detailed work on the manuscript and all your assistance in making this book happen. I am proud to say that all of my proceeds from the sale of this book will go to the Hark Angel Foundation.

Y ou are probably wondering why a best-selling rock n roll author such as myself is writing a book about a successful businessman in the hotel world. Well, the answer is quite simply because Efrem Harkham is truly a rock star among international hoteliers!

Although Efrem Harkhams name might not be instantly recognizable to you, he owns Luxe Hotels, a brand consisting of luxurious world class hotels in Los Angeles and beyond. The brands collection includes the Luxe Sunset Boulevard Hotel in Brentwood, the Luxe Rodeo Drive Hotel in Beverly Hills, the Luxe City Center Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, and the Luxe Rose Garden Hotel in Rome, Italy. He also launched another group of affiliated luxury hotels known as the Luxe Collectiona boutique hotel sales and marketing company representing a collection of over seventy prestigious hotels located around the world.