For Efrem Harkham, owner of the Luxe Rodeo Drive and the Luxe Sunset Boulevard, living the “Luxe” life is about cultivating the best possible opportunity.
As a successful hotelier currently at the forefront of a meaningful brand expansion, Harkham understands deeply the inherent possibility of business – and it’s a journey he wants to share with others.
“From one light, you can light another candle, and it does not take away from the original light,” he philosophizes.
Part memoir, part practical business how-to guide, Harkham’s first book, “Living the Luxe Life,” which was co-written by Mark Bego, offers an authentic entry into this Beverly Hills resident’s true rags to riches American Dream story.
From setting daily goals to “living” his four-step process at each interaction (Listen; Acknowledge; Elaborate; Repeat), Harkham developed a way of being that allowed him to make connections and foster relationships. Published by Skyhorse Publishing, the book also offers the brush strokes for building a successful business.
Next month, on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2020, at the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce, Harkham will celebrate the book launch with
the community starting at 6 p.m. Proceeds from the sale of “Living the Luxe Life” will be donated to the Hark Angel Foundation, which builds schools in impoverished countries.
Shy and outwardly private, with a drive to make the world a better place, Harkham said he used his 60th birthday as a catalyst to share his life story, including what he has done via the expanding Luxe Collection.
Today, Harkham’s boutique hotel sales and marketing company represents a collection of over 70 hotels around the world, including the recently branded Luxe Rose Garden Hotel in Rome. The forthcoming Luxe Life Hotel is slated to open early next year in mid-town Manhattan, New York.
“I got the hospitality bug [and] I realized that hospitality was my calling,” Harkham told the Courier.
A child of the Middle East who was born in Israel five years after his parents left Iraq for Israel in 1951, hospitality runs through Harkham’s blood. His father, who passed away this year, met Harkham’s mother on a pilgrimage to see the tomb of the prophet Ezra. Harkham’s parents fell in love sometime between his father’s arrival in Al-Uzair, a city in Iraq located on the western shore of the Tigris, and his father’s soon-to-be bride serving him tea, the daughter of the family tasked with taking care of the tomb. However, it wasn’t until Harkham purchased his first hotel property at the age of 27 that he truly began to live his legacy.
Following success in the fashion industry in both Australia and Los Angeles, which made him a millionaire by the age of 21, in 1983 Harkam purchased both a home in Beverly Hills and the Bel-Air Sands Hotel, which he later renamed Luxe Sunset Boulevard. After opening the Luxe Rodeo Drive 25 years ago, Harkham became steadily more active in the community.
In addition to having now been a member of the Rodeo Drive Committee for a quarter of a century, Harkham has also spent the past decades forming partnerships with local schools and charities. And for the past 15 years the Luxe Sunset Boulevard ballroom has served as a polling place, with Harkam offering complimentary yoga, sustenance and other amenities to make it one of the preferred voting spots.
“Happiness is a big deal. There is no stopping a happy employee,” he said. “Hospitality is contagious.”
For more information or to RSVP to attend the upcoming local launch next month, email Sarah Clark at sarah.clark@ luxehotels.com. Reception begins at 6 p.m. with a presentation set for 7 p.m.
