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Bill Heinecke reflects on his transition from racing to building a successful global hotel empire and shares insights about the Anantara Concorso Roma automotive event.
‘I was the youngest driver to compete at Macau, in 1968. I raced Porsche 906, races but after that you have to go up to the professionals. And I certainly knew that that wasn't going to be my forte. I like to think that I know my limits, so that's when I retired from racing - but I have all sorts of other interests. I love to fly. I started in propeller planes and moved up to light jets - we operate one of the largest private jet charter companies in Thailand - and I learned to fly helicopters.
‘I still fly helicopters a little bit when I get a chance to do that, but I prefer to sit in the back seat now, rather than in the front seat. The Champagne tastes better in the back,' he laughs, perhaps only slightly tongue-in-cheek.
It's a dizzying climb from writing a karting column to owning hotel and restaurant groups, let alone one of the top car collections, especially without coming from either a hospitality or an automotive background.
So what was Bill's secret in those early days?
‘I think that our family was always very competitive. They certainly encouraged me to do whatever I wanted to do, as long as I supported myself. They cultivated a competitive spirit, whether racing go-karts, playing cards or doing business.
‘It's been a sort of a steady transition all my life. I've always aspired to the next step, whether it be with propeller planes or race cars or go-karts or whatever. Fortunately, I've had a very lucky life in which I've been able to do all that and still work.' Lucky? Maybe, but it was hardly plain sailing. He estimates that the Covid lockdown cost his business over $1bn, with 525 of his 550 hotels at one time closed. It nearly finished them off, but he says that was nothing compared to the 1997 financial crash in Asia or, much worse again, the Thailand tsunami of 2004, which destroyed one of his hotels.
Bill arrived there within hours, helping to retrieve and identify the bodies of guests and staff.
Now, it would be misleading to claim that after all this Bill is starting to take things easy, but at 75 years of age he's especially keen to ensure that, as well as running his businesses, he also makes the time to do the things that he's wanted to do for a while. That's where we circle back to the Anantara Concorso Roma, and if the Italian event is the success it looks likely to be on 24-27 April, how the Rome format might be expanded and adapted to other venues at Bill's disposal.
‘Anantara operates around 50 hotels,' explains Bill. ‘It's part of our Minor Hotel Group, which is made up of about 575 hotels globally, in 63 countries. Anantara has nine hotels in Europe, and the rest are in Asia, the Middle East and South America. So we hope that not only will there continue to be an Anantara concours in Rome annually but that we will have more at other locations.
‘Portugal has a long racing history; we've got a beautiful hotel in the Algarve. We've also got one in Marbella and we've already had a couple of very small Spanish concours that were organised by the hotel there, because the owner of the hotel has a passion for cars. Rome will be bigger next year, too - this year we've limited it to 50 Italian cars. All the signs are in place for a successful event, I think, so I'm looking forward to keeping my hand in the game.'
