Living life in luxury’s lap: The mind behind the W

General Manager Nick Heath. Provided by the hotel

There is a new holy grail, but it is not hidden in the depths of some booby-trapped cavern. This grail tantalizingly prances in department store windows, dangles from the arms of Seoul’s painfully fashionable young women and zooms down the city’s streets. This grail goes by the name “luxury.”
On a sunny afternoon last week, I ascended the privileged slopes of Mount Acha in eastern Seoul to the local temple of luxury ― the W Seoul Hotel. I went to have lunch with the hotel’s general manager, Nick Heath, to try and gain some new perspective on Korea’s latest religion.
Heath is a man with a knack for putting a person at ease. He’s deft with small talk and quick with a smile. He apologized for being late, even though he was exactly on time.
“In Korea, if you’re 10 minutes early, you’re five minutes late,” he quipped. It’s easy to see how he has risen to the top of an industry that makes its money by making people feel comfortable.
As Heath led me to Namu, the hotel’s immaculate Japanese restaurant, he addressed passing staff by name. They each said hello, bowed and, in an addition that came as somewhat of a shock to a seasoned Seoulite, they smiled. But then again, I was walking with the boss.
“Things that we do here are very close to my heart,” said Heath as we settled in next to a panoramic view of the Han River. “The W is an extension of my personality.”
A quick background on that personality: Heath has only been in Korea for a year, but has been in the hotel business in Asia for 17 years. He’s worked in Indonesia, Thailand and Taiwan, as well as Israel and the United States.
As the server placed a sculpted selection of exorbitantly expensive sashimi in front of us (145,000 won, $144, for two people), I asked Heath how he defines luxury.

The W Hotel at night.

“A good definition of luxury,” he said, “is that it is something for which demand increases more than proportionally as income rises.”
And of course, Korean incomes have skyrocketed from what they were 10 or 20 years ago.
“Korea is no different to anywhere else. Humans are aspirational. People are prepared to sacrifice for luxury,” he said.
“Korea’s wealth has changed, and demand for luxury has changed. Korea is a large market for luxury brands.”
He said that part of the success of those brands here comes from the local sensibility.
“Koreans are inherently well- dressed and concerned with presentation. Luxury goes hand in hand with the culture here ... someone once told me that the more you charge, the more people want it.”
But how does the leisurely lifestyle inherently tied to the concept of luxury mesh with a nation renowned for overwork?
“It’s a very serious country. They take working seriously,” he said. “But work-life balance is probably a much bigger issue now than it ever was.”
Koreans are finding new ways to kick back and appreciate their wealth, and the W Hotel is out in front of this trend. “In some ways, we’ve been educational in the way that people appreciate their life,” said Heath.
Part of appreciating wealth, of course, comes from doing things that others can’t. Heath was tentative about this exclusivity. “Is it about what you get,” he asked, “or what others can’t get?”
As Heath tossed around ideas, he seemed to be working on his own perception of what luxury actually is. “It’s not just the way it looks,” he said. “It’s how it makes me feel.” And how’s that?
“Like a million dollars.”

[richard@joongang.co.kr]