Markos Chaidemenos of Canaves Collection on Family Leadership, Nature, and Sustainability

Canaves Collection is a family owned luxury hospitality group rooted in Santorini, with a portfolio built around the island’s dramatic caldera views, volcanic landscape, and the intimacy of boutique scale. In this Brand Insiders conversation, CEO Markos Chaidemenos explains how Canaves began as a family business back in 1983 and why, even as the brand has evolved, it remains anchored in people, place, and a service culture that prioritises real warmth over performance.

He argues that Greek hospitality is not a script. Greek people are the very center of Greek hospitality, Chaidemenos says, describing it as the whole character, the whole behavior, the whole Mediterranean temperament. That human centre of gravity also defines how the company operates internally. We are the epitome of a family-owned, family-run business, he says, which shapes decision making, leadership, and the long view needed to protect a destination brand like Santorini.

Why Santorini demands a different kind of luxury

Santorini is not a blank canvas. It is a destination with sharp edges, strict practical constraints, and an environment that can overwhelm design if it is handled carelessly. Chaidemenos frames luxury as something that must sit lightly in the landscape. I think that this is true luxury, he says, to be in an environment not only with the view and the design, but to be in an environment of nature.

That belief comes through most clearly in the newer Canaves Epitome story. He points to its landscaping and materials choices, including volcanic stone, as part of a wider ambition to create an experience that feels grounded in the island, not imported onto it.

Boutique scale as an operating advantage

Throughout the interview, Chaidemenos makes a consistent point: the emotional quality of a stay is a function of proximity, between teams and guests, and between decisions and outcomes. Boutique scale makes that possible. It also makes accountability unavoidable, which he considers a strength. In a market where many luxury experiences risk becoming interchangeable, Canaves aims to remain recognisable through consistency and human connection.

Sustainability that guests feel, and sustainability that guests never see

Chaidemenos distinguishes between sustainability as an aesthetic and sustainability as infrastructure. On one side is what the guest perceives in the calmness of the built form. When it comes to building there is what you see and there is also what you do not see, he says. For Canaves Epitome, the visible goal was optical silence, so the architecture blends into the environment with no interruptions in the scenery.

On the other side are investments that sit behind the walls. He describes new expensive sometimes technologies that support efficient operations, including coatings, pool heating, water systems, and energy use. He also notes practical standards, such as reducing plastic and improving waste discipline. For Chaidemenos, the credibility of a luxury brand increasingly depends on this second layer, the part that guests may not immediately notice, but will feel through comfort, reliability, and the brand’s long term fit with its environment.

The through line

If there is one thread that ties the conversation together, it is restraint. Restraint in scale, restraint in design, restraint in how the brand expresses luxury, and discipline in the operational systems that make an island stay feel effortless. In Chaidemenos’ view, Canaves Collection earns loyalty by aligning the visible story with the invisible work, then delivering both with consistency.