Good comments about our hotel leh..
Hope their service will be as good during all our wedding dinner!
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A 'DAVID' TAKES ON THE BIG BOYS
Tuesday November 9, 2004
M Hotel gets picked best corporate hotel
Shobha Tsering Bhalla
[email protected]
IN a modern-day day corporate version of the David versus Goliath story, a low-key boutique hostelry has beaten some of Singapore's highest starred hotels to clinch a prestigious industry award.
The M Hotel Singapore was recently given the Best Corporate Hotel award at the Hospitality Asia Platinum Awards 2004-2005 Singapore Series, pipping at the post giants such as the Fullerton Hotel, the Four Seasons and the Conrad Centennial.
A visit to any of the superbly managed outlets at the avant-garde hotel is enough to convince you why the hotel has been so successful at a time when others are only just emerging from the economic depredations of the last two years.
Orders for tea and chicken pie take less than five minutes for delivery and are served with a panache that is reminiscent of the best French establishments.
But that is only to be expected of a hotel that has as its general manager the former head of that legendary epitome of luxury - the Ritz Hotel, Paris.
Sophistication is writ large in the contemporary metropolitan style and decor of the hotel and it is reflected in the service culture imparted by Mr John Roozemond, the M's Noel Coward-like boss who has been in the hospitality industry for 40 years.
The 413-room hotel is one of the first in Singapore to adopt a wireless network and, in line with its reputation as a state-of-the-art businessman's hotel, it will be installing a Bloomberg terminal in its lobby next week - a first here.
No wonder its occupancy rate during weekdays is well over 90 per cent and no wonder it has a return guest rate of 41 per cent - among the highest in the industry here.
"Even if you have the most opulent hotel, you still have to come down to one basic point: The customer comes first. That is paramount in this hotel," said Mr Roozemond.
The Dutch native, who joined the hotel industry in 1965, started working life in Europe's top hotels when they were at their luxurious peak and came to Asia just when the region's top hotel chains were being built.
Since 1969, he has worked all over Asia including the Middle East and Manila where he was the manager of the newly launched Century Park hotel, reporting directly to the country's most famous lady "boss" - Mrs Imelda Marcos.
This diverse experience has resulted in a management ethos that borrows the best from each hotel and moulds it to fit the needs of the guests and the business.
So, instead of the layers of management hierarchies typical of most brand name hotels, the 4-star M Hotel has a very flat management structure.
"I believe in empowering my staff so I don't have department heads or middle managers," explained Mr Roozemond. The manager of each outlet reports directly to the general manager, or "head coach".
The sporting analogy translates well among staff most of whom are young and highly motivated because the incentives are tangible and immediate: Cash vouchers, "step up" commendation cards and salary increments.
There are also "step down" cards but this is not to punish the staff.
"It tells you who are the ones seriously lacking in training or where we have made a hiring mistake. We never discard employees," said Mr Roozemond.
The upshot is that second chances are the norm and employees are given plenty of room for making mistakes and the blame game is shunned like a vice.
"The buck stops with me as the 'head coach'," he said.
Not only does this enlightened policy mean happy employees, it also means a better bottom-line.
"I save slightly over $40,000 a month with this system compared to the traditional style of top down management," said Mr Roozemond.
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