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PRICE OF PARTNERSHIP

Published: 16/01/2012 - Filed under: Editor's Note »

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I just received a press release from a well-known luxury chain, which announced it was no longer going to manage its property in an emerging business city in China due to "irreconcilable differences with the owner".

Hmm, a pretty potent phrase – one we usually hear in divorce proceedings, but now cleverly used to provide the reason for the dissolution of a partnership, which, for sure, started with high hopes, big dreams and a shared ambition. And now, that has all petered out.

In my colourful career as a travel scribe, I have attended enough press conferences – announcing mega hospitality projects, new travel team ups, airline routes and once, the birth of an ambitious hotel company, promising to spread throughout Southeast Asia, that even got the Singapore Botanic Garden to name an orchid after its brand – to know that each business venture is a hit or miss. Between the executives helming the companies involved, there has to be that perfect fit, or at least, the willingness to compromise for the common good to make sure the endeavour lasts.

Hotel owners, I’ve heard my GM and marketing chums moan, are often notorious for relentlessly watching the bottom line. This is understandable, but such assiduousness can get in the way of investing in vital infrastructure and facilities needed to cater to today’s finicky customer. Hotel companies pour in millions of dollars in differentiating themselves from the competition (Boy, how that has grown!), as well as spending hours training their employees to adhere to a unique service culture. If these efforts do not enjoy owner support, then the product will be doomed to stagnation and the guests will go elsewhere.

It's not enough to slap an international hotel logo on a building's facade, sit back and be assured that they will come. Perhaps, they will in the first few months or years, but in this world of ever changing tastes, the winner is the one never satisfied and is constantly in the act of reinvention.

Those, who go into the travel and hospitality business, better have deep pockets and a world of patience to perservere.

Margie T Logarta

Managing Editor, Asia

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