Ricardo J. Suarez
Group Head of Development
Four Seasons
Ricardo is responsible for managing Four Seasons' hotel, resort, and residential global development teams. He joined Four Seasons 10 years ago as SVP Development, Americas. Throughout his 25+-year career, he has participated in all phases of luxury hotel and residential development from concept definition, underwriting, site selection, deal structuring, design planning, capital raising, construction, asset sales, and capital repositioning. In addition to his development responsibilities, Ricardo worked closely on corporate strategic initiatives, most recently, the newly announced Four Seasons Yachts.
Prior to joining Four Seasons, Ricardo worked for Starwood Hotels & Resorts and prior to that, in the investment banking and principal investment group of JP Morgan in New York. Ricardo graduated with honors from Harvard College and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Speaking at
Wed Apr 10
2:30 PM — 3:30 PM (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time
New York Hilton Midtown - Level 2, Gramercy Suite
Cracking the Customer Loyalty Code in Residential
Category
Housing/Residential
Customer value and driving loyalty are ubiquitous concepts when it comes to consumer industries. However, in real estate, only the hospitality sector has cracked the code on what loyalty means in the context of built environments and the experiences they contain. Both single-family and multifamily residential continue to grow as asset classes and scale players are emerging. With this growth comes the opportunity to build brand and create customer stickiness—driving both higher renewal rates and better pricing for the branded promise behind living experiences. We will discuss how customer expectations are evolving from these players, what loyalty means in the context of a living experience, and how players are leaning into digital and artificial intelligence to help power a next generation of personalized services and community with the aim of building brand. We will dive into how to take a design-led approach to building brand equity beyond naming and finishes, and using that brand strength to create unique, data-driven loyalty moments around the big "decision moments" that matter (e.g., touring, lease signing, renewal decisions). In short, this presentation, followed by a panel discussion, will aim to unpack how end-to-end experiences in the residential sector can be reimagined and digitized to drive a new frontier of loyalty and consumer brand.