Tews’ latest projects developing nicely

MALCOLM and Pauline Tew joke that they have the perfect combination of brains and brawn, combining 50 years of experience in international tourism and hospitality between them.

Through their companies - hotel operation Myhotel and tourism-development arm Jewel Hospitality - the husband and wife team has been behind some of the state's most recognisable tourist businesses.

The working relationship appears seamless - Mrs Tew runs the property development side, managing projects from inception to full operation, while her husband, a former builder, handles the day-to-day operation of the hotels.

Mrs Tew has been project manager and consultant on a number of major redevelopments, including the Margaret River Hotel, Rottnest Lodge Resort, Quest Margaret River, Bunker Bay Resort and Smiths Beach resort, as well as bars and restaurants including the Left Bank.

Most recently, the Tews were the driving force behind West Perth boutique hotel, The Outram.

They bought the property and developed The Outram from the ground up, influenced by the club-style hotels of Europe, which were all about the experience for high-yield clientele.

The 18-room hotel was a ground-breaking property on Perth's hotel scene and was the first, and still the only, hotel awarded membership to the Small Luxury Hotels of the World group.

Mrs Tew said clients took some time to get used to the hotel's highly personalised style.

"We had to teach our guests how to behave. I would often have to tell them to pretend they were at home," she said. "It's what I trained in, it's all I know."

The couple sold the hotel to the Wyndham Group last year to focus on the development of their two South West properties - the Smiths Beach Resort, opened in December 2007, and the Injidup Spa Retreat, which opened in March this year.

Both properties have also been inducted into the Small Luxury Hotels group, which Mrs Tew sees as an important part of branding.

"We want to portray ourselves globally, not just in WA, we want to be the face for WA globally," she said.

But their Smiths Beach resort development has proved more problematic for the couple.

Mr Tew said the pair has been trying to distance their resort from the 'other' Smiths Beach development, now called Smiths Point, which was targeted for investigation by the Corruption and Crime Commissions for its dealings with lobbyists Brian Burke and Julian Grill.

But, they say, the similar name means the two completely unrelated developments are ultimately being tarred with the same brush.

"We've got nothing to do with that development. It's affecting us dramatically," Mr Tew said.

"It's people's perception of it...people don't want to support that kind of thing."

"We can try our best to try and tell people, we're putting banners on our website soon." Mrs Tew added. "It's affected us globally."

Mrs Tew is also bringing her expertise to two new tourism projects being planned for the South West.

The first is the Clairault Estate Spa Resort, a vino spa tourism development being undertaken by Clairault owners the Martin family and architect Jean-Mic Perrine, designer of the Perrinepod concept.

The second is the redevelopment of the Karri Valley Resort by Sime Darby, which was also behind the redevelopment of Quest Margaret River.

The masterplan for the 118-hectare parcel of land is expected to include a resort and a residential component.