Crowded houses
Some iconic Soho House locations are getting even more exclusive in 2024, with Houses in New York, Los Angeles, and London all announcing that they’d be halting admittance to new members in the new year.
Soho House & Co, the company behind the buzzy members-only clubs (which can cost up to $5k to get into), is introducing the measures to combat overcrowding in British and American branches, as the number of people on the SHCO waitlist hit ~98,000 last quarter, a record high for the company.
Worldwide exclusivity
The original House opened almost 29 years ago in (somewhat unsurprisingly) London’s fashionable Soho area, where it quickly became a favorite haunt of creative types looking for a place to relax, have fun, and meet like-minded people. Back then, under the stewardship of founder Nick Jones — who broke the new member news to current Housers via email on Friday — the company counted just 500 members... though it’s certainly grown a lot in the years since.
While memberships to Soho Houses around the world, of which there are now more than 40, have grown 73.5k since the business went public in 2021, the company’s efforts to diversify the sort of membership it offers have also proved successful. Indeed, its popular Soho Friends membership — which offers discounted rates at Houses and other member-only perks — was up more than 260% in Q3 from the same period in 2021, helping revenues soar to record highs in each of the last 2 quarters.
