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In She Shines, Dina Pedersen talks with some of the great minds and personalities that is hospitality today and in the future. We share their insight, celebrate their success and discover the women behind the titles. This time, she meets Julia Hands MBE, founder and chair of Hand Picked Hotels.
I first met Julia when she interviewed me for a role at Hand Picked Hotels. I left that conversation thinking that, regardless of the outcome, I wanted to feature her in ‘She Shines’. Her calm elegance, reflective pauses and the story of the brand she had built over 25 years intrigued me. I did join Hand Picked and after a little persistence, Julia agreed to the interview.
Julia Hands has a presence that does not need to announce itself. She is gracious in her manner, reserved yet warm, and smiles often. There is nothing showy about her, which is perhaps what makes the scale of her achievements even more striking.
A Cambridge graduate and former City lawyer, Julia spent 12 years at a leading law firm in London before leaving the profession in 1996. Three years later, her husband Guy Hands purchased two separate portfolios of hotels as a personal investment. Running them was never meant to become Julia’s next career. Yet what began almost reluctantly would grow into Hand Picked Hotels: a family-owned collection of 24 historic country houses and coastal hotels across the UK and Channel Islands.
As we talk, what emerges is not the story of someone who arrived in hospitality with a grand vision, but rather of a leading figure who saw what was needed, quietly stepped forward, and shaped the business around values she still protects 25 years later.
- You began with classics at Cambridge before switching to law. How did that path eventually lead you into hotels?
I studied Latin and Greek for the first two years at Cambridge, then switched to law. After law school, I joined a leading law firm in London and worked there for 12 years.
Three years later, Guy bought two portfolios of hotels. I remember asking him, “Who is actually going to run these hotels?” I was not working at that point; we had four children, we had just got a dog, and I was in the middle of a huge renovation project. I could see the hotels ending up on my lap, and I was quite enjoying doing other things.
He reassured me that an external manager was a condition of the financing. But after about a year, it was clear the arrangement was not working. The hotels were highly individual and clearly in need of more attention.
- So, Hand Picked Hotels was not originally your idea?
Not at all. It was Guy’s investment. We terminated the management agreement and set out to find our own management team. I agreed to become chairwoman, but we struggled to recruit a CEO. The industry was doing well at the time, and good people were staying in their jobs. This was effectively a start-up: two groups with different systems and cultures, and no joint trading history.
In the end, I said, “Okay, I’ll do it.” We created Hand Picked Hotels Limited. I bought an office in Sevenoaks, and we began the slow process of bringing the two groups together and, bit by bit, building the brand.
- Did you fall in love with hospitality, or did it feel like a responsibility you had inherited?
It did not take long. It is easy to fall in love with hospitality. The people who work in it do so because they love what they do. They do not do it to get rich; they genuinely love the business.
The hotels remain my focus. I am no longer CEO, but I am still very involved in how they are running and where they are going. The moment to step back has certainly not come yet.
- There are a lot of luxury hotel brands out there, so what makes Hand Picked genuinely different?
The real differentiator is that we are family-owned and family-run. I think that is completely unique for a group of this size: 24 hotels owned 100 per cent by one family, with family members deeply involved in the business.
Most of the properties are former country houses with remarkable heritage. I have always called Hand Picked a collection rather than a chain because we celebrate their individuality and their unique stories.
What ties them together is the culture. I hear repeatedly that the friendliness, genuine welcome and willingness of our teams to help are striking. Wine and art will provide further threads running through the collection while remaining distinct at a local level. The aim is never to make every hotel feel the same, but to bring out their history and character.
- You speak about wine and art as important parts of the future. What are your plans in this regard?
Wine and art are passions Guy and I share. We have a substantial collection of wine in storage, including beautiful older wines with excellent provenance. We want guests to benefit from wine lists offering a broader choice of regions, styles and ages.
It is unusual to find much on a restaurant wine list that is more than five years old because sourcing, storage and investment are difficult. We have already made that investment. I would like wine to become a reason to visit Hand Picked and to introduce more guests to the pleasure of discovering it.
We have also bought paintings for the hotels—works that are not simply wallpaper but lovely objects in their own right. Photographs by Steve McCurry, for example, are being introduced into our Channel Islands hotels. Others are in the planning, and we are making good progress.
- You mentioned culture as the thread that connects the hotels. So what values do you hold dear and are non-negotiable for you?
Integrity is incredibly important to me. We treat our management teams with openness about the figures, how the business is performing and where it is going. I expect complete honesty in return. That is a red line.
If you say something, you should mean it and stand by it. You need openness to build trust and run things properly. The same honesty applies to guests: treating them fairly and responding to what they need as far as you can.
Culture is intangible. It cannot simply be a list of values placed on a wall. It must live in people’s everyday habits.
- Julia, you and Guy are avid travellers. Was there a hotel experience that stayed with you and that helped you define the type of hospitality you wanted to create?
Many years ago, we travelled to La Residencia in Mallorca with a very young child. After a stressful, delayed journey, we arrived completely frazzled. Instead of checking us in immediately, the team invited us to sit in a beautiful room where a guitar recital was taking place and brought us a glass of ice-cold sherry.
Everything suddenly calmed down. It was such a personal, thoughtful welcome. That generosity of spirit has always resonated with me. It is very different from a purely transactional exchange of service for money.
- After 25 years, what has been the greatest challenge?
Without a shadow of a doubt, the greatest asset in any hotel is its people. Selecting the right people for the right roles has probably been the biggest challenge. It is difficult because it is ongoing rather than a single moment in time.
- And what has made you proudest?
One of my most recent moments of pride came at a family wedding held at one of our hotels, Chilston Park in Kent. I had nothing to do with organising it, which made it even more meaningful. The welcome, food, service and overall delivery were immaculate. It was the most beautiful example of what Hand Picked can do. Those moments come down to the people and the decisions they make every day.
- How have you and Guy worked together as the business has evolved?
When I started running the hotels, Guy largely left me to it. He told me, “You will make mistakes, but they will be no worse than anybody else’s.” It was honest, but also very encouraging, and he gave me a very free rein.
We have always collaborated on the broad direction and the business plan, but we are even more collaborative now than we used to be. We make decisions about the strategy and direction of the group together, and we plan to remain closely involved for the foreseeable future.
Julia’s answers are considered and unembellished. Even when discussing the substantial collections of wine, art and photography—or the MBE she was “very proud” to receive for services to hospitality—she resists making the story larger than it needs to be. Her attention returns to the hotels, their people and the responsibility of preserving their character.
There are plans to invest further in the brand and expand the collection when the right opportunities arise. The group’s recent acquisition of four beautiful properties in the Cotswolds, three of which will join the Hand Picked Hotels, represents a significant step in this measured and deliberate growth. As Julia said in a recent interview, “Establishing a presence in the Cotswolds has been an ambition of ours for some time”.
The next chapter is already taking shape, with Andrew Stembridge appointed CEO of its luxury division, Eugenio Pirri as chief culture officer and David Spooner as chief commercial officer, bringing additional high-profile expertise to the business.
Yet growth has a natural boundary. “If you get too large, you lose the personal connection”, Julia says. For a founder who never intended to become a hotelier, she has developed a remarkably clear instinct for what should change and what should remain. Perhaps that is the quiet strength behind Hand Picked. Julia did not impose uniformity upon these grand old houses; she gave them a shared culture and the strength of belonging to a collection of 21 hotels, soon to be 24, while allowing each to retain its individuality. Understated, thoughtful and still very much involved, she is not finished yet.
Dina Pedersen is commercial marketing director at Hand Picked Hotels and the creator of She Shines, a series celebrating women shaping hospitality.
