In Asia, many hotel owners are starting to transfer the authority to their sons and daughters. How will younger-generation hotel owners in the region shape the industry? Raini Hamdi talks to one of them and glimpses a different energy and perspective
Vitanart Vathanakul, Executive director
Royal Cliff Hotels Group & PEACH, Pattaya, Thailand
Are you and your brother now running the business completely?
Mum (Panga Vathanakul) has taken the MD/chairman position. Think of it as a football team – I’m the striker and my brother (Vathanai Vathanakul, 36, vice president) is defence.
Our responsibilities are clearly defined: I look after sales and marketing, business development and investment. My brother looks after operation, service, maintenance, engineering, etc. Sometimes there are overlaps of course. For example, if we’re building a new restaurant or improving on our design, I would give inputs based on market feedback, recruit a designer, then my brother would take over the responsibility for the contractors, engineers, etc.
So where’s mum in the football field?
She’s the coach, the manager. She also plays as well, in fact sometimes she comes in as the striker. My mum has always been a hands-on kind of person and has always taught us that, as owners, we can’t just stand back and let the GMs do their thing. We’re owner-managers, so we’re very involved in the day-to-day management, sales, reservations and so on.
Why are you the striker and your brother, defender?
My strengths are in presentation and sales skills. I enjoy meeting people. I’m energetic and an extrovert. My brother enjoys sales too and he’s not an introvert, but he prefers not to travel too much. He likes the service and operation part of the business.
It’s funny: growing up, I was actually shy and an introvert. For some reason, this changed as I grew. I’m still shy at heart though.
Are you close to your brother and do you both work well together?
Oh yes, he’s supportive. I’m blessed to have him as a brother. He’s the trailblazer for me; he led the way for many things in my life. I studied in the UK because he went there first when he was 11 and told me how great it was; that it wasn’t just the excellent education but learning multiple skills, sports, making friends from all over the world, understanding different cultures. I went when I was eight.
You’ve been in the role for three years now. Is it hard being back?
Yes, the transition was quite challenging. My education was not in hotels at all. I graduated in electronics engineering from Cambridge (UK) and my master’s degree was in physics.
Do you want to be a hotelier?
I always wanted to be a hotelier, but I always enjoyed those subjects – maths, science, technology – and my parents let us do what we wanted in college/university; we just had to make sure it was a proper subject, challenging and taught us analytical thinking. So when I chose electronics engineering, they said that’s fine, you could use the math skills and apply that to the business environment. I chose physics for my master’s because studying science in Cambridge was a dream.
How is the transition challenging?
When I came back, it was quite difficult to acclimatise in all sense of the word.
I have to use different skills now. While analytical skills still apply in decision-making, people skills are definitely needed. The biggest challenge is managing your team.
I also need multi-tasking and prioritising skills. Every day in a hotel is different.
Another challenge is delegating and trusting because I want to do everything myself. But sometimes, you have to say to the team, ‘help me with this’, and monitor their progress. It’s a steep learning curve.
So what’s the biggest strike you’ve made to date?
The biggest thing I did was set up our Internet marketing team. It was an area we lacked. Of course our sales managers were developing OTA distribution, but I needed fresh eyes to look at this in totality. I needed the young generation who is experienced in digital marketing to look at social media, OTAs, search engine optimisation, website optimisation, email marketing – the whole arena. My team of 12 staff in this department is the youngest in the whole Royal Cliff.
Our online sales rose in the first year by 30 to 40 per cent. I remember we had K-pop idols staying here in (January) 2011. Once we knew there were going to be over 20 bands, with the most famous K-pop stars coming over, we marketed it through social media. Within five hours of announcing it to the online community, we had over 500 rooms booked. I had to go to the reservations room and told the staff to relax – he was so tired because the phone calls kept coming in. Our fan base was 1,000. By the end of the K-pop programme, it was 5,000.
I think I’ve put in more youthfulness into Royal Cliff. When I came in, I also initiated projects such as our new restaurant right on the beach, Breezeo, and its ‘be yourself’ dining with fun things like a menu of over 100 cocktails. If you don’t like the 100 cocktails, there’s also a menu where you can create your own cocktail, choose your own liqueur, glassware, decoration, even ice.
I always emphasise the importance of creativity, being adventurous and taking risks.
“The younger-generation owners are very driven. We want to do a lot in a short time.”
And what’s a big mistake that you’ve learnt from?
Once, we had a lot of requests from bloggers to review the Royal Cliff. I declined them and I regret it to this day. I didn’t think I could get the best ROI from it. Some also felt the way I declined was rude, though I’m never rude to anyone. I learnt from that mistake, redeemed the relationship and they all came back.
I also can get impatient with business partners and we have unnecessary arguments. But I’ve learnt to be more patient.
Do you now see a younger-generation clientele at Royal Cliff?
Yes, we’re trying to tap the younger generation. I had a problem in that a lot of them felt Royal Cliff was unreachable – ‘a five-star plus product for my parents’. We’re saying, no, this is for young, sophisticated business travellers or for people who want to reward themselves and their families, and that it is reachable.
We’ve done a major rebranding exercise, from Royal Cliff Beach Resort to Royal Cliff Hotels Group, to emphasise that we have four different hotel products, one convention centre and 11 restaurants. And far from just a name change, we followed through with a one billion baht renovation and an investment on human resource training.
Do you meet other young hotel owners and how are you all different from the older generation?
Oh yes, there are lots of them in Bangkok and Pattaya. The younger generation is starting to take over from their parents. I studied with some of them and we now exchange notes.
In Pattaya, we meet for dinner sometimes, exchange ideas and do partnerships as well. I don’t see them as competitors. If I’m hosting a 10,000 pax convention, no way can I accommodate them all at Royal Cliff, so I always recommend this and that hotel.
The younger-generation owners are very driven. We want to do a lot in a very short time.
If you could build a hotel from scratch, what would you build?
I would put the Royal Cliff philosophy into it. It would emphasise the authenticity of Thailand and appeal to the younger generation. I would invest a lot in design and hardware because I understand today’s travellers are very intelligent. They may see that the room is beautiful online, but once they go and they touch it, they will know. I would never lie to my customers.
This article was first published in TTG Asia, March 8 – March 21, 2013 issue, on page 7. To read more, please view our digital edition or click here to subscribe.
