Soho House: Exclusive but inclusive

Almost 90,000 people worldwide are on the waiting list for private members’ social club chain Soho House. They are willing to pay thousands of dollars a year to join close to 170,000 members as of December 2022 (up 38.4% from 2021), in 42 houses around the world.

And yet, when I ask Nick Jones, who founded this empire, what he believes to be the secrets of the prestigious club’s success, he says: “First of all I’m not sure about success.”

We talk in the beautiful backyard of the Israel Soho House on Yefet street in Jaffa, which opened in 2021, attempting to have a conversation over the pleasant background noise of children’s giggles coming from the nearby school. The chain also has houses in Rome, Paris, Copenhagen, Mexico City, Hong Kong, three in New York, and more. But Jones still feels insecure.

As for the ingredients for success, however, he is prepared to say, “I like looking after people. I like nothing more than a room full of people having a good time and eating and drinking and laughing and connecting with people they might not have met before, and to me that is what Soho House is about”.

Jones likes to see the houses as “safe havens” of sorts for the members, a ‘home away from home’. They can spend time there and enjoy a range of activities such as lectures, events, yoga, food, a swimming pool and more.

The idea is that the ties forged between the members will create a strong and tight creative community. Does the house in Jaffa simply look like a boutique hotel? To the uninitiated, I believe it does. Of course, every house also has workspaces, but laptops are limited to those areas so that workaholics don’t ruin the vibe for everyone else.

Soho House, as I have a feeling Jones too is aware, offers quite an expensive product that is really not for everyone.

The company is not willing to disclose the number of members in Israel. Annual membership for the house in Jaffa, for members over 27, costs NIS 8,000. Young members enjoy a discounted annual rate of NIS 2,000. A membership that affords access to all the houses worldwide costs NIS 10,000 for members over 27, and a “mere” NIS 5,000 shekels for young members. US members pay almost $5,000 annually.

IT’S NOT CHEAP, far from it, but Jones dreams of a global presence and insists that Soho House is open to everyone, that it is inclusive and not exclusive as might be expected of a members’ club that charges NIS 8,000 for annual membership just for use of the local house. “We are ambitious to be properly global, and at the moment we are probably half-global... but we also are very inclusive as a community so we run lots of fellowship programs, we run mentorship programs, so we really want people from every part of the world and every community and it doesn’t matter where you’re from or what background you’re from or what your financial situation is, there is a place for you at Soho House”.

Access to the houses is limited to members only, but members can have up to three guests with them at a time. According to various reports, membership is decided by members’ committees, meaning that veteran club members choose the new members.

Jones himself insists that what is important to him is the “creative soul”, and that background, financial situation, occupation, ethnicity or political opinions are not a barrier to membership. Clubs prohibit disclosure of members’ and guests’ identity, as well as photography, to protect privacy and probably also to heighten curiosity and mystery. A quick scroll through Instagram reveals that the ban is not strictly enforced everywhere.

At the age of 22 Jones opened the restaurant Over the Top, which crashed and burned. To this day that restaurant is etched in his memory as the biggest trauma and failure of his career. “Everything about it was wrong” he now admits with a smile. “The design was wrong, the food was terrible, the service was terrible. I was inexperienced and I didn’t know any better, but it was a great experience. I think failure, and it was a failure, is a journey rather than a finale. And I think people have to make mistakes in life to learn, to make themselves better, and if it’s the end of the journey then that’s a shame”.

“I was running out of money, and my last bit of luck was changing one of the restaurants to Café Boheme in 1993 and I did it all very differently. The banks and investors said OK, we will give it one more go and luckily it worked, and even 30 years later it is still as popular as it has ever been.”

From a restaurant to a hospitality empire

Jones, having experienced professional success for the first time in his life, was not spending too much time thinking about the future or how to leverage that success. But then something happened. “The landlord of Café Boheme phoned me up and said Nick, the upstairs floor has become available, would you like to take it? I thought what on earth for? I was just getting it right with Café Boheme. However, because I’m a very optimistic person, I went and had a look upstairs, and I felt it couldn’t be a public restaurant, but it might be right for a modern-day version of a private members’ club, which was not a gentlemen’s club, but a place where people with creative souls would come together”.

And so in January 1995, the first branch of Soho House opened its doors above Café Boheme. Jones emphasizes that “we only opened it when we had 500 members”.

Surely it was not a simple task?

“Right. I was a manager downstairs in Café Boheme so I got to know customers, but I wasn’t from media, or creative industries, or theater or television. I didn’t know many people so I knocked on people’s doors, I cold-called people.

“I also put a committee of 25 people together, which was great. Their job was to find 25 members each, from their particular industries and that’s how it started. Those 500 members are still alive, they’re still members and they are very loyal”. The 25 committee members received payment or free membership.

SO JONES BUILT a global empire from next to nothing. Along the way, he experienced history in the making. For example, in September 2001, he arrived in New York to set up the first house in the Big Apple. He was about to bite into his boiled egg at breakfast when he suddenly heard an awful thud. Four blocks away, American Airlines Flight 11 had crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

In contrast, but still in New York, Soho House played a starring role in an episode of Sex and the City in a scene where Samantha complains about being on the endless waiting list, and finally sneaks into the pool with the girls.

“They contacted us and asked to shoot a scene at Soho House, and we thought it was quite a good idea, and so that’s how it happened, as simple as that” recalls Jones.

“It happened 19 years ago, so it had a big impact. Sex and the City then was the biggest show on TV globally and to have a scene in it revolving around Soho House and sneaking in was funny, it was a good scene.”

Today Soho House is in a completely different place, with at least one new house a year. However, new and unfamiliar challenges emerge, such as how to maintain the fundamental founding spirit in all 42 houses worldwide.

Jones smiles “I have a brilliant team. I usually know quite quickly whether a person is right for the team. I look for nice people, decent people, people who get on with people, people who are kind. Obviously hospitality is a hard business, so I look for people who don’t mind working hard”.

Back in 2008 Jones sold 80% of the company to British tycoon Richard Caring. In 2012, 60% of the shares of Soho House were bought by American billionaire Ron Burkle through his investment firm Yucaipa for $250 million. Jones continues to hold 10%, and Caring 30%.

In 2021 Soho House was floated on the New York Stock Exchange, raising $430 million with a market value of $2.8 billion. Burkle remained the controlling shareholder also after the IPO. Since then the value has nosedived to its current value of some $1.3 billion. Soho House recorded a net loss of almost $270 million in 2021 and almost $220 million in 2022. In the first quarter of 2023 the loss shrank to some $16 million.

Jones has been visiting Israel to meet the local team of 79 employees and the new manager, Jurgita Nefedjevaite, who previously managed the Mykonos house, and has also supported the brand in the London and Berlin houses. She says that her connection to Israelis and to the local culture was instantaneous.

What are your plans for Israel, considering that you arrived here in the midst of rocket fire?

“We landed in Israel in 2021, we like Israel and we want to expand here. We would still like to do a little house in the center of Tel Aviv, we would love to get something on the beach as well, so for us, this is just the start.” (Globes/TNS)