Page 84 - MYCONIAN COLLECTION MAG 2021

heritage
besides a few visitors, the island was a well-guarded
secret during the Sixties.
private villas, the island was a well-guarded secret before the yachts and
cruise ships of the Sixties began to drop anchor on their way to view
PAST LIFE
Mykonos during George Daktylides’s the magnificent ancient ruins of Delos. Onassis and Jackie O were
youth was very different from that of followed by Princess Soraya, Grace Kelly, Brando and Liz Taylor, to
today. The island ran a barter economy mention but a few, and Christian Dior famously crowned the town’s
well into the Fifties.
tailor, Josef Salachas “le roi du pantalon” [“the king of trousers”],
inspiring Givenchy to collaborate on a couture collection. The secret
was out, and close on its heels came the boho chic of the Seventies.
George Daktylides was a handsome young man in a hurry when he
married the beautiful young Eleftheria from Delos. On completing
his military duty, he had returned home with big dreams. He drove
a bus that carried men and materials from town to the barite mines,
and soon convinced his brothers to invest with him in a vehicle of
their own. Before long, they were operating the only public transport
on the island, with a fleet of twenty-five buses on which the four
boys cut their commercial milk teeth. “As kids, we sold tickets on
our dad’s buses, which was a little boy’s dream”, says Markos.
Concurrently, George started trading in cement, bricks and sand
that he was hauling to the mines and construction sites, and for ten
years mixed concrete and brought in coils of rebar used for structural
reinforcement. “I can still remember the ringing sound of both of my
grandfathers hammering to uncoil the steel just below our house.
Everything was done by hand.”
Tourist accommodation on the island had grown modestly with the
state-funded construction and informal room and board offers, but
demand from visitors drawn to experience the warm hearts, rich
culture and exceptional hospitality of the locals continued to grow. It
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was not uncommon for cash-strapped backpackers in the Eighties to
be invited to open up their sleeping bags on private terraces under the
stars. So, with his burgeoning contacts in trading and construction,
George decided to undertake a development of his own, seeing an
opportunity to build the first hotel on Mykonos outside of town.
Marios recounts: “He came home one day on a Caterpillar that he’d
picked up second-hand, and it remained his favourite set of wheels
long after he could have any car he wanted.” The well-worn but solid
920 four-cylinder diesel loader went on to dig the foundations of his
first four hotels, starting with the 25-room Kohili in 1979. Set high
above town and looking directly onto the seven famous 16th century
windmills, the charming little hotel commanded sweeping views of BROTHERS IN TIME
the Aegean by day and the glittering spectacle of the town by night. George’s sons, remain as close to Mykonos today as they were as children: ˝There was
Kohili was the first private hotel on Mykonos outside Chora, and an never a question in our minds whether this was what we wanted to do˝.
instant hit, followed by Korali a year later to double the room count.
Their success was built on the back of hard work. Eleftheria made
breakfast for all the guests and did the housekeeping and laundry,
as well as providing meals for the 40 construction workers who were Villas, Utopia and Avaton. Throughout this time, the Collection
busy erecting the new hotel. She was also raising four sons, and never lost the sense of family and organic growth. Informed by
somehow still found the time to take her boys for a daily swim. “I can the family’s managerial and operational philosophy, it pervades
still smell the cake she baked for the hotel in our kitchen”, Vangelis the relationships between the Daktylides family, the island and the
recalls. “She gets emotional when we talk about those times... My staff – and flows into guests’ experience of warm and personalised
parents would sacrifice anything to create opportunities for us. Dad service, as well as the privileged relationships that discreetly open
worked from morning to night and invested all the profits back into doors to the island’s best suppliers and services. The family remains
the business. My mother had one good pair of Sunday shoes which firmly rooted in Mykonos. Their children go to school on the island.
she would only wear before walking into church”. And their dedication to give back to the island finds expression in
The personal touch and attention to detail that to this day defines the environmental conservation initiatives, local sourcing and consistent
Myconian Collection inspired a loyal clientele and a reputation that support to the Cycladic communities: Waste is recycled, worn linen
spread by word of mouth. Six years later, Kyma and Kalypso joined is donated to old age homes, prisons and monasteries in the Cyclades,
Kohili and Korali to form what became known as K-Hotels. In 1986, seawater is desalinated.
in anticipation of growing demand for luxury destinations, George Even nowadays, five years after stepping down as CEO, George
purchased a plot on the south coast, above the bay of Platys Gialos Daktylides remains a busy man. His way of relaxing is getting
and built the island’s first 5-star hotel, the Myconian Ambassador involved in the new projects, as well as making sure that all nine
Relais & Ch�teaux. grandchildren have a steady supply of “real” food. He does his
“By then, my parents had realised that we needed an education in rounds to every home once a week in a Toyota Hilux, with trays of
international management”, says Vangelis. All four sons attended farm eggs on the passenger seat and home-bred lamb and goat meat
in turn the premier establishment of its kind, the world-renowned in the back, as well as cheese and cake made by Eleftheria. “As you
hotel school in Lausanne. “There was never a question in our minds see, I’ve got my retirement sorted out”, says Vangelis. “And it’s a
whether this was what we wanted to do”. Once all four brothers good thing that we are four brothers, because our parents’ shoes
were back on the island, they were ready for a new challenge: the are very big to fill”.
conquest of Elia bay. If the seaside beaches around the peninsula “Someone once asked me what advice our parents gave us along
are the golden crown of Mykonos, few are said to gleam as brightly the way. My answer was short: they led by example. In French, I
as the broad swathe of fine sand on the south side of the island. believe there is a term for it, “l’�ducation silencieuse”. We are each
So, in securing the most scenic cliffs and gentle slope of fields that other’s most honest critic, and we are loyal allies. When we balance
joined them with the ocean, the family acquired the perfect setting the pragmatic demands of a competitive business with deeply rooted
for the new stars in the Myconian Collection’s luxury constellation: emotions, we’re not just planning for the financial year, but also for
the 5-Star Royal in 2000 and the Imperial in 2002, followed by the the next generation”.
The personal touch and attention to detail that to this day
defines the Myconian Collection inspired a loyal clientele
and a reputation that spread by word of mouth.
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