The Mrs behind the Mr & Mrs Smith travel website and hotel booking service is put under the Spear’s microscope
Tamara Lohan
The Mrs behind the Mr & Mrs Smith travel website and hotel booking service is put under the Spear’s microscope
Q. What would your other career be?
A. A fighter pilot.
Q. Who is your greatest influence?
A. My mother — she teaches me to be calm and unfazed by what life throws at me.
Q. What is your biggest fear?
A. My children being unhappy.
Q. What is missing in the world?
A. Guilt-free time off.
Q. A year from now, the UK economy will be…
A. …essentially the same as it is now, unfortunately.
Q. Is business a pleasure?
A. 99.9 per cent of the time.
Q. How many assistants do you have?
A. None.
Q. Who makes your shirts?
A. Rocky, a tailor in Hong Kong.
Q. Philanthropy should be…
A. …applied with diligence and sincerity.
Q. My business mantra is…
A. Don’t be afraid to give it a try.
Q. Who do you have on speed-dial?
A. All my family and my technical director.
Q. Which watch do you wear?
A. Cartier.
Q. Where do you summer?
A. Ibiza — I grew up there.
Q. Favourite hotel suite?
A. There are too many: the all-white room at Blakes, the 360°-view Penthouse at the Hotel on Rivington in New York, the open-air suites at Jade Mountain, St Lucia…
Q. What is your guilty pleasure?
A. Salt.
Q. When I drive, I drive…
A. …to get from A to B.
Q. Money lets me…
A. …not worry about money.
Q. My greatest success in business was…
A. …having the courage to build our own in-house booking platform.
Q. My greatest failure in business was…
A. …not doing it earlier.
Q. Where are you right now?
A. At my desk at Smith HQ in Chiswick.
Q. Which restaurant is indispensable?
A. My local Italian, La Tarantella, does consistently great pasta and pizza. I could eat there every day.
Q. Where in the world are you happiest?
A. Barefoot, in the sunshine, by the sea.
Q. How did you earn your first pay cheque?
Q. Matchmaking for my mother’s dating agency.
Q. To me, wealth means…
A. …wellbeing, which is the meaning of the Old English word it came from.
Q. Spear’s is sharp and to the point. I am…
A. …driven and curious.
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