Managing Sheraton Shanghai Hongqiao In The Post-Expo Marketplace

Thomas Mueller, the general manager of Sheraton Shanghai Hongqiao Hotel, is a veteran in the hospitality industry with over 30 years of experience: working with the biggest hotel chains in the world including Hilton, Hyatt, and Sheraton.

How did you start your career in hospitality industry?
I wanted to travel and live in foreign countries from a young age. I was always interested in other countries (other than my native Germany) and have worked in Switzerland, Belgium, USA, Malaysia, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and China.

I am a graduate of a well-known hotel management school in Germany and have also been a principal of a hotel management school in Sydney, Australia myself.

People ask me what I would choose as a profession in my next life and I tell them I would go into Hospitality again without hesitation. I just love this business!

As one of the first deluxe five-star hotels in the city and with a 20-year history, how can Sheraton Shanghai Hongqiao Hotel keep the leading position in the industry?
We are mainly a corporate hotel with a well-established repeat clientele. In addition, we cater for the MICE market and visitors and exhibitors to the facilities next door.

Our 600 warm, home-style rooms and suites, public areas and restaurants are very different from the institutional sameness of most modern hotels.

Our lobby lounge overlooks an impeccably authentic Japanese garden with a waterfall and a live stream running the length of it. The key to keep guests returning is to make sure they get personalized attention and have their every need taken care of by us. That requires constant training and re-enforcement, but the basic attitude must be to be glad to help and serve other people.

What are your thoughts about the location of Sheraton Shanghai Hongqiao Hotel? What advantages will this location have for your guests?
When this hotel was built 23 years ago, it complemented the next-door exhibition and meeting facilities, but by now Hongqiao is a destination on its own and our hotel is providing a "warm and welcoming home away from home" for all of our guests.

The newly established Hongqiao Hub will have the biggest exhibition facility in the world in a few years and all the hotels in this vicinity will benefit from that added demand.

What do you expect the percentage composition of your guests to be?
Over the past two years we have seen a steady shift of our clientele; from about 60% foreigners and 40% Chinese, it’s now reversed to 60% locals from the mainland and 40% foreigners. We are, and always were, a corporate hotel with about 80% of our business coming from individual business guests and about 15% from the MICE segment. Our tour group business is very low. By using the newly-built Shanghai Convention Centre with capacities for up to 6,000 delegates I can foresee that all hotels will fill up with International Conventions that Shanghai was unable to attract in the past as we had no such facilities.

What hardware facilities does the hotel feature?
Our 600 warm, home-style rooms and suites, public areas and restaurants are very different from the institutional sameness of most modern hotels.

Our Lobby Lounge overlooks an impeccably authentic a Japanese Garden with a waterfall and a live stream running the length of it. Our outlets comprise of Japanese, a Chinese, a Western and an Italian Specialty Restaurant as well as Banquet and Meetings facilities for over 1,000 guests. Our rooms are furnished in a home-style fashion and convey a warm welcoming "home-feeling" — very different from most less traditional hotels.

What experience will you wish to bring to your guests, in order to encourage them to come back again?
As mentioned before, we try to fulfill and exceed our guests expectations and will go out of our way (and, if necessary, outside the so-called "Policies and Procedures") to help a guest for whatever their needs are.

What are your plans for Internet marketing and online promotion of your hotel?
We have a dedicated "On-line Manager" who monitors and responds to guest's interactions on any of the online social networks. We also use these facilities to promote our special deals and F&B promotions.

At present, many large hotels are focusing on business development in the MICE sector; what special expansion plans does Sheraton Shanghai Hongqiao Hotel have for targeting the MICE market?
Due to the size of our banquet and meeting facilities we are targeting medium-size conferences and dinners etc. We have also successfully organized a number of outside catering functions, at special venues or on the premises of our guests. One of our advantages in catering is our very classy grand ballroom, which is very sought after by wedding couples.

As a senior professional manager in the hospitality industry what qualities do you focus on for your employees? What training will you give your employees?
We hire for attitude, as skills can be taught. The people we employ for our organization must love to deal with guests as we are in the people business and must understand and speak English well. We have a dedicated training department and departmental trainers in all areas of the hotel. Training happens on a daily basis and we certify our people for achieving certain levels. We also have an online development center in our internal world-wide web pages enabling our associates to take Cornell or other university courses, from marketing to food and beverage knowledge. I hope to be able to see more young mainland Chinese professionals becoming International Hoteliers and work all over the world as we (the expats) have done.

What measures will you and your team take to increase guest loyalty?
Our Starwood Preferred Guest loyalty program is deemed to be the most successful in the industry and about 60% of our guests are members and earn great rewards, so they stay in Starwood hotels wherever their travel brings them.

If they reach Gold- or Platinum status they also get upgraded to the next guest-room category or a suite. This has proven to be very popular and leads our guests to return to most properties.