Erwin A. Jager is the Chairman and CEO of Barrows Hotel Enterprises. With extensive experience as a hotel real estate executive, he is also experienced across the entire value chain, which includes master planning, development, project structuring, financing, acquisitions, operations, and asset management. He also manages investment portfolios of ultra-high-net-worth individuals and large institutes. Throughout his professional journey, he has been in several real estate investments.
Barrows Hotel Enterprises is a management-based company in Dubai specializing in Hotel Investments and Consultancy. Their services are based on BaaS (Business as a Service). Learn more about Erwin A. Jager and Barrows through our interview below.
Starting Off The Career Journey
We first asked Erwin to share about his career journey.
How did you begin your career journey? Do you have some advice for beginners?
“As founder of Barrows, I started my career at a young age while working several jobs before I went to the army. After that, I started my own company, which I sold in 2006 to a German competitor. With the capital coming from the sales of my shares, I invested in a new company called Barrows.” Erwin said.
With that, we were also curious about knowing more about Barrows Hotel Enterprises. So, we asked Erwin, “What’s the idea behind your company?”
Erwin says, “Barrows Hotel Enterprises is a hospitality management company which specializes in hotel developments, commercial finance and restructuring, hotel asset management, hotel investments and hotel management advisory.
We manage more than 10,000 hotel rooms in the MENA Region. Barrows started in 2008 with real estate investments in the residential market in Dubai. Since 2012, we have changed our strategy, and our activities are fully focused on the fast-growing hotel industry in the Middle East and Africa. Barrows is a family-owned private company with a successful track record in hotel property investment, development, strategic land investments and hotel management advisory.
The company mainly focuses on the Middle East and West Africa. The hospitality company focuses on developing and selling internationally oriented-hotel real estate. In addition to developing and selling hotel real estate, the company also focuses on management advisory for hotel operators. The guest experience increases by top-performing hotel management. Barrows’ professional partners are mainly governments, institutional investors, wealthy family offices and a variety of clients ranging from small 3-star hotel operators up to 5 star International brands.”
The Ultimate Goals & Tackling Challenges
When we asked Erwin about his company’s goals, he continued, “The goal of my company is to serve our customers with a tailor-made solution for their daily needs in hospitality. The variety of services we offer makes us competitive in the financial world behind hospitality. Today we Develop, Buy, Sell, Restructure and Refurbish Hotels across the GCC and West Africa. In Asia, we started our superyacht charter company in 2022.”
Every business goes through challenges at some point, and the hospitality industry is no different. To know more, we asked Erwin, “What keeps Your Company moving forward even during challenges?”
He continues, “Barrows is a sustainable brand, and because of the variety of services we offer, we had the best years because of Covid-19. We changed the direction of the company’s formula and focused more on refurbishment and hotel finance. This was the best decision we could make. We increased our revenues massively.”
Discussing The Technological Aspects
Technology is growing a lot, and several businesses are using it to grow themselves and get better results. How do you think Technology is leading to changes in businesses? Do you feel it’s helping Your Company grow?
Erwin says, “Technology is always very important. It connects humans with so many possibilities. Artificial Intelligence is already so important in our field, but in the next decade, we will see a big difference. Next generations are pushing and knocking already on the doors which we give a warm welcome as the hospitality industry needs to bring new solutions to the public.”
We further asked, “How are your company adapting to digitalization?”
“We are adapting Technology through our trainee network of technology students. By sitting with them, we are able to adapt our business and connect this with new tech solutions.” Erwin said.
Innovation & Plans
When we asked him about using innovative ideas, Erwin continued:
“We try to be unique, although it is not always that easy. To come up with new technology solutions, we must first be sure that this solution will be accepted and needed by the public and the hospitality industry. Using real solutions that put a smile on customers’ faces makes us unique as we always try to bring tailor-made solutions to our customers.”
We also asked Erwin about the services and upcoming plans of Barrows.
He says, “In 2022, Barrows accounted for several new ERA’s. One of them is our new Superyacht company in Singapore. On the side of that, we are extremely busy with the new developments of new hotels in Africa as well as with the financial funding of several amazing resorts. The upcoming 2 years will be a new page with so many new amazing businesses for our company.”
Would you like to say anything else to our viewers? We continued.
“I want to say to our viewers, make very small steps every day. Have a long-term focus and always look through the eyes of the customer.” concluded.
Connect with Erwin A. Jager
Find Barrows Hotel Enterprises on Facebook, LinkedIn & YouTube.
