I met with Gregor Gerlach, Co-Owner and Chairman Seaside Collection, an international luxury hotel group and parent company of Riverside Luxury Cruises, in one of Miami’s most exclusive zip codes—Fisher Island. The setting was fitting given that Riverside Luxury Cruises is currently one of the swankiest river cruise lines sailing along Europe’s waterways.
Recommend: What was the vision behind the creation of Riverside Luxury Cruises?
Gregor Gerlach: We came across river cruising almost 10 years ago and we fell in love with the idea. At the time, we noticed that there was no real luxury operator, no real luxury product. On the ocean you have Ritz-Carlton and Four Seasons; for cars, you have Porsche and Mercedes; and with watches you have Rolex and Patek, but with the river cruising, it ends at the five-star level. There is no true luxury product. That fascinated us when we first had contact with the industry. At the time we tried to build a ship or two, but we couldn’t because all the yards were booked for the next five years. That was pre-COVID. Then came COVID and Crystal went bankrupt. And so, we heard about the ships that Crystal had built.
Crystal had the same idea [as us] of doing one level higher than what existed in the market. So suddenly there were ships that everybody else was saying are strange, they’re bad design, they don’t have enough cabins and this and that. But then we looked at it and said, well, first, you want to make the cabins bigger, but you also want to cook fresh—Michelin-star level cuisine—and not just heat up, so you need a bigger kitchen, you need more chefs. Also, if you want to do the butler service for every suite or cabin, you need more crew, so you need more crew cabins. So, we kind of sketched how a ship would look like that we would envision, and it pretty much looked like what Crystal had done.
Everybody else was saying, there’s not enough guest count and we thought they were pretty perfect for luxury, for a real luxury product.
So [with these ships the way we envisioned it] suddenly you have 20-25 more crew than say the five-star operators. You end up with 30 percent less guest and 30 percent more crew, and that makes a big difference in every aspect.
Recommend: What drew you to river cruising?
Gregor Gerlach: Many years ago, I don’t know when I was 25 or so, I did a trip through South Africa on a train. I really loved the idea of stopping at all the different places and not having to pack and unpack, but seeing a lot and experiencing a lot. The ship is the same thing, but so much more comfortable and so much more spacious than the train. Also, it’s more beautiful, the scenery passing by…. It’s this idea about experiences in the middle of Europe. It’s also the individuality that you have with a small ship.
Recommend: River cruising has grown so much; do you think there’s a day that we’ll say, okay, too much is too much?
Gregor Gerlach: I think every industry is cyclical. There are ups and downs and I’m sure there will be downs. I think it’s still completely underestimated as a true luxury product.
A lot of people do river cruising, but a lot of people who really look for ultra luxury, they don’t think about river cruising. That’s what we want to change.
Recommend: What surprised you when you got into the river cruise business?
Gregor Gerlach: For us, in many ways it’s a floating hotel. We were surprised by how many areas there are where river cruising is far advanced technology-wise and then there are other areas where it’s so far behind. So, I think both industries [hotels and river cruising] can learn a lot from each other.
Recommend: Are you happy with what’s going on with Riverside at the moment in terms of its penetration in the North American market?
Gregor Gerlach: Well, we are still very much at the beginning. We said it will take three or four years to reach where we want to get to, and I think we are on that path. But there’s a lot more to do and more convincing to do, especially to establish river cruising as a luxury option.
Recommend: Where are your travelers coming from, do you think? What areas and what demographics.
Gregor Gerlach: It’s quite spread—California, New York, Florida, Texas, etc. It’s hard to [pinpoint].
[In terms of the age demographics], it’s very broad. I did five or six cruises last year, with two on the Rhone, and one time I was the youngest and the other time I was the oldest.
We also cater to that [age range] with the excursions. We have more active excursions like kayaking or hiking, biking, but also, for the older crowd, we have more traditional, easier [activities] like visits to museums or a concert.
Recommend: I know there’s also a very welcoming ambiance for families and for multigenerational family groups. Can you speak to that a bit?
Gregor Gerlach: We want to [welcome] everyone. Multigenerational family groups are an interesting segment or group of people because usually the grandparents are paying for everyone. I think it’s great for everyone, right? The kids enjoy something different, the family gets to spend time with each other….
Recommend: Are families or large groups of family and friends buying out the whole ship, or are you not seeing that?
Gregor Gerlach: We see that sometimes. We see more groups buying like five or 10 cabins—that’s the normal thing. We have the occasional wedding…we’ve had one 50th, one 60th birthday where they bought out the whole thing.
Recommend: Can you speak to me about how the brand is working with travel advisors?
Gregor Gerlach: First of all, we are a family company, we’re not a huge corporation, so for us travel advisors are extremely important. We don’t have the big marketing budget, so we really try to focus on the advisors. Also, once the product gets more expensive, obviously guests become more hesitant to book and it gets more difficult to understand the difference. So, as we’re at the top end of the market—not only product- and food-wise and so on, but also price-wise—we need the travel advisors to explain the difference. At this end of the market, it requires more explanation
Recommend: What are you hearing from advisors in terms of the product and how they’re selling it and what makes it unique and who they’re selling it to?
Gregor Gerlach: They need to experience it. I mean, that’s where it starts, right? That’s where the value comes from. An advisor who has not experienced the product cannot explain it 100 percent. I mean, they are professionals, so if they’ve seen some videos on YouTube and this and that, they’re still able to explain a bit, but ideally, they have to experience the product themselves.
I think that’s where really the great value of advisors lies. [I’d rather have a sale through an advisor], because if the client comes back and is happy, the travel agent will function as a multiplier [bringing more business]. But if they book direct, they’re happy, they go home, they tell two friends and that’s it.
Recommend: What’s in store for Riverside in the next few years?
Well, for the moment we are focusing on the three ships we are running. Obviously we only started last year with all three, so we’re still tweaking. We said we purposely don’t want too many ships because we want every one of them to be perfect. So we’re in a good place now.
For more information, visit riverside-cruises.com/en/ta.
