Hotel business booming due to free market

Hotel business booming due to free market

JAKARTA (JP): Isadore Sharp, the chairperson and chief executive officer of the Four Seasons and Regent Hotels and Resorts, was in the city recently for the gala opening of the Regent Jakarta.

Sharp opened the first of what has now become a chain of 38 hotels in 16 countries under the Four Seasons and Regent, in Toronto, Canada, in 1960.

Amid the tight schedule of his short visit, Sharp shared with The Jakarta Post his experiences and vision of the hotel industry.

Below are some excerpts from the interview:

Q: Back to the 1960s when you started Four Seasons, what did you imagine about your hotel at that time? About the future of your hotel?

Well, I wasn't thinking much on the future, I was thinking of that one hotel, so I wasn't thinking how it would work well. So, I had only one developer, one hotel, and one thought: concentration. I used to think a lot; you worked at it a long time. So the idea was the same, that is, to do something different. To do something well is pretty small. It's pretty hard to prove to people, to make them see or understand what you might represent, so you have to be different in a manner to which people will respond positively.

Q: At that time what was your concept of a hotel?

I had an idea to combine what was then the rage. The motel was a building of one or two stories, built on the outskirts of a city, so the motorists, travelers using a car, would holiday in it. It's actually how it started. It wasn't a very successful type of business. So I thought, why do that on a highway, why not do it right downtown? So I took the concept of combining the best a motel has to offer: middle access, informality, service that you'd ask for if you wish, but one that is not overbearing. A hotel which is conveniently located near businesses, the city. So it's the combination of these I called the motor hotel, the Four Seasons motor hotel. And because you need a lot of land to do that, and land downtown is usually very expensive, I went to the cheapest part of downtown where land is inexpensive. But it was on the wrong side of the tracks, so everybody looked at it and said "Who's gonna go there? This is a real slum area."

But I felt we could do something which was important enough to create our own image; it wouldn't be associated with its surroundings. So, it's all the principles of old Europe, where they used to build homes or a compound within a walled city. It was to protect people who lived inside from elements on the outside. So I took the same concept. I asked myself: Why don't we create a courtyard that all the rooms will face? We can control the environment and the outside wouldn't matter. You come into this building and you have the courtyard as your environment rather than the rough traffic on the street.

So that's what we did. We created a garden setting in the middle of the city, in the slum area. It was like a diamond in the rough, so extreme compared to that surrounding it. It was different but it was very pleasantly different. So it became successful. That was the beginning.

So I always use a lot of landscaping, natural materials, pleasant environment. That's what everybody likes. I don't know anybody who doesn't like to sit in a garden. No matter who you are, it will appeal.

Q: Do you still build your hotels with the same concept?

Same considerations, yes. Most of our hotels, no matter where they are, even in a city of nothing, no land, we would bring in a lot of flowers and plants, maintain that pleasant environment within the hotel. Sometimes we build a major area like this with its own garden. So, you're sitting in the garden lounge. The name garden lounge has been carried for many years in Four Seasons, it's a first start.

Q: You said that within the hotel it can be very pleasant, but outside it can be very rough. So, how can your hotel go along together with its surrounding?

For a hotel, the location is important. You want convenience to businesses you are trying to attract. So our hotels are usually convenient to business centers and business districts so that business travelers can have easy access. But also access to the part of the city where people like to visit, tourists for instance.

So you try to get a location which works for customers who come to the city for more than one reason. The architecture should suit the location. You build what will be apt. It has to complement the city, really, because you're part of the community. What you do should is add something to the city.

Q: But what kind of services will you offer? Because all the hotels boast that they emphasize service.

Yes, that's true, everybody does say so. But we cannot say it. We'd rather be judged on the experience, the result. The success of what we do at the Four Seasons and Regent is really based upon the people who produce the product. It is the quality of the service, our employees attitude, their enthusiasm and their honest concern for the customers.

We always want to make sure that every customer's experience is a pleasant one, a successful visit, and it needs everybody in this hotel to think that way and to commit to doing it. You can't possibly achieve good service without having everybody taking part. It's not only the people you meet, it's also the people whom you've never seen, because this hotel operates like an iceberg.

Most of the things that take place to make the customer's experience a successful visit happen behind the scenes. It's the preparation, the planning, the execution by many, many people. Most people who have to take the dish to the dish washer have to make sure that all the dishes are clean. So, everybody's mind has to be thinking. Everybody must not only work with their hands, but also with their heads.

That takes time. It takes time to bring people together, to hire the right people, to train the right people, to organize everybody to work as a smooth working team. When it happens you then have your customers getting a different experience. The beauty of it and the problem with it is that when it happens, you don't realize what you're getting. So you build this credibility not by what we say, but by perception.

Q: But how about the degree of trainability of the local people here, can they meet your standards?

Definitely. It's like two and two is four. There is no question about that. There is no question that the workforce here will meet the standards that are probably not the best in Jakarta but in international standards because we're competing against people traveling around the world.

So, we're not competing with what might be the best local competitors, we're competing at the Olympics, we're competing with the world's best. So, people here who have been hired and trained will reach and meet those standards.

Everywhere in the world there are workers who want to succeed. We create an environment which allows them to meet and reach their best selves. But we must work at that.

We had applicants from 22,000 people. The last 600 applicants were interviewed by five people at five different times, so you go through an interview process which is intended to explain to the people what is expected, to understand what it is they need to compliment, so it's the hiring process that you spend a great deal of time at.

Q: But what do you offer to them to make them commit themselves to all this?

An opportunity to succeed in their jobs and a work environment which respects them as people, respects them as individuals, treats them with respect and dignity. That deals honestly with their needs, in one simple statement: the company's culture.

We've written the principles as other companies, it's for them to read. But we base ourselves on a more profound statement. It's the golden rule: Do unto to others as you would have done unto to you. In fact, it's the only approach when dealing with people, whether they're your shareholders, partners, owners, your employee or employer.

You don't have to tell them much more than that because most people have the common sense to make that discrimination "What is it I should do?"

So, if you ask what we offer to these people, we offer them a challenge to be their best, to succeed and to have what they've decided they want. I don't know how much more people want. We pay them according to the market. The monetary reward has to be fair. But that's not why people want to work here. They can get a job here, but they can have a job elsewhere if it's only money, so there's more to it.

And the other part of the job that makes them want to do what I've described is all just a matter of time, in getting people to play a role in relationships. That's what it is, a series of relationships.

Q: How can you manage to provide personalized service in such a big hotel? A small hotel with, say 20 rooms, might do it easily, but this a big hotel.

No, we can handle it. Our hotels are built in order to be able to handle such services. You have to have staff available to do it. It is the way you organize the system. You must have the hotel staff organized in a manner which can always meet what you have said you can do. So our approach is to only talk about the things we can provide every time. So what you talk about, what you advertise, that is what you should do all the time. Our quality is to meet the customer's expectation every time, whatever it might be. In North America, the most successful fast food operator is McDonald's. It's the quality, because every time you go there you get exactly what you expect. It's not fine dining, but it's the quality. That's why I said it's what we talk about that you get every time.

Q: What's the future of the hotel industry and what kind of hotels will be needed in the future?

The industry is growing and will become bigger with the existence of the free market. You have to travel a lot and get to places to do business.

The hotel industry is growing, so you need accommodation for every level, you need the budget for inexpensive accommodation and you need the top accommodation for the international travelers whose time is valuable. For those we offer our services. They aren't for luxury, they are for purpose, so everything we do is for a purpose. Therefore, for a busy traveler, we believe it is something that will be appreciated.

Q: In Jakarta alone now there are maybe seven or more five- star hotels, how will you compete with them?

I think we will set a standard which will perhaps alter people's perception about five stars. We will be able to compete, and I think get a fair share of the market as we have done before. I'd much rather go into that situation, a city where a lot of businesses are, and compete for a share of it, rather than go to a place where there is no five-star hotel with nobody going there.

Q: There will be another resort hotel of Four Seasons Regent in Sentul, West Java, next year. Do you think it's viable?

Yes, we have run the same concept to that in Dallas, Texas, with resort and conference facilities. People go there for a convenient meeting. It's only a three-quarters-of-an-hour-drive or less to go there, in a conducive environment to hold a seminar for two or three days. In the weekends, you go there and you'll get exactly like if you travel six hours by plane: Golf, tennis, health club, beautiful environment. So you get a shorter vacation and business opportunity. So you get resort and business. You're not competing for people who travel to Jakarta for business for a day or two. You don't compete for them. They're not going to stay there.

So it's a good place to get away without having to take an airplane. (als)