"I am always happy to receive reviews as it affirms if how you feel about your hotel is true… or not. "
Recently I had a trip to Hunan Province in the middle of China. I made an interview with the Swiss hotelier Aref Sayegh at the InterContinental Changsha. Aref shared with me in detail about his passion in hospitality, his devotion to the Hotel, his view on the industry and much more. The following is the content of the exchange.
1. What do you do at the InterContinental Changsha?
I am the General Manager of this 396-room hotel, suites and rooms with balcony overlooking the famous Xiangjiang River. Changsha is the provincial capital of Hunan in central China. It has a population of around 10 million.
2. Tell us about your journey, how did it all start?
The thoughts of becoming hotelier started when I was around 6 or 7 years old. My father was going quite often on medical seminars throughout the world and used to take my mother, however when his trips were close to home and we had some vacation, he used to take the whole family.
I had the privilege to stay in very nice locations and hotels in Bath, Paris, Zurich, Vienna to name few. I remember when we stayed in Paris, we stayed at the InterContinental Paris in front of the Parc des Tuileries.
I spent hours in the lobby watching the ballet of all these Ladies and Gentlemen moving in harmony, while assisting, escorting, or answering guests. The environment was comforting even though the hotel was busy. This whole energy made me fall in love with this profession which became and is a passion.
3. What will you try to accomplish in this hotel?
This hotel has been established for 9 years. InterContinental Hotel Group, IHG, has taken the decision to build a strong Luxury and Lifestyle portfolio including Six Senses, Regent, InterContinental, Kimpton and Vignette to bring guest with a brand culture refreshment journey. So, we are now in a pivotal time to elevate the standards of this hotel even more than what they are. My team and I will be crafting an unforgettable experience for the leisure and the business guests choosing our property.
4. What made you decide to pursue a career in the hospitality industry?
As I insinuated earlier, the hospitality world fascinated me and I felt in love with the personal approach, the passion you could see in each and every one of the personnel while assisting guests. The hospitality is by definition an industry, but I would describe it as a world.
The beauty of hospitality is that you can take your luggage and move anywhere in the world and still deliver service to the guest in any country. I moved over 20 times in my career, and probably will move a little more. However, these experiences with the different languages, customs, weather, environment, make it so interesting.
You need flexibility in your mind and way to live and I believe this is why hoteliers are all young in their mind and body as we always must adapt to the geographical place, we are in.
5. Can you tell me about your first job in the hospitality industry?
Prior of considering leaving college for a vocational school, I spoke to my uncle about it, and he advised me to meet someone he knew so we could talk about hospitality. What I have retained about our conversation, was that when you work others play and enjoy the experience you are creating for them. So, I settled and started my culinary apprenticeship in Geneva Switzerland.
The apprenticeship in Europe is very popular as many young adults are passionate about a particular trade but really do not want to pursue college. This apprenticeship gives you the tools not only to become a professional but also to run your own business.
I started as a cook in a restaurant that became, while being an apprentice there, a one macaron Michelin. I loved being always under pressure but always well prepared and ensuring that my plates were looking perfect for the guest’s enjoyment. I understood then this was my calling.
6. What experience have you had in hotel industry?
My experience in hospitality has been diverse and all over the globe. I started as a cook, which pushed me to learn more with a lot of fun. I graduated, then, from the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne and moved to the US to complete a Master.
Once I obtained my Master in Philadelphia, I decided to look for opportunities in the field and grab what will be an amazing career start. I took on the Chef de Cuisine position at the Ritz-Carlton, Philadelphia. My Executive Chef André Halston was such an inspiration with always thinking about new ideas, a great communicator, coach and teacher.
The Ritz-Carlton took my journey from being a Chef, to Front Office, Housekeeping, Laundry, Room Director, F&B Director, Club Director and finally General Manager and due to the great training and experience I got from that, I was able to show my talent in other region of the globe and travelled to different opportunities.
I worked as Hotel General Manager for private Owners, as Worldwide Palace Manager for the Royal family of the United Arab Emirates, for a private clinic that was looking to enhance their patients experience, and back to the hotel world. I received a call from the COO of Kempinski Asia, Michael Henssler, who gave me the chance to move around China for six years which was an amazing experience.
I had two incredible opportunities during my Kempinski career, the first one was to be part of the opening of the NUO Resort at the Universal Studios Resort Beijing and the second one was to convert a hotel in Cancun Mexico.
7. What motivates you about working in hospitality?
Hospitality is a profession that you need to have in your blood. It is inexplicable. You come every day to create excellence, to deliver perfection, and craft a different experience for each guest by listening and anticipating their needs.
Hospitality is a teamwork; you need everyone to be a strong link so you can count on everyone to deliver a flawless journey for your guest in your hotel. It is magic.
8. Why do you want to be a manager for this hotel chain?
Being a manager for any company, you need to commit to teach, show, lead, and coach. Being a manager in a company means you live and breathe the vision, the mission, the values of this company.
At the InterContinental Hotel Group with the recently refocus on Luxury and Lifestyle for Six Sense, Regent, InterContinental, Kimpton and Vignette. The aim is to have amazing hotels in the Luxury and Lifestyle portfolio and be part of this new era is exciting, motivating and exhilarating. We want to inspire incredible.
9. How would you define the purpose of a hotel?
A hotel is a place where people gather to feel comfortable, taken care of and that everything is being ready for your different needs.
10. In your opinion, what factors contribute to excellent customer service?
Excellent customer service is hard to define as guests/customers are different from their origin, their experiences, their needs. For me, excellent service is when the anticipation of your needs is met, your wishes are fulfilled without expressing them, the service delivery is flawless.
11. What is your leadership style?
My leadership style is all about flexibility, ability to adapt myself to my audience.
As I mentioned I lived in many places and you need to acclimate to the surroundings, the custom, the region, the vision, etc. My personality is always driven by positivity, energy, trust, honesty, respect, integrity and from that derive my leadership while adapting myself to the Colleagues I lead.
12. What are your greatest strengths?
True Hospitality for Good. Genuine care and extreme passion for my team and my profession to create a brand new journey for both guest and associate, let them Live the InterContinental Life.
13. In your opinion, what is the most challenging aspect of a hotel manager’s job?
Dealing with crisis because you are never too ready to deal with crisis. Especially now with the media platforms and the speed of information, you have to be ready to react fast to the best of your ability.
14. Can you tell me about a time you worked collaboratively with staff members to improve hotel services?
I believe you do, you should do, that every day with your different teams to deliver IHG True Hospitality.
Every day when I walk the hotel from early morning 7am until later in the evening 8, 9, 10pm, you see things, or you get stopped by a Colleague who will share their thoughts and you listen, and you come together in finding a better way to service the guest or the employee’s ability to serve better the guest.
We are actually working as a think tank with cross functional teams to define lifestyle and how we can translate this to our guests throughout the hotel in the service, feel and environment. It is an eye opener for many Colleagues.
15. How would you motivate the staff of this hotel to try their very best, each day in work?
Our Colleagues are the most important asset to our hotel, with them we reach great heights, achieve goals to ensure our guests and owners are satisfied. So, motivating, the Colleagues is crucial for the hotel success.
The motivation comes from many factors, the communication should always be two ways, training is very important as our Team Members count on us to educate them by improving their skills, their knowledge so they fulfill their own dream.
In addition, I believe that activities that allow each and every one at the hotel to participate outside of work enhance the camaraderie, trust and teamwork. We have in our hotel an activity calendar that is published 10 -15 days prior of the beginning of the next month with all the activities available. This calendar is managed by our Human Resources department and our Training Manager. The activities require a sign up so we can anticipate the number of participants.
For September of IHG Giving for Good Month we had a basketball tournament, beautification of the employee entrance, lifestyle think tank, park cleanup besides the training classes that we do biweekly. This month is entitled “Inspire Incredible”.
16. Walk us through a typical day at work. How do you prioritize your tasks?
So, I wake up around 0400-0430 and get a work out in until 0600, once the work out completed, I walk the hotel public areas. Jump in the shower and start my day at 0700, pass by Symphony our breakfast restaurant, greet the Colleagues, inquire how they are doing, check the buffet, greet guests and continue to the front desk where I know they are happy to let me know what the occupancy of last night was (even though I know it as I received an automatic email) I act surprise and happy.
Walk the front door and get to my office where I write welcome cards, for VIPs, repeat guests, read and answer reviews, write thank you cards to colleagues who have been named in these reviews. Morning meeting is usually at 0900 and then the day can be following the schedule or getting out of hand due to an unscheduled visit or event. But the morning usually consists of couple one on ones with Executive members, check the finance, walk the hotel, speak to guests.
When lunch time starts, I walk the restaurants, speak to the chefs, servers, walk the hotel public areas and stop around 1:30pm for an espresso, I love my espresso in the afternoon.
In the afternoon, I meet with sales and marketing to look at the booking pace etc. Prior of getting back to my office around 3pm, I pass by the Club InterContinental to see how afternoon tea is going and talk to the team, then catch up on email and signature.
At 5pm I go back on the floor, walk the hotel and check the buffet, speak to the Colleagues. Around 5:30pm, we have a tradition at the InterContinental Changsha, the Executive team members come to the lobby, greet arrivals, departures, restaurant guests, direct guests, etc.
After that around 7pm, I usually go again in the restaurants to check their business with the manager before going back to my office, wrap things up and usually 8pm I do a last public area walk. Then get back to my apartment, jump in the shower, get comfy clothing, cook a nice dinner, reflect on the day, read, and fall asleep around 10:30-11pm.
17. What education have you received in hotel management and hospitality?
When I finished High School, I did a Chef’s School in Geneva Switzerland, graduated from the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne with a BA in Hotel and Restaurant, then completed my Master at St Joseph’s University in Philadelphia Pennsylvania.
18. Can you read financial statements?
That is something in my position, you should be very familiar with the figures and winning metrics as finance is crucial to managing a hotel.
19. Can you give me an example of a time in the last 12 months when you read something or took a class about hospitality?
I read everyday articles about trends, hotel concept, food and beverage concept. You have to keep yourself updated otherwise you will be obsolete.
20. What experience do you have with marketing and promotions?
You go to school to learn the basics, but the real experience is on the field. You gain experience in marketing and promotion every time you speak to colleague GMs, to your Sales and Marketing Director, when you see other hotels promoting or marketing their brand. I believe Marketing and Promotions evolve with the time as platforms, ways to communicate always progress.
21. Describe someone you coached or mentored. What were they doing initially and what are they doing now?
Great question, as I believe coaching and mentoring is your purpose as a leader.
At IHG, there is even a global mentoring initiative named RISE (Reach Inspire Support Empower) which is aimed to support the development of high caliber female colleagues who desire to become a hotel leader.
I have so many professionals who I coached and/or mentored who some have surpassed me, and they are in corporate roles for big companies. I love to see them when they announce, on LinkedIn, that they have been promoted to bigger and better. It would be unfair to choose one person. Some continued in the hospitality and are business owner, corporate figures, or leaders and others moved out of the hospitality business and are leaders and business owners too.
23. How will you react to a negative review or complaint from a guest(s) while staying at the hotel?
I am always happy to receive reviews as it affirms if how you feel about your hotel is true… or not. I take every review as a conversation with the guest that reviewed us but also the audience that is reading it. I answer all the reviews individually and put total focus on my answers.
The negative reviews are hard to take as I take everything personal. I am a driver and want to excel in anything I take on. So, I may read it couple times to ensure I understand. I sometimes have to research it as it could be an opportunity, we were aware of, or it is a complaint that was unresolved, or we were unaware.
I answer it with a lot of sincerity and hope that the guest reads it and understand we want the guest back to show that it should not happen.
24. Talk about a successful work project. What was your goal? What was the result?
In my previous company, we had a joint venture with Universal Studios and opened the Universal Studios Resorts Beijing. I was the GM of the NUO Resort. This was probably the biggest opening project that I was a part of.
We were thousands of team members in the whole resort, and we were all in sync. The amazing fact was that we were one, one team. We were like a big family and helped each other no matter where you worked in the park or in the hotel. I loved that feeling, because we knew we were all part of a big chain, and we were the link that made it work.
25. How would you deal with a difficult customer?
The statistics talk about 83% of guests agree that they feel more loyal to brands that responded and resolved their complaints.
I am open minded and know that we do unintentionally mistakes throughout the day. I ensure I sit with the guest in a quiet place so I can have my full attention, then listen carefully to the complaint without prejudging, ask questions if I am unsure, I understood, and produce a resolution with the guest’s assistance.
Once we agreed on the outcome, I usually double check and ask if the guest is fully satisfied. I then follow up throughout their experience with us, without hovering over them, how their stay is going.
26. What attractions would you recommend to guests?
I would recommend to walk the old streets of Changsha, Tianxinge, Duzheng Street, or Baiguo Garden.
27. How do you stay current with industry trends?
Read, e-learning, go to conference, speak to professional, meet guests, speak/teach in schools.
28. What do you see yourself in 5 years？
Continue to do what I love to do and inspire incredible.
29. What are some of the news trends the hotel is witnessing?
Some trends are what hospitality should be like but come as trends customization, personalization of service, cleanliness. But sustainability as IHG Green Engage, technology, AI, smart rooms are a little more obvious.
However, our guests want to be part of the environment of the destination they choose. They want to experience the local places, even the environmental aspect of the location (turtle nesting, bird watching, beach cleaning, farming, etc.).
In additional, global impact like remote work, economic concerns, global tourism are subjects that interpellate every hotelier mind.
30. What are your interests outside of work?
IHG Mywellbeing advocates well-balance working and family. Work out, read, cook, play basketball with the hotel team, discover new places, go and visit my kids as well as siblings and parents.
Call or book online
InterContinental Changsha (ihg.com)
1500 Xiangjiang North Road, Kaifu District, Changsha Hunan 410000 China
