A former workers’ holiday camp turned hotel
Quinta do Mar covers 6.7 hectares of pine forest on the clifftops above Praia Grande, in the heart of the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park, some thirty kilometres from Lisbon. The site comprises eighteen buildings from the 1950s designed by the architect António Lino. It is the former Colónia de Férias da CUF, the holiday camp that Companhia União Fabril, one of Portugal’s oldest industrial conglomerates, reserved for its workers and their families.
Listed as a national monument, the complex has stood empty for thirty years. The restoration intervenes as little as possible in the existing fabric and retains the original volumes. The former dormitories are being converted into rooms and suites of 22 to 88 m². Each has its own outdoor entrance and most have a private garden terrace. A new pavilion in steel and green glass will house the spa, with a 25-metre indoor pool and treatment rooms at basement level.
The project is backed by a joint venture between Patron Capital, a pan-European real estate investor, and Quest Capital. The Lisbon-based investment firm has also partnered with Tikehau Capital to launch the Selecto hotel platform in Spain and Portugal. Operations have been entrusted to Vertiq Hospitality Partners, the entity created in spring 2026 through the merger of Cycas Hospitality with its parent company Vertiq Capital. Cycas signed the management agreement in February 2025, marking its first foothold in Portugal.
A pre-opening starting from scratch
Thierry Henrot is steering the entire project through the critical pre-opening phase, which involves 2,942 tasks spread across 23 departments. His remit also includes an audit of variances against the approved pre-opening budget and the recruitment of a complete operational team, on a rural site some distance from the city.
The operating model must work within the constraints of a listed monument and a protected landscape. The sustainability programme targets day-to-day operations, not just the construction phase. Organic waste will be composted to feed on-site crops and water will be recycled. Eucalyptus and invasive species are giving way to stone pines, oaks, fig trees and cork oaks as part of a rewilding approach to the site.
Writing on LinkedIn, the hotelier explains that a pre-opening role is the only one in the industry where the building, the team and the culture all start from zero on the same day. He says he accepted the assignment fully aware of how demanding it would be, having opened hotels before. (source: LinkedIn)
Seven years at the helm of the Sheraton Lisboa
Between May 2019 and September 2026, Thierry Henrot led the Sheraton Lisboa Hotel & Spa, the third-tallest building in Lisbon, through the pandemic and the recovery that followed. Between 2019 and 2025, revenue grew by 19%, driven by a 34.9% rise in average daily rate. Over the same period, GOP increased by 27.2%, with the margin up 2.9 points to 45.6%, and EBITDA rose by 23.1%. Occupancy fell by 3.8 points, a deliberate trade-off in favour of rate and margin.
Over the same period, employee engagement rose by 17 points to 89%. The hotel earned Great Place to Work, Green Key and Biosphere certifications, as well as the Marriott Award of Excellence for Culture. Five new food and beverage concepts were created, including one on a former outdoor car park. Together, they generate an additional €1.2m in annual revenue.
Since January 2024, he has also chaired Marriott International’s Portugal Business Council. The network brings together 24 hotels across 15 brands, representing 4,747 rooms in the country.
From Lisbon to Paris and London
Thierry Henrot began his career behind the bar of the Sheraton Park Tower in London in 1997. He moved to Brazil in 2001 before returning to Europe five years later. He then became Director of Food & Beverage in Porto, before transferring to Lisbon as Executive Assistant Manager at the Sheraton Lisboa Hotel & Spa.
In 2011, he moved to Paris as Hotel Manager of Le Méridien Étoile, a post he held until 2015. He then took over as General Manager of the Sheraton Skyline Hotel at London Heathrow, a 350-room property, before returning to Lisbon in 2019. He holds the Master Certificate in Hospitality Management from Cornell University and completed its General Managers Program in 2017. That same year, he was awarded a Master Innholders scholarship. A quarter-century career spent entirely within Marriott!
Our view – For Vertiq, which has since signed the future Hyde & Seek Hotel in London under Tribute Portfolio, Quinta do Mar is its first asset in Portugal. Entrusting this opening to a general manager who has spent more than seventeen years in Lisbon’s hotel industry and who leads the local Marriott network gives the operator an on-the-ground knowledge of the country that it did not yet have.
At a glance by The Hospitality Tribune
Thierry Henrot appointed Pre-Opening General Manager of Quinta do Mar, Autograph Collection (Sintra)
89-key nature hotel and spa in a listed 1950s holiday camp by António Lino, closed for 30 years
Owned by a Patron Capital / Quest Capital JV, operated by Vertiq Hospitality Partners
Pre-opening critical path: 2,942 tasks across 23 departments, team built from scratch
Previously GM of Sheraton Lisboa Hotel & Spa (2019-2026): GOP up 27.2%, GOP margin at 45.6%
