Josef Forstmayr on Building Round Hill Hotel and Villas in Jamaica into a Timeless Luxury Resort

As I said earlier, I mean, I was blessed to have owners that are madly in love.

When I say madly, they are passionate about Roundhill Entremakers.

And not only are they passionate, but they're also each individually growing a lot to the table.

You know, be they in leaders in finance, be they leaders in society, you know, being at some several sort of European high aristocracy-owned homes here.

And what really is very special is because not only is he a great fashion designer, he is an amazing influence when it comes to style and he knows what feels right.

Ralph knows it.

Now, not just Ralph, but also his wife, Rikki.

I mean, and the interesting part is Rikki actually has an Austrian background.

I mean, she's originally not a very well-known Viennese family.

That ended up in the United States.

And then obviously they met and fell in love and married.

And he is just a real kind, incredibly focused and talented gentleman that welcomed me when I came here.

And when I wanted to find, because I, you know, when you come somewhere new, you want to fix everything.

You really want to fix everything because the place was open for three months.

If we had a year, you had to be open 12 months.

So you have to make sure that it also is more sustainable.

It has its regret.

And having the resources of Ralph Lauren and some others at the resort helped me tremendously to sort of accomplish that.

And he immediately got excited about it because he also felt that that Roundelay in Jamaica presents something that he's, he also fell in love, you know, that tradition, that combination of, of the British style together with a very lush, colorful, tropical environment that, that created that look, you know, that, that What's known as the campaign look, you know, the dark mahogany, the white curtains, the beautiful sort of blues and pinks in nature, you know.

And then we just got going on redecorating the rooms and redoing the bath and polishing the villas to make them more relevant.

There always was this uniqueness about Round Hill because it sits on a peninsula surrounded by three sides of water.

and overlooking the Western Bay, so it's very protected.

And therefore, it has open verandas that are fully furnished.

And so our founder, a Jamaican gentleman by the name of John Pringle, always defined luxury as being able to live with indoor furnishings in an outdoor setting, something that's very special that you cannot have anywhere else.

And I mean, as you know, part of A vacation experience that is very memorable is to do things that you would never or could never do at home.