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)