Traveling To Keep Marco Polo At The Top

Henk Meyknecht is the area general manager for China of Marco Polo Group, together with being the general manager of Marco Polo Parkside, Beijing. Born in the Netherlands, he has a career that spans over 26 years in Europe, the Middle East, North America, and the Far East.

There are four Marco Polo hotels in China, how does each specialize in location, composition of guests, and market position? And what is your opinion on their development in China?
Each Marco Polo property has its own distinct design and personality. Our three hotels in Hong Kong are perfectly located in Canton Road, surrounded by luxurious shops. Marco Polo Shenzhen focuses on business meetings and conventions. The brand new 380 room Marco Polo Wuhan is a strong corporate hotel with excellent views of the Yangtze river. Marco Polo Xiamen offers a perfect mix between business and pleasure with an outdoor pool and luxurious spa facilities. The Marco Polo Parkside Beijing is located close to the National Olympic Stadium and offers a wide range of dining and meeting options. In 2010 we are planning to open our fifth hotel in China with the addition of the 290 rooms Marco Polo Jinjiang in Fujian province.

What is your management philosophy? In your opinion what makes a hotel a good hotel?
We are a Hong Kong based hotel operator and therefore we have a strong marketing understanding of the regional hotel industry. We understand the challenges of investing in the luxury hotel industry and assist hotel owners with creating commercial value and a top class hotel that has all the facilities which travelers demand: from good restaurants to a modern health club. We also focus on communication technology in hotels featuring: Wi-Fi in all public areas and the ballroom, broadband Internet in all hotel rooms, satellite TV with video on demand, and dual line hands-free telephone sets in all rooms. We also invest consistently in the training and welfare of our employees. Good quality employees are the foundation of five star hotels.

How many times do you normally travel in one year? And how much pure business travel is included?
I travel several times per month to regional destinations, especially to Hong Kong, Singapore, and Shanghai. At least two or three times a year I go home to Europe to see my family and to attend board meetings of the hotel school Maastricht of which I am a board member. All in all I make around 25 to 30 business trips per year. But it is great to be stationed in Beijing as it offers such a wide choice of facilities and an excellent airport.

What is your favorite destination in China? And why?
Beijing is certainly my favorite destination. Recently I have had the pleasure of calling Beijing home again and I really love the cosmopolitan character of this historical city. Every weekend I discover a new museum or restaurant. For leisure I like to hang out in Qingdao and play water sports with friends.

Which conference or activity held in a Chinese hotel impresses you most? And why ?
One of the best conference hotels in China is the Marco Polo Shenzhen. This is the best five-star business hotel in Southern China for regional meetings and conventions. It is located in the heart of the Futian District, the city's new central business district, and has 391 well-appointed rooms.

What do you think business travelers need when they live in hotel? And how to satisfy these needs?
There is a new generation of business traveler in China. Young, modern and very well informed Chinese travelers are demanding a clean room and friendly service standards. They shop and travel all around the world and can compare hotels from New York to Hong Kong with those in Shanghai and Wuhan. This new generation of traveler uses different Internet booking channels to compare prices. They post their own comments and read the feedback from other travelers. More travelers are either self employed or travel within a certain budget. This requires a flexible and seasonal rate approach. We need to listen to this new generation of Asian travelers and develop hotels that better understand this type of businessmen. They want clean and safe accommodation with spacious bathrooms at reasonable rates. They want fair prices in our restaurants otherwise they will eat outside. They want free Internet and 24 hours access to the fitness center. The modern traveler wants hassle free check-in and fast check-out. This critical approach to price and services not only happens in mid market and economy hotels, but we also see this in the luxury hotels in China. Pricing is becoming a powerful tool to attract the new generation of well informed business travelers.

How do you put your personal travel experience and living in hotels into hotel management work?
As an international hotel manager it is a privilege to stay in the best hotels in Asia. I am never bored with staying in a new hotel. Every time you learn from new design concepts or service standards. As the hotel industry is so competitive you also need to constantly travel and experience for yourself the latest hotel developments. In July I stayed in some of the top hotels in New York and Montreal and learned a lot of new concepts. I try to copy some of these concepts in our China properties such as the "Intelligent menu" whereby guest can work together with the chef to create their own dishes fresh from the kitchen.

What challenges do you have with you work in China during the global financial crisis?
The financial crisis teaches us to care more about our loyal customers. We recently introduced the "Welcome Back" program whereby we reward repeat guests with a range of attractive benefits. We also need to invest in a better relationship with our travel trade partners. In good times and bad times we need to respect our mutual relationship. This means flexibility in room pricing. We are also very concerned on the long term interests of the hotel owners and shareholders. This requires an intelligent approach to managing these expensive five-star hotels in times of stagnant revenue and declining profits. Key to all these problems is constantly communicating with our hotel owners, key customers and travel trade partners.