About

Since 2007, we are delighted to represent some of the most notable hotels and villas around the world. By keeping our collection small and selective, we can afford to deliver strategic & customized actions resulting in brand awareness, sales growth and business development potential. We are the match makers between our hotels & villas and our travel partners, and we believe that luxury isn’t always based on money, but more about style & innovation, and most importantly about unforgettable service. We pride ourselves on intimate relationships based on years of trust and support from all of our travel partners and our role is to share them with you. As a trusted partner for our clients, we are very hands on and highly respected in the luxury leisure market across the USA and beyond. We help opening doors to the right movers and shakers.

jetsig
services
Martin Larsson
martin larsson
founder

Meet Martin

Hotel Labs started out in 2007 by Swedish born Martin Larsson, who before launching Hotel Labs held a position as Regional Director of Sales and Marketing for Thompson Hotels, one of the pioneer lifestyle hotel brands of its time. With more than 20 years of excellent track record in the US travel and entertainment industry, having worked for many icons such as Ian Schrager, The Rubell Family (Studio 54) and Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber, Martin catapulted his career with connections in the creative class industries, hence Hotel Labs was the natural choice to help launch LE Miami by bringing the most recognized US buyers to the show.

Constantly stretching the traditional boundaries and embracing new solutions, Hotel Labs has become a trusted unit at the top of the hospitality industry for many decision makers in the luxury market. Consequently,  Martin has had the opportunity to work side by side many trendsetters in our industry globally, providing sales and marketing representation and assigned special consulting projects such as openings, takeovers and more.

Meet Cynthia

Cynthia recently joined Hotel Labs and has been working in the hospitality business for 15+ years and always with a strong focus in Sales & Marketing for both lifestyle hotels and luxury brand across the USA, LATAM and the Caribbean. Martin and Cynthia go many years back and first met when they worked together at Thompson Hotels in New York in the early 2000’s. Cynthia later joined Andre Balazs’ and his team at The Standard Spa in Miami Beach and has since held several noteworthy positions including heading the Latin American pioneers of boutique hotels Grupo Habita and most recently Director of Sales for Sonesta Hotels and Resorts on Sint Maarten. Cynthia’s strong ability to lead and develop strategic sales initiatives is an asset to Hotel Labs and together she and Martin make the perfect duo.

Cynthia
cynthia cantello
sales & marketing

Sample Stories

The Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa Garden

Royal Crescent Hotel and Spa, Bath, UK

Our challenge was to reintroduce the hotel to the luxury leisure market in the US after an 11 million pound renovation back in 2013-2014 at which point this landmark hotel was perceived as a dated property not living up to its grand reputation. With lots of hard work and dedication from the team of the hotel, we quickly managed to re-establish both old and new partnerships for the hotel including Virtuoso, American Express FHR, Signature Travel Network, Traveller Made, Celebrated and more. Til the present time, we have year over year helped drive the volume of travelers from the US market making this great hotel one of the most sought after hotels in Great Britain once again with all its accolades for support.

Since – 2014

Nobu

Nobu Hotel Ryokan, Palo Alto, California

Having already helped launch Nobu Hotel Ibiza Bay, Nobu Hotel Marbella, and Nobu Hotel Shoreditch in the US market, we were asked to help with the reopening of Nobu Ryokan Palo Alto to establish the correct positioning with all the major leisure consortiums and focus on driving leisure business to this otherwise corporate destination in Silicon Valley, California, The opening, in the midst of the pandemic of 2020, was a huge challenge but we successfully were able to turn negatives into positives and today the hotel is already well positioned within all the major consortiums ranging from Virtuoso, American Express Hotel Collection, Signature Travel Network, and Traveller Made. Together with the hotel, we created a roadmap of experiences on how to best obtain the right leisure traveller matched with the hotel and we continue to see a steady climb of leisure travelers.

Since – 2020

Golden Rock Inn, Nevis

Golden Rock Inn,
Nevis

This 11 room little jewel on the island of Nevis, owned by two New York artists Helen and Brice Marden, is everything but a traditional hotel and we were brought onboard to help oversee all the sales and marketing initiatives for the property. From implementing its PMS and POS systems, to getting the hotel distributed across all booking channels to assist in creating its website, this has become a love project over the many years we have worked together. Today, Golden Rock Inn is the number one hotel on TripAdvisor on Nevis and is extremely popular with the who-is-who and those in-the-know.

Since – 2013

Experimental Group, Europe

Experimental Group, Europe

Our role has since the beginning been to introduce this young and vibrant small brand of European hotels in the US and create a buzz about each and one of their personalities both individually and collectively. By showcasing their commitment to exceptional food and beverage programming as well as their innovative approach to design, we quickly figured out the best audience for the group and we were able to match them with the right movers and shakers in the US travel industry. In some instances, e.g. to the lesser visited destinations from the US, we also understood that the process sometimes is two fold and we first need to sell the destination just as much as the hotel. We started out with the one flagship hotel in Paris, and today we are looking after all 7 hotels throughout Europe and it has been one of the most fun and rewarding projects.

Since – 2017