Four Seasons Hotels still looking for a CEO

It isn’t clear why the preferred CEO candidate didn’t work out, and people close to the company disagree about whether the board pulled back at the end or the leading candidate dropped out.

But the nearly yearlong search by Four Seasons for its leader is considered long, said Keith Kefgen, CEO of Aethos Consulting Group, which specialises in hospitality executive searches. The typical search for a hotel chief executive lasts about six months, he said.

The board has reassured business partners that it is extending the search to ensure it picks the best candidate, said a person familiar with the search process. “Our board of directors has been making excellent progress in its thorough and diligent search for the best person to lead Four Seasons as CEO through the next phase of its growth,” a Four Seasons spokeswoman said.

Succession at Four Seasons comes at a critical time for the company. It has been a dominant force in the luxury hotel market for decades, sometimes charging thousands of dollars a night for a suite, with a dedicated following among the global elite who relish its high thread-count sheets and abundance of fresh flowers.

But in recent years, it has had to fend off new rivals, a number of which are backed by deep-pocketed tycoons or multinational companies. Rosewood Hotels & Resorts LLC, for example, was acquired by Hong Kong-based conglomerate New World Group and has expanded its luxury brand to places like Paris, London and the Bahamas. Hilton Hotels & Resorts has been growing its upper-end Waldorf Astoria brand.

“LVMH’s acquisition of Belmond is a sign that luxury brands are looking to expand beyond their traditional reach,” said Jack Ezon, founder of Embark, a high-end travel agency in New York City. That means, he added, “that today’s travelers have so many more options” than when Four Seasons dominated the luxury hospitality market.

European luxury fashion brands like Versace, Salvatore Ferragamo and Giorgio Armani have also entered the hospitality industry in past years.

Four Seasons is majority-owned by a partnership of Bill Gates’s private investment firm, Cascade Investment LLC, and Kingdom Holding Co., the investment firm controlledPrince al-Waleed.

The partnership took the hotel operator private in 2007 for $3.8 billion, near the peak of the real estate boom. The price, 47 times one measure of earnings, was considered steep by many in the industry, even for such a blue-chip name. The owners have tried to expand widely in an effort to make a good return on its investment.

The board hired Mr. Smith, a veteran real-estate investor, to run the company and grow the number of hotels managed by Four Seasons. The company now has 112 properties, up from 92 properties when Mr. Smith started in 2013, according to a spokeswoman. Another 50 hotels, resorts, and residences are “at various stages of planning and development,” the spokeswoman said.

John Davison, the Four Seasons’s chief financial officer, “has assumed the responsibilities of CEO on an interim basis, in addition to serving in his current role as CFO,” said the company spokeswoman.

Four Seasons Hotel George V, Paris