James Lohan, Founder of Mr & Mrs Smith

The Travel Diaries

Holly Rubenstein

Conversation, Arts, Celebrity Interview, The Travel Diaries, Interview, Places & Travel, Travel Guide, Wanderlust, Chef, Podcast, Destination, Society, Society & Culture, Holly Rubenstein, Travel, Culture, Journalist, Personal Journals

4.6 • 758 Ratings

🗓️ 24 September 2019

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today I’m joined by James Lohan, the co-founder - and the Mr - of Mr & Mrs Smith, the much-loved boutique and luxury hotel booking service and travel club.

It all began when James and his wife Tamara (aka Mrs Smith) decided to go about creating their own boutique hotel guidebook, travelling the UK to dine the best spots for a luxurious weekend break. The book was a huge success, and the business has since grown to include a popular online booking service, and its membership programme now has more than a million global members.

In 2014, James and Tamara received MBEs for their services to the travel industry, and when I asked James how many hotels he’s visited, he estimated a whopping 2000.

As soon as we started chatting, I knew this had to be a long haul feature length episode. As a bit of a hotel junkie myself, this was just so much fun, listening to James zig zag across the globe from one extraordinary destination to the other.

Whatever you’re dreaming about, if you’re thinking of a weekend staycation or a mega honeymoon, I guarantee you’ll get some great inspiration from James.

Destination recap:

Polzeath Beach, Cornwall, England
Tresanton Hotel, Cornwall, England
Blakes Hotel, London, England
The Witchery, Edinburgh, Scotland
Drunken Duck Inn, Lake District, England
Le Manoir aux quat’saisons, Oxfordshire, England
Uxua Casa, Trancoso, Brazil
Vik, Southern Iceland
Deplar Farm, Troll Peninsula, Iceland
Soneva Fushi, The Maldives
Il Latini, Florence, Italy
JK Place, Florence, Italy
Lime Wood, New Forest, England
Reschio, Umbria, Italy
Ett Hem, Stockholm, Sweden
Foxhill Manor, The Cotswolds, England
Morokuru, De Hoop Nature Reserve, South Africa
Georgia
Namibia
Rwanda
India
Menorca

You can find Mr & Mrs Smith online and on Instagram @mrandmrssmith

Thank you so much for listening. If you haven’t yet left a 5 star rating, why not do so now! Your support is so greatly appreciated and most importantly, helps others to discover the podcast.

Come and find me on Instagram - I’m @hollyrubenstein - and to find out more about the podcast, visit

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the Travel Diaries podcast.
0:09.7	Thank you for tuning in.
0:11.4	I'm Holly Rubinstein.
0:12.9	I'm a journalist and editor.
0:14.8	And here each week I'll be speaking to a very special guest about their adventures around the world and the travel experiences
0:22.9	and destinations that have shaped their lives.
0:26.3	Today I'm joined by James Lohan, the co-founder and the mister of Mr and Mrs Smith.
0:32.4	It all began when James and his wife Tamara, aka Mrs Smith, decided to go about creating their own boutique
0:39.6	hotel guidebook, travelling the UK to try out the best spots for a luxurious weekend break.
0:45.7	The book was a huge success and the business has since grown to include a popular online
0:51.1	booking service and its membership program now has more than a million
0:54.7	global members. In 2014, James and Tomorrow received MBEs for their services to the travel industry,
1:01.3	and when I asked James how many hotels he's visited, he estimated a whopping 2,000. As soon as we
1:09.1	started chatting, I knew this had to be a long haul feature length episode.
1:13.3	As a bit of a hotel junkie myself, this was just so much fun.
1:17.5	Listening to James, zigzag across the globe from one extraordinary destination to the other.
1:23.0	Whatever you're dreaming about, if you're thinking of a weekend weekend staycation or a mega honeymoon, I guarantee
1:29.1	you'll get some great inspiration from James. So let's hear more from him.
1:37.6	So James, thank you so much for being here today. We're in the fantastic offices of Mr and Mrs Smith in West London.
1:46.2	Pleasure. Thank you for having me. I am so excited to go on a journey through your travel
1:51.4	diaries. So let's kick off with chapter one and that's your earliest childhood travel memory.
1:57.6	Yeah, I was trying to think about that one. We didn't have many holidays,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Holly Rubenstein, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Holly Rubenstein and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.