Introducing Experiential Hospitality Group

Experiential Hospitality Group is pleased to announce its launch ahead of the first opening in a connected group of environments and journeys spanning remote landscapes and the cities that border them. Founded by Jesús Parrilla, formerly Chief Executive Officer of Explora Hotels and Partner and Strategic Advisor at Luxury Frontiers, the group is built on a conviction formed over twenty-five years of observing how people travel: that hospitality should be designed around how people arrive, what they carry with them, and what they are trying to recover.

“I never really set out to build hotels,” said Parrilla. “I set out to create environments that help people reconnect with something deeper. Nature, silence, movement, culture, other people, and often parts of themselves they had slowly stopped paying attention to.”

Parrilla’s conviction was formed across more than two decades working in experiential hospitality and remote environments, including as Chief Executive Officer of Explora Hotels, Partner and Strategic Advisor at Luxury Frontiers, and Strategic Advisor to the ownership group behind Paradero Hotels, where he worked closely with the founders ahead of its launch to help shape the brand’s soft-adventure experiences and operational standards. He also serves on the board of Smartrip, a Chilean B Corp that channels the majority of its profits into social and environmental programs.

Designing for Guests’ Emotional State

The group’s approach begins with an uncommon premise: that the most important thing to understand about a guest is the emotional condition in which they arrive. “Intentional hospitality begins with paying attention,” Parrilla said. “Paying attention to how somebody arrives. How emotional fatigue or state of mind changes behavior. How silence affects people. How weather affects mood. How movement changes perspective.”

That premise is intended to produce different decisions. A guest returning from a long day outside, after being exposed to the elements and physically exerted, is emotionally open and should be received accordingly. A traveler moving from a city into the wilderness needs a threshold, not a transfer. EHG treats these transitions as the substance of the experience.

Parrilla is direct about the economics underneath the philosophy. “Philosophy without operational discipline is eventually just aspiration,” he said. “The two are not in tension. They are the same project.”

What’s Coming Next

In the coming weeks, Experiential Hospitality Group will introduce its individual brands and first destinations. Parrilla will speak at ILHA in December, with additional speaking appearances to be confirmed.