{"id":4631,"date":"2024-02-05T20:27:04","date_gmt":"2024-02-05T20:27:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lamaisondetanger.com\/?page_id=4631"},"modified":"2026-01-29T23:03:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T23:03:39","slug":"q-and-a-with-alex-henry-foster-part-1","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/lamaisondetanger.com\/fr\/interviews\/q-and-a-with-alex-henry-foster-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A with Alex Henry Foster [Part 1]"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Q&A With Alex Henry Foster<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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[Part 1]<\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFirstly, I would like to thank you Alex for taking the time to answer a few of my questions. I received great feedback following your feature in the latest newsletter of La Maison de Tanger, so it could become a bit of a tradition for you to share your extensive travelling experiences and rock n roll adventures with us. So here are a few questions for you for the second edition of the Oasis magazine:\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tI know that owning a hotel has always been a vision you\u2019ve had with your partner in crime, Jeff,\u00a0 and I guess that all the traveling that you both do must have a significant influence on the spirit of your very own hotel.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Alex<\/strong>: Of course it does, but for us, it\u2019s first and foremost all about the human experience. I stayed in ridiculously high profile hotels where I was deeply disappointed by my overall stay, while at the other end of the spectrum, I stayed in very humble places where I had a fantastic time. It all goes back to what you want to share. For us, it\u2019s a boutique hotel, so it was capital that we\u2019d add our own unique colors to the mix without turning the place into a Alex Henry Foster tribute, because what truly makes a hotel unique remains the people who decided to accept the invitation offered to them to spend a moment of their lives at your hotel, and once they do, the only thing that matters is to do everything possible for them to make it their home as well, because when they do, it changes the hotel\u2019s spirit. That\u2019s the reward. Otherwise it\u2019s only a soulless place to sleep at as you go.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat\u2019s \u201chome\u201d for you in that context ?\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Alex<\/strong>: It starts when you actually book at the hotel. The manager will get in touch with you to give you some heads up about your point of arrival, about Tangier if it\u2019s your first time, and will ask if there\u2019s any special request or need we may take care of beforehand. Then, it goes back to the people welcoming our guests, from the taxi company we are working with to the impeccable state of the hotel\u2019s exterior. It\u2019s the first contact people will have with the nature of the hotel they will journey in. Then it\u2019s the first human contact, the welcoming spirit being essential for us. Then comes what people will see, will smell, will hear\u2026 Tangier could be puzzling at first, so we want people to feel an immediate sensation of peace and comfort when they arrive home. The Moroccan hospitality will then offer its richness all more naturally. And whatever room you decided to book needs to have a personality of its own. There is lit home-made incense, a few colorful pieces of local pastries waiting for you\u2026 It all offers the essence of the joy we have for you\u2026 as guest, as returning friends. The rest of the hotel\u2019s wonders are for you to discover after. That\u2019s home to me.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIs there a hotel amenity that matters so much to you that you implemented it at La Maison de Tanger?\u00a0\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Alex<\/strong>: Touring is not necessarily a good indication of what others want as much as what you are absolutely needing. In my case, it\u2019s good bedding, a quiet room, a great shower, impeccable breakfast and premium coffee, which we tackled immediately when we arrived at La Maison. We slept in each room, alternating and comparing notes. The silver lining of acquiring a hotel in Africa during COVID when all the trips were stopped and we got caught in Tangier for a while, is that we explored our place upside down immediately, but that was easy.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

For Jeff and I, the very first element we wanted to implement when we acquired the hotel was to offer local in-house Moroccan meals to our guests. \u00a0Morocco is about those exquisite flavors, the spices, the freshness of aliments and products of the sea. For us, it was imperative from the get go, and since before being a professional musician and music business mogul, Jeff was a French chef who had worked in the most sought-after restaurants of Montreal, he knew exactly what he wanted the menu to look like, but more importantly what he was looking for in terms of culinary experience. If Jeff is everything meat, I\u2019m more of a liberal pescatarian type, and chef Ilham brought Jeff\u2019s high expectations even higher, on every level, and there\u2019s no real \u201chome\u201d singularity without its particular perfumes depending of the day, time or season. So food was first.<\/p>

With the same desire to welcome our guests and friends in an environment they would find comfort in and relational, we integrated Miss Isabel, who is the keyboard player for our band The Long Shadows, and her concept of aromatherapy as she\u2019s been developing her own incense for years and couldn\u2019t help but to implement La Maison de Tanger with her own unique fragrances, after she heard me talking about the importance it had for me to define the home\u2019s olfactive identity. It\u2019s not only about having a place that smells good, it\u2019s about associating the time you have with a scent. So it brings you back to your home in Tangier whenever you happen to smell that very same fragrance somewhere else. It\u2019s comforting in so many different ways. That\u2019s why we have a full-time gardener dedicating himself to the floral and trees of our garden. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

The drinks and cocktails selection was also a core part of the home evolvement we were looking for. It took us close to 2 years to have a legit alcohol license but it was worth every step, since amongst the unique alcohol selection we brought from all our different tours and travels, we wanted to offer quality over quantity. So people can relax in the garden or on the terraces, get a real imprint of the fresh Tangerine winds, while also having a wonderful excuse to stay home and commune with other guests and friends.\u00a0<\/p>

That is the core reason I wanted to own a hotel such as the one we have; for people to get away from their phone and tablet screens for a second and engage with each other, and that\u2019s the most incredible aspect of our home, as we are welcoming people from all over the world and from all spheres of life. We wanted to create a singular place where you can see an experimental artist like me befriend a surgeon from Lebanon, an American couple from New Jersey meeting 2 French sisters from Marseille that are now planing to travel together in Australia next year\u2026 conversations about art, culture, different life experiences\u2026 That\u2019s my vision, with an exclusive whiskey from the North of Japan, a fresh juice, a local tea or a premium coffee in hand, whatever defines that moment for you.<\/p>

It\u2019s the people and the unique moments they share that define a home, the rest of the outstanding decor only makes it even more unforgettable, because if it\u2019s only about the bling bling you are missing the whole point entirely.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Q&A With Alex Henry Foster [Part 1] Firstly, I would like to thank you Alex for taking the time to answer a few of my questions. I received great feedback following your feature in the latest newsletter of La Maison de Tanger, so it could become a bit of a tradition for you to share … Lire la suite<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":4647,"parent":4718,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_header_footer","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4631","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lamaisondetanger.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lamaisondetanger.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lamaisondetanger.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lamaisondetanger.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lamaisondetanger.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4631"}],"version-history":[{"count":44,"href":"https:\/\/lamaisondetanger.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5629,"href":"https:\/\/lamaisondetanger.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4631\/revisions\/5629"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lamaisondetanger.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lamaisondetanger.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lamaisondetanger.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}