Seen on ehotelier.com, Oct 20, 2006
By Raini Hamdi, Editor, TTG Asia
Legendary hotelier Horst Schulze says his new hotel brand, Capella,
will define the new luxury. No one has trouble believing the CEO of
West Paces Hotel Group, who is known for establishing the
world-renowned standards for Ritz-Carlton Hotels as its president, COO
and vice chairman. Schulze tells Raini Hamdi why luxury service needs
new excellence.
How is luxury service changing and why can’t the existing five star hotels accommodate it anymore?
The existing luxury hotels commonly gear their product to a broad market.
When I was a bus boy at a fine spa hotel in Germany, we had guests
returning for the season. Mrs Knoll would write to say she was arriving
on April 15. She would want table number 3 at dinner, tulips on Monday,
daisies on Wednesday, etc. These were precise individual expectations.
With the industrialisation of the hotel industry, hotels became
large, guests became groups and personal taking care of guests
disappeared.
But they are back today. Our studies show the majority of the top market wants to be taken care of as an individual.
How is today’s Mrs Knoll different from Mrs Knoll of yesteryears?
Today, because so much of travel is business, an individual has to
take his recreation with him. He has no time, but he has to have life,
so when he is on business, he also wants some leisure. We have to
understand that.
He cannot afford to stay disconnected with his work. At the same
time, he wants someone to take care of his diet and his allergies, and
he wants to be connected with the city he is in. If he is in Singapore,
he wants us to guide him to the best restaurant for mud crabs, or take
him roller blading. We call him before his arrival and, as long as its
legal and moral, we will do what he wants.
But this kind of luxury service can only be managed by smaller
hotels with the infrastructure of big hotels choice of restaurants,
pool, health club, etc. So that’s the dichotomy.
But surely the Ritz-Carlton, St Regis, Mandarin Oriental, Four Seasons, One & Only can give them that?
The Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons, etc, are larger hotels, ranging
between 300 and 600 rooms. On some days if I get 200 arrivals, do you
think if a guest calls and says, please get me a bike, restaurant
reservations, a boat ride, pillow with mint leaves, I can do it?
With Capella, which has between 100 and 110 rooms, the average
arrival is 30 rooms a day and with a three-day stay, I am full. I can
do everything for you. Again, as long as it’s legal and moral, I can
take care of your individual needs.
Amanresorts is small.
Yes, they don’t like too many guests and they understand their
guests well. I respect them. But their guests tend to be people who
want to be by themselves and not have too much activity. Ours don’t
like to be lonely; they want to connect to more people and the places
they are in. Again, we do something totally different.
So you left Ritz-Carlton and launched Capella because you feel there is a gap?
Yes. Today there are arguments who is best in giving luxury service. When we open, there will be no more argument.
You say that with absolute certainty.
Yes, because we understand what the guests want through our studies
and we have the processes to deliver it. It is all pretty scientific.
Our studies, for example, show guests don’t want to feel at home, they
want to feel like they are in their mother’s womb, ie, they want to be
taken care of. The people around me were running Ritz-Carlton before,
there, we were also scientific in how we trained and delivered a
defect-free service.
Isn’t it impossible to be defect-free because all human beings make mistakes?
You have to take as much luck out of the equation, and as much
science into it. We make mistakes, sure, but you can scientifically
eliminate mistakes permanently through continuous improvements. Good
leadership does not blame a person for a mistake but finds out why it
happens and manages it.
If I just say it’s human to make mistakes, I will never fly a plane
again! Today, the pilots know exactly what to do. Science has
eliminated their mistakes.
So science, not heart, is what it takes?
No, there is a lot of science, but there is also the heart and soul,
the caring feeling, which science cannot produce. This is why you must
scientifically select the right individually and if you’ve done that,
he will have his heart and soul in being personally involved in caring
for the guest. He will not just sit in the office and write memos. This
is why big hotels run big businesses, small hotels run hospitality.
In our focus groups, whether people are in the US, Europe or Japan,
they have the same expectations about anything they buy soap,
automobile, hotel. First, they want no mistakes. Second, they don’t
want to wait, they want it now. Third, they want people who deliver the
service to care.
Many people don’t enjoy giving service, I don’t know why. It’s so beautiful to make people feel well.
You started the Ritz-Carlton credo, Ladies and Gentlemen Serving Ladies and Gentlemen. How much of Ritz-Carlton is in Capella?
It is inevitable there will be some, because that was my baby and
you can’t help having some emotion there. Not only that, my executive
vice president operations, human resource and development, etc, were
all from Ritz-Carlton. We are here to create the next dimension. The
Ritz-Carlton painting has been painted and people can admire it. That
was landscaping, this is still life. I respect Ritz-Carlton. I’m
creating something totally different.
What is the cost per room of building a Capella and what sort of average room rate will it get?
I’m not the owner, just operator, but I would say it would cost S$1
million per room and it would fetch S$600 to S$800 a night today.
So twice as much for both is there a place for Capella in
a destination such as Sentosa (see box), in a city where rates are
nowhere near that?
It is ideal to be in Sentosa. How beautiful it is to be in a resort
of lush landscape that is in the middle of a city. Our market will be
the top traveller of the world and also people from Singapore who will
say, instead of going to Bali, let’s just go to Sentosa.
Capella is growing fast .We’ve known each other for quite a few
years, so we decided to put our minds together. I like to work with him
because of his high standards and our vision and philosophy of
achieving excellence are the same.
People say Singaporeans don’t really like to serve.
I disagree. For years I have been coming to Singapore and I’ve
always been welcomed nicely everywhere. I do think it can be better
more individual and caring and that’s what we do.
Oriental people are more charming and hospitality-driven than people
anywhere else. Europeans know about wine, f&b, etc, but they don’t
know how to make guests feel they are in their mother’s womb.
So where else in Asia do you expect to see a Capella?
Bali, Phuket, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing, among others.
You once said it amazed you that the best innovation hotel chains
could come up with were beds Heavenly, Sleeper, Four Seasons, etc.
Our industry is 2,000 years old. Ever since Jesus’s parents looked
for a hotel, a nice bed was a given, don’t you think? That’s not our
product; that’s just a prop. If I focus on a bed that anyone can buy,
I’m relying on someone else’s product. It’s different when I produce
the caring.
It is totally unsophisticated thinking for our industry. Frankly, it embarrasses me.
Why is it difficult for the industry to produce real breakthroughs?
There have been in the last 20 years, to be fair. We don’t serve
frozen vegetables anymore, for instance. Personalised service has also
improved and hotels have improved their surroundings. The airline
industry has not improved service some airlines have, most have not.
I’m the cynic of the industry and I’m most critical of me firstly,
not others. I think we should criticise ourselves in other to improve.
We have evolved beautifully but we’re still lacking. Because we
still leave a lot of things to luck. When our hotels open, be they in
Singapore or Dusseldorf, I will have the right measurements, the right
processes, take luck out of the equation.
Are you then a control freak?
No, I’m a measurement freak. I give tools to each of the hotels to
support the system. I will have measurements on customer satisfaction
and employee satisfaction and there is a direct correlation between the
two.
When I hire a person, I invite you to join me in my dream, vision,
values. If these individuals are no good, it is not their fault, you
are the dummy who did the hiring. Either you hired wrongly or you’ve
taught them wrongly.
If employee satisfaction is low, customer satisfaction is low and
profits are cut. We are in a business to create profit and we do that
by creating excellence.
Big companies focus on cost-cutting than product-producing.
What was your first encounter with excellence?
I wanted to work in the hotel business since I was 11 years old. I
had never been in a hotel. My parents said they would try and find me a
good hotel for an apprenticeship and, at age 14, my mother took me to
the best hotel 100 miles from my home (in Germany). She said now you
behave please, the guests there were very important. This message was
drummed into me that by the time I was in the restaurant, knees
shaking, I knew the guests were very important.
The maitre d’ came into the room. He was the gentleman of gentlemen,
always perfect, and guests were honoured when he spoke with them. He
was all over the room. I realised he was as important as a guest. He
was excellent, not because of his job, but because he was excellent in
his area.
On Wednesdays, we would go to the hotel school. The professor asked
us to write two or three pages about how we felt about the hotel
business. It had to come from the heart, he said. So, I wrote about the
story of my maitre d’ about ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and
gentlemen.
I got an A for my story. It was the only A I ever got.
You should not go to work to work. You should go to work to create
excellence. People look for success as something in the future. Why?
You are not in the future, you are in the present and by managing the
present, you are impacting the future. Success is right here right now.
Capella Singapore
It is no surprise Schulze’s first Capella management contract in Asia
comes from Millenia Hotel Singapore, an associate company of Pontiac
Land, which owns The Ritz-Carlton Millenia Singapore.
Capella Singapore, on Sentosa island, will have 110
"ultra-luxurious" villas and suites. In addition, it will also pay
special attention to up to 60 guests who elect to live in the resort
for up to 60 years.
The resort will be spread out on 1.3 million sq ft of rainforest,
occupying only 36 per cent of the rolling hills. Two existing colonial
buildings from the 1880s will form the centerpiece of the resort which
will blend traditional Asian materials and themes with contemporary
influences.
Complementing the villas and suites will be two restaurants, a
signature Capella club lounge, a business center, four meeting rooms as
well as a spa and fitness centre. Total development cost for the
project is S$250 million.
A six star by any other name
The name Capella is drawn from the star Capella, Alpha star of the
constellation Auriga, the Charioteer. Capella is one of the sky’s most
famous binary star formations, reflected in the double-star logo of the
new brand. The double star motif reflects the overriding focus of the
brand as an intimate relationship between hotel and guest, the larger
star signifying the guest around whom service revolves.
Capella is opening world-class properties in gateway cities and
high-profile resort destinations around the world, including: Capella
Singapore; Breidenbacher Hof, a Capella Hotel (Germany); Capella
Pedregal (Mexico); Capella Resort & Spa, Castlemartyr (Ireland);
Capella Resort & Spa, Dunboy Castle (Ireland); and Schloss Velden,
a Capella Hotel (Austria).
Author's Contact:
Ms. Raini Hamdi
Editor, TTG Asia, TTGmice, BTN Asia-Pacific
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