Asia’s ultra-luxury Capella Hotels brand plans to double its portfolio by 2030, starting with Florence and Riyadh

Capella Hotel Group, the ultra-luxury hotel group that once played host to the leaders of two nuclear powers, is pursuing more aggressive growth with plans to double its portfolio by 2030 with new ventures in Europe and the Middle East. “Capella is at an inflection point,” Roland Fasel, the firm’s new CEO, tells Fortune. “We’ve gained recognition in the last few years and that gives us the confidence to go forward.” The group’s first European hotel, based in a 12th-century compound near Florence’s Duomo cathedral, will open in late 2027. Capella will also debut in the Middle East that same year with a property in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; there are at least ten other hotels in its pipeline. Capella currently has a dozen properties: Ten luxury hotels, the most recent of which opened in Kyoto in March, and two properties under its more accessible Patina brand. “We are growing, but we’re not just putting flags in destinations. It’s a thoughtful, focused growth model,” he explains. When asked how Capella chooses locations for its hotels, Fasel says the company focuses on “gateway cities,” or entry points for hospitality companies looking to break into a new region. He cites Shanghai in China, Los Angeles and New York in the U.S., and Paris and London in Europe as examples. “Brand equity is created in gateway cities,” he explains. “And within those gateway cities, you still need to find the right neighborhood and depth of market in order to tell a story.” A family-owned brand Capella is best known as an ultra-luxury hospitality brand, playing host to events like the first meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in 2018, held at the Capella Singapore. Ritz-Carlton co-founder Horst Schulze founded Capella in the early 2000s; Schulze later sold the company in 2017 to Singapore’s Kwee family, whose Pontiac Land Group controls some of the country’s most prestigious real estate assets. North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un (R) walks w