When Jonathan Raggett, chief executive officer of Red Carnation Hotels, first stepped into hospitality, he wasn’t entirely sure what he was signing up for. What he did know was that he liked the buzz of a busy hotel, the grandeur of chandeliers, and the allure of great food. That was enough to set him on a path that would eventually see him leading a global collection of luxury hotels.
“I’ve been in the hospitality business now all of my life since I left school,” Raggett says. “At the age of 18, I had some fairly mediocre A-level results. I saw that Westminster did a three-year HND course and so at the age of 18 I went there and passed it. Hospitality is one of those things that you either fall in love with and want to do or you can’t stand it and want to get out. And, rather fortuitously, I was very much the former.”
For Raggett, it was the people that kept him hooked. “I love working with people,” he explains. “I enjoyed the camaraderie and I also enjoyed the fact that I was meeting interesting guests when I was working in front of house. It became a job that I just enjoyed doing.”
While friends who went into banking and insurance dreaded Monday mornings, Raggett relished his work. He quickly learned that hospitality rewarded those who were willing to work hard and care deeply. “In this industry, if you work hard and you care and you’re kind, you can move up the ladder quite quickly,” he says.
A Career-Defining Encounter
Raggett’s career-defining moment came when he was managing a property in the Channel Islands. Among his regular guests were Stanley and Beatrice Tollman, the founders of Red Carnation Hotels. They stayed often, always booking the presidential suite and spending generously. Raggett treated them with the same meticulous care he gave all his guests. He didn’t know it at the time, but every interaction was a silent audition.
One evening, Stanley Tollman asked Raggett to meet him in his suite. Expecting a complaint, Raggett was nervous. Instead, Tollman surprised him with a proposition. “He said, ‘I’ve got a vision. I have two hotels today, and I’ve just bought a third. I’d like you to come and run that hotel for me,’” Raggett recalls.
The hotel in question was The Rubens at the Palace in London. “At the time, it was sort of three and a half, maybe four star hotel. It wasn’t unpleasant, but it wasn’t to the same standard as where I was,” he says. Despite friends advising him not to take the job, Raggett trusted Tollman’s vision. “The caveat was that if I did a decent job, he was going to buy a whole number of other hotels around the globe,” Raggett explains. “He said, ‘I’m going to buy hotels in Geneva. I’m going to buy hotels in Africa.’ And the man actually went forward all these years and said what he was going to do and more importantly, the man executed.”
Raggett took the leap, moving to London in 1998. A £15 million refurbishment transformed The Rubens, and the hotel thrived. Within two years, Tollman invited him to take on a larger role, managing acquisitions and growth for the entire group. Today, Red Carnation boasts 17 hotels across the UK, Ireland, South Africa, Botswana, Switzerland, and beyond.
Creating a distinctive culture
For Raggett, Red Carnation’s success rests on more than beautiful properties. “The cornerstone of Red Carnation Hotels is very much the training, the development of our people,” he says. “We will always give everybody an opportunity to rise as far as they want to in the hotels. We will give the necessary training to help get that person to where they want to go.”
One story particularly illustrates this philosophy. “When I arrived at the Rubens, there was a guy in the linen room counting sheets and towels,” Raggett recalls. “He had that sort of glint in his eye and happiness. I thought, ‘You’ve got something about you.’ Cutting what is now a very long story short, he went on a lot of training, developed, and for the last five years has been the general manager of the Chesterfield Hotel from reporter. It’s a great story.”
Raggett works closely with his long-time director of people and culture, Liz, and a team of senior managers who have each been with the company for more than 20 years. Together, they focus on building an environment where employees feel valued and empowered. “I always say to everybody that works at Red Carnation Hotels, I want to give you the opportunity to do as well as you want to,” Raggett says. “I’m going to pay you a very fair wage. I’m going to invest on the training. I’m going to do one-to-ones on a regular basis every 12 weeks.”
But he also believes in honesty and transparency. “If it isn’t for you, don’t stay. And I don’t want you if you don’t want to be here,” he says firmly. “I want to keep the great people and I want people to stay, but it’s a choice thing, and it’s up to me as the employer to make sure I’m doing enough for people to excite them.”
Lessons in leadership
Raggett’s leadership philosophy is grounded in consistency and clear communication. Every 12 weeks, he sets objectives with his direct reports. “These are clearly defined objectives,” he explains. “And in 12 weeks time you visit them and you say, ‘Right, we agreed that we do this, this and this.’ And if it hasn’t been done, why hasn’t it been done?”
He also makes time to connect personally with his teams. Four times a year, Raggett and his general managers participate in “Back to the Floor” days, working alongside staff in roles like housekeeping and front-of-house. “The underlying message is that they’ll see me walking around suited and booted, talking to guests, but it’s nice to get there and see what I’m doing,” he says.
This hands-on approach builds mutual respect and camaraderie. “It’s not something you just do for a week or two,” Raggett emphasises. “You’ve got to keep on going. And it always stems from the very top.”
Staying energised
Leading a global hotel group requires immense energy and focus. Raggett maintains his stamina through fitness. “I’m quite proud of my fitness levels,” he says. “I’m a man that has run ten marathons.”
In 2022, he completed a particularly grueling challenge: cycling all 21 stages of the Tour de France route to raise money for leukemia research. “The 18 of us raised more than £1 million for the charity,” he says. “I think it does help because I’ve got great energy levels still. And I think that comes because there is a balance. People that say they can’t find half an hour or even an hour to do some sort of exercise on a daily basis aren’t really working their lives very well, I think.”
Advice for the next generation
As a leader, Raggett is passionate about inspiring future hoteliers. “I think it’s a great business,” he says. “You can rise really very quickly, but you’ve got to have a good work ethic. You have to be a kind person. You have to care. And you have to keep learning.”
He encourages newcomers to embrace every opportunity. “For people that work hard, get stuck in, certainly by the age of 40, they can be running a property that has tens of millions of pounds that they’re responsible for,” he says. “No day will ever be the same, and it’s just a great way of living.”
Raggett also offers a personal mantra for leadership, which he calls the four E’s: energy, energize, edge, and execute. “You’ve got to have energy. You’ve got to be able to energize people. You’ve got to have edge, a little bit of something about you that makes you a leader. And the most important in my life is you’ve got to be able to execute.”
Looking ahead
As he reflects on his journey, Raggett remains as passionate as ever. When asked where he hopes to be in five years, he answers with characteristic humour and sincerity: “Flippantly, I would say above ground. I love this business. When people say to me, ‘When are you looking to retire?’ I say, ‘Retire? I don’t want to finish!’”
With a legacy of extraordinary hotels and a culture built on care and ambition, Jonathan Raggett’s story is a testament to what can happen when passion meets purpose. For him, hospitality isn’t just a career — it’s a calling.
