Prices of stays in some of its properties went up by as much as 30pc in the last quarter of 2021, while food and drink prices moved 5 to 10pc higher.
Jones shrugs off the question of whether it will mean some potential members are simply priced out.
“We care deeply about the fact that our house is for everyone,” he says. “It doesn’t matter where you come from, what social background you come from, what job you have, what salary you have. We are very careful about our memberships. We have local memberships which are considerably less, under 27 memberships, fellowship memberships.”
For a local membership, which lets people visit one of the clubs, it is around £700 a year.
Soho House is “very aware of what’s going on in the world”, adds Jones. “We’re aware that the cost of living is going up. We see it ourselves every day in running our houses. This is a business which has been going for 27 years. We’ve seen many examples of what’s going on at this precise moment, and what we always find is members really hold on to their memberships and use them in different ways.”
The business is “very respectful about what we pass on to our members,” he stresses. “The advantage of opening more houses is we can buy better and we have more effective buying power. So it’s an everyday thing we’re always looking at. It’s challenging at the moment, on inflation, on staffing, on all of these issues.”
For Soho House, which has locations from Barcelona to Mumbai and Hong Kong, recruiting talent is something that will only become more important as it pushes ahead with expansion plans.
It is hiring for 250 roles, with plans to open nine more houses globally this year, including the recently-launched beachside location in Brighton.
Jones, who lives in Oxfordshire, brushes off concerns from some members that it is turning into something of a “Patisserie Valerie” and springing up on every corner.
“London is a very big place. There’s what, nine million people? We’ve got very few houses for nine million people,” he says.
“A lot of our members love to see houses in different parts of Britain just as they say they want to see different houses. Our American members want to see them in different cities in America.”