In between evening walks, painting and writing, I’ve been preparing the content for our first WIT Hospitality conference in Hong Kong on March 22.
WIT Hospitality is our first deep dive into the hotel sector. Photo credit: iStock
It’s our first hospitality-focused event and we really want to do a deep dive into the issues that are holding back hoteliers from fully embracing digital. It’s a subject close to my heart and one I spend much time mulling over and trying to understand.
So lots of conversations over coffee and email exchanges and in fact, in late January, I facilitated the first WIT Hospitality Thinktank in Singapore, attended by about 20 industry leaders and experts, and a summary report from that half-day brainstorm is being prepared in time for Hong Kong – it contains recommendations and identifies opportunities for the industry at this most fluid of times.
It was a good exercise in sharpening my thoughts for the Hong Kong event.
Angelini: “Money never sleeps and neither do hotels”
Today, I exchanged ideas with Giovanni Angelini, chairman of Angelini Hospitality, who’s one of our featured speakers. He’s one of the key mentors in my life – a hotelier I respect but mostly a great human being I have deep affection for. I’ve known him since he started his hotel career in Asia in Seoul, and seen him rise to leadership roles at Westin and Shangri-La, and now he works in advisory capacity to hotel groups in the region.
He sent me a document he’s been working on, it’s like a reflection of his thoughts on the industry – I know he won’t mind me sharing this with you – but one sentence piqued my interest.
It said, “Hotels are like sovereign territories, with their own rules, regulations, terminology, behaviors, handling of people, service etc. They are, in fact, bizarre places where you can also find diversion, mystery and suspense.
“Money never sleeps and neither do hotels.”
I like that. The hotelier’s job is to let his guests sleep in peace while he lies awake at night, thinking of RevPAR and, well, clean marble floors among other things.
Then he goes on to question if hospitality is “a sitting duck industry”? He argues that “changes, innovation and digital disruption are everywhere but the hotel industry is not responding as fast as it should” and it is losing ground.
“The duck (hotel) has to get much smarter, become ‘invisible or hide from the shooters/sharks’ if he wants to survive. The industry will be facing much skinnier ducks, the weak ones will be swallowed.”
After reading this, I asked him if he would speak to the topic of “How to reboot and not be a sitting duck” and so now he’s busy preparing for his talk. He’s also given us permission to share a section of his report with delegates after the event.
Angelini, with his vast experience especially in dealing with hotel owners, will bring a healthy dose of realism to our discussions and, at the same time, share what is possible despite the challenges facing the industry.
Putting together the other sessions has also been interesting – there’s one I am particularly looking forward to and that’s the “Customer Love” panel where we will ask travellers about what they want from hotels and why they prefer alternative accommodation. (You can view the programme here)
What can hotels do that the likes of Airbnb can’t? That’s the key question to answer when faced with big competitors – don’t do what they do, do what they cannot do.
Anyway, lots more exchanges with speakers, lunches with moderators and briefings with panelists to do over the next three weeks as we gear up for our first deep dive into hospitality. We promise we will not duck (pardon the pun) the real issues.
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