Bringing a smile to the service industry

Knuth Kiefer, general manager of Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts in Vietnam, talks to VIR about the recent opening of the renovated Mövenpick Hotel Saigon and its plan to bring five-star services in the city to the next level.

Mr Knuth Kiefer

Could you unveil some new ideas and concepts that Mövenpick Hotel Saigon will offer its guests?

We always aim to be different in our approach to customer service. One example may be the fact that our hotels here in Vietnam feature rooms especially designed for female business travelers. Those rooms have added amenities. This will provide more conveniences to today’s female business executives.

Being different is not only important, it is absolutely essential in today’s competitive business climate. Let’s be honest, every five-star hotel will provide a clean and comfortable room, so in order to have guests choose our hotels over the competition, there needs to be more to that.

Having spent $15 million on renovating the hotel, could you please share some details about the new facilities?

The hotel was completely transformed and does not resemble anything it looked like in the past. Not only have we completely renovated all our guest rooms we have created new restaurant concepts that do not exist in any other hotel in this city in this form yet. IKI, our Japanese restaurant, is a prime example. A really modern and trendy restaurant that isn’t just fresh and vibrant, - it is extremely affordable, something uncommon in five-star hotels.

An important thing in operating luxury hotels is to ensure high quality. Could you unveil your future plans for Mövenpick Hotel Saigon?

The key is to hire the right people. We ensure that our team members have the right attitude towards customer service. In the long run this is the most, if not the only important factor to run a successful hotel. Everything else builds on this.

One dilemma that many hotel operators in Vietnam face is the quality of staff. Could you share your plans regarding the training of your staff to provide high-quality service?

Similar to my answer to your previous question, I would say it all boils down to having the right people employed. Skills can easily be trained and we have numerous training classes and on-the-job-training sessions carried out regularly at the hotel. The key is to have people who want to learn and improve.

In your opinion, what is the best way to motivate staff and generate the right attitude?

People are all different, not everyone is motivated by the same thing so there isn’t one simple answer to this. The best way probably is to build a good working atmosphere and makes the employees feel that they are appreciated in their work.

Will there be a strong connection between the Mövenpick Hotel in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City?

Absolutely. Not only are the two hotels important for each other in terms of business development as travel between the two cities by corporate clients is obviously immense. One will see more and more cross promotions and programmes that will involve both of our hotels here in Vietnam. We will also launch a guest privilege card shortly that will be valid in both properties.

How do you evaluate the recovery speed of Vietnam’s hotel industry from the downturn? What are your visitor forecasts for Ho Chi Minh City in 2011?

This year was already a pretty good year if one considers the bleak results of 2009 in the market. I strongly believe 2011 will be an even better year as the economy worldwide shows signs of improvement. It is hard to say what occupancy levels and rates we can achieve for 2011 but we certainly have ambitious goals and believe they will be achievable in 2011

Through your experience and observations, what are the main goals that top-end hotels in Ho Chi Minh City should strive to achieve in order to bring its guests the highest satisfaction?

Consistency is the single most difficult thing to achieve. This is partly due to the fact that staff turnover is very high here in Vietnam which makes it difficult to ensure all team members are at the same skill level. So whoever can achieve consistency in the delivery of the general service standards is ahead of the competition.