HM (Hotel Management) Magazine Oct 2011 V.15.5

Vol 15. No.5 Bi-monthly October 2011P

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A U S T R A L I A – N E W Z E A L A N D – A S I A - P A C I F I C

BRAND OFTHE YEAR:HILTON

THE BUSINESS OF ACCOMMODATION IN ASIA-PACIFIC

WINNERS ANNOUNCED!Presenting the winners of the 2011 HM Awards for Hotel and Accommodation Excellence in Sydney

SURf'S UpHM checks-in to the new Hilton Surfers Paradise on Queensland's Gold Coast

ALSO IN THIS ISSUEThe Australasian Hotel Industry Conference and Exhibition (AHICE), Shangri-La’s new Kerry Hotels brand, Virgin Australia, outsourcing, hotel refurbishments, technology and more

Hilton Worldwide’s Vice president – Australasia,

Ashley Spencer

IT’S BEEN A BIG YEAR FOR HILTON, HAVING BEEN NAMED BRAND

OF THE YEAR AT BOTH THE 2011 HM AWARDS AND IN THE BDRC BUSINESS TRAVELLER SURVEY

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contents Bi-Monthly – October 2011

SpECIAL fEATURE22 HM Awards 2011Presenting the winners of the 2011 HM Awards for Hotel and Accommodation Excellence presented by Sealy.

p22

EXECUTIVE fEATURES12 HM Q&AIn an exclusive interview, Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia’s Koos Klein talks about plans for Australia’s first Indigenous training academy.

14 In FocusA report on the second annual Australasian Hotel Industry Conference and Exhibition (AHICE), held during September.

56 CEO TalkAn interview with the inaugural winner of the HM magazine Asia-Pacific Hotelier of the Year, Pan Pacific’s A. Patrick Imbardelli.

64 General ManagerHM sits down with the General Manager of Hilton Surfers Paradise, David Kelly.

66 Global ReportShangri-La’s newest brand Kerry Hotels is in the spotlight.

70 Property ProfilesInterviews with several winning properties from the 2011 HM Awards.

SpECIAL fEATURES74 Hotel DesignHM looks at some of the leading hotel refurbishments over the last 18 months.

80 Rooms DivisionSteve Tochner weights up the benefits of outsourcing.

82 Hotel TechnologyA report on the latest broadband and wireless technology for hotels.

NEWS & COLUMNS06 Editor’s LetterWelcome to the issue by Managing Editor James Wilkinson, plus credits.

08 Check-InIn-depth news from hotels across the globe, plus exclusive columns.

16 PropertyHotel openings, closings, sales, refurbishments and change of management.

58 Key NewsA new section in HM magazine presented by the Accommodation Association of Australia.

68 Tourism ForumHow Virgin Australia is chasing a greater share of the business class market.

84 HOT ProductsA guide to hot products for accommodation hotels.

86 Food and BeverageA profile on Accor’s food and beverage rising star, Cherie Stubbs-Timbery

87 Human ResourcesMark Sant, Head of Workplace Relations at Gadens, looks at the perils of social media.

88 PeopleProfiles, events and who’s moving where in the hotel industry.

90 Concierge CornerThe latest news from Les Clefs d’Or.

The 2011 HM Awards at Sydney Town Hall

hotelmanagement.com.au 5

editorial

DISCLAIMERThis publication is published by The Intermedia Group Pty Ltd (the “Publisher”). Materials in this publication have been created by a variety of different entities and, to the extent permitted by law, the Publisher accepts no liability for materials created by others. All materials should be considered protected by Australian and international intellectual property laws. Unless you are authorised by law or the copyright owner to do so, you may not copy any of the materials. The mention of a product or service, person or company in this publication does not indicate the Publisher’s endorsement. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Publisher, its agents, company officers or employees. Any use of the information contained in this publication is at the sole risk of the person using that information. The user should make independent enquiries as to the accuracy of the information before relying on that information. All express or implied terms, conditions, warranties, statements, assurances and representations in relation to the Publisher, its publications and its services are expressly excluded save for those conditions and warranties which must be implied under the laws of any State of Australia or the provisions of Division 2 of Part V of the Trade Practices Act 1974 and any statutory modification or re-enactment thereof. To the extent permitted by law, the Publisher will not be liable for any damages including special, exemplary, punitive or consequential damages (including but not limited to economic loss or loss of profit or revenue or loss of opportunity) or indirect loss or damage of any kind arising in contract, tort or otherwise, even if advised of the possibility of such loss of profits or damages. While we use our best endeavours to ensure accuracy of the materials we create, to the extent permitted by law, the Publisher excludes all liability for loss resulting from any inaccuracies or false or misleading statements that may appear in this publication.Copyright © 2011 - The Intermedia Group Pty Ltd.

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EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORSTrish Babu, Guy Bentley, Ross Clarke, Michael Georgeson, John Hart, Jennie Langley, John Makris, Peter McBrearty, Rodger L Powell, Richard Munro, Mark Sant, Steve Tochner

GRAPHIC DESIGNBen Akhurst

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The Rugby World Cup has come and almost gone. By the time this magazine is published, a world champi-on will almost be crowned. I wonder whether the All Blacks were able to conquer their de-mons and win the event on home soil or could Australia have done the un-thinkable after having lost to Ireland?

No matter which team wins the 2011 Rugby World Cup, the majority of the hotel industry in New Zealand needs a huge pat on the back for put-ting on a great show in the form of amazing hospitality, and ironically, for offering rooms at affordable prices. There of course were some operators charging through the nose, but even in those circumstances, it was good to see an industry reporting strong num-bers after a year of seemingly never-ending challenges – including strikes by airline staff in the busiest part of the tournament.

Looking back on the 2011 Rugby World Cup, the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Australia and the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, you really have to admire how well the accommodation industry steps up for a major event.

A number of colleagues, friends and relatives have been in New Zealand for the Rugby World Cup and each have come back with positive things to say about the hospitality they received right across the land of the long white cloud.

Hospitable staff is what this industry thrives on and it was an honour once more to host the HM Awards in 2011, an event that saw a record number of peo-

ple recognised, including from New Zealand, for their dedication to excellence. In fact, one of the year’s debut awards, that of Rising Star, recorded the highest num-

ber of entries out of all 48 categories. It was not only amazing to see that kind of response to award the industry’s rising stars, but in reading the submis-sions, I know the future of the hotel industry is in safe hands indeed.

Our annual HM Awards winners spread starts on page 22.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to welcome the Accommodation As-sociation of Australia (AAA) and its members onboard through a strategic commercial arrangement with HM magazine. In every issue of HM go-ing forward, a special ‘Key News’ sec-tion will be dedicated to AAA news, workplace relations and legal issues,

alongside profiles and insightful Q&As. For the team on HM, this marks the start of an exciting relationship and I trust you will enjoy the first installment of ‘Key News’ from page 58.

Yours in hospitality,

James WilkinsonManaging Editor

Accommodation Excellence on both sides of the Tasman

ON THE COVERHilton Worldwide’s Vice president – Australasia, Ashley Spencer

p22Adam Daff

James Wilkinson

6 Hotel & Accommodation Management

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Touraust sells ConstellationTouraust Corporation has announced the sale of Con-stellation Hotels to Singa-pore-based private invest-ment firm Nadathur Fareast.

Touraust Corporation Chairman and Founder, Darryl Courtney-O’Connor, said he was delighted to have secured a strong future for Constellation Hotels, its people, brands and unique business platform.

“Over the past two years we have explored a number of strategies to expand Con-stellation Hotels into Asia Pacific,” Courtney-O’Connor said.

“During that process it became clear that a purchase agreement with Nadathur Fareast provided the best way to maintain Constellation Hotels’ successful Australian operation while optimising growth of the business throughout Asia Pacific.

“Constellation Hotels’ ambition is now to meet the increasing demand for new genera-tion hotels in lively destinations across the region by replicating the successful brands, operational platforms, loyalty systems and culture developed on Australian soil.”

Constellation Hotels was founded 25 years ago by Courtney-O’Connor and cur-rently comprises the Chifley, Australis Re-sorts and Hotels, and Country Comfort brands. The company also operates the Sun-downer Motels brand.

“At this time I would like to offer my sincere and profound thanks to all those people who have contributed to developing Constellation Hotels over the past 25 years into what it is today.

“The culture of the company, built on the people and their relationships, is at the cen-tre of our success,” said Courtney-O’Connor.

Constellation Hotels Chief Executive Of-ficer, John Wooller, and his executive team will now manage the growth strategy for the company based in Singapore, while continu-ing to strengthen the operating platform in Australia and New Zealand, where Constel-lation Hotels’ portfolio includes more than 60 properties.

“I wish Nadathur Fareast every success in the future and look forward to Constellation Hotels rising to the next level on an interna-tional stage,” Courtney-O’Connor said.

Grand Chifley Brisbane

Wellington, New Zealand

We are now well into the business end of Rugby World Cup 2011 (RWC) and we know the fate of many teams in the tournament, but do we know the fate of the event itself? Has it been a major economic boom for New Zealand, have we reached the projected target of 85,000 visitors and have we put New Zealand on the map as a nation that can very proficiently host major international events? It is hoped the post-tournament analysis and assessment will be as thorough as any post-game analysis has been.

No doubt the role hotels have played in the event will be scrutinised also. Hotels received a significant amount of media attention in the lead up to RWC, particularly on the topic of perceived “price gouging”. This is something New Zealand Hotel Council (NZHC) member hotels strongly refuted from the beginning, and as we drew closer to the event hotel room rates met their natural price point, as we had always suggested they would. On key game days prices have been pitched at event rates. Likewise the sector predicted that some mid-week days during the tournament would be soft and room rates have also reflected this.

Any concerns about a lull in business prior to RWC did not come to fruition for Auckland and Wellington with a month of higher than usual occupancy and RevPar growth in August, mainly from the Corporate and C&I markets. Auckland enjoyed a 12.5% RevPar growth, while Wellington occupancy was 78.9% - well above the normal early 60% range. The Wellington result was due in part to the World of Wearable Art event taking place earlier than usual to work around the tournament dates and to maximise attendance at the shows. These surges in business are not a phenomenon unique to RWC, it is well documented that last minute business compression prior or lulls in business after, is a common occurrence wherever a major event takes place.

As RWC draws to a close, NZHC will certainly be undertaking our own post-RWC analysis. This is too important an event not to document what worked and what didn’t. It will put the industry in good stead for future international events which no doubt New Zealand is more than capable of bidding for and winning in the future.

JENNIE LANGLEYIndependent ChairNew Zealand Hotel Council

pERfORMANCE WELLINGTON

A strong presence in Australia, filming of The Hobbit and a highly successful ‘3 Nights for Two’ campaign are credited with a winter boom for Wellington’s hotel industry, which has seen the city’s properties record their highest winter occupancy since 2004.Positively Wellington Tourism (PWT)’s Hotel Monitor – which tracks nights sold, rooms rates and occupancy of 21 of the city’s hotels – indicates a 13.5% surge in total rooms sold in the three month period from May to July 2011.


Lend Lease’s AUD$6 billion Barangaroo development has been given the green light by the New South Wales Govern-ment despite uncertainty regarding the lo-cation of the luxury hotel, which was to be on reclaimed land over Sydney Harbour.

The green light was given on the back of a review, set up in May and conducted by Meredith Sussex and Shelley Penn.

The review said there were “concerns about the level of consultation, commu-nication and transparency surrounding the project” and it noted that “while the approval process for the hotel over the Harbour may have been legal, it under-mined confidence in a variety of laws and decisions and wasn’t good public policy”.

NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell said on the basis of the review, which also recom-mended that responsibility for the Baran-garoo Delivery Authority be transferred to the Premier, the NSW Government now intended to push ahead with the Baran-garoo project with some changes.

O’Farrell said it was important to pro-

ceed with the planning, development and construction of the three commercial towers at Barangaroo “to confirm investor confidence in the project”, while negotia-tions would be held with developer Lend Lease on the location of the project’s 5-star hotel.

He said while the review found that Lend Lease has a valid consent for the hotel, “it would be a significant demon-stration of goodwill to relocate the hotel elsewhere on the site”.

“I have never supported the concept of building the hotel over the Harbour,” O’Farrell said.

“So, I am keen to pursue negotiations with Lend Lease to see if we can find a suitable alternative site which does not involve reclaiming land in the Harbour.”

Lend Lease’s Group Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Steve McCann, said his company welcomed the outcome of the review and would work with the NSW Government to find a suit-able location for the hotel.

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We are constantly hearing about the ‘two-speed economy’ now, and there is no better example of this than what is happening in the accommodation sector. City hotels are doing well on the back of strong corporate travel demand, but regional hotels are struggling as domestic holidaymakers take advantage of the high Australian dollar to travel offshore.

Within the accommodation sector a trend in consumer needs and desires is emerging, with boutique and luxury hotels in higher demand. The looming shortage of room supply in Sydney and Perth is likely to become more problematic and will manifest itself in Brisbane and Melbourne before long.

Geoff Dixon and Tourism Australia are looking overseas for investors to drive new supply in the sector. It is important that not only large hotel sites (which are easier to get off the ground) are given assistance and encouragement in the development stage but also smaller sites for boutique hotels with unique character and design in a range of diverse locations. There are great examples in San Francisco and London of building conversions and hotel redevelopments of this nature, and locally there is excellent work being done in Sydney by Rydges with their new QT brand in the old State Theatre and Gowings buildings. There are also excellent luxury and boutique examples around Australia such as Saffire in Tasmania and the Louise in South Australia.

It is important that market forces remain the key factor for investment decisions. The industry has seen before what happens when government incentives lead to an accommodation oversupply – yields are negatively impacted and the entire sector becomes regarded as volatile as an investment class.

For the first time in decades, capital city hotels are proving themselves a viable and reputable investment. While governments definitely need to plan zoning sites for hotel development and remove red tape from the approval process, there is no need for overenthusiastic incentives that result in oversupply in the accommodation sector. It is critical that governments manage development so demand is met by quality supply but not exceeded at the expense of ongoing industry sustainability.

RODGER L. pOWELLManaging DirectorTourism Accommodation Australia

AIRLINES SYDNEY

Qantas’ new strategy to boost inbound tourism

RESTAURANTS AUCKLAND

Fish, Auckland’s newest waterfront dining destination, has opened at Hilton Auckland. A partnership between

Hilton Auckland and the Nourish Group, Fish is headed by renowned New Zealand chef

Simon Gault and his protégé of 16 years, Shane Yardley.

Qantas has announced its new strategy for long-haul services in a move to quell substan-tial financial losses and regain market share.

The plan includes new services to Santia-go in Chile, the construction of larger lounges in key international markets, the streamlining of London flights via Singapore and the crea-tion of a new premium airline based in Asia.

Trans-Tasman services are also being boosted by additional brand new Boeing 737-800 aircraft and the introduction of Q-Tags for a more streamlined check-in process.

“Qantas International is a great airline with a proud history,” Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said. “But it is suffering big financial losses and a substantial decline in market share. To reverse that decline we need fundamental change.

“Qantas International takes up enor-mous amounts of capital, and our cost base is around 20 per cent higher than that of our key competitors. To do nothing, or tinker around the edges, is not an option.

“We have established a five-year plan that has the objective, first, of returning Qantas International to profitability in the short term.

“At the end of this process, we expect that we will be established on a competitive

global platform, with high growth potential across all markets.

“Instead of being restricted to an Australi-an-based international airline, Qantas Interna-tional will be participating in regional Asian op-portunities, and in the world beyond,” he said.

The expected mass culling of internation-al routes did not come to fruition, with the only affected services being Sydney-Buenos Aires (dropped in favour of Santiago), Bang-kok-London and Hong Kong-London.

The move to drop flights to London from both Hong Kong and Bangkok is part of a broader partnership with British Airways under the airline’s Joint Services Agreement (JSA) with Qantas.

From early 2012, British Airways will oper-ate codeshare services from Bangkok and Hong Kong to London on behalf of Qantas, while also upgrading its London-Singapore-Sydney ser-vice from a Boeing 777-200 to a larger 747-400.

However, British Airways will drop its daily Bangkok-Sydney service in favour of Qantas operating flights on the route.

Joyce said Qantas intends to operate daily Airbus A380 flights from Sydney and Melbourne to London via Singapore.

Qantas Airbus A380s will fly daily to London

Seafood’s on the menu at Fish Restaurant


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0336_PRESS_AD_HOTEL_MANAGEMENT_OCT-NOV11_135X185_FA.indd 1 19/09/11 12:17 PM

Quest has kicked off the 2011/12 financial year with its annual franchisee conference held at Hyatt Regency Sanctuary Cove on Queensland’s Gold Coast.

Attended by more than 300 franchisees, Quest staff and suppliers, it was an action packed week of leading guest speakers, strat-egy sessions and social events.

After a strong 2010/11 financial year where Quest achieved 12% revenue growth and opened seven new Australian properties, the business has turned its attention to the year ahead.

Quest Serviced Apartments General Manager Franchising, Nick Suriano, said the annual Quest conference was a time to celebrate the previous year’s achievements, and as a group, focus on new, more ambi-tious targets.

“We are in the midst of some very chal-lenging global economic conditions which

will inevitably put pressure on travel and ac-commodation sectors,” he said.

“Quest has always weathered the storm during economic instability thanks to the customer loyalty we’ve built over many years. As long as we can continue with this and lev-erage our leadership position, we’ll continue to grow.

“As a franchise business, our success is de-pendent on every link in our network pulling together, working towards a common goal

and believing in the brand. “With properties all over Australia from

Bunbury, WA to Sydney’s CBD, it’s great to get everyone in one place to reconnect and focus on our new targets and goals. It’s also good for our franchisees to take a little time out from what is a very high pressure job.

“We thank our franchisees and suppliers for the best Quest conference yet,” Suriano said.

For exclusive video interviews, visit www.hotelmanagement.com.au

CONfERENCES SANCTUARY COVE

Quest hosts successful conference

All aboard for the Quest Conference


HMQ&A

INDIGENOUS TRANSITIONKOOS KLEIN IS THE MAN CHARGED WITH CREATING A CENTRE OF INDIGENOUS ExCELLENCE AT AYERS ROCK RESORT FOLLOWING THE PROPERTY’S ACQUISITION BY THE INDIGENOUS LAND CORPORATION. IN AN ExCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH HM, HE TALKS ABOUT HOW HE PLANS ON MAKING THAT FINALLY HAPPEN.

When the Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC) finally made the long awaited purchase of Ayers Rock Resort and its associated assets, including an airport, the group called in a Hotelier with

a wealth of experience to run the significant asset going forward.But the job for former Hilton Asia-Pacific chief Koos Klein wasn’t

to simply run one of the biggest tourism assets in the country, but to transform the property into a centre for Indigenous Excellence.

On the cards is a long-awaited National Indigenous Training Acad-emy that plans to train hundreds of Indigenous Australians every year to work at not just Ayers Rock Resort, but in hotels across the country.

In an exclusive interview with HM, Klein, Voyages Indigenous Tour-ism Australia’s Managing Director reveals plans for the Academy, cre-ating jobs for Indigenous Australians and an extensive refurbishment of the Sails In The Desert hotel that includes a new conference centre.

Koos, tell us about the acquisition of Ayers Rock Resort by the Indigenous Land Corporation.Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC) purchased Ayers Rock Resort (ARR) to create a Centre of Indigenous Excellence where guests will find a genuine Indigenous experience. Furthermore ILC is creating the National Indigenous Training Academy at ARR where up to 200 Indig-enous trainees will receive training every year from 2014 onwards in hospitality, tourism, horticulture and other trades. Last, but not least, the intent is to create jobs for Indigenous people and we aim to employ at least 350 Indigenous Australians by 2018.

Can the ILC run a multi-million dollar tourism complex?ILC has also acquired Voyages Hotels and Resorts and re-branded the organisation as ‘Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia’. This provided us with a management platform, including IT and a fabulous group of very motivated and knowledgeable employees. Furthermore a man-agement team with some very experienced hospitality executives has been assembled including Ray Stone (sales, marketing and distribu-tion), Manfred Pieper (operations), Andrew Williams (finance), Paul Barrett (human resources) and myself as the Managing Director.

That’s an impressive team you’ve built up. Tell us about the key responsibilities for the new team.All five of us have experience with operating hotels all over the world, in different cultures and settings. ARR is unique though, because of its location, diversity in product (we manage everything including the airport) and the Indigenous objectives and we often have to draw on each others’ experience. As much as each member of the team has a focus on his primary responsibilities, we are taking a team approach in dealing with our major strategic challenges and opportunities.

What does it mean for the consumer to have Ayers Rock Resort now owned by the ILC?The new ownership means that very long term strategies can be de-veloped because ILC/Voyages will be managing this property for a very

Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia’s Managing Director, Koos Klein

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW JAMES WILKINSON

long time to come. Visitors will see a gradual repositioning of the resort toward the Indigenous Centre of Excellence I described before where, in a fun and playful manner, they will learn more about Aboriginal culture.

Tell us about the greater focus on Indigenous engagement and training, listening to the Traditional Owners of the region and working with them.The training academy will start with nationally-accredited courses up to certificate 3 and 4, and hopefully later we can move even beyond that. Although we are operating on the land of the Anangu people, and therefore they will get the maximum possible exposure, we are looking to employ Indigenous people from all over Australia.

When will the Academy open, how is it going to work and what timelines do you have in place?The academy will take its first group of 15 trainees in by October of this year, growing to 200 per year from 2014 onwards. Trainees will experi-ence a mixture of on-the-job and classroom training for a 12 month period. Once they have achieved certificate 4 they will be guaranteed a job with ARR.


How important is Indigenous Training to the region and is this something Australia should have established a long time ago?Indigenous training is important everywhere in Australia because we all should be working towards closing the gap. It is never too late for initiatives like ours and I strongly believe that the time is right to take Indigenous Tourism to main stream status in Australia.

Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia has significant experience having run a number of key properties – how important is that experience when it comes to running such a significant complex as Ayers Rock Resort?As I mentioned before, most employees who stayed with us after the acquisition of Voyages Hotels and Resorts have many years of experi-ence with operating, supervising and supporting ARR so therefore the Voyages input is invaluable.

What do people expect when they arrive at Uluru, especially in-ternational visitors? Is it more of an authentic Indigenous experi-ence? And how is Ayers Rock Resort going to achieve this?All visitors are very keen to have interactions with Indigenous Aus-tralians and learn more about their culture. Our guest surveys con-firm this. We will provide this experience in many ways like a daily art and craft market, a daily cultural show, Indigenous music on dif-ferent times and places throughout the resort, storytelling and so on. Of course all these activities cannot be developed at once and you will see a gradual repositioning of the resort taking place over a number of years.

What plans are there for more Indigenous experiences at Ayers Rock Resort?Some Indigenous initiatives I have mentioned already, while others are still under consideration. If our financial situation allows we’d also like

to build a spa and wellness centre with Indigenous treatments, and a kids club with an Indigenous theme and activities. Last, but not least, we hope to develop a close relationship with the Uluru-Kata Tjuta Na-tional Park where we can jointly develop Indigenous product inside the park for our visitors.

What are the plans for improving the guest experience and reno-vating the resort?We have begun renovating the Sails In The Desert hotel and that will continue until August 2012. At the same time a new conference centre will be developed that will cater for groups up to 225 participants. Over the next five years we hope to upgrade the whole resort, in phases, to a true international level.

It’s well documented that the ILC has been in discussions with several major international hotel chains about branding the resort – can you tell us where this is up to?We are considering associating ourselves with an international ho-tel group that can assist us in sales and distribution, training, pur-chasing and so on. We will continue to manage the resort ourselves and the individual hotels will continue to operate under their exist-ing names.

Last but not least, how did the ILC convince you to come out of retirement and run one of Australia’s most important tourism facilities?I initially got involved as a consultant to this project and as time went on became convinced that this project could be the beginning of bring-ing Indigenous Tourism mainstream. I have become quite passionate about helping Indigenous people build a career in tourism and hos-pitality and was very enthusiastic to join Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia when the opportunity was offered to me.

Indigenous experiences will player a major role going forward at Ayers Rock Resort.Photo courtesy of Grenville Turner


AHICE2011

More than 200 of Australasia’s leading Hoteliers, key staff and suppliers turned out in force for the second annual Australa-sian Hotel Industry Conference and Exhibition (AHICE) at

Four Seasons Hotel Sydney during early September.AHICE, supported by the two leading hotel associations in Aus-

tralia – Tourism Accommodation Australia (TAA) and the Australian Accommodation Association (AAA) – and hosted by HM magazine, tackled the major operational issues facing the industry across Aus-tralasia and the South Pacific.

During the day, delegates were given a snapshot of the accommodation indus-try, from an overall outlook to specific top-ics ranging from social media to the MICE market, food and beverage trends, human resources issues and managing distribution channels.

AHICE, held prior to the 2011 HM Awards for Hotel and Accommodation Excellence presented by Sealy was led by a keynote speech from Ross Greenwood, the Nine Net-work’s Business and Finance Editor.

Greenwood looked at the state of the Australian economy and gave Hoteliers a unique insight to the resources boom taking over the na-tion, sending them a message of “if you’re not in these towns yet, you better be soon”.

The AHICE Leader’s Forum panel featuring five of Australia’s lead-ing Hoteliers – IHG’s Bruce McKenzie, Accor New Zealand’s Paul Richardson, Mirvac’s Stephen Burt, Mantra’s Bob East and Hilton’s Ashley Spencer – followed and that delved into the key issues of de-velopment, the impact of low-cost airlines, international arrivals and the Rugby World Cup.

After a presentation on performance by STR Global’s Bryon Mer-zeo, emcee Howard Kemball then hosted a panel to find out “what owners want” featuring Nigel Greenaway (Eureka Funds Manage-ment), John Hudson (Thakral Holdings Group), Andrew Turner (Shen-ton Hospitality) and John van der Wallen (Colonial First State Global Asset Management). Kemball asked the panel to dive into a range of issues, including the elusive question of “do food and beverage outlets make money for hotels?”

After a networking break, the conference then split into two forums – one called ‘Travel Forum’, which primarily looked at inbound and outbound tourism, and Human Resourc-es. The Travel Forum, featuring Accor’s Simon McGrath, Hamilton Island’s Glenn Bourke and AFTA’s Jayson Westbury and Asia Pacific PR’s Tony Harrington, again identified the Austral-ian government and tourism entities should look closer at firmly capturing the Chinese travelers; while Human Resources, hosted by Murray Wright and featuring Toga’s Rachel

Argaman, Hostplus’ Arthur Antonellos, IHG’s Melanie Smith and the AHA’s John Sweetman, identified training as an ongoing major concern.

The Sustainability panel (moderated by Ted Horner) and Franchis-ing panel (led by Tony Ryan) then followed and both featured lively discussions. Ryan’s panel – comprising Choice’s David Bayes, Wynd-ham’s David Wray, Accor’s Dino Mezzatesta and Quest’s Paul Con-stantinou – looked at the rapid growth of franchising and why it’s the hot development model in Australia and New Zealand at present. Horner’s Sustainability and Technology panel – featuring Staging Con-nections’ Andrew MacColl, Concept Amenities’ Michael Matulick, Dal-man Architecture’s Richard Dalman and Four Seasons Hotel Sydney’s

AHICE 2011The leading Hoteliers, suppliers and consultants in the Australasian hotel industry converged on Sydney for the second annual Australasian Hotel Industry Conference and Exhibition (AHICE) on September 2.

WORDS JAMES WILKINSON


Vincent Hoogewijs – then looked at both key topics and how they are evolving closer together.

After the successful networking lunch, Kemball interviewed Voy-ages Indigenous Tourism Australia’s Koos Klein about indigenous training and the company’s plans for Ayers Rock Resort going forward.

The ‘Rise of Boutique Hotels’ followed and featured some of Aus-tralasia’s leading Hoteliers, including Gibraltar Hotel’s John Uliana, 8Hotels’ Paul Fischmann, Emporium Hotel Brisbane’s Peter Savoff, Art Series Hotel Group’s Will Deague and Sofitel Queenstown’s Wouter de Graaf. The panel debated food and beverage, branded versus un-branded and why the boutique segment is being chased by the world’s largest hotel chains.

The George Hotel’s Bruce Garrett then gave Hoteliers an update on Christchurch before a very revealing insight into the world of social networking led by Klick Communications’ owner Kim McKay.

The social networking panel, featuring Marriott’s Ben Charlton, Spice Magazine’s Gwen O’Toole, Netroomz’ Julian Bish and Pacific Re-sort Hotel Group’s Marcus Niszow uncovered the websites that Ho-teliers need to be featured on, the sites best suited for marketing and others to be weary of.

Overall, the conference gave Hoteliers, suppliers and consultants in attendance a solid snapshot of where the Australasian hotel industry is at present and what to expect over the coming 12 months.

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PROPERTY

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BRANDS PARIS

Accor simplifies economy segment

Accor has dropped two of its brands, All Sea-sons and Etap, as part of as global shake-up of the economy segment aimed at making the ibis brand a global leader in the fast-growing sector.

The move will see Ibis become a mega-brand as All Seasons properties are re-flagged ‘ibis styles’ and Etap hotels rebranded as ‘ibis budget’.

Accor’s Chairman and Chief Executive Of-ficer, Denis Hennequin, made the announce-ment in Paris on September 13 and said the ibis re-branding was part of a global project for the world’s largest hotel management company.

“I have decided to challenge some of the basics of our business model: change is not an option, it is a necessity,” he said. “The first part of our project concerns the economy segment.

“With our international leadership, we will revolutionize our economy brand portfolio around the ibis brand, which benefits from unrivalled worldwide notoriety.

“Consequently, ibis, Etap hotel and all seasons will evolve into a group of three strong, innovative, modernised brands and become ibis, ibis styles and ibis budget. ibis is now the keystone of our economy portfo-lio,” he said.

Accor’s implementation of the new ibis segmentation is expected to completed worldwide by early 2013, while the rebrand-ing will be complemented with a “vast com-munication campign” throughout 2012 ac-cording to Hennequin.

As part of the rebranding project, Accor said in a statement it intends ibis, ibis styles and ibis budget to “become the brands that offer the highest level of comfort and well-being in the economy hotel segment”.

A key element of that is a plan to “mod-ernise the hotels and improve bedding com-fort” and “the company will reconfigure com-mon areas, food and beverage offerings and consumer technologies so that the hotels cor-respond to new trends and meet the expecta-tions of tomorrow’s customers”.

Accor has not yet released a timeline for the first rebranded ibis properties in Australa-sia, but is expected to make an announce-ment in the coming months.

New look for ibis Hotels


MANAGEMENT WELLINGTON

Distinction expands to WellingtonDistinction Hotels has continued its impres-sive expansion, adding a property in Wellington to its collection.

The New Zealand-owned hotel chain has recently taken over the 4.5-star Century City Apartments on Tory Street in Wellington CBD, with the prop-erty coming online on September 1, 2011.

“We are excited to have the opportunity to work in Welling-ton, continuing to expand from a tourist focus to adding prop-erties which have a strong corporate market,” said Distinction Hotels CEO, Duncan Fletcher.

The recently-built apartments are 24 months old, originally built by property developer Terry Serepisos and sold to Wel-lington investor Mark Dunajtschik this year.

The property has a total of 89 rooms, ranging from studios to penthouse suites, and facilities include an indoor pool, cov-ered parking, and on-site gym.

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InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) remains committed to main-taining a presence in Christchurch despite the announcement that one of its three hotels in the city, Crowne Plaza Christchurch will not be rebuilt in the wake of the February earthquakes.

IHG managed the hotel under its Crowne Plaza brand on behalf of building owner, Eureka Funds Management.

On August 18, Eureka briefed employees of the hotel, who have re-mained on full pay since the earthquakes six months ago, on the ruling from structural engineers to demolish the hotel.

Eureka also confirmed that the hotel will not be rebuilt, primarily due to rising construction costs resulting from changes to the Christch-urch building codes.

In light of the news, IHG’s immediate priority is working with Eu-reka to find redeployment opportunities for those of the Crowne Pla-za’s 160 employees willing to relocate, to other hotels in New Zealand, Australia and worldwide.

“Today’s meeting gave closure to our Christchurch colleagues who have been waiting for the structural engineers to provide their assessment on the hotel. Our first order of business is providing fresh opportunities for those of our colleagues who are willing to relocate from Christchurch,” said IHG Australasia Chief Operating Officer, Bruce McKenzie.

All three hotels under IHG management in Christchurch – the Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn City Centre and Holiday Inn on Avon – sustained significant damage during the earthquakes that devastated the city in February.

The Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn City Centre are located in a section of the Christchurch CBD that remains closed to the public six months after the devastating earthquakes, as city officials and contrac-tors take necessarily cautious steps toward restoring the city.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done to determine what the future holds for IHG’s presence in the city, particularly with assessments still pending on the two Christchurch Holiday Inn hotels under IHG man-agement,” he said.

“That said, we’re working closely with the City of Christchurch, our partners and the industry to determine that future, with every inten-tion of remaining a part of this city,” McKenzie said.

Set to be demolished: Crowne Plaza Christchurch

pROpERTIES CHRISTCHURCH

Crowne plaza Christchurch to be demolished

Century City Apartments: now with Distinction


PROPERTY

The opening of Formule 1 Auckland Airport on August 29 heralded a revolution in New Zealand’s budget hotel sector.

The launch of the first new-build Formule 1 in New Zealand is part of a major new ac-commodation and hospitality complex at the airport that also includes fast-food outlets, a bar, and mobile phone store.

The Formule 1 and the rest of the complex have been developed by Auckland Interna-tional Airport.

The hotel provides reliable, contemporary accommodation at the highly affordable rate of NZ$79 a night (for up to two people). There are also double, twin and quadruple share rooms, making the hotel ideal for couples,

groups and families. In addition there are five large special-access rooms.

The hotel features Formule 1’s new Co-coon concept room. The rooms are more stylish, more restful room with soft colours, rounded edges and soothing lighting, as well as extra storage space. Facilities include flat screen TVs with extra channels, wireless in-ternet and a strong focus on sustainability, the Cocoon Room won Best Interior Design at the European Hotels Design Awards and rep-resents a real metamorphosis for the brand, which was first introduced in 1984.

“The Formule 1 will be the perfect starting point for international visitors wanting to put together all the ingredients for a drive holi-day around the country,” said Firoze Wadia, F1 Auckland Airport General Manager. “They will have affordable comfortable accommo-dation for under $40 per person, they will be able to organise their transport, banking, phones and shopping all within a few hun-dred metres of the hotel.

“Because the airport attracts such a wide variety of guests we are able to offer a full range of room styles from traditional double rooms to family rooms. Some of the rooms even have water views.”

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DEVELOPMENTS AUCKLAND

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Mirvac Hotels and Resorts has confirmed that a number of rooms in Juniper’s 77-sto-ry ‘Soul’ complex in Surfers Paradise will be branded under the Sea Temple banner, with an expected opening date of late Sep-tember at the time of press.

The 77 level Soul tower is made up of elegantly designed two- and three-bedroom apartments, with every apart-ment boasting spectacular uninterrupted ocean views. Positioned from levels four to 39, with floor-to-ceiling windows, the ‘beach view’ apartments are flooded by natural light and backlit by the azure glimmer of the sea.

All rooms offer individual air con-ditioning, luxurious Mii Spa bathroom amenities, bathrobes, slippers and hair-dryers, an in-room safe, telephone, in-ternet, 40-inch LED TVs, Blu-Ray players and home theatre systems, music and

DVD system and a clock radio iPod dock-ing station.

Other comforts include a sparkling outdoor pool and spa overlooking Surfers Paradise beach, a landscaped garden and BBQ area for entertaining, and an infinity indoor lap pool, gymnasium, plunge pool, spa, sauna and steam room, all of which are located on level three to capture the stunning beach vistas.

A Restaurant and Bar will open in December in time for the Christmas and New Year celebrations, with an east facing aspect and offering breathtaking views from every table. It will offer contem-porary, Australian cuisine influenced by an abundance of local seasonal produce, while the menu will also be comple-mented by Asian and Pacific Rim flavours, signature dishes and Chef’s choice of the day, based on local market produce. A lo-

cal and international wine list has been created to delight and enhance the overall dining experience.

The spacious conference and event space offers banqueting and meeting facili-ties, celebrations and exhibitions for 18 and up to 130 delegates, theatre-style.

Sea Temple Surfers Paradise will be the Mirvac’s sixth property in South-East Queensland.

Sea Temple Surfers paradise

Wyndham Vacation Resorts and Wyndham Hotel Group, both part of the Wyndham Worldwide family of companies, has announced the ad-dition of the Mercure Port Douglas Treetops Resort to the company’s expanding portfolio of properties in the South Pacific region.

The mixed-use property is a result of a collaborative effort between Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific, Australia’s largest vacation ownership company, and Wyndham Hotel Group, the world’s largest hotel company with approximately 7,210 hotels.

The property will be managed by Wyndham Hotel Group’s Ramada brand and renamed Ramada Resort Port Douglas.

The purchase of the property by Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific includes the acquisition of 194 hotel rooms as well as manage-ment rights for the property.

The hotel rooms will be reconfigured over the next 12 months result-ing in the transfer of 86 apartments and hotel rooms in to the WorldMark South Pacific Club by Wyndham for use by its 44,000 vacation owners.

“We are delighted to establish our presence in this area under the strength and reputation of the international Ramada brand,” said Barry Robinson, CEO and Managing Director, Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific and also managing director for Wyndham Hotel Group in the South Pacific. “We are committed to the expansion of our portfolio in leading tourism destinations such as Port Douglas.”

Ramada Resort Port Douglas adds to Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific’s portfolio of 21 vacation resorts at locations throughout Australia, New Zealand and Fiji.

pROpERTIES PORT DOUGLAS

Wyndham takes over Treetops Resort

Ramada Resort port Douglas

DEVELOpMENTS SURFERS PARADISE

Sea Temple flag for Soul


MANAGEMENT SYDNEY

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PROPERTY

8Hotels has announced it has entered into a long-term operating agreement for the 30-suite Regents Court Hotel in Potts Point, Sydney.

According to 8Hotels CEO Paul Fis-chmann, the company was chosen by the new owners to reinvigorate the hotel and the Regents Court brand with the mis-sion to reclaim its title as Sydney’s pre-eminent boutique residence hotel.

“As a service focused hotel manage-ment company, the opportunity to manage Regents Court and to re-engage its great history and rebuild its former reputation is a dream assignment,” Fischmann said.

“The magnificent building and resi-dential amenity creates a truly unique accommodation experience and we look forward to welcoming guests for both overnight and longer term stays.”

Regents Court is located in the heart

of Potts Point where guests can enjoy views of the city skyline and harbour from the roof top garden.

Meanwhile, 8Hotels has also an-nounced it has entered into a definitive long-term management agreement to operate the 65-apartment hotel, Aarons All Suites in Perth, Western Australia.

Aarons All Suites will be rebranded All Suites Perth and in a new direction for 8Hotels, All Suites Perth will be managed and operated as an affiliate hotel and will not form part of the 8Hotels Collection.

“Our growing management and mar-keting expertise is creating opportunities to manage properties for owners that al-though may sit outside the 8Hotels Col-lection, can still enjoy the leading oper-ating and marketing infrastructure and services provided by our management company,” Fischmann said.

DEVELOpMENTS MELBOURNE

Space Hotel opens in MelbourneLocated in Melbourne’s CBD, Space Hotel (formerly known as Vic Hall) has officially opened in the Victorian capital.

After nearly three years of construction, Space Hotel is now fully functional, catering for single travellers, couples and large groups across the eight floors of 128 rooms with dorm beds starting from AUD$28 a night.

Designed for the modern day backpacker, all dorm rooms feature plenty of lockable

storage space, high quality mattresses and private reading lamps, while each of the private rooms have the added luxury of flat screen TVs and iPod docks.

All guests have access to wireless internet as well as a range of amenities, including the fully kitted out communal kitchen, gym, bar-beque grills and Laundromat.

Space Hotel is the first in a planned chain to be developed across Australia and New Zealand.

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CELEBRATING ExCELLENCE

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In front of a record crowd of 600 hoteliers, industry leaders and major suppliers, the winners of the 2011 HM Awards for Hotel

and Accommodation Excellence, presented by Sealy, have been announced.

Held at the prestigious Sydney Town Hall on September 2 and hosted by television per-sonality Larry Emdur, the HM Awards have, for the ninth time, recognised the accom-modation industry’s finest staff, properties, brands and chains across Australia, New Zea-land and the South Pacific.

Major winners on the night were Pan Pa-cific’s CEO and President, A Patrick Imbardelli (Asia-Pacific Hotelier of the Year), IHG’s COO for Australasia - Bruce McKenzie (Australian Hotelier of the Year), Accor New Zealand’s Paul Richardson (New Zealand Hotelier of the Year), Accor Hotels (Accommodation Chain), Hilton (Hotel Brand), InterContinental Syd-ney (Hotel of the Year) and Wolgan Valley Re-sort and Spa (Environmental Program).

Hamilton Island’s qualia picked up three key awards (Australian Lodge, Resort and

Spa), while Hilton Sydney also claimed a tri-fecta (Hotel Bar - Zeta, Engineer - Craig Cav-ers and General Manager - Paul Hutton).

Over NZD$60,000 was also raised on the night for the Christchurch Earthquake Ap-peal Trust in the greatest charity display the accommodation industry has seen for years.

“The accommodation industry’s generos-ity and desire to help the people of Christch-urch was absolutely remarkable,” said HM magazine managing editor James Wilkinson. “I am incredibly proud of the way the ac-commodation industry dug deep to help our friends and family across the Tasman in what are still such challenging times.”

The 2011 HM Awards were hosted by HM magazine, presented by Sealy, and co-hosted by AHS Hospitality, Intrust Super, ISIS and Philips.

“Once more we were proud to recognise the industry’s finest, particularly the staff that have been doing such an amazing job over the last 12 months,” Wilkinson said. “Sure a hotel can be rewarded for its aesthetics, style,

THE HM AWARDS WERE HELD FOR THE NINTH TIME ON SEPTEMBER 2, A NIGHT THAT WAS ABOUT CELEBRATING THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE INDUSTRY’S FINEST STAFF, HOTELS AND SUPPLIERS.

CO-HOSTED BY

design and comfort, but it’s the people who work in hotels that gives the accommodation industry in Australasia its soul.

“This year, our people categories generat-ed the most interest and in the case of Rising Star, held for the first time in 2011, the most nominations out of the 48 categories.

“On behalf of the team at HM magazine and all of our fantastic sponsors this year, congratulations to all of the winners, highly commended recipients and finalists in 2011,” Wilkinson said.

Four Hoteliers were also inducted into the HM Awards Hall of Fame. Former Mir-vac CEO Andrew Turner was joined by Fritz Gubler, Max Player and Gavin Faull, with the trio recognised for their services to education, having been responsible for starting the Blue Mountains Hotel School outside Sydney and the Pacific International Hotel Management School in New Zealand.

The 2011 HM Awards saw not just a re-cord crowd, but also a record number of en-tries with 1600 this year.

The 2011 HM Awards at Sydney Town Hall

Entertainment on the night: The Seven Sopranos

HMAwARDS

PRESENTED BY HOSTED BYPresented by Hosted by

AUSTRALIAN PROPERTY AWARDS

2011 HM AWARDS WINNERS

1. SERVICED APARTMENT PROPERTY

Presented by

Finalists:Adina Apartment Hotel Sydney, NSW

Fraser Suites Sydney, NSW

Medina Grand Adelaide Treasury, SA

Peppers Beach Club and Spa Palm Cove, QLD

Peppers Salt Resort and Spa, Kingscliff, NSW

Quay West Suites Sydney, NSW

Quay West Resort Magenta Shores, Central Coast, NSW

Quest on William, Melbourne, VIC

Sea Temple Resort and Spa Palm Cove, QLD

The Old Woolstore Apartment Hotel, Hobart, TAS

Highly Commended: Medina Grand Adelaide Treasury

Winner: Fraser Suites Sydney

2. BUDGET ACCOMMODATIONPresented by

Finalists:Aarons Hotel, Sydney, NSW

Boali Ski Lodge, Thredbo, NSW

Country Comfort Ipswich, Ipswich, QLD

EconoLodge Sydney South, Sydney, NSW

Formule One Kings Cross, Sydney, NSW

Formule One Sydney Airport, NSW

Regency Palms, Cairns, QLD

Scone Motor Inn and Conference Centre, NSW

The Lodge Outback Motel, Broken Hill, NSW

Top Spot Motel, Maroochydore, QLD

Highly Commended: Aarons Hotel

Winner: EconoLodge Sydney South

3. ECONOMY HOTEL Presented by

Finalists:All Seasons Cairns, Cairns, QLD

Altamont Hotel, Sydney, NSW

Best Western Sanctuary Inn, Tamworth, NSW

Hotel Kurrajong, Canberra, ACT

Ibis Sydney Olympic Park, NSW

Mercure Brisbane, QLD

Pensione Hotel Melbourne, VIC

Thredbo Alpine Hotel, NSW

Travelodge Docklands, Melbourne, VIC

Travelodge Southbank, Melbourne, VIC

Highly Commended: Pensione Hotel Melbourne

Winner: Travelodge Docklands

HMAwARDS

Richard O'Connell (AHS) presents the Award to fraser Suites

Brendan O'farrell (Intrust) presents the Award to Trent fraser, Choice Hotels

Craig Coughlin (AHS) presents the Award to Travelodge Docklands

HMawards




4. MIDSCALE HOTELPresented by

Finalists:Best Western Stellar Hotel, Sydney, NSW

Holiday Inn Burswood, Perth, WA

Holiday Inn Darling Harbour, Sydney, NSW

Mercure Hotel Sydney, NSW

Novotel Sydney Manly Pacific, NSW

Novotel Sydney Olympic Park, NSW

The Sebel Harbourside Kiama, NSW

The Sebel Melbourne, VIC

Vibe Hotel Darwin Waterfront, NT

Vibe Hotel Rushcutters, Sydney, NSW

Highly Commended: Holiday Inn Burswood

Winner: Vibe Hotel Rushcutters

5. UPSCALE HOTEL Presented by

Finalists:Crown Promenade Hotel, Melbourne, VIC

Crowne Plaza Adelaide, SA

Crowne Plaza Hunter Valley, NSW

Novotel Barossa Valley Resort, SA


Q Station Retreat, Manly, NSW

Sydney Marriott Hotel, NSW

The Old Woolstore Apartment Hotel, Hobart, TAS

The Sebel Cairns, QLD

The Sebel Pier One, Sydney, NSW

Highly Commended: The Sebel Pier One

Winner: Q Station Retreat

6. UPPER-UPSCALE HOTELPresented by

Finalists:Crown Metropol, Melbourne, VIC

Diamant Hotel Canberra, ACT

Four Points By Sheraton Sydney, NSW

Grand Hyatt Melbourne, VIC

Hilton Melbourne South Wharf, VIC

Hilton Sydney, NSW

Pullman Sydney Olympic Park, NSW

Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel Sydney, NSW

Sydney Harbour Marriott Hotel, NSW

The Byron at Byron Resort and Spa, Byron Bay, NSW

Highly Commended: Crown Metropol

Winner: The Byron at Byron Resort and Spa

Gidon Sattinger (Vintech Systems) presents the Award to Vibe Hotel Rushcutters

Travis Anderson (philips) presents the Award to Max player and Brendan Millett (Q Station)

Brett patterson (ISIS) presents the Award to Donna Kessler (The Byron at Byron)

ISIS0382_HM_AD_A4_OL.indd 1 16/09/11 1:01 PM

HMawards




7. LUXURY HOTEL Presented by

Finalists:Crown Towers, Melbourne, VIC

Lake House, Daylesford, VIC

Palazzo Versace, Gold Coast, QLD

Shangri-La Hotel Sydney, NSW

Sofitel Melbourne On Collins, VIC

Sofitel Sydney Wentworth, NSW

The Langham, Melbourne, VIC

The Observatory Hotel, Sydney, NSW

The Westin Sydney, NSW

Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa, Lithgow, NSW

Highly Commended: The Observatory Hotel

Winner: Crown Towers, Melbourne

8. AUSTRALIAN LODGE Presented by

Finalists:Bay of Fires Lodge, Mt William National Park, TAS

Cradle Mountain Lodge, Cradle Mountain, TAS

El Questro, Kunnunurra, NT

Freycinet Lodge, Freycinet, TAS

Kim’s Beach Hideaway, Toowoon Bay, NSW

Longitude 131, Uluru, NT

qualia, Hamilton Island, QLD

Saffire, Coles Bay, TAS

Wildman Wilderness Lodge, Humpty Doo, NT


Highly Commended: Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa

Winner: qualia

9. BUSINESS HOTELPresented by


Emporium Hotel, Brisbane, QLD

Hilton Melbourne South Wharf, VIC

Hilton Sydney, NSW

InterContinental Sydney, NSW

InterContinental Melbourne The Rialto, VIC

Pan Pacific Perth, WA

Sofitel Gold Coast Broadbeach, QLD

The Westin Melbourne, VIC

Vibe Hotel North Sydney, NSW

Highly Commended: Hilton Sydney

Winner: InterContinental Sydney

Erin Coman (HotelHome) presents the Award to Greg Moore (Crown)

Antony Raiteri (Sealy) presents the Award to Michael Shah (qualia)

Bruce McKenzie (IHG) receives the Award from Iain Nelson (foxtel)

CO-HOSTED BY

10. RESORTPresented by

Finalists:Crowne Plaza Terrigal, NSW

Hayman, Whitsundays, QLD

Hyatt Regency Coolum, QLD


qualia, Whitsundays, QLD

Quay West Resort Bunker Bay, Naturaliste, WA

Quay West Resort Magenta Shores, Central Coast, NSW

Sea Temple Resort and Spa Palm Cove, QLD



Highly Commended: Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa

Winner: qualia

11. HOTEL INTERIOR DESIGNPresented by






Sofitel Melbourne on Collins, VIC

The Cullen, Prahran, VIC

The Olsen, South Yarra, VIC

The Sebel Pier One, Sydney, NSW


Highly Commended: Emporium Hotel, Brisbane

Winner: The Olsen

12. BOUTIQUE HOTELPresented by

Finalists:Blue Sydney, NSW

Diamant Hotel Canberra, ACT


Establishment Hotel, Sydney, NSW

Grand Mercure Hobart Hadleys Hotel, TAS

Henry Jones Art Hotel, Hobart, TAS


Lyall Hotel and Spa, South Yarra, VIC

The Cullen, Prahran, VIC

The Richardson Hotel and Spa, Perth, WA

Highly Commended: Henry Jones Art Hotel

Winner: Emporium Hotel, Brisbane

Tina Do (Dallen) presents the Award to Michael Shah (qualia)

Troy Cuthberton (Art Series) receives the Award from Brett patterson (ISIS)

peter Savoff (Emporium Hotel) receives the Award from Brendan O'farrell (Intrust Super)

HMawards




13. NEW HOTELPresented by

Finalists:Citadines on Bourke, Melbourne, VIC

Gibraltar Hotel, Bowral, NSW

Outrigger Little Hastings Street Resort and Spa, Noosa, QLD

Peppers Broadbeach, Gold Coast, QLD

Quest Cheltenham, Melbourne, VIC

Quest Mildura, VIC

Spicers Balfour Hotel, Brisbane, QLD

The Blackman, Melbourne, VIC

The Sebel Newcastle, NSW

Wildman Wilderness Lodge, Humpty Doo, NT

Highly Commended: Wildman Wilderness Lodge

Winner: Peppers Broadbeach

14. MEETINGS AND CONFERENCE PROPERTY

Presented by


Hilton Sydney, NSW

Novotel Twin Waters Resort, Sunshine Coast, QLD


Sheraton on the Park, Sydney, NSW

Sofitel Sydney Wentworth, Sydney, NSW


The Sebel Albert Park, Melbourne, VIC


The Westin Melbourne, VIC

Highly Commended: Q Station Retreat

Winner: The Langham, Melbourne

15. REGIONAL PROPERTYPresented by

Finalists:Angsana Resort and Spa Great Barrier Reef, Palm Cove, QLD

Huski Lodge, Falls Creek, VIC

Kim’s Beach Hideaway, Toowoon Bay, NSW


Novotel Lake Crackenback Resort, Lake Crackenback, NSW

Peppers Guest House, Pokolbin, NSW


Quay West Resort and Spa Falls Creek, VIC



Highly Commended: Kim’s Beach Hideaway

Winner: Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa

Travis Anderson (philips) presents the Award to Yvette peverell (Mantra)

Giselle Griffiths and Gwen O'Toole (Spice) present the Award to Ben Sington (Langham)

Dwane Goodman (Wolgan Valley) receives the Award from Melissa Starbuck (Sealy)

HMawards




16. DAY SPAPresented by

Finalists:Angsana Spa, Angsana Resort and Spa Palm Cove, QLD

Chuan Spa, The Langham, Melbourne, VIC

Spa qualia, qualia, Whitsundays, QLD

The Spa, Four Seasons Hotel Sydney, NSW

Timeless Spa, Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa, Lithgow, NSW

Isika Day Spa and Urban Retreat, Crown Metropol Melbourne, VIC

Salus Spa, Lake House, Daylesford, VIC

Stephanies Spa Retreat, Sofitel Brisbane, QLD

The Byron at Byron Resort Spa and Wellness Centre, The Byron at Byron, Byron Bay, NSW

Villa Thalgo Day Spa, The Sebel Windsor, NSW

Highly Commended: Isika Day Spa and Urban Retreat, Crown Metropol Melbourne

Winner: Spa qualia, qualia

17. HOTEL BARPresented by

Finalists:Blue Bar on 36, Shangri-La Hotel, Sydney, NSW

Eau de Vie, The Kirketon, Sydney, NSW

Emporium Hotel Cocktail Bar, Emporium Hotel, Brisbane, QLD

IxL Long Bar, The Henry Jones Art Hotel, Hobart, TAS

Sofitel Lounge Bar, Sofitel Sydney Wentworth, NSW

Room81, Sofitel Gold Coast, QLD

Sotano Wine+Tapas, Hilton Melbourne South Wharf, VIC

The Waiting Room, Crown Towers, Melbourne, VIC

Water Bar, Blue Sydney, NSW

Zeta Bar, Hilton Sydney, NSW

Highly Commended: Blue Bar on 36, Shangri-La Hotel, Sydney

Winner: Zeta Bar, Hilton Sydney

qualia receive the Award from Brett patterson (ISIS)

Gee David (Southtrade) presents the Award to Zeta Bar

18. HOTEL RESTAURANTPresented by

Finalists:Altitude, Shangri-La Hotel Sydney, NSW

Bilson’s, Radisson Plaza Sydney, NSW

est, Establishment, Sydney, NSW

Etch, InterContinental Sydney, NSW

Glass Brasserie, Hilton Sydney, NSW

Lake House Restaurant and Cellar, Lake House Daylesford, VIC

Maze Grill, Crown Metropol, Melbourne, VIC

No35, Sofitel Melbourne on Collins, VIC

Palate, Saffire, Coles Bay, TAS

Spice Temple, Crown Towers, Melbourne, VIC

Highly Commended: Lake House Restaurant and Cellar, Lake House Daylesford

Winner: est, Establishment

SP298 HMAdvert_chefs.indd 1 16/09/11 3:09 PM

Richard Badanjek (Sanpellegrino) presents the Award to Establishment

HMawards


AUSTRALIA, NZ & SOUTH PACIFIC PROPERTY AWARDS


19. TECH-HOTELPresented by


Establishment Hotel, Sydney, NSW



Hilton Sydney, NSW



Pullman Sydney Olympic Park, Homebush, NSW




Winner: Crown Metropol

20. NEW ZEALAND HOTELPresented by

Finalists:Hilton Auckland

Hilton Queenstown

Hotel St Moritz, Queenstown

InterContinental Wellington

Pullman Auckland

SkyCity Grand Hotel, Auckland

Sofitel Queenstown Hotel and Spa

The George, Christchurch

The Langham, Auckland

The Rees, Queenstown

Highly Commended: Hilton Queenstown

Winner: Sofitel Queenstown Hotel and Spa

Harley Moraitis (Crown Metropol) receives the Award from Chris Dyball (DOCOMO InterTouch)

Travis Anderson (philips) presents the Award to Wouter de Graaf (Sofitel Queenstown)

21. NEW ZEALAND REGIONAL PROPERTYPresented by

Finalists:Best Western Hygate Motor Lodge, Hamilton

Grand Mercure Nelson Monaco

Hilton Lake Taupo

Peppers Clearwater Resort, Christchurch

Quest Napier

St Clair Beach Resort, Dunedin

Te Wanoui Forest Retreat, Franz Joseph

Travelodge Palmerston North

Millbrook Resort, Queenstown

Wyndham Resort Wanaka

Highly Commended: Millbrook Resort

Winner: Hilton Lake Taupo

For more details please contact David DowningFRANKE CS Oceania Sales Manager

Mobile: 0417302411Email: [email protected]

FRANKE have been making the best coffee machines for 100 years – and we were proud to serve everyone who attended AHICE and the HM Awards in 2011.

Hilton receive the Award from Lisa fenwick (Sealy)

HMawards


NZ & SOUTH PACIFIC PROPERTY AWARDS


22. NEW ZEALAND LODGEPresented by

Finalists:Blanket Bay, Glenorchy

Huka Lodge, Taupo

Kaimata Retreat, Dunedin

Lake Okareka Lodge, Rotorua

Matakauri, Queenstown

Parehua Country Estate, Martinborough

Peppers on the Point, Rotorua

The Farm at Cape Kidnappers, Hawke’s Bay

Treetops Lodge, Rotorua

Wharekauhau Country Estate, Paliser Bay

Highly Commended: Huka Lodge

Winner: Blanket Bay

23. FIJIAN PROPERTYPresented by

Finalists:InterContinental Fiji Golf Resort and Spa

Likuliku Lagoon Resort

Outrigger on the Lagoon Fiji

Quest Suva

Royal Davui

Shangri-La’s Fijian Resort and Spa

Sheraton Fiji Resort

Sofitel Fiji Resort and Spa

The Westin Denarau Island Resort and Spa

Yasawa Island Resort

Highly Commended: InterContinental Fiji Golf Resort and Spa

Winner: Likuliku Lagoon Resort

24. SOUTH PACIFIC PROPERTYPresented by

Finalists:Eratap Beach Resort, Vanuatu

InterContinental Bora Bora Resort and Thalasso Spa, French Polynesia

Iririki Island Resort and Spa, Vanuatu

Le Meridien Ile Des Pins, New Caledonia

Legends Resort Moorea, French Polynesia

Pacific Resort Aitutaki, Cook Islands

Royale Takitumu Villas, Cook Islands

Sofitel Moorea, French Polynesia

Tanoa Tusitala Hotel, Samoa

Te Manava Luxury Villas and Spa, Cook Islands

Highly Commended: Sofitel Moorea

Winner: InterContinental Bora Bora Resort and Thalasso Spa

Richard Rosebery (Blanket Bay) receives the Award from

Rob Hassan (Robert Oatley)Jacinta Chang (Likuliku) receives the

Award from Brett patterson (ISIS)David Haynes (Ernst&Young) presents the Award to Bruce McKenzie (IHG)

Manufactured in Australia from heavy duty, fully washable HotelHome fabrics, this long lasting very affordable product has proven to be a necessity with discerning Housekeepers and Hotel Management in Australia’s leading properties.

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HMawards


GENERAL & PEOPLE AWARDS


25. MARKETING CAMPAIGNPresented by

Finalists:Accor Hotels, Australia wide

Crowne Plaza Hotels, Australia and New Zealand

Emporium Hotel Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Hilton Melbourne South Wharf, VIC, Australia

Medina Apartment Hotels, Australia wide

Mirvac Hotels and Resorts, Australia and New Zealand

Novotel Canberra, ACT, Australia

Sheraton on the Park, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Sofitel Queenstown Hotel and Spa, New Zealand

Vibe Hotels, Australia wide

Highly Commended: Hilton Melbourne South Wharf

Winner: Vibe Hotels

26. SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY

Presented by

Finalists:Crowne Plaza Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Crowne Plaza Queenstown, New Zealand

Hilton Cairns, QLD, Australia

Hilton Lake Taupo, New Zealand

Mercure Cairns, QLD, Australia

Mercure Sydney, NSW, Australia

Sofitel Queenstown Hotel and Spa, New Zealand

Sydney Harbour Marriott, NSW, Australia

The Langham Melbourne, VIC, Australia

The Observatory Port Macquarie, NSW, Australia

Highly Commended: Hilton Cairns

Winner: Mercure Sydney

27. CONCIERGEPresented by

Finalists:Alex Williams, Sheraton on the Park, SydneyBryan Wilkinson, Sofitel Queenstown Hotel and SpaGary Chan, Four Points by Sheraton SydneyJames Ridenour, InterContinental Melbourne The RialtoJason Aberin, Hilton SydneyJim Tully, SkyCity Grand Hotel, AucklandMark Peyton, Sofitel Sydney WentworthRhett Constantine, The Sebel and Citigate Albert Park, MelbourneRonald Maskell, Crown Towers MelbourneSteve Ciric, The Westin Melbourne

Highly Commended: Ronald Maskell, Crown Towers Melbourne

Highly Commended: Alex Williams, Sheraton on the Park, Sydney

Winner: Steve Ciric, The Westin Melbourne

Michael Rodrigues (Time Out) presents the Award to Lisa phillips (Toga)

Greg Brady (Mercure Sydney) receives the Award from Brendan O'farrell (Intrust Super)

Brendan O'farrell (Intrust Super) presents the Award to Steve Ciric (Westin Melbourne)

SALLY MATHESONGeneral Manager, Australia

[email protected]

SALARY SURVEY AUSTRALIA 2011Take part in TMS Salary Survey before 07 October 2011 and stand a chance to win AU$250

SALARY SURVEY AUSTRALIA 2011SALARY SURVEY AUSTRALIA 201107 October 201107 October 201107 October 201107 October 2011

To participate, visit http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/M855SS2

TMS 2011 AustraliaTravel/Hospitality Industry Salary Survey Launching the sixth annual TMS Asia-Pacific Australia Travel and Hospitality Industry Salary Report Survey this week, General Manager Australia/NZ, Sally Matheson said one of the more salient factors she hoped to see unearthed this year would be the impact the current job heavy/candidate light environment is playing on employee wages.

Ms Matheson said the year to date, while not a period of huge plenty, had none the less certainly been positive.

“There can be no doubt we are currently back in a pre-GFC climate where employees seem to have the upper hand when it comes to expecting and demanding better salaries from employers. However it remains to be seen who actually has the upper hand at the moment – employees or employers. This is just one of several relevant factors we hope to unearth with the 2011 Salary Report Survey,” ” Ms Matheson said.

SIGNIFICANCE OF 2011 RESULTMs Matheson said she was confident the 2011 result will have just as much significance as its predecessors, all of which have provided solid benchmarks for the sector following on from what she described as a six year economic roller coaster ride.

“One thing we do know for sure – the 2011 Salary Report Survey will be conducted in an environment where jobs have once again become more plentiful against a backdrop of a deficiency of readily available candidates,” she said. “This scenario has immense bearing on remuneration packages especially with employers once again being forced to outbid each other in order to secure the best available talent in an ever-tightening corridor.”

INPUT INVITED FROM 10,000-PLUS INDUSTRY STAFFERSMs Matheson said the executive search specialist would this year be inviting input from more than 10,000 travel industry personnel across Australia.

These again ranged from frontline consultants and middle management through to managing directors and chief executive officers.

END BENEFITS “The primary purpose of the report, as in previous surveys, is to independently assess the totalremuneration packages of staff and management at all levels throughout the country,” MsMatheson said. “The end benefits of these surveys are manifold. In the first instance these surveys allow organisations to ensure they are paying market rates thereby maintaining their competitive edge. The surveys also review the link between salary and non-financial benefits and the impact on job satisfaction and retention levels. This is particularly relevant at this moment in time following a period when we have seen the regional market landscape changed dramatically. We are confident the end result and benefits of this survey, as in 2010, will prove equally as valuable,” Ms Matheson said.

HOW TO OBTAIN YOUR COPY OF THE 2011 AUSTRALIA TRAVEL/HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY SALARY SURVEY REPORT As in previous years, copies of the final report will be readily available from TMS Asia-Pacific’s Sydney head office. The cost of the document is $250.00.

For more information

please contact:

TMS Asia-Pacific

Level 10, 109 Pitt Street

Sydney NSW 2000

Telephone (02) 9231 6444

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.tmsap.com

HMawards


PEOPLE AWARDS


28. HOTEL CHEFPresented by

Finalists:Andrew McCrea, The Sebel Suites Brisbane

Anthony Ross, The Langham Melbourne

Brendon Coffey, Sofitel Fiji Resort and Spa

Dennis Leslie, Hilton Adelaide

Gary Johnson, Hilton Sydney

Gavin Hughes, The Byron at Byron Resort and Spa

Glenn Wright, Hilton Melbourne South Wharf

Jay Olsen, Grand Mercure Nelson Monaco, New Zealand

Mathieu Astier, Sofitel Brisbane Central

Nick Reade, InterContinental Melbourne The Rialto

Highly Commended: Anthony Ross, The Langham Melbourne

Highly Commended: Andrew McCrea, The Sebel Suites Brisbane

Winner: Brendon Coffey, Sofitel Fiji Resort and Spa

29. FOOD AND BEVERAGE ASSOCIATE

Presented by

Finalists:Andrew Ausage, Hilton Sydney

Cherie Stubbs-Timbery, The Swiss-Grand Resort and Spa, Sydney

Chris Hough, Sheraton on the Park, Sydney

Chris Smith, The Sebel Parramatta

Daniela Yankov Reid, Grand Mercure Nelson Monaco, New Zealand

Dhairya Shah, SkyCity Grand Hotel, New Zealand

Irene Noordhoek, Sofitel Queenstown Hotel and Spa, New Zealand

Luke Redington, Eau de Vie, The Kirketon, Darlinghurst

Oliver Colgrave, Clarion Hotel City Park Grand, Launceston

Steve Wellsteed, Novotel Canberra

Highly Commended: Chris Hough, Sheraton on the Park, Sydney

Highly Commended: Chris Smith, The Sebel Parramatta

Winner: Cherie Stubbs-Timbery, The Swiss-Grand Resort and Spa

30. HUMAN RESOURCES ASSOCIATE

Presented by

Finalists:Amanda Lutvey, Emporium Hotel, Brisbane,

Bronwyn Knutson, Mantra Group, New Zealand

Cathy Sinden, Four Points by Sheraton Sydney, Darling Harbour

David West, Rendezvous Hotel Adelaide

John Timson, Accor Hotels

Kate Brough, Hyatt Regency Perth

Mathew Paine, Sofitel Sydney Wentworth

Mike Chep, Rendezvous Hotels, Brisbane

Nicole Salonga, Four Seasons Sydney

Rowena Carter, 8Hotels, Sydney

Highly Commended: Amanda Lutvey, Emporium Hotel

Highly Commended: Bronwyn Knutson, Mantra Group

Winner: Nicole Salonga, Four Seasons Sydney

David Downing (franke) presents the Award to Brendon Coffey (Sofitel fiji)

Mark filmer (CCA) presents the Award to Cherie Stubbs-Timbery (Swiss-Grand)

Sally Matheson (TMS, right) presents the Award to Nicole Salonga, four Seasons Hotel Sydney

You deserve service with style

When you combine great, innovative products with friendly, caring and reliable service, you get a winning combination. With over 20 years experience each serving the hospitality industry, Yardley Hospitality and Philips are both proud to be HM Award Finalists for “Supplier of the Year 2011”.

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Yardley hospitality_FP.indd 1 22/09/11 9:33 AM

HMawards


PEOPLE AWARDS


31. SALES AND MARKETING ASSOCIATE

Presented by

Finalists:Bess Simpson, Mercure Sydney Airport

Blair Weir, Sofitel Melbourne On Collins

Bruce White, Rendezvous Hotels Brisbane

Evelyn Page, Best Western Sanctuary Inn, Tamworth

Helen Radic, Sydney Harbour Marriott

Ivy Zhang, Sheraton on the Park

Karryn Cutcheon, Four Points by Sheraton Sydney, Darling Harbour

Kelvin Dodt, The Sebel and Citigate King George Square Brisbane

Suzie Jones, Radisson Resort Gold Coast

Tanya Dennis, Sofitel Queenstown Hotel and Spa, New Zealand

Highly Commended: Ivy Zhang, Sheraton on the Park

Highly Commended: Evelyn Page, Best Western Sanctuary Inn

Winner: Blair Weir, Sofitel Melbourne On Collins

32. COMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATE

Presented by

Finalists:Cristina Magni, Hilton Auckland & Hilton Lake Taupo, NZ

Linda Sweeney, Mirvac Hotels and Resorts, Australia and New Zealand

Rebecca Freestun, Sofitel Luxury Hotels, Australia Pacific

Sally Morgan, Hayman

Sarah Vickery, Four Seasons Hotel Sydney

Sue Currie, Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific

Susan Gibson, Heritage Hotel Management, New Zealand

Susan Sullivan, Mantra Group, Australia and New Zealand

Tara Bishop, Crown hotels, Melbourne

Tessa Anderssen, Toga Hospitality, Australia and New Zealand

Highly Commended: Rebecca Freestun, Sofitel Luxury Hotels, Australia Pacific

Highly Commended: Tara Bishop, Crown hotels, Melbourne

Winner: Linda Sweeney, Mirvac Hotels and Resorts

33. FRONT OFFICE ASSOCIATEPresented by

Finalists:Blaine Inch, Hilton Lake Taupo, New Zealand

Brett Hutson, The Sebel Suites Brisbane

Calisha Allsworth, 8Hotels, Australia wide

Christie Love, The York by Swiss-Belhotel, Sydney, Australia

Diane Mouchot, The Menzies Hotel Sydney

Joseph Kuchappan, Quest Suva, Fiji

Leoni Mitchell, Quest Taupo, New Zealand

Mia Vesser, Sofitel Queenstown Hotel and Spa, New Zealand

Sarah Simpson, Novotel Twin Waters Resort Sunshine Coast

Simon Wanstall, Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel Sydney

Highly Commended: Simon Wanstall, Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel Sydney

Highly Commended: Joseph Kuchappan, Quest Suva

Winner: Calisha Allsworth, 8Hotels

Anthony Gallagher (Vacations & Travel) presents the Award to Blair Weir, Sofitel Melbourne On Collins

Chanel Gallen and Annie Lyons (Travmedia) present the Award to Linda Sweeney (Mirvac, centre)

Craig Coughlin (AHS) presents the Award to Calisha Allsworth, 8Hotels

CO-HOSTED BY

34. PROCUREMENT ASSOCIATEPresented by

Finalists:Alex Nagy, Marriott International

Brandon Rossen, Sheraton on the Park, Sydney

John Toscano, Quest Serviced Apartments

Lori Finglas, Mantra Group, Australia

Malcolm Parker, Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific

Michael Thomas, Hyatt Hotels and Resorts

Nicholas Grandioso, Accor Hotels, Australia wide

Peter Phillips, Mirvac Hotels and Resorts

Todd Heatly, InterContinental Hotels Group, Australia

Trang Le, Hilton Sydney

Highly Commended: Nicholas Grandioso, Accor Hotels

Highly Commended: Lori Finglas, Mantra Group

Winner: Michael Thomas, Hyatt Hotels and Resorts

35. HOUSEKEEPERPresented by

Finalists:Brenda Olson, Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa, Lithgow

Chona Ogilvie, Four Points by Sheraton Sydney, Darling Harbour

Elizabeth York, Chifley Hotel Penrith Panthers

Karina Gordon, Diamant Hotel Canberra

Myra Sullivan, Rendezvous Hotel Adelaide

Nadia Moriconi De Almeida, Sofitel Sydney Wentworth

Patricia Sutherland, The Sebel Chatswood

Rashmi Tulsiani, Crown Metropol, Melbourne

Sarah Young, Rydges Hotel World Square, Sydney

Sri Yanti, Ibis Hotel World Square, Sydney

Highly Commended: Elizabeth York, Chifley Hotel Penrith Panthers

Highly Commended: Karina Gordon, Diamant Hotel Canberra

Winner: Chona Ogilvie, Four Points by Sheraton Sydney, Darling Harbour

36. HOTEL ENGINEERPresented by

Finalists:Andre Van Staden, The Sebel Harbourside Kiama

Craig Cavers, Hilton Sydney

David Hird, Rendezvous Hotel Melbourne

Dieter Spielkamp, Novotel Twin Waters Resort Sunshine Coast

Greg Mallett, Novotel Melbourne St Kilda

Manuel Wong, Sofitel Sydney Wentworth

Mohammed Sharif, Sofitel Brisbane Central

Robin Power, Crowne Plaza Melbourne

Sean Smith, The York By Swiss-Belhotel, Sydney

Tom Champion, Grand Mercure Nelson Monaco, New Zealand

Highly Commended: Sean Smith, The York By Swiss-Belhotel, Sydney

Highly Commended: Dieter Spielkamp, Novotel Twin Waters Resort

Winner: Craig Cavers, Hilton Sydney

James Wilkinson (HM magazine) accepts the Award on behalf of Michael Thomas (Hyatt) from Antony Raiteri (Sealy)

Steve Tochner (AHS) presents the Award to four points by Sheraton Sydney

Mark poldervaart (philips) presents the Award to Craig Cavers

HMawards


PEOPLE & MAJOR AWARDS


37. RISING STARPresented by

Finalists:Ben Krieg, Mercure Geelong

Cory Clark-Goodison, The Sebel Resort and Spa Hawkesbury Valley

Daniel Phu, Sofitel Brisbane Central

Danielle De Veaux, Establishment Hotel, Sydney

Elyse Vartuli, Sydney Harbour Marriott

Laura Gibb, Mercure Hotel Hobart

Morgan Ulaganathan, Four Seasons Hotel Sydney

Rebecca Patterson, The Swiss-Grand Resort and Spa, Sydney

Richmond Rodrigues, Hilton Cairns

Ross Jack, Mercure Sydney

Highly Commended: Rebecca Patterson, The Swiss-Grand Resort and Spa

Highly Commended: Cory Clark-Goodison, The Sebel Resort and Spa Hawkesbury Valley

Winner: Danielle De Veaux, Establishment Hotel

38. SOUTH PACIFIC GENERAL MANAGER

Presented by

Finalists:Adam Laker, Sofitel Fiji Resort and Spa, Fiji

Bernard Isautier, Vahine Island, Tahaa, French Polynesia

Michael Monks, Shangri-La’s Fijian Resort and Spa, Fiji

Shane Cunning, Sheraton Fiji Resort, Fiji

Greg Maloney, Radisson Fiji Resort, Fiji

Julian Moore, Pacific Resort Aitutaki, Cook Islands

Peter Hopgood, Outrigger on the Lagoon Fiji

Scott Williams, InterContinental Fiji Golf Resort and Spa, Fiji

Steve Anstey, Likuliku Lagoon Resort, Fiji

Wayne Milgate, Vomo Island, Fiji

Highly Commended: Adam Laker, Sofitel Fiji Resort and Spa, Fiji

Highly Commended: Wayne Milgate, Vomo Island, Fiji

Winner: Julian Moore, Pacific Resort Aitutaki, Cook Islands

39. NEW ZEALAND GENERAL MANAGER

Presented by

Finalists:Blair Chalmers, Kingsgate Hotel Rotorua

Bruce Garrett, The George, Christchurch

Callum Mallett, SkyCity Hotels, Auckland

Chris Partridge, Hilton Auckland and Hilton Lake Taupo

Clare Davies, Grand Mercure Nelson Monaco

Fraser McKenzie, Novotel Rotorua Lakeside

Matthew Anderson, Crowne Plaza Queenstown

Philip Hilton, Novotel Wellington

Rob McIntyre, Pullman Auckland

Wouter de Graaf, Sofitel Queenstown Hotel and Spa

Highly Commended: Wouter de Graaf, Sofitel Queenstown Hotel and Spa

Highly Commended: Callum Mallett, SkyCity Hotels, Auckland

Winner: Bruce Garrett, The George, Christchurch

Rising Star winner Danielle de Veaux

Ross Gage (Sealy) presents the Award to Marcus Niszow (pacific Resorts)

Mark poldervaart (philips) presents the Award to Bruce Garrett

CO-HOSTED BY

40. AUSTRALIAN GENERAL MANAGER

Presented by

Finalists:Erkin Aytekin, Novotel Melbourne St Kilda, VIC

Joost Heymeijer, Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa, Lithgow, NSW

Kelye Woodgate, The York by Swiss-Belhotel, Sydney, NSW

Marije Kleverlaan, 8Hotels, Sydney, NSW

Mark Wilkinson, Novotel Twin Waters Resort, Sunshine Coast

Michael Sheridan, The Sebel Pier One, Sydney, NSW

Michael Smith, The Menzies Sydney, NSW

Paul Hutton, Hilton Sydney, NSW

Peter Tudehope, Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel Sydney, NSW

Russell Durnell, Palazzo Versace, Gold Coast, QLD

Highly Commended: Peter Tudehope, Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel Sydney

Highly Commended: Michael Sheridan, The Sebel Pier One, Sydney, NSW

Winner: Paul Hutton, Hilton Sydney, NSW

41. ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAM

Presented by

Finalists:Hilton Adelaide, SA, Australia

Hilton Sydney, NSW, Australia

Legends Resort Moorea, French Polynesia

Novotel Canberra, ACT, Austalia

Pacific Resort Rarotonga, Cook Islands

Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel Sydney, NSW, Australia

Sofitel Melbourne On Collins, VIC, Australia

Sydney Marriott Hotel, NSW, Australia

Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa, Lithgow, NSW, Australia

Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia


Winner: Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa

42. SUPPLIER Presented by

Finalists:

AHS Hospitality

Coca-Cola Amatil

Concept Amenities

Corporate Express

EZYield

MICROS-Fidelio

Philips

Sealy

Vingcard Elsafe

Yardley Hospitality

Highly Commended: Sealy

Winner: MICROS-Fidelio

Brendan O'farrell (Intrust) presents the Award to paul Hutton

Dwane Goodman (Wolgan Valley) receives the Award from Brett patterson (ISIS)

Christopher Adams (MICROS) receives the Award from Adam Daff (HM magazine)

HMawards


MAJOR AWARDS


43. HOTEL BRANDPresented by

Finalists:Art Series, Rydges / AHL

Crown, Crown (Melbourne)

Four Seasons, Four Seasons Hotels

Hilton, Hilton Worldwide

Hyatt, Hyatt Hotels and Resorts

InterContinental Hotels, IHG

Medina Apartment Hotels, Toga Hospitality

Sofitel Luxury Hotels, Accor Hotels

Swissotel, Fairmont Raffles

The Langham, Langham Hospitality Group

The Westin, Starwood

Highly Commended: Sofitel Luxury Hotels

Winner: Hilton

44. ACCOMMODATION CHAINPresented by

Finalists:Accor Hotels

Hilton Worldwide

Hyatt Hotels and Resorts

InterContinental Hotels Group

Langham Hospitality Group

Mantra Group

Mirvac Hotels and Resorts

Quest Serviced Apartments

Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts

Starwood Pacific Hotels

Toga Hospitality

Highly Commended: Langham Hospitality Group

Winner: Accor Hotels

45. HOTEL OF THE YEARPresented by

Finalists:Crown Towers Melbourne, VIC

Four Seasons Hotel Sydney, NSW

Hilton Sydney, NSW

InterContinental Sydney, NSW

Palazzo Versace, Gold Coast, QLD


Saffire, Coles Bay, TAS

Sofitel Sydney Wentworth, NSW

The Observatory Hotel, Sydney, NSW


Highly Commended: Crown Towers, Melbourne

Winner: InterContinental Sydney

Ashley Spencer (Hilton) receives the Award from Steve Tochner (AHS)

Simon McGrath (Accor) receives the Award from Melissa Starbuck (Sealy)

Antony Raiteri (Sealy) presents the Award to Bruce McKenzie (IHG)

46. HM MAGAZINE NEW ZEALAND HOTELIER OF THE YEAR

Presented by

Finalists:Bill Edwards, InterContinental Hotels Group

Earl Hagaman, Scenic Hotels

Janet McBain, Mirvac Hotels and Resorts

Jeff Shearer, Heritage Hotel Management

Jeffrey Van Vorsselen, Langham Hospitality Group

Matt Taplin, Millennium Hotels

Paul Richardson, Accor Hotels

Stephen Mansfield, Quest Serviced Apartments

Winner: Paul Richardson, Accor Hotels

47. HM MAGAZINE AUSTRALIAN HOTELIER OF THE YEAR

Presented by

Finalists:Ashley Spencer, Hilton Worldwide

Barry Robinson, Wyndham Hotel Group

Bob East, Mantra Group

Bruce McKenzie, InterContinental Hotels Group

David Bayes, Choice Hotels Australasia

Koos Klein, Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia

Paul Constantinou, Quest Serviced Apartments

Paul Fischmann, 8Hotels

Rachel Argaman, Toga Hospitality

Sean Hunt, Starwood Pacific Hotels

Simon McGrath, Accor Hotels

Stephen Burt, Mirvac Hotels and Resorts

Winner: Bruce McKenzie, InterContinental Hotels Group

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New Zealand Hotelier of the Year winner paul Richardson

Australian Hotelier of the Year winner Bruce McKenzie

HMawards


MAJOR AWARDS


48. HM MAGAZINE ASIA-PACIFIC HOTELIER OF THE YEAR

Presented by

Finalists:A. Patrick Imbardelli, Pan Pacific Hotels Group

Brett Butcher, Langham Hospitality Group

Gavin Faull, Swiss-Belhotel International

Greg Dogan, Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts

Jan Smits, InterContinental Hotels Group

John Spence, Karma Resorts

Mark Greedy, Elite Resorts of Asia-Pacific

Martin Rinck, Hilton Worldwide

Michael Issenberg, Accor Asia-Pacific

Miguel Ko, Starwood Hotels and Resorts

Simon Barlow, Carlson

Simon F. Cooper, Marriott International

Winner: A. Patrick Imbardelli, Pan Pacific Hotels Group

Nigel Roberts (ppHG, centre) in place of patrick Imbardelli, accepts the Award from James Wilkinson and Adam Daff (HM magazine)

CO-HOSTED BY

The gala presentation dinner also saw the in-duction of four more Hoteliers into the HM Awards Hall of Fame – alongside Stephen Lewis (2010) and David Baffsky and Patrick Griffin (2009).

The 2011 HM Awards Hall of Fame recog-nised the dedication of one hard working for-mer CEO and three men who helped change the face of hospitality in Australia.

The first group of the inductees was three men who were on a mission to create a new standard for the accommodation industry here in Australia. They came from different backgrounds and different parts of the world – one from New Zealand, another Australia and the last from Switzerland.

Many Hoteliers and key staff in the Aus-tralasian hotel industry either went to one of their schools, or have staff in your hotels that graduated from them. What they have done for hospitality education since first opening

the Blue Mountains Hotel School in 1991 has been quite remarkable.

Congratulations to Max Player, Fritz Gubler and Gavin Faull of the Blue Mountains Ho-tel School and the Pacific International Hotel Management School in New Zealand.

“To be recognised by the industry is amaz-ing and I am truly humbled by the award,” Player said.

Also inducted into the 2011 HM Awards Hall of Fame was former Mirvac Hotels and Resorts CEO Andrew Turner.

Turner successfully launched Hamilton Is-land to the world with long time mate and vi-sionary, Keith Williams, and then joined Mir-vac Hotels and Resorts as General Manager of Marketing in 1991 before being promoted CEO in August 1994.

He now has his own business called Shen-ton Hospitality and is involved in consulting to major hotel chains on a regular basis.

2011 HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

PRESENTATION PARTNER MESSAGEThe 2011 HM Awards was truly a night to remember. The iconic venue of Sydney Town Hall was the ideal setting for A Night at the Opera, and a wonderful opportunity to celebrate another year of accommodation excellence.

As the HM Awards presentation partner, it is amazing to see the growth and reach of this event over the past three years. With over 600 people representing the major hotel groups throughout the Asia Pacific region, it is evident that the HM Awards is the premier awards evening for the accommodation industry.

We would like to extend our congratulations to those honoured with awards this year. As the HM Awards are presented for Hotel and Accommodation Excellence; all award recipients and nominees should be proud of their involvement in keeping the standard of service to such a high level.

Along with celebrating such excellence, the night raised NZD$60,000 for the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal. This has been a very tough year for the accommodation sector across Australia and New Zealand due to natural disasters. The strength shown in rebuilding and attracting tourism back to these devastated areas after such tragedy is remarkable, and we are honoured to support such a cause.

Sealy understand that bedding is one of the most important investments that a property can make, and continue to deliver on our strong reputation of quality bedding and dedicated service to the leaders in the accommodation industry.

Sealy of Australia is extremely proud to be a wholly owned company dedicated to sourcing components and raw materials from local manufacturers. In a world of mass manufacture, we still hand craft our beds one at a time, with five manufacturing sites throughout Australia.

To find out how the Sealy Commercial Team can improve your business, contact your Sealy State representative.

Hall of fame inductees: Gavin faull, Andrew Turner and Max player


CO-HOST MESSAGEAHS is proud to be a sponsor of the HM Awards and a supporter of the Australian Hospitality Industry. Once again, the HM Awards proved to be the premier event of the year and we were pleased to see so many of our partners win top awards on the night.

As Australia’s largest provider of labour services to the hospitality industry, AHS were happy to be able to contribute to the success of many of the winners through the high quality of services we provide. We know that it takes a team effort to win the top prizes and we were excited that so many of our partners were not only nominated for awards but were also major winners.

Over the last 18 years, AHS has created successful partnerships with most of the hotel chains around Australia. We now operate in every state and territory, at more than 140 hotels, servicing more than 8 million rooms each year. AHS has developed a range of operating systems and business models that translate into more efficient and productive departments for hotels. The results are both cost savings and high quality standards. Equally important, the outsourcing model that AHS has developed protects our hotel partners from many high risk elements in their business such as Workers Compensation.

AHS looks forward to continuing our mutually beneficial relationship with our industry partners and providing them with award winning services. Equally important, we are excited at the opportunity to continue our relationship with HM Magazine and being a proud sponsor of the HM Awards.

Australia and New Zealand’s leading hoteliers and suppliers helped raised approximately NZD$60,000 (AUD$46,000) for the Christch-urch Earthquake Appeal Trust at the 2011 HM Awards in one of the greatest charity displays the accommodation industry has ever seen.

“More than seven months after the deadly earthquake on February 22 that killed 181 people, many Cantabrians are still in desper-ate need for assistance and seeing the gener-osity from the accommodation industry at the HM Awards this year was truly amazing,” said HM (Hotel Management) magazine Manag-ing Editor, James Wilkinson.

The Christchurch Earthquake Appeal Trust is the New Zealand Government’s vehicle for assisting the people of Canterbury following a series of earthquakes that severely damaged the city and left hundreds of people dead in late 2010 and early 2011.

“We wanted to help raise around NZD $30,000 for the Appeal, so the NZD $60,000 in donations was just remarkable,” Wilkinson said. “The industry dug deep for our friends and family across the Tasman and HM maga-zine was proud to help facilitate a donation that I know the entire accommodation will be very proud of.”

To help raise money on the night, a num-ber of prizes were donated by sponsors of the HM Awards on the night, including: a Sealy Posturepedic Grand Luxe Bed worth $8250; a 52-inch Philips TV; a La Piccola Sara espresso

machine courtesy of Franke; six ultra luxuri-ous ‘The Cloud’ bed toppers from HotelHome Australia; a bottle of Armand de Brignac cham-pagne; a mixed dozen bottles of wine from Robert Oatley Vineyards; and a limited edition Australian jersey from the 2008 Rugby League World Cup courtesy of Coca-Cola Amatil.

Several leading hotels and chains also do-nated prizes on the night for donors to the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal Trust, in-cluding: Sofitel Queenstown, Peppers, Hil-ton Queenstown, Emporium Hotel Brisbane, Four Seasons Hotel Sydney, The Rees Queen-stown and InterContinental Wellington.

“We had almost $20,000 in prizes to give away to donors and the generosity from our sponsors and industry friends was absolutely fantastic,” Wilkinson said.

The 2011 HM Awards were hosted by HM magazine, presented by Sealy, and co-hosted by AHS Hospitality, Intrust Super, ISIS and Philips.

NZD$60,000 RAISED FOR CHRISTCHURCH

Solid support: donors on stage at the 2011 HM Awards

James Wilkinson, Adam Daff, Christhcurch resident Richard

Dalman and emcee Larry Emdur

HM Awards emcee Larry Emdur

HMAwARDS

CO-HOSTED BY

THE NOMINATION PROCESSNominations for the 2011 HM Awards for Ho-tel and Accommodation Excellence were open to people who work in the hotel industry in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific.

The nominations were available online where the following details had to be com-pleted.

For the PROPERTY and DEPARTMEN-TAL awards: The name and address had to be completed, while up to 500 words were able to be submitted (outlining major achievements over the last 12 months and why it was believed the property should win its specific category).

For the PEOPLE awards: The name and address had to be completed, while up to 500 words were able to be submitted (outlining major achievements over the last 12 months and why it was believed the individual should win the specific category).

For the RISING STAR award: This new award recognised an associate under the age of 30 who has achieved significant mile-stones in the hotel industry. The name and address had to be completed, while up to 500 words were able to be submitted (outlining major achievements over the last 12 months and it was believed a rising star should win the specific category).

For the MAJOR awards: The name and address had to be completed, while up to 500 words were able to be submitted (outlining major achievements over the last 12 months and it was believed the individual or property should win the specific category).

For the BRAND, CHAIN and HOTEL OF THE YEAR awards: These were not open for submissions. The judging panel for the 2011 HM Awards were asked to nominate the leading brands, chains and hotels spanning Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific on a 3-2-1 points basis.

For the SUPPLIER, NEW ZEALAND HOTELIER, AUSTRALIAN HOTELIER OF THE YEAR AND ASIA-PACIFIC HO-TELIER OF THE YEAR awards: These were

not open for submissions. The leading CEOs and Managing Directors across Australia, New Zealand and Asia-Pacific were asked to nominate the leading suppliers and Hoteliers on a 3-2-1 points basis (not including staff in their own chain).

THE JUDGING PROCESSOnce the nominations for categories 1-24 (General Awards and selected Major Awards) were closed, the judging panel – made up of over 20 leading travel writers, industry consultants, association heads and selected leading suppliers – then decided the final-ists and subsequently the winners and highly commended recipients. The judging panel was sent a list of every property nominated in those categories. Written submissions for each category were taken into consideration and voting was based on a 3-2-1 points sys-tem (3 points for first, 2 points for second and 1 point for third). The judging panel was asked to nominate the leading brands, chains and hotels spanning Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific on a 3-2-1 points basis (for categories 43, 44 and 45). The judging panel was asked to leave any category blank where they did not feel they knew enough about the nominations in that category.

Categories 25-41 (General, People and selected Major Awards) were judged by HM magazine Editor James Wilkinson and con-sultants from leading hotel executive recruit-ment company TMS Asia-Pacific. Judging for these categories was based on the 500 word submission that accompanied each entry.

Categories 42, 46, 47 and 48 (Major Awards) were decided entirely by 15 leading CEOs and Managing Directors across Aus-tralia, New Zealand and Asia-Pacific. They were asked to nominate the leading suppli-ers and Hoteliers on a 3-2-1 points basis (not including staff in their own chain).

All judges and judging decisions will remain anonymous and the results have been once again audited by Ernst&Young.

CO-HOST MESSAGEIntrust Super was once again pleased to co-host the annual HM Awards Gala Dinner for 2011, which was enjoyed by a record crowd of 600 guests in Sydney. As a major sponsor and long-term partner of HM magazine, we are proud to support such an important event for the industry.

The HM Awards, now in its ninth year, gives the industry the opportunity each year to acknowledge its top people, properties and brands. All of the nominees have been selected for delivering excellence across a range of categories, and it was great to see a record number of entries this year. The contribution of these individuals and organisations has helped to ensure that Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific remain at the forefront of the hospitality industry across the world.

As a key service provider to the industry for more than 20 years, we’re also focused on delivering the highest quality service to our members and employers. We know that great service is a combined effort, so it was pleasing to see people from all aspects of the industry – from front-office staff to those working ‘behind the scenes’ – recognised for their achievements.

It was also pleasing to see the enthusiasm shared by everyone on the night. It’s been another tough year for the hospitality and tourism sectors as natural disasters and a rising Australian dollar have continued to pose challenges, and it was great to see the spirit of the industry in full force. I have no doubt that this spirit, together with a continued focus on excellence, will see the industry rise above these challenges.

On behalf of the entire Intrust Super team, I’d like to congratulate all the winners and nominees, and also thank HM for the opportunity to support such an outstanding event. I look forward doing it all again next year!

NOMINATION AND JUDGING PROCESS

The Seven Sopranos


CO-HOST MESSAGEISIS Group Australia, as one of this year’s co-hosts, is proud to be part of the 2011 HM Awards in recognising hotel and accommodation industry excellence.

Special congratulations go to all the category winners and the highly commended and in particular: The Byron at Byron Resort and Spa (Upper-upscale Hotel), The Olsen (Hotel Interior Design), qualia (Day Spa), Likuliku Lagoon Resort (Fijian Property) and Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa (Environmental Program).

The HM Awards this year has once again drawn the best in the industry, of which can only be described as world class. ISIS Group Australia continues to deliver industry leading outcomes through a commitment to excellence, customer service, transparency and collaboration across all project stakeholders.

ISIS has had an amazingly successful year with a number of projects completed and well advanced with completion later this year. Projects completed and currently under construction include Sails in the Desert, Marriott Melbourne, Marriott Surfers Paradise, Novotel Brisbane, Hilton Brisbane, Hilton Cairns, The Langham Melbourne, InterContinental Sydney.

Our largest project Star City Casino continues to be transformed into a international destination venue, with ISIS’ scope ever increasing.

ISIS Group Australia looks forwarded to being part of the 2012 HM Awards and continues to recognise hotel and accommodation industry excellence.

IN THE SCENE

1 Nikki Olsen, Clare Willis, Tara O’Dwyer and Kerryn Amyes from Accor’s Sydney Olympic park hotels

2 Antony Raiteri, Melissa Starbuck, Lisa fenwick and Ross Gage from Sealy

3 Sally Matheson (second from left) and the team from TMS

4 Ashley Spencer (third from right) and the Hilton team

5 Brendan O’farrell (left) leads the Intrust Super and Sydney Harbour Marriott teams at the 2011 HM Awards

6 Chris Dyball (second from left) and DOCOMO InterTouch

7 The team at Sir Stamford Circular Quay led by Heather Idoine (middle)

8 Bruce McKenzie (second from right) and the IHG team

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Guests enjoyed a gourmet dinner at the Awards

HMAwARDS

CO-HOSTED BY

CO-HOST MESSAGEPhilips Hospitality, as one this year’s co hosts, was proud to be part of the 2011 HM Awards in recognizing this year’s award winners. This year Philips was joined with some of its partners in the industry and the consensus between all parties was that once again Intermedia were able to produce the finest awards night for the hospitality industry. Philips Hotel TV and its dedicated partners would like to specifically congratulate the following winners Q Station Retreat (Upscale Hotel), Peppers Broadbeach (New Hotel), Sofitel Queenstown Hotel and Spa (New Zealand Hotel), Craig Cavers, Hilton Sydney (Hotel Engineer) and Bruce Garrett, The George, Christchurch (New Zealand General Manager). Philips is introducing a new range of TVs to the hospitality industry, with the MediaSuite (including NetTV for hotels) being the true buzz of the industry. Philips has hosted over 220 industry professionals from across the world to launch its latest range of dedicated hotel TVs. After hosting four successful White Box Experience events during September in London, Paris, Milan and Amsterdam, where over 600 customers have witnessed Philips’ MediaSuite with NetTV for hotels, the Hotel TV division from Philips brought together the complete industry at the UNESCO-listed ‘Dome Church’ at the Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel. Wouter Staal, Sr. Global Marketing Manager for Philips Hotel TV said: “The two-day launch event was moderated by Ted Horner and the speaker line-up consisted of NH Hoteles’ CPO, Pedro Martinez, Quadriga’s CEO Roger Taylor, Ian Millar from EHL, Martin de Neuville from PVCP, Olivier de Montchenu from Euronews, and Michael Zetterlund from Nordic Choice Hotels.”

9 Luke Starr and the girls from Starr pR

10 Sealy’s Ross Gage gets animated during his opening speech

11 8Hotels’ CEO paul fischmann (centre)

12 The Intermedia team, led by Managing Director Simon Grover (left)

13 Accor’s pR A-team: peter Hook, Gaynor Reid, Rebecca freestun and Ginni Ryan

14 philips’ stars led by Mark poldervaart (left) and Travis Anderson

15 The Mirvac boys enjoying a peroni

16 The Sealy posturepedic bed was popular for photos during pre-drinks

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Ultimat Vodka Martinis were served for pre-drinks

featurefeature

In 2011, for the sixth year in a row Hilton Hotels & Resorts was the num-ber one most recognised hotel brand in Australia, in the annual BDRC Business Traveller Survey. The company was also named Hotel Brand of

the Year at the recent HM Awards, as well as taking out a suite of accolades across general management, engineering and food and beverage.

Under the guidance and leadership of Ashley Spencer, Vice Presi-dent Operations Hilton Worldwide Australasia, these awards reflect the company’s continual investment in infrastructure and human re-sources in the region. Now, the team has turned its focus to Queens-land and the revitalisation and expansion of the Hilton portfolio in Australia’s Sunshine State.

QUEENSLAND IN FOCUS Over the past several years, Hilton has made significant progress in expanding their global footprint, adding more than 850 hotels to their portfolio since 2007. Last year, the company opened their 600,000th hotel room worldwide, becoming only the second hotel company ever to reach that milestone.

In Australasia, Hilton has more than doubled their presence since 2000 and to date development in the region has been an important source of expansion over the past decade, in addition the revitalisation of the Hilton brand in Queensland has been a major part of the com-pany’s growth plans.

“We are operating in exceptional times of growth, and despite the strong Australian dollar, global economic concerns and natural disas-ters over the past year, the Australasian tourism sector has faired re-markably well,” said Spencer.

“Development in Queensland has been central to our growth strat-egy across Australasia, and part of this has been a significant invest-

ment in the revitalisation of our Cairns and Brisbane hotels, as well as the opening of our new flagship property in Surfers Paradise”.

These developments have come as the Federal Tourism Minister announces three Queensland locations in the top five busiest flight routes in Australia.

“Airline passenger numbers are strong, particularly from high growth inbound markets of China and India,” said Spencer. “Our new property and hotel refurbishments in Queensland ensure that we are prepared to cater to the expected growth in the state.”

“We’re also expecting a positive return in the meetings and confer-ences sector, although not to the level of expenditure we experienced during the boom,” he said. “However businesses have recognised the importance of face to face interaction across all states, even in times of economic difficulty.”

THE NEWEST ADDITION TO THE GOLD COAST SKYLINEFollowing several Hilton openings in the region over the past few years, Hilton Surfers Paradise is the hotel giant’s newest addition to their portfolio in Australasia. Catering to both business and leisure travel markets, the two towers feature a combined 410 one, two and three bedroom residences, and a 169 room Hilton hotel. Purchasers of the residential apartments also have the option of placing them under the management of Hilton.

“This is an absolutely striking addition to our portfolio, with state of the art design, optimised technology and impeccable service standards for which our company is founded on,” said Spencer. “Our vision for the property is for it to become as iconic to our brand as Hilton Sydney.”

While the prevailing view is that Surfers Paradise is a predominant-

COVERSTORY

IT’S BEEN A BIG YEAR FOR HILTON HOTELS & RESORTS, WITH THE BRAND WINNING A NUMBER OF THE INDUSTRY’S HIGHEST ACCOLADES ALONGSIDE OPENING ONE OF AUSTRALIA’S MOST ExCITING NEW HOTELS.

HILTON’S LEADING WAYS


ly leisure market, the hotel has been multipurpose built with growth in business travel in mind.

Stage one, Boulevard Tower opened last December, and the second and final stage, Orchid Tower opened this month. The 55-storey prop-erties include a signature restaurant by Luke Mangan, Salt Grill, execu-tive lounge, fitness centre, pool and the highly anticipated eforea: Spa.

INSPIRED RENOVATION FOR HILTON BRISBANE A vital inclusion in Hilton’s Australasian portfolio, Hilton Brisbane has seen significant renovations and revitalisation over the past few years. The company has invested $37 million in the property since 2005 with the final touches started this year for the hotel’s 25th anniversary.

“Hilton Brisbane has been revitalised to focus on re-engaging cus-tomers and enhancing the property’s position as an upper-upscale ho-tel in an extremely competitive location,” said Spencer. “The original design by modernist architect Harry Seidler provided immense op-portunity for designer Mark Landini to reinvent the property into a contemporary and sophisticated product.”

The $13 million reinvention project began in January this year and includes complete upgrades on all 319 rooms and an increase in executive category rooms. A modernised Porte-Cochere Entrance features Brisbane’s largest video wall at three metres by five metres displaying everything from digital art to Google maps.

“Hilton Brisbane has always maintained strong connections to local producers,” said Spencer. “The new restaurant allows them to strength-en their ties with Queensland’s beef industry with an aged meat cabi-net and innovative open grill chef’s table.”

The contemporary design and unique culinary experience are in-strumental offerings to drive growth in leisure travel.

$6 MILLION INVESTMENT IN REVITALISING HILTON CAIRNSOver $6 million has been invested in the revitalisation of Hilton Cairns over the past few years. Following a significant refurbishment of the prop-erty’s events floor, including digitally integrated technology in 2008, the 263 guest rooms have undergone full renovations over the last two years.

With a strong focus on the high-end travel market, the Hilton Cairns last year won Tourism Tropical North Queensland Award for Best Luxury Hotel.

“Hilton Cairns was one of the first Luxury hotels in the region, and our global commitment to revitalising our product presented an op-portunity to enhance this image,” said Spencer.

“It’s a very forward thinking renovation, and our investment in the property ensures that we can maintain our position in offering industry leading innovation.”

HILTON AUSTRALASIA INTO THE FUTUREThe foundation of the company’s success has always been around at-tracting the best talent globally to deliver excellence in personalised customer service. Innovative Human Resources and Talent Acquisition strategies are in place to support the company’s growth plans, with over 900 hotels in the global pipeline, and 70 in various stages in Asia Pacific.

“We’re extremely proud of our efforts and investment in revitalising and expanding the Queensland product,” said Spencer. “These devel-opments allow us to truly respond to industry trends and growth in expanding markets.”

“Beyond 2011, Hilton Worldwide will continue its commitment to expansion in high demand regions, as well as business improvement through new technologies.”

With a rich global development pipeline, innovative cultural inte-gration and HR strategies and a strong, highly respected brand, Hilton Worldwide Australasia is well positioned to drive industry growth now and into the future.

ABOUT HILTON WORLDWIDEHilton Worldwide is the leading global hospitality group, spanning from full-service luxury hotels and resorts to extended-stay suites and mid-priced hotels. For 91 years, Hilton Worldwide has offered the high-est quality accommodation and delivered outstanding customer service to business and leisure travelers. The company also manages the world-class guest reward program Hilton HHonors®. For more information about the company, please visit www.hiltonworldwide.com.

A HILTON WORLDWIDE PROMOTION


CEOTALk

Congratulations on winning the inaugural Asia-Pacific Hotelier of the Year Award at the 2011 HM Awards. How was the Award received amongst the staff within the group?It’s a great honour to receive this distinction. We are all excited about the win because more than just a personal accolade, it is a recognition of Pan Pacific Hotels Group’s (PPHG) recent milestones. It really is a celebra-tion of the sum total of everyone’s efforts over the last year and I know everyone shares in the appreciation and gratitude of being recognised.

How important are industry awards such as the HM Awards for staff and properties?They are a very important testament to hotels’ commitment to their guests. There are so many things a hotel or a staff member goes the ex-tra mile to do that doesn’t get noticed – this is one platform where we can properly recognise and reward the people in our industry who are passionate and exemplary in their work. That these are decided by our own people who live and breathe the industry, and know what it takes to go above and beyond to deliver – is the icing on the cake.

The Award has come at an exciting time for PPHG, especially giv-en your re-entry into Australia with Parkroyal. Tell us about some of the developments for the group over the last year.Over the last 15 months, the Group has rebranded and opened eight properties. In addition to the four great hotels in Australia – Parkroyal Darling Harbour, Sydney, Parkroyal Paramatta, Pan Pacific Perth and the AUD$109 million acquisition of Hilton Melbourne Airport which we rebranded as Parkroyal Melbourne Airport, we grew our portfolio in other markets with Pan Pacific Suzhou, Pan Pacific Nirwana Bali Re-sort, Pan Pacific Serviced Suites Bangkok and Parkroyal Serviced Suites Kuala Lumpur. We also inked several management agreements and now have five properties in the pipeline, Pan Pacific Ningbo and Pan Pacific Ningbo Serviced Suites in China, Parkroyal on Pickering in Sin-gapore, Parkroyal Serviced Suites, Green City in Shanghai which will open next year, and Parkroyal Taihu Resort, Suzhou in 2014.

What do you have up next? Can you give us an insight into the expansion of PPHG in Australasia?We certainly are continuing to focus on the very vibrant and dy-namic region. With the foundation of four great hotels in Australia right now, and a great regional team in place, we hope to keep up the momentum and plant more flags in more cities like Brisbane, Melbourne's CBD, Queensland and New Zealand. As we start to roll out the Parkroyal and Pan Pacific guest touch points in line with our refreshed positioning across both current hotels and new ones we convert, the imperative is to ensure that all our hotels and associates carry through consistently these brand standards and ensure they are delivering on both a functional and emotional level – which is what customers today really want. Only then can we ensure that we have strong brands that resonate with customers and deliver value for hotel owners.

ExPANDINGTIMESThe inaugural winner of the HM magazine Asia-Pacific Hotelier of the Year, A. Patrick Imbardelli, says expansion is still firmly on the cards for Pan Pacific Hotels Group.

Patrick, what are some of the biggest challenges facing Hoteliers at Asia-Pacific at present?Asia’s middle class has grown exponentially over the last few years and travel into and within the region will continue to boom, especially from China where we will expect an even stronger inflow of Chinese tourists. Therefore, it is crucial for hoteliers to know who are checking into their hotels and to be nimble in customising their offerings around these customer preferences. The changing face of tomorrow’s travellers begs the question if brands which are rapidly expanding Asia now, and who have their fundamentals in appealing to the Western/Caucasian traveller, will work for the fast growing Asia middle class. Compound-ing this challenge is the fact that in the next decade, our workforce and consumers will span four demographics segments – baby boomers, Gen X, Gen Y and Gen Z – all of whom may have different needs and preferences. The challenge for Hoteliers will be how to figure out what their guests want (or don’t want), how to capture those preferences and provide such relevant choices and customisation to guests. The war for talent – particularly in leadership roles – in the face of increased mobility, competition is another big challenge.

We always talk about the quality of hotel staff in Australia. But how hard is it at present to find hospitable, lively staff that help ensure your guests keep coming back?Finding the right people is one aspect of this issue, the other is ensur-ing that the right training, both hard and soft skills, are provided to them so that they are always engaged with the brand and hotel they represent. In essence, they need to internalise the brand promise and align service and behavior to what our brands stand for.

Pan Pacific President and CEO, A. Patrick Imbardelli


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kEYNEwS

It is difficult to address the perception that the carbon tax is just another cost to our industry, at a time when hotels, motels, resorts and other accommodation businesses are already facing well documented challenges, such as a historically high Australian dollar and record outbound departure numbers.

The fact is the carbon tax will be a cost impost on accommodation businesses and not just on energy consumption. The supply chain of everything that operators purchase to sell to guests will also face cost pressures. It will have an unknown affect on consumer sentiment, an impact not so easily understood at this point in time. The first two costs are relatively straight forward to calculate and there are online calculators available to give a guide, however how consumers react remains unknown. Many families will benefit from the compensation package that is designed to offset the increase in energy costs, however there are many Australians – and I would argue many who are our guests – who will have to trim the family budget. A typical family budget should include a holiday and that is where the bottom line of businesses in our sector are vulnerable.

The Accommodation Association of Australia, along with other tourism industry bodies, have the perspective that while we understand that carbon pricing is inevitable, additional tax relief would assist with minimising job losses and loss of trade. The immediate opportunity for tax reform comes through the October Tax Forum. The Accommodation Association’s submission to Treasury to be considered as part of the Tax Forum deliberations has a focus on accelerated depreciation for businesses in our sector.

HM MAGAZINE RELATIONSHIP The Accommodation Association, through this historic issue of HM, has formed a commercial strategic partnership with the publishers of HM magazine, The Intermedia Group. The driving motivation for the Association with this partnership is to align with the accommodation industry’s peak magazine – HM. Our members will notice the Key News masthead on relevant pages that signal our Association’s direct involvement in the magazine and the content is very close to our own magazine, which will no longer be published. I am sure you will enjoy reading these sections and we will load more content on to our website, www.aaoa.com.au.

CLIMATE CHANGE COMMITTEE The Accommodation Association is forming an Industry Climate Change Committee to assist with formulating strategies around the impending carbon tax. It is expected that the committee will meet at least six times a year and will advise the Association on best practice, and review trends and policies to help members with the introduction of this major government reform. Please email me to register your interest at [email protected]

RICHARD MUNROChief Executive OfficerAccommodation Association of Australia

GOVERNMENT RELATIONS

Accommodation Association lobbies federal GovernmentThe Accommodation Association’s increas-ing focus on the political scene in Canberra saw a number of board events held in the capital in September.

The Accommodation Association’s board held its quarterly meeting at Parliament House in Canberra, while a cocktail recep-tion for MPs and board dinner also took place within the building.

It provided the Association with opportu-nities to engage in dialogue with a number of MPs, including senior government ministers, on a range of issues affecting the accommo-dation industry.

The Federal Minister for Tourism, Martin Ferguson, spent time with the board discussing investment challenges posed by requirements

in the Building Code of Australia and credit card surcharge regulations, which are being re-viewed by the Reserve Bank of Australia.

The Federal Minister Assisting the Minis-ter for Tourism, Nick Sherry, also engaged in meaningful discussions with the board about the impact of the carbon tax on the accom-modation industry and the ongoing work the Federal Government is undertaking to create a seamless national economy.

Among the guests at the cocktail reception was the Federal Shadow Minister for Tourism, Bob Baldwin.

Collectively, the events were a highly suc-cessful exercise in communicating our indus-try’s policy positions directly to decision-makers at the highest levels of the Federal Government.

Richard Munro (second from left) with Martin ferguson and leading Hoteliers in Canberra

The Accommodation Association of Aus-tralia has welcomed the decision by Hil-ton to sign-up all eight properties as the newest members of the Association. CEO of the Association, Richard Munro said: “It was very clear to me in discussing the relevant issues with Hilton’s Vice Presi-dent Ashley Spencer that the Associa-tion’s laser focus on the accommodation was the key factor for Hilton in deciding to join all of the hotels. Our team is ready and focused on providing Hilton with the services and support they require for their outstanding properties, along with our other members which now include most of the major chains.”

MEMBERSHIp

All eight Hilton hotels sign-up

Hilton Sydney


Fine dining at Crown Metropol, Melbourne

PRESENTED BY

There have been many things written about Gen Y and the reality is they’re here and in large numbers. They know what they want, they want it fast and they want to be sure that you’re doing the best for them to grow their career. This being said, they will surprise you with their dedication and their willingness to work hard when you’re committed to their career. They’re savvier, connected through social media and they understand that there are multiple ways to achieve tasks. If we are to capture and inspire this group of young people to manage our businesses we have to deliver education that is highly relevant. We also need to deliver it in a way they wish to receive it, whilst instilling in them the values that hard work, commitment and endeavour will bring them success. It is the understand-ing and appreciation of three key elements which will successfully grow young manag-ers in the hospitality industry, understanding the motivation and desires of your student is the first of these. This allows us the oppor-tunity to style our delivery methodology for education differently and this brings us to the second element.

The second element in-volves education institutions fully engaging with industry partners from the conception of a course, to its delivery, as-sessment and re-evaluation of the curriculum. The oppor-tunity to build brand recog-nition into the brand-aware Gen Ys starts from the mo-ment that the student first thinks about the hospitality industry. Our approach is to work with industry partners through career information days held at their hotels or businesses.

The third element is industry engagement. To partner with BMIHMS, industry provides guest lectures and work placements that meet industry, education and the individual’s de-sired outcome. However, the most critical part, after nurturing the student for over three years, is to take this potential manager from being a graduate to being a young manager. This is also achieved at BMIHMS through partnering. Our Graduate Privileged Partner

fOOD AND BEVERAGE

A slice of Australia’s culinary history

INDUSTRY TRAINING

partnering with industry

The culinary game has certainly changed, says Restaurant and Catering CEO John Hart.

There is no doubt that our tastes have changed in the last 30 years, let alone the last 50 years.

Back in the early 1980s (when I was a busboy at the Hilton Sydney) the espresso ma-chines in the coffee shop and the terrace cafe were novelties. The most adventurous dishes on the menu were lamb cutlets and to my recollection there were still a large number of customers adding tomato or other sauces to the Chef’s creations.

Not only have we fortunately progressed from this lacklustre past, the food offering has developed its own unique Australian style.

Trying to define what has changed is a very difficult thing. It’s a bit like watching your children grow up - if you’re too close to it you don’t notice the incremental change. If, however, you stand back you can really see a very significant difference.

The first change that I notice is the ingre-

dients and combination of flavours in our food. Whilst the terms ‘fu-

sion’ and ‘East meets West’ are over-used, the reality is we have managed to combine the best of traditional cooking tech-niques from France and Italy, with the excitement and nov-elty of the Asian styles.

In the 80s and 90s this start-ed with the obligatory curry on the menu. The curry (then Indian in

origin) featured a range of condiments that had been adapted in the colonial settings. To-day the sophistication of the Peter Kuruvita (of Flying Fish Fame) and Sri Lankan Prawn Curry sets the benchmark for such dishes.

We have also well surpassed a separate offer-ing with most dishes incorporating some of the cross-cultural elements. The Duck Confit with a star anise glaze has now replaced the Duck a L’Orange and the bouillabaisse has found some Kaffir Lime to give some zing to this old favour-

ite. These are not token gestures on most menus rather an injection of an edge of sweet, sour and spicy into many of our menu offerings.

Another relatively recent change is that we have started to see healthier menu options shining through. Once again, without trying too hard, Australian menus are featuring fresh healthy produce that is part of the quality of-fering. In the 90s, I was very sceptical that this is what our customers wanted. Every attempt at health shakes, wheatgrass and diet drinks seemed to sit on the shelf. This has changed in the 00s and more recently.

Over the years many trends have come and gone. The nouvelle cuisine obsession with the colour on the plate (at the expense of either fla-vour or substance), the grazing craze and tapas - everything do pass and what is left is a clear trend toward healthily clean, fresh flavours that embrace the part of the world in which we live.Restaurant and Catering is the peak national or-ganisation representing the interests of restaura-teurs and caterers.

Blue Mountains International Hotel Management School CEO Guy Bentley looks at some of the major challenges facing the industry.

Program (GPPP) sees major brands such as Marriott, Four Seasons, Starwood, Intercon-tinental Hotel Group, Toga, Hyatt and Accor partnering with our school. This program gives unique access to our final year gradu-ates to build important relationships with potential employers. Industry partners of the

GPPP are required to have a young leader’s or corporate management program for graduating students to par-ticipate in this scheme. In the last twelve months, 95% of all BMIHMS graduates surveyed have secured employment in their chosen fields within three months of graduation.

Mandy Posetti (GPPP 2007, Graduated 2007) is currently a Human Resources Executive at Courtyard Marriott North Ryde and Sydney Harbour

Marriott. “I was fortunate enough to secure a position with Marriott International on their Executive Graduate Program based in Syd-ney, before graduating,” she said. “It was an eighteen month program and involved work-ing in the hotel departments, over three ho-tels in NSW and two Marriott hotel brands.

Good business practice for hotel schools is good business practice for the hospitality business. This will provide us with tomor-row’s leaders to ensure the future success of our businesses in this competitive world.

BMHS graduate Mandy Posetti


Sex workers are under the spotlight for hotels across Australia

DISCRIMINATION ISSUES

WORKINGROOMSThe issue of sex workers in hotels is under the spotlight, says the Accommodation Association of Australia’s Manager of National Operations, Michael Georgeson.

As this article is being prepared there are at least three accommodation providers the Ac-commodation Association is aware of who are preparing to defend allegations of discrimina-tion levelled against them and one who has re-cently settled a case. These allegations are not on the basis of race, religion or other factors the industry is generally well educated on but rather on lawful sexual activity. In each case the allegations are brought by a sex worker.

In most states and territories, prostitu-tion has been legalised, within a range of re-strictions, and with this brings rights for sex workers. Amongst those rights comes pro-tection under anti-discrimination legislation which means that (in relevant states and ter-

ritories) as a lawful sexual activity, sex work-ers may not be refused service on the basis of their employment. There are of course a range of variations and restrictions placed on this based on the legislation in the relevant state, however, an overarching consideration remains that in most states sex workers have the same, or similar, rights to goods and ser-vices as any other individual.

So, what of the accommodation provider and their business? Operators have reported complaints from guests resulting from regular and constant arrivals and departures through-out the night, drunken and inappropriate be-haviour of clients towards staff and guests, solicitation and staff concerns over OHS is-

kEYNEwS

sues. In some cases, guests have accused op-erators of running a brothel and indeed the Association has a had a report from a mem-ber where the local police warned that should they continue to have multiple sex workers operating from their apartments, they could be charged with operating an illegal brothel – the operator was not aware he had any sex workers as guests. Add to these concerns over safety, in case of fire or emergency, and the implications of security where sex workers have clients arriving and departing without the property manager’s knowledge and the resultant impact on an accommodation busi-ness, their staff and general guests may be quite broad and obtrusive.

Accommodation providers do, of course, have rights (and responsibilities) as well. Those include the right to restrict or refuse service to anyone based on your own terms and conditions, as long as such restrictions are applied equally to all, and naturally are within legal obligations. Some properties for instance elect to apply conditions that guests in residence do not have their own visitors af-ter a certain hour – this caters to guest work-ers requiring an early start to the day. Simi-larly for safety and security, some operators require all guests or visitors to be recorded on check-in or at reception. Of course, many operators will also have standard terms re-quiring restrictions relating to appropriate behaviour, limitations on noise and behaviour resulting in property damage. Also, a growing number of operators restrict the conduct of business from their rooms.

What operators need to bear in mind in regard to sex workers is their relevant state legislation and the provision of service to all potential guests. In many states refus-ing service to a sex worker on the simple grounds that they are a prostitute could lead to a breach of anti-discrimination legislation. There are details and factors that may impact on an operator’s position such as children in residence, other sex workers already in house and local or state laws regarding brothels. As legislation around this issue can be quite complex, operators are encouraged to gain a solid understanding of their responsibilities at a local, state and federal level to ensure they do not inadvertently breach the law.For more detailed information visit the Accom-modation Association’s website to further assist with legislation around anti-discrimination, prostitution and standard terms & conditions www.aaoa.com.au

Disclaimer: Please note that the above does not constitute a full or legal analysis of the subject. Qualified legal representatives may provide a clearer perspective and advice. Neither the Ac-commodation Association of Australia nor Mi-chael Georgeson accepts any liability for reliance on this content.


PRESENTED BY

WORKpLACE RELATIONS

Independent study on housekeeping injuries

WORKpLACE RELATIONS

Intent to resign versus resignation

AAA’s National Workplace Relations Director Ross Clarke looks at housekeeping injuries.

Housekeeping injuries are a major issue for AAA's members

The Accommodation Association has recent-ly formed an OHS Working Group follow-ing a request from members to conduct an independent study into musculoskeletal dis-orders (strains and sprains) in housekeeping.

Currently there is no specific data availa-ble on the extent of strain and sprain injuries in housekeeping nor is there any uniform guide or code of practice informing accom-modation businesses how to lessen the po-tential for strain and sprain injuries.

The Association believes the best way to address this shortfall is an independent study with an objective of developing a mod-el task related hazard profile. We believe this will lead to a consistent approach to house-keeping tasks from the State based OHS regulators (i.e. WorkCover in NSW, Safe Work in Victoria) plus provide us with an understanding on how we can work to re-

duce the risk of strain and sprain injuries.Safe Work Australia has been advised of

our proposed project and has been provided with our methodology. We are now in the process of discussing the proposed inde-pendent study with WorkCover NSW with an aim of gaining the necessary funding to conduct the proposed study.

The OHS Working Group has now met four times and is also looking at the OHS Harmonisation legislation that is due to commence on 1 January 2012. Due to the high-level participation on the working group the discussions have greatly assisted the Association in its approach to OHS and our guidance to members (with the assis-tance of Middletons) on harmonisation.

We look forward to providing members with progress reports on the independent study plus on OHS issues more generally.

AAA’s Workplace Relations Advisor Trish Babu looks at the vital difference between intention to resign and resignation.

Sometimes an employee may express the desire to resign in the future. This must not be misconstrued as resignation or ter-mination of employment as is illustrated in the case of Marks v Melbourne Health [2011] FWA 4024.

The employee, in this case, was em-ployed for approximately 10 years. On Oc-tober 24 2010, the employee sent an email to his supervisors stating his intention to resign from his position as Environmental Services Manager two months later. The employee stated in their email that – “At this stage I most probably will resign as of 14 Jan 2011. I just wanted to make sure I gave you both enough notice to find a re-placement for me.”

Two days later, the employee delivered a medical certificate to the employer through a work colleague.

The employer then tried on numerous oc-casions to contact the employee by telephone. The employee did not receive the calls as they had left their mobile phone at the office be-fore prior to their absence. The employee also

failed to attend a meeting that they were re-quested to attend by the employer.

The employer then forwarded a letter to the employee, stating that following the employee’s failure to respond to the request to meet, and given that the employee did not respond to phone calls by the employer, the employer is now advising that the em-ployee’s resignation will be processed in ac-cordance with his email of 24 October 2010, and their employment will be terminated effective 14 January 2011.

It was determined that the email sent by the employee foreshadowing the possibility

of resignation in future was misrepresented by the employer as notice of resignation.

Therefore the termination took place at the initiative of the employer. In consider-ing whether the termination was unfair, it was determined that there was no valid reason for termination in the light of the employer’s knowledge of the employee’s condition and of the available medical cer-tificates covering the employee’s absence. The employer failed to conduct a proper inquiry into the employee’s absence and his ultimate intentions.

In some cases, an employee may ex-press a wish to resign verbally. However, to avoid any misunderstanding, the employee should confirm their resignation in writing, clearly indicating the date of their resigna-tion. If the employee refuses to do so, the employer should officially accept the resig-nation by confirming in writing to the em-ployee the details stated in the employee’s verbal resignation.For more information on this topic, including lessons to be learned visit www.aaoa.com.au

There are key factors to consider in a resignation


kEYNEwS

Why does HOSTPLUS see it as important to support the accom-modation sector and the AAA?HOSTPLUS is the industry superannuation fund for the hospitality, tourism, recreation and sport sectors. Serving those sectors is our pri-mary focus. Within the tourism industry, clearly accommodation is a critical sector both in terms of the number of people the sector employs but also in terms of the role the accommodation experience plays in the overall health of Australian tourism. The sector within Australia is synonymous with quality, and a quality accommodation experience can often be the most remembered element within a holiday, or equal-ly within business travel. Providing a quality experience and quality service is also an element we take very seriously at HOSTPLUS so there’s a natural alignment there.

What changes in superannuation have you noticed since you joined HOSTPLUS?Like any industry there have been a lot of changes over the last decade or so. But at the same time the basic fundamentals behind our busi-ness remain.

People often associate super with ongoing rule changes. Yes, there are often changes to regulations around super but mostly these chang-es are tinkering around the edges and generally, certainly in recent times, they result in improvements for members. There are some ma-jor reforms working their way through the Parliament currently and the intention of these reforms is again positive though there might be some specifics we may question. Overall however, the impact of these latest reforms will be minimal on HOSTPLUS because we are already complying with the majority of them.

One area that has changed during my time in the industry though would be around the professionalism of the industry itself. Super is now a major component of the economy. It is a AUD$1.3 trillion in-dustry forecast to grow to AUD$3 trillion in the next decade and has become a major employer in itself.

Are there any specific issues for the accommodation sector regard-ing super?Perhaps the major issue for those working in the accommodation sec-tor relates to their work patterns. Many workers will find themselves working for a number of different businesses over their career, and often they may work for a number of employers simultaneously. The sector can also provide great opportunities for those within it to trav-el to different parts of the country during their working lives. As the fund established specifically for this sector HOSTPLUS provides these workers with a fund they can easily stay with as they move between jobs or as they move around the country. On average Australians have three super accounts, and there generally isn’t a good reason for this. With HOSTPLUS accommodation workers, and importantly their em-ployers, can easily maintain their relationship with our fund as their career, or their workforce, evolves.

Another important element is around adequacy – that is saving enough for a comfortable retirement. It is important to ensure what retirement savings people can accumulate aren’t eroded by high fees or by paying for commissions. I would urge everyone to investigate and understand the fees they are paying on their super.

SpONSOR pROfILE

HOSTPLUSTHE ACCOMMODATION ASSOCIATION’S CEO RICHARD MUNRO SITS DOWN WITH HOSTPLUS CEO DAVID ELIA.

How many members did you start with and what has contributed to your growth?The Fund was established in 1987 and when I joined in 1999 the Fund had 364,931 members and $917 million in funds under management. We have certainly experienced enormous growth since then with 985,000 members and AUD$10 billion in funds under management at September 2011.

The share market is so volatile at the moment. Have you consid-ered putting some of your funds into the Accommodation sector?We take a disciplined and diversified approach to investing and our fo-cus, as it has to be for a business of our nature, is a very long-term one. One of the things about HOSTPLUS generally, has been our ability to look for different types of investment opportunities whether that has been in funding infrastructure like tunnels, airports, or clean energy, or through other investments into private equity ventures and the like. So it’s definitely not just about the share market.

As part of our diversification strategy we already have exposure into the sector and into areas that support the sector.

Are members putting enough in super and what advice do you have for workers regarding super?For most of us the money we have invested in super will be one of the largest sums of money we ever have to deal with. Yet many people barely give their super 5 minutes thought a year. There are some sim-ple, yet important things people can do for their super.

Get all of your super together in one account and avoid paying mul-tiple fees. It’s easier to keep track of and will save you money.

Most funds allow you to choose how your money is invested, in property, shares, cash or a combination. I would encourage people to think about their needs and the level of risk they are happy to take and make an investment choice with their money.

Read your statement. We send our members a statement every six months. Take the time to read the statement and understand not just how much is in your account, but how much – if any – insurance you have, what you are paying in fees and charges, where your money is invested, and whether your fund has all your details.

HOSTpLUS CEO David Elia


PRESENTED BY

WORKPLACE RELATIONS

Workplace questions answeredThe AAA answers key questions on workplace relations issues.

Q: Is long service leave payable to casual employees, and if so how is it accrued?A: Although the provision for long Ser-vice leave is found in the National Em-ployment Standards (NES), the Fair Work Act 2009 refers employers to their respec-tive State/Territory long service leave laws for the conditions. The qualifying period, accrual, and payment of long service leave for casual employees varies across Aus-tralia. To view and compares the main conditions for qualifying for Long Service Leave, payment and accrual of Long Ser-vice Leave across the State and Territories visit www.aaoa.com.au. Q: Are redundancy payments required on all redundancies? Can I avoid pay-ing redundancy payments?A: Your obligation to pay severance pay depends on the nature of the business, and /or the process that you take in mak-ing an employee’s position redundant.

An employer is not obliged to pay redundancy pay if:

The employee has been engaged for less than 12 months (one week notice of termination applies);

The employer engages less than 15 employees. Visit www.aaoa.com.au to read about factors to consider when calculating the number of employees employed at a particular time.

The employee is an apprentice; The business is relocated, the employee is offered similar alternative employ-ment, and all things considered the employee is no worse off.

The employer finds ‘reasonable alter-native employment’ in a redundancy situ-ation or as a result of transfer of business.

In the case of award-free employees (from 1 January 2010 the entitlement to severance pay applied, however the em-ployee must have served the “entitlement” period since that date. This means that an award/agreement free employee, who has served at least 12 months, shall be entitled to severance pay from 1 January 2011 if their position is made redundant).To view the full terms and conditions visit www.aaoa.com.au.

LEGAL ISSUES

Harmonisation of Safety LawsMiddletons’ Special Counsel John Makris looks at the impending harmonisation of safety laws.

Harmonised safety laws are due to com-mence across Australia on 1 January 2012.

Harmonisation will involve the intro-duction of a Federal Model Work Health and Safety Act (Model Act), with each State and Territory adopting the Model Act into their own legislation.

The difficulty with this approach is that each State and Territory has the opportu-nity not to adopt all of the provisions of the Model Act, and this is exactly what has hap-pened with Western Australia indicating that it will not adopt all of the provisions, and New South Wales will give unions the right to prosecute for safety breaches.

It remains to be seen what type of har-monised system we will eventually get.

KEY CHANGES UNDER THE MODEL ACTSome of the key changes proposed are:

Primary Duty of Care: the primary duty of care in all jurisdictions will no longer be upon employers, but upon any “person con-ducting a business or undertaking” (PCBU). A PCBU will be required to ensure safety, to the extent reasonably practicable, for all workers engaged by the PCBU and all work-ers whose activities in carrying out work are influenced or directed by the PCBU.

Duty of Officers: The Model Act will in-troduce a new and positive obligation upon all “officers” of the business or undertaking to ensure that they exercise due diligence at all times.

Under the Model Act, an officer includes a person who makes or participates in deci-sions that affect the whole or a substantial part of the business. It is quite possible that this definition will extend to those occupying managerial roles in the hospitality industry.

Due diligence is defined to include rea-sonable steps to: acquire and keep up to date with knowledge of work health and safety matters; gain an understanding of the nature of the operations, hazards and risks of business; ensure that appropriate pro-cesses and resources are available to enable hazards are identified ensure that processes exist for receiving and considering informa-tion relating to incidents, then responding in a timely way; ensure the business or un-dertaking has and implements processes for complying with the Model Act; and verify the provision and use of resources and pro-cesses for the above matters.

The officer provisions have commenced in New South Wales on 7 June 2011.

Consultation: the Model Act will intro-duce consultation provisions which will pro-vide for agreed arrangements, appointment of health and safety representatives (HSRs) and health and safety committees.

Union Right of Entry: the Model Act provides entry rights consistent with the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). Permit holders will have a right of entry into workplaces if they have a reasonable suspicion that a contra-vention has occurred, and without notice.

Inspectors and Investigations: Inspec-tors will have the power to compel persons to answer questions or provided documents and records even if doing so incriminates the person.

In practical terms this means that any-one giving a statement or providing docu-ments should seek legal advice and claim the privilege against self incrimination available under the Model Act. Nothing in the powers of inspectors abrogates legal professional privilege.

Penalties: the Model Act significantly in-creases the maximum penalties for breaches of the Model Act. The most serious offences will carry maximum penalties for workers of $300,000 and officers of $600,000, and/or 5 years imprisonment.For more information on this topic, including its challenges, visit www.aaoa.com.auJohn is a lawyer specialising in occupational health and safety matters. He can be contacted on (02) 9513 2564 or [email protected]

A harmonisation of safety laws is about to take place


David, it’s been a long time coming – you must be excited about the opening of the final stage of Hilton Surfers Paradise.Our team has worked hard to prepare for the official opening of the entire Hilton Surfers Paradise offering, and we were delighted to welcome our first guests on September 14.

The opening of Hilton Surfers Paradise is a landmark event for the tourism industry as the first upscale, global hotel to be built on the Gold Coast in more than 10 years and the first leisure-focused hotel and residences from Hilton Hotels and Resorts in Australia. It’s been both an exciting and challeng-ing journey, but very rewarding to see it come to reality.

A new bar and Salt grill restaurant recently opened in the hotel under the watch of two industry food and beverage leaders. Tell us more.Leading Australian restaurateur and celebrity chef Luke Mangan’s latest venture Salt grill is a fashion-able, urban restaurant where Luke and his team are delivering contemporary Australian food using the finest and freshest ingredients, sourced locally.

The restaurant itself has a large open plan kitchen, allowing guests to interact with the chefs and see their meals being prepared right in front of their eyes. It also features a great wine room and three separate dining zones that each have their own unique feel and distinguishing features.

Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, Salt grill features burnt red leather booths, large circular windows and a fea-ture panel of silver hanging beads, which create a spectacular opaque screen.

Luke’s food is simple and uncomplicated, yet full of fla-vour. The Salt grill menu features his signature Hiramasa Kingfish Sashimi with Persian feta, ginger and eschallot dressing, which continues to receive rave reviews at The Palace in Melbourne and glass brasserie in Sydney.

Right next door is also FIX, our stylish new lounge bar, which takes its name from the common term for a cocktail in prohibition America circa 1920’s.

Internationally renowned, Sydney based mixol-ogist Grant Collins has introduced the most com-prehensive range of internationally sourced bour-bons and gins in Queensland and some of the most progressive cocktail techniques seen in Australia.

And we understand you have a beach valet ser-vice. Tell us more about what you offer and why it was started.The concept of beach valets is well entrenched at overseas destinations such as South Beach in Miami, Florida and Cannes in France, so we have intro-

SURf’S UPHILTON SURFERS PARADISE HAS BEEN ONE OF THE GOLD COAST’S MOST AMBITIOUS PROJECTS FOR YEARS AND TO FIND OUT WHAT GUESTS CAN ExPECT, HM CAUGHT UP WITH GENERAL MANAGER, DAVID KELLY.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW JAMES WILKINSON

Hilton Surfers paradise General Manager David Kelly (and right) the new property


GENERALMANAGER

duced an Australian version of the concept exclusively for Hilton Surf-ers Paradise guests.

Guests are able to book their very own Hilton Beach Valet to transport their beach gear and belongings to and from the beach. Hilton’s Beach Valets set guests up on the world-renowned Surfers Paradise Beach, as well as bring guests cold drinks, ice creams and snacks throughout the day.

Hilton’s Beach Valets set up a Hilton-branded sunshade or beach umbrella, carry and assemble beach chairs, bring fresh towels and chil-dren’s beach toys and provide guests with an Esky filled with their choice of cold drinks, fresh fruit or snacks.

The property also has the first purpose built eforea: spa at Hilton in Australia. How did this come about and what has the feedback been like to date?We are excited to have the very first purpose built eforea spa in Australia at Hilton Surfers Paradise, allowing us to provide a facility that ensures our guests have world-class mas-sage treatments and unique spa therapies available within our brand new hotel complex.

eforea adds to the total Hilton Surfers Paradise experience, and we have had some great feedback so far as we welcome our first guests to the spa to provide them with an experi-ence like no other.

What can guests expect when they open the door to one of your rooms upstairs?Hilton Surfers Paradise guests can choose from 40 different room configurations, catering to all holiday-makers. In response to de-mand for larger and more flexible accommodation on the Gold Coast, the residences are both fully serviced and self contained.

The added benefit is that just like hotel guests, those staying in the residences also have access to all of Hilton’s five star ser-vices and facilities, including room service, mini-bar, valet park-ing, concierge and even the daily housekeeping service.

Tell us about the technology on offer in the rooms, includ-ing the high-end Samsung TVs.Hilton Surfers Paradise’s residences are extremely well ap-pointed with modern appliances throughout the entire complex. Rooms include 37” LCD televisions with pay TV and free-to-air channels, iPod docking stations and high-speed internet in every room. Add to these views of the famous Surfers Paradise beach, cityscape, and Gold Coast Hinterland and you have the ultimate in five star stay.

What are some of the challenges on the Gold Coast at present?While business and holiday tourism on the Gold Coast have seen declines in the past, we are now witnessing both kicking back into gear again. Hilton Surfers Paradise is a key contribu-

tion to the local tourism industry, as the first new upper upscale international hotel to be built on the Gold Coast in over 10 years. The complex was specially designed in response to a demand for more flexible and spacious holiday options on the Gold Coast and guests will be surprised by what they find on offer.

And Queenslanders themselves are too backing the Gold Coast, with more than 40% of guests at the hotel coming from Queensland to experience the brand new hot spot.

We understand that the Middle East is a big market for the hotel. How excited are you about the potential for growth in this market?Hilton Surfers Paradise played host to many of the 15,000 Middle Eastern visitors who converged on the Gold Coast this year as Ramadan coincides with the Northern Hemisphere summer and school holiday period.

We were honoured to have recently hosted the Qatar Royal Family at Hilton Surfers Paradise, which is an immense endorse-ment of the facilities we have on offer.

Now that we are fully operational, I have no doubt that Hilton Surfers Paradise will further add to the Gold Coast’s attraction to Arab tourists.

Closer to come, what’s domestic tourism like at present and are you seeing much growth?It has been great to see Queenslanders supporting destinations in their own backyard, with more than 40% of our visitors com-ing from the Sunshine State. Domestic tourism is playing a large role for Hilton Surfers Paradise, with a large proportion of our guests also travelling from New South Wales and Victoria.

What are some of the unique characteristics of the property in your opinion and what aspects of the property are you getting the best feedback on?Hilton Surfers Paradise is a landmark offering from Hilton Ho-tels and Resorts as it is the first leisure-focused hotel and resi-dences in Australia.

We are also responding to demand for more flexible accom-modation offerings, catering to all guests from overnight corpo-rate guests to longer-stay leisure guests with our range of hotel rooms and residences.

Last but not least, tell us more about your background and how you ended up running one of the newest hotels in Australia?I have had more than 20 years experience in the hospitality in-dustry with at least 15 of those years spent with Hilton World-wide, both in Australia and internationally.

I was most recently the General Manager at Hilton Cairns, where I undertook major refurbishment projects and success-fully restructured the business.

Prior to this I was Director of Business Development for Hil-ton Sydney during the hotel’s refurbishment and subsequent re-launch. I’ve also spent four years with Hilton in New York.

It is a great honour to be appointed General Manager of the newest and most eagerly-awaited upper upscale hotel to be built on the Gold Coast in more than 10 years.

I truly believe that Hilton Surfers Paradise is set to deliver a new standard of contemporary holiday accommodation on the Gold Coast.

Hilton’s brand strength comes as a result of continuous in-novation and developing hotel concepts that respond to our customers changing needs. The development of a hotel and residence concept caters for customers need for additional space and more flexible accommodation options, without sacrificing upscale service and five star facilities.

SNAPSHOTHILTON SURFERS PARADISE

3113 Surfers Paradise Boulevard, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia

Operator Hilton Hotels & Resorts

General Manager David Kelly

Opened September 14, 2011

Rooms and suites 169 hotel rooms and 250 residences available in one, two and three bedroom configurations.

F&B outlets Salt grill by Luke Mangan, FIx cocktail lounge bar and The Food Store

Recreation facilities eforea day spa, three outdoor pools and an indoor lap pool and spa, outdoor terrace and poolside deck, pool bar, Executive Lounge, Business Centre, movie theatrette, sauna and two fully equipped gymnasiums


GLOBALREPORT

Shangri-La’s Kerry Hotels brand is set to give the lifestyle segment a solid shake-up globally thanks to the opening of a stunning ho-tel in Shanghai that’s a fusion of luxury and contemporary.

The Kerry Hotel in the city’s Pudong district features 574 rooms, a ballroom capable of seating over 2750 people, a brewery, luxury day spa, sports club and a strong emphasis on high-quality food. It adds up to a new style of life-style hotel that mixes a number of elements that Shangri-La is famous for, while maintaining a cool, contemporary feel.

“Kerry Hotels is our new lifestyle brand and it fits right in between Traders and Shangri-La,” said Kerry Hotel Shanghai General Manager Ed Brea. “And the idea is you have more than just a hotel.

“We have not only a hotel, but we have a resi-dence, a very large sports club that’s 6000-sqm, a huge convention space here in the hotel and it’s attached to a shopping mall and an office building.

“So, we have many elements that are at-tached to the hotel and inside the envelope, we have a number of unique features, including our own brewery, called The Brew. And that’s part of our (food and beverage) concept called The Cook, The Meat and The Brew.

“In addition to the brewery, we have a very nice steak restaurant (The Meet) and our inter-active buffet concept (The Cook), which has a number of different showcases,” he told HM.

Brea, who a number of years ago served as the General Manager of Shangri-La The Mari-na Cairns, said the Australian market was a key

segment for the hotel going forward, particularly given the economic conditions at present.

“I think it (the Australian market) fits in quite nicely with what we are trying to do here and I see that market, which has one of the strongest econ-

omies in ASEAN, and I hope we would get our fair share of that,” he said.Brea said the location has played a significant role to date and he

expects that to continue.“We’re very close to the airport on the edge of Pudong and one of

the nice features the Aussies like here, whether they come on leisure or business, is the park that’s located across the road of the hotel, which is one of the largest green spaces in Shanghai, it’s maybe half the size of Central Park in New York, and it’s an outstanding feature we have here,” he said.

The Kerry Hotel’s food and beverage offering with The Cook, The Meat and The Brew is outstanding and it will play a huge role in the success of the brand going for-ward. While Brea said not all of Kerry’s new hotels would feature a USD$2 million brew-ery like Pudong, food and beverage will in-deed be a drawcard at each location.

Other elements will be ballrooms to tar-get the domestic and inbound MICE mar-kets, fitness facilities including day spas and well-appointed rooms that suit both busi-ness and leisure travellers.

Brea said the Pudong property is being used as the benchmark for Kerry Hotels and given the quality of that hotel, other brands in the same space had better keep an eye on Shangri-La’s plans for what will no doubt be one of the world’s best lifestyle offerings.

For exclusive video reports, visit www.hotel management.com.au

KERRY’S STUNNINGSHANGHAI DEBUT

SHANGRI-LA’S NEWEST PROPERTY IN SHANGHAI HAS SIGNALLED THE DEBUT OF KERRY HOTELS AND WHAT’S BEEN CREATED IS A NEW KIND OF LIFESTYLE HOTEL, ONE THAT’S MADE SURE THE WORLD’S LEADING UPPER-UPSCALE BRANDS ARE FIRMLY ON NOTICE.

WORDS JAMES WILKINSON IN SHANGHAI

Oversized rooms and suites are a key feature of the Kerry Hotel Shanghai (and below) the hotel

has a central location in pudong


CARES FOR YOUR GUEST AND THE ENVIRONMENT

THE NEW GENERATION IN GUEST AMENITIESPO Box 553, Newport Beach NSW 2106Tel: 02 9979 1500 Fax: 02 9979 2555

[email protected] www.swisstrade.com.au

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TOURISMFORUM

Virgin Australia has upped the ante on trans-continental flights, with the carrier now offering business class on

every departure from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to Perth and vice-versa.

A number of brand new Boeing 737 air-craft featuring two rows of Business Class have been delivered to the former low-cost carrier this year and those aircraft will com-plement the existing Airbus A330-200 ser-vices from Sydney to Perth.

Expected to commence flying on the route from September 28, 2011, the Boeing 737 Busi-ness Class offers a similar seat and the same service as the Airbus A330, but those up the front won’t have seat-back entertainment, with Virgin instead opting to provide guests with Digiplayer XTs loaded with six movies, ten tel-evision programs and a selection of music.

Virgin Australia Group Executive Com-mercial Liz Savage said the new Business Class offering would come at a competitive price for travellers.

“I’m pleased to announce our Business Class fares are now on sale commencing from $1299, representing great value for money on every coast to coast departure,” she said.

“Our Business Class cabin with the new Boeing ‘Sky Interior’ sets Virgin Australia apart for in cabin style and comfort with lux-urious leather seating with 38-inch seat pitch and gourmet Luke Mangan designed meals,” she said.

Those on Business Class fares will also re-ceive priority check-in and boarding, along with entry to the Virgin Australia lounge and, for a limited time, complimentary lim-

ousine transfers within 60 kilometres from the airport at either ends of the journey.

The majority of the Boeing 737 aircraft fit-ted with the Business Class seats are those that feature the new Boeing Sky Interior – a new style of cabin that was recently introduced by the manufacturer and one that offers an in-creased amount of space thanks primarily to the re-design of the overhead bins.

However, those in Economy on the new Boe-ing 737s will find a major change from the rest of the 737 fleet – no seatback in-flight entertainment.

While the Airbus A330-200s are fitted with an on-demand in-flight entertainment system that’s similar to what’s on offer on V Australia’s Boeing 777-300ERs, the new 737-800s are yet to receive any TVs.

Industry speculation is rife that the Live2Air system that broadcasts live Austar and Foxtel would not be installed on the new 737-800s and removed from the remainder of the exist-ing 737 fleet, instead replaced by a similar sys-tem to the A330s and B777s.

When asked if this was the case, a spokes-person for Virgin Australia said the airline was “still assessing options at this stage and will make an announcement in coming months”.

Either way, consumers are set to benefit from any in-flight entertainment move by Vir-gin Australia as the airline continues to chase a larger share of the nation’s government and business travel market.

Live television or a range of films is still a long way from how the airline started out 11 years ago as a low-cost carrier with just four aircraft operating from no-frills terminals around the nation.

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA INCREASES BUSINESS

As the battle for the business traveller continues, Virgin Australia is rolling out Business Class on Boeing 737 flights to Perth from the East Coast.

Virgin Australia’s Business Class on the Boeing 737 fleet

CATHAY TO INTRODUCE PREMIUM ECONOMYCathay Pacific has confirmed plans to introduce Premium Economy across its long haul fleet, a product that has been flagged for Australian services.

The Hong Kong-based airline will be one of very few Asian airlines to offer premium economy, a product that has seen success for a number of European and Australasian airlines including oneworld partners British Airways and Qantas.

Cathay Pacific Chief Executive John Slosar said new product would be “a real upgrade over economy”.

“The seat will be more like a regional business class seat,” he said. “We’ll have great recline and plenty of leg space.

“But it’s not just the seat, we’ll have an improved service as well. The meal service will be improved and little extras will leave anyone who chooses Cathay Pacific’s premium economy feeling they really got value for their money,” he said.

Solar said Premium Economy would be introduced on Cathay’s medium- and long-haul routes, including services to Australia and the cabin will be progressively introduced from the second quarter of 2012.

“We’ll be doing all this quite quickly, although it will still take most of 2012 before it is on most of our aircraft,” he said.

Meanwhile Cathay Pacific has announced the introduction of non-stop services from Adelaide to Hong Kong from November 24 until March 24, 2012 on three of the airline’s seven flights a week from the South Australian capital which are currently running via Melbourne.

“Cathay Pacific has been flying to Adelaide since 1992 and in this time we have grown to seven flights a week and seen growth in demand from travellers across the business, leisure and student markets particularly to and from China,” said Cathay Pacific’s General Manager - South-west Pacific, Dane Cheng.

A Cathay pacific A330-300

WORDS JAMES WILKINSON


AN ACCOR HOSPITALITY PROMOTION ACCOR FRANCHISING

Blue C Apartments Coolangatta in Queensland has joined Accor Hotels' upscale Grand Mercure Apartments brand in time for the approaching summer season.

Perfectly positioned opposite iconic Coolangatta Beach, the newly renamed Grand Mercure Apartments Coolangatta boast a convenient location just five minutes drive away from the Gold Coast International Airport, ideal for guests travelling from interstate or overseas destinations.

The property’s management team Robyn and Dick Douglas say it’s no coincidence they chose a hotel group with both domestic and inter-national scope for growth.

“Our first experience with apartment hotels was a small manage-ment contract at Palm Beach in 2000 before successfully taking over management of the then new Blue C in 2004,” said Robyn. “Blue C represented a great opportunity for us to own and run our own busi-ness in a beautiful environment, with the added benefit of meeting interesting and friendly people along the way. But after seven years, we felt the time was right to join a franchise and sought to engage the assistance of Accor.”

Robyn and Dick said that after meeting with several of the Accor personnel they felt confident that the association would be mutually beneficial and that apartment owners and the business as a whole would flourish.

“Everyone we met from Accor was extremely friendly, helpful and down to earth. Despite being an international hotel group, there still seems to be a family feeling that certainly complements the environ-ment at our Coolangatta property.”

Accor’s General Manager Franchise Hotels Dino Mezzatesta said the Coolangatta property is in fact a perfect example of the sort of apartment hotel that can benefit from signing up with Group.

“Grand Mercure Apartments Coolangatta comes to the Accor net-work with a very impressive base of loyal return clients, which is a great place to start,” he said. “Our aim of course is that via Accor’s established sales, marketing and distribution channels, we’ll be able to build on this and provide a more even market mix that will complement existing busi-ness and help take the property to the next level over the coming year.

“We expect that Accor’s A|Club and Accor Advantage Plus loyalty programmes, which offer in excess of seven million members world-wide, combined with the company’s extensive database of corporate and leisure travellers will increase visitation to what is an already pop-ular apartment resort.”

The modern 15 storey high rise holiday resort provides a great choice of 45 one, two or three-bedroom air conditioned, luxury apart-ments, all with beautiful ocean views of the magnificent Coolangatta Beach and beyond. Guest facilities include a heated lagoon style swim-ming pool, spa, a gymnasium and sauna. The north-east-facing beach-es of Coolangatta, Greenmount Snapper Rocks and Rainbow Bay are just moments away.

Dino added that that Accor has been very proactive on the franchise frontier in 2011 and has actively sought out key business and leisure destinations to expand its portfolio.

“Queensland in particular has been a target area for us, and we’re thrilled to add Coolangatta to our network. It joins another two fran-chise agreements announced this month – the Grand Mercure Mag-netic Island and the much anticipated Mercure Gladstone, a new build project we expect to be completed in September 2012. So overall it’s a busy and prosperous time for us and our franchise partners.” For more information about Accor’s franchise network call Dino Mezzatesta on +61 (0)2 9280 9832 or go to www.accorfranchise.com.au

COOLANGATTA GOLDFOR GRAND MERCURE

ONE OF THE LEADING APARTMENT PROPERTIES IN COOLANGATTA HAS SIGNED A FRANCHISE AGREEMENT WITH ACCOR HOTELS.

Grand Mercure Apartments Coolangatta


The team at qualia were naturally delighted (with the three HM Awards). I was receiving a constant stream of texts and tweets from the island during the awards asking if we’d won, and then huge congratulations from everyone once the announcements were made.

Receiving these Awards is unequivocal proof that we are doing things right, and it sets a high expectation. We are only as good as the experience we have given the last guest to leave yesterday and the first arrival today. We have to win awards with every guest every day. That is the challenge.

We are delighted with the position of qualia after only four years in operation. This has been an extremely difficult year for tourism in Queensland, let alone an island property in Queensland but we are confidently projecting positive growth for qualia as we extend our relationships with key agents, recognise an increase in return guests and

consolidate our position as an easily accessible destination for the East Coast which helps for our international guests as well.

Our events such as Great Barrier Feast, The Australian Ballet and Audi Hamilton Island Race Week naturally allow us to showcase qualia to new and repeat guests and have been a great way of showing that we can deliver these world class activities.

I had a lot of experience in the MICE segment earlier in my career and business tourism is a growth area for us. After three years we understand how qualia works best for corporate groups and what we can realistically achieve on the property. We have just reviewed our MICE offering to provide a much greater degree of flexibility to groups. We are also looking at increasing our exposure in Europe by strengthening our marketing relationships in that area.

qualia

qualia: Resort of the Year

INTERVIEWS JAMES WILKINSON

qualia’s General Manager Michael Shah says his team was thrilled at winning Australian Lodge, Resort and Day Spa of the Year at the 2011 HM Awards.

AUSTRALIA’S fINEST

WINNERS OF THE 2011 HM AWARDS SPAN THE WIDTH AND LENGTH OF AUSTRALIA. TO FIND OUT HOW THE AWARDS WERE RECEIVED AND WHAT’S IN STORE FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE YEAR, HM SPOKE TO A FEW OF THE WINNING GENERAL MANAGERS.


The team at Mercure Sydney was thrilled to receive the (Service to the Community) Award because we all understand that it is the community that ultimately makes a hotel successful, so it is essential to return the favour and support worthy causes. It is even better to be recognised for it (because it was) in the HM Awards.

Our community projects are obviously completely altruistic and we don’t expect anything in return, but when we are asking our staff and guests to support these projects it is really positive to receive recognition via such a prestigious award. It really helps to inspire and motivate the team.

With the support of our owner Dr Jerry Schwartz – who is passionate about supporting the community – we launched Room for Hope to support two very important charities, Royal Far West, and Stewart House. As the name implies, Royal Far West provides a wide range of essential specialist health services to meet the needs of country children and their families in the west of NSW. Without their support, many of these children would go without many services that we take for granted in the city.

Stewart House also helps children across NSW and the ACT. They come and stay at Stewart House, during which they receive optometric, dental and medical treatment as well as emotional support. This is balanced with health and educational programs and out of school activities to boost their self-esteem and to promote a healthier lifestyle.

Thanks to the generosity of our staff and guests – who are asked to add $1 to their bill to help - we raised AUD $10,000 for each of the organisations.

Mercure Sydney has a strong relationship with several other organisations, which we support by way of fundraising and donations.

Mercure Sydney

The hotel team is absolutely elated to receive two of the top accolades in this year’s HM Awards (Business Hotel and Hotel of the Year). The team has been working hard to take personal responsibility for service delivery and being recognised for our efforts is a great motivator. Our colleagues at IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) are also delighted. We have received a tonne of well-wishes from across the board.

It’s fantastic to have our efforts recognised by our industry peers and the good people at HM. These awards encourage our team to continue to strive hard to provide an extraordinary experience for our guests. They also play a positive role in helping to lift overall standards in the industry.

InterContinental Sydney is enjoying a successful year, in terms of business performance. Although the markets have softened somewhat of late, we are expecting a strong last quarter. The segments where we expect strong performance in 2012 are corporate transients and meetings and events. We are already close to capacity on mid-week days for most of the year.

The past 12 months have been particularly busy for InterContinental Sydney when it comes to renovations. We have renewed our exclusive Club InterContinental Lounge on the rooftop of the hotel. We have enhanced the business centre and renovated our live broadcast centre – the only hotel-based facility of its kind in Sydney.

Most recently, we have totally transformed our restaurant, Café Opera and we are now renovating one of our most popular events spaces, the bi-level Harbour Room on the 31st floor, which looks out over the harbour and the Botanic Gardens. Once completed, it will be an even more elegant venue for small gatherings, private dining events and product launches.

Great fundraising job: Mercure Sydney

InterContinental Sydney

It’s been a big year for InterContinental Sydney, one that’s been capped by winning two important gongs at the 2011 HM Awards, says General Manager Fred Matti.

Hotel of the Year: InterContinental Sydney

PROPERTYPROFILES

Under the guidance of General Manager Greg Brady, the team at Mercure Sydney have excelled in helping those in need.


PROPERTYPROFILES

To be chosen as the winner of best Boutique Hotel and recognised for our unique approach is such an honour. The entire team was proud and elated with the win. It gives the Emporium confidence to continue to do things differently as the hotel evolves its service philosophy with new properties on the horizon. Hotel owners Tony and Francine John remain the driving life-force behind the hotel the design and creation was theirs, they believed a boutique hotel like The Emporium would not only thrive in Brisbane, but win awards nationally.

As Brisbane’s first true luxury boutique property, the Emporium has continued to grow and consolidate its position in the market. To be recognised at the HM Awards has provided the hotel with leverage to continue marketing our brand to discerning travellers. Being a recipient of an award enhances a hotel’s reputation, creates an inspired work culture and fuels motivation for continuous improvement.

Industry recognition such as the HM Awards is a unique opportunity to showcase the dynamic and innovative business culture of the Emporium Hotel to peers and guests. It is a great reward for the team, as they are the backbone of the operation and it’s terrific from a marketing perspective, as it provides extensive PR opportunities.

Like most Brisbane Hotels, the Emporium has enjoyed a strong 2011 with a RevPAR growth of around 10%. As occupancy remains high the food and beverage figures are also above targets.

With an active resources market, high demand and no new hotel supply, this will continue to drive a positive outlook for not only the Emporium, but most Brisbane Hotels for the remainder of the year. In 2011, Emporium expects average room rates to continue to grow on the back of surging demand, which will also support high room occupancies.

Although 2011 began as a challenge with the Brisbane floods, and greater disasters all over Queensland the immediate and greater outlook for Brisbane remains positive. With limited hotel inventory, demand high with corporate travel, big ticketed events and large conferences in the city, Brisbane hotels are in a buoyant market.

Winning an industry award such as the best MICE hotel is very motivating for our team and a great talking point to share with our valuable clients. We receive many positive comments from our clients but recognition from the industry is affirmation of what our MICE team aims to consistently deliver to our clients.

We are very proud to share the details of the accolade with our colleagues in our sister hotels internationally and global sales offices. At the property, we can acknowledge and celebrate the success with all colleagues. It is an accolade that can be used as a testimonial.

It’s been a strong year for us and the team are very confident that the remainder of the year will continue to track at pleasing levels. The city responds positively to our diverse events calendar and 2011 is no different with AFL Grand Final, Spring Racing Carnival and the President's Cup still to come before year end.

The hotel is ideally located and designed to service both business and leisure travel, so both segments are regarded as exciting in 2012. The city very much lends itself to combining business with Melbourne leisure activities – sporting events, theatre, concerts, restaurants, shopping and regional tours. It is exciting to see growth in the MICE segment for specialist events that want an all encompassing venue offering exclusivity.

Melba continues its popularity with Melburnians and hotel guests as a restaurant offering a range of international cuisines prepared in open kitchens by smiling chefs. Melba’s appeal is found in the variety of cuisines, quality and the location overlooking the river and city (and) its ambience and atmosphere suits all ages.

The Langham, Melbourne General Manager Ben Sington says winning the HM Award for best MICE hotel has been very motivating for his team.

The Langham, Melbourne

Emporium Hotel, BrisbaneBrisbane’s Emporium Hotel has once more been named the best Boutique property in Australia, a result General Manager Peter Savoff says will enhance the hotel’s reputation.

Best boutique hotel: Emporium Hotel, Brisbane

Top MICE hotel: The Langham, Melbourne


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WEATHERDON

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For the last few years, hotels spanning both ends of the branding scale spectrum – from economy to luxury – have been pumping millions of dollars into ageing hotels to compete for the budget

conscious traveller.That’s a trend industry leading hospitality refurbishment and con-

struction specialists ISIS Group Australia is expecting to continue to for the foreseeable future.

“Over the next two to three years, we expect to see an increase in the number of hotel refurbishments particularly in markets such as Perth, Sydney and Adelaide,” said ISIS Group Australia’s National Ex-ecutive - Hotels and Leisure, Brett Patterson.

“With hotel occupancies now regularly above 80% and room rates improving, there is now a greater demand for hotels in all capital cities.

“The availability of suitable hotel sites is limited and therefore hotel owners and operators will need to become more creative with poten-tial conversions of existing office buildings into all types of hotels from 3- to 5-star. We are regularly asked to assist with feasibility options for these properties,” he told HM.

Some of the projects ISIS has been involved in recently has includ-ed Marriott properties in Melbourne and Surfers Paradise, along with Novotel Brisbane, Hilton Cairns, InterContinental Sydney, Crowne Plaza Terrigal, Sails in the Desert and two huge projects at The Star (formerly Star City) in Sydney.

“We are refurbishing the top two floors of the existing hotel, includ-ing bringing all of their Suites and Penthouses to a luxury standard,” Patterson said of the project at The Star. “At The Darling hotel we are doing a fit out of the Signature (suites) on levels 11 and 12 to a Luxury standard not seen in any other hotel in Sydney.”

Also involved in The Star project has been creative genius Paul Kelly from Paul Kelly Design, responsible for creating the BLACK and Sokyo restaurants.

“BLACK is a seriously beautiful restaurant with chef Teage Ezard from Melbourne at the helm,” Kelly told HM. “It is a classic steakhouse

with a twist… a handmade interior as dedicated to design as the chefs are to the culinary excellence in production.

“A fusion between Sydney and Tokyo, Sokyo is going to change the way we view Japanese lifestyle and cuisine. Chef Chase Kojima (former head of Nobu worldwide) is behind this 300 seat restaurant and bar project that is seriously ‘tight’”.

At the Crowne Plaza Terrigal, ISIS was involved in the AUD$2.9 million renovation of the hotel’s Florida Beach Bar and Lounge, a space that will have a capacity for seating 700 inside.

Florida Beach Bar and Lounge features large windows and bi-fold-ing doors with views out to Terrigal Beach and as part of the renova-tion, a new bar was constructed that includes a decor of natural tex-tures, combining elements of stone, sand and wood and a 30-metre long bar serving a selection of local wines, spirits and cocktails.

Down at InterContinental Sydney, ISIS helped create a refreshed look for the hotel’s Café Opera restaurant that now includes new buf-fets, a bar and a private dining room.

“The decision was made to move away from the traditional hotel restaurant space and do something different,” InterContinental Syd-ney’s Executive Chef, Tamas Pamer, told HM. “We set about brain-storming ideas for a fresh new dining experience, one that was on par with other offerings in Sydney and beyond.

“We’re really excited to be offering something different. The whole team really got behind the Café Opera project and pitched in to make it work.

“It was an extensive and intense process, as these things are, but the results speak for themselves,” he said.

On the Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise Marriott Resort and Spa has just unveiled its new-look guestrooms, restaurant, lobby, lagoon pool and functions centre in the coming weeks, following a AUD$20 million refurbishment.

Patterson said ISIS was involved in the refurbishment of the prop-erty’s 330 guestrooms and suites, including all new furniture, carpets and painting, along with a refurbishment of the hotel’s spacious lobby.

SUITE BUILDING

AS DEMAND CONTINUES TO GROW FOR HIGH-QUALITY ACCOMMODATION ACROSS AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND AND THE SOUTH PACIFIC REGION, HOTELS HAVE BEEN REQUIRED TO PUT IN MORE CAPITAL THAN EVER TO ENSURE THE QUALITY IS ON A LEVEL THAT THE MODERN TRAVELLER ExPECTS. HM LOOKS AT SOME OF THE LEADING RENOVATIONS ACROSS AUSTRALIA AND THE SOUTH PACIFIC.

park Hyatt Sydney


HOTELDESIGN

Surfers Paradise Marriott Resort and Spa General Manager Peter Brampton said guests have been able to experience the new facilities first-hand from early September.

“The refurbishment will see Surfers Paradise Marriott Resort and Spa regain the mantle of the Gold Coast’s most luxurious and uniquely different resort hotel,” Brampton said.

“The lagoon pool surrounds are un-dergoing a total make over, as well as our all day dining restaurant, all guest rooms and function areas, the hotel’s lobby and the overall pool area and front entry is being improved and updated.”

He said the property’s luxurious new Presidential Suite is the “epitome of el-egance” and will raise the bar for luxury accommodation on the Gold Coast.

In the Queensland capital, the Novotel Brisbane’s AUD$12 million makeover has been making a statement in recent months thanks particularly to the finishing touches throughout the 296-room property.

The refurbishment, at the hands of ISIS, included an extensive refresh of all gues-trooms (new furniture, carpets and paint-ing) to meet Accor’s new requirements for hotels under the Novotel banner.

A refurbishment was also done on the Novotel Brisbane’s hotel lobby and restaurant, bringing the property up to a level that’s quite possibly the best 4.5-star offering in the coffee machines, iPod docking stations, 32-inch LCD TVs and spectacular floor-to-ceiling glass walls that open onto a private balcony, com-plete with Brisbane City views.

Alongside the projects undertaken by ISIS, a number of other leading hotels have had significant work done.

Crowne Plaza Canberra’s Binara One lounge bar has been refitted with new carpets and lighting, and decorated in a new colour scheme of charcoal, chocolate

brown, Sicilian olive green and burnt or-ange. This has been added to the existing back-lit bar in the extended lounge area, which leads to an outdoor terrace.

Last year’s stunning refurbishment of Crown Towers Melbourne was led by Jan Eastwood from Bates Smart, the firm responsible for the initial design of the multi-award winning hotel.

“Bates Smart was privileged with the opportunity to undertake Crown Towers’ Standard Rooms and Suites refurbish-ment, including lift car interiors, lift lob-bies and guest corridors,” Eastwood told HM. “The process allowed us to revisit our fit-out of 15 years past, taking full advan-tage of our extensive experience and re-search of contemporary hotel room trends and technological developments.

“It was fundamental to the design pro-cess to review the existing site critically, discerning which elements were of merit.

“The result is crisp and contemporary, yet avoids a generic, soulless aesthetic. Me-ticulous attention to guest comfort, through functional and aesthetic lighting solutions, bathroom, dressing room, desk and mini-bar amenities and the most comfortable beds and bed linen were all considered and analysed at the prototype phase.

“Soft furnishings and decorative styl-ing detail were integral to the finished result (and) solutions adhered to a strict regimen of operational efficiencies in-cluding room turnaround times, effective maintenance programs and durability.

“The visual opening up of the bath-room space has created the single most discernable change. Generously propor-tioned double glass doors with decora-tive bespoke door furniture, allow vision into the sleek and classically modelled bathroom. The guest’s perception of the room footprint is thus expanded.”

Also in Melbourne, Accor Vacation Club has celebrated the 90th birthday of

Crown Towers Melbourne

EXCLUSIVE!INSIDE THE 'NEW' PARK HYATT SYDNEYThis is the first time images have been seen of the 'new' Park Hyatt Sydney, which is close to unveiling a spectacular renovation of the prominent waterfront property at The Rocks.

When Park Hyatt Sydney re-opens its doors it will feature three rooftop Suites built on a new fourth level. This new level boasts, just shy of 360-degree, views spanning Sydney Harbour, the Opera House and Harbour Bridge and includes the city’s largest penthouse suite at 350sqm.

This has come alongside a total renovation of all guestrooms, the spa, lobby, restaurant and bars that forced the hotel to close for most of 2011 to undertake the massive project.

“Park Hyatt Sydney is close to the completion of the rebuild of this fine property,” said Park Hyatt Sydney General Manager, Andrew Mensforth. “We continue to target a late 2011 opening.

“We are delighted with the progress so far, having undertaken a total rebuild with only the external wall remaining and we look forward to showcasing the new hotel to our ever discerning local and international guests”.

Mensforth said it was important the hotel honoured its heritage by ensuring original Sydney Sandstone and local woods were incorporated in the rebuild. The hotel has undertaken to commission a number of Australian artists including sculptors, painters and photographers for artworks designed especially for the new hotel.

He said the 21 years that Park Hyatt Sydney has called its Circular Quay pier home is respected and celebrated throughout the hotels’ redesign.

Australian hotel design firm, BARstudio created an intimate and stylish interior, featuring an art gallery of interior pieces, including artefacts, books and artworks on the bedroom shelves and walls in all 155 bedrooms, and unique items throughout the hotel.

Floor-to-ceiling glass doors open onto spacious private balconies for most bedrooms, which no other accommodation in Sydney can provide. Custom-designed lighting and new natural tone furnishings and fixtures enhance the indoor-outdoor lifestyle that Park Hyatt Sydney observe.

The multi-million dollar renovation includes a total reconfiguration of the low rise serpentine designed building, introducing a new and larger day spa, restaurant, bars, private dining rooms, enhanced and larger conference facilities, gymnasium and recreational spaces in addition to Sydney’s largest guest rooms.

The new restaurant, The Dining Room is led by Australian-born chef, Andrew McKee.


HOTELDESIGN

the Grand Mercure Melbourne, Flinders Lane building by recently completing a multi-million dollar makeover of the hotel.

The project is the most ambitious in the history of owners, Accor Vacation Club, who have spent AUD$4.3 million to bring the property back to its glamorous glory, so well known by stars of stage and screen over the past two decades.

The design philosophy of Penny Del Castillo from In Design International drew inspiration from those early “fashion house” days with a view of creating an ex-pression of sophisticated elegance, through an individual design concept that would remain unique to Grand Mercure Mel-bourne, Flinders Lane.

The result has turned this apartment hotel into a market leading boutique product, which presents a contemporary range of sophisticated suites that infuse modern design philosophies with the architectural and historical heritage of the building.

“The fashion designers who occupied the building in days gone by would have appreciated the creative elements and chic flair used in the overall design and we would like to believe they would be proud knowing that their influences live on today,” said Accor Vaca-tion Club CEO, Craig Wood.

The 144-room Mantra on the Park Melbourne completed a AUD$4 million refurbishment in mid-September, upgrading a popular apartment hotel for both business and leisure travellers. The refurbish-ment included stylish new furniture, 37-inch LCD TVs, iPod docking stations, curtains, carpet and paint throughout all apartments, along with new kitchens and appliances, carpet and paint in all corridors and lift lobbies, and interior directional signage on all floors.

Hyatt Regency Coolum has created a contemporary new look for its popular King Rooms, the latest in a series of stylish refurbishments at the resort. An initial 40 rooms have been completed, part of an on-going program that has already seen the upgrade of Golf Villas, Lake-front Villas and the extensive health and beauty facilities of The Spa.

The newly refurbished rooms are now named Golf Kings and Garden Kings and will be joined by a further 116 renovated King Rooms due for completion in coming months. At 46-sqm each, each King room has been refitted in contemporary style, with crisp modern tones to complement the sub-tropical Queensland environment that surrounds the property.

The luxurious Shangri-La Hotel Sydney has been in the process of completing a AUD$20 million refurbishment of the hotel’s 477 guestrooms, complete with purpose-built window seating, iHome docks, media hubs and custom-designed furniture.

“The guestroom upgrade will further strengthen Shangri-La’s posi-tion as the city's leading 5-star deluxe hotel in Sydney,” said Shangri-La Hotel, Sydney’s General Manager, Franz Donhauser.

Interior designers Hassell spearheaded the guestroom refurbish-ment, with senior interior designer Grace Guo in the lead role. GVA Project Control Group Australia were the project managers.

In line with the global revitalisation of the Sheraton brand, Shera-ton Mirage Resort and Spa Gold Coast has announced a full refur-bishment plan that will include 293 rooms and suites, accommodation corridors, lobby, reception desk, guest lifts, port cochere, hotel entry and pool area landscaping, Terraces Restaurant and Breakers Lounge.

Due for completion early 2012, the refurbishment plans include a renewal of all guestrooms and suites. Boasting spacious hotel rooms starting from 43sqm, the new luxurious appointments include the Sheraton Sweet Sleeper bed, flat screen televisions, WiFi access, cus-tom woven carpets, designer furnishings, casual lounge and dining settings, bedside decor and accessories plus bathroom fittings includ-ing tapware, baths, toilets, vanity and refreshed marble surfaces.

The 4-star Mercure Melbourne Spring Street has added the fin-ishing touches to its AUD$4 million refurbishment of 164 rooms and is the first hotel in Australia to showcase new Mercure design standards.

Rooms have been fitted with new bathrooms complete with walk-in showers, large hand basins and LED mirror lights. New lighting, LCD

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HOTELDESIGN

TVs, glass fronted fridges, internet access, room safes and clock radios with iPod docks have been installed to modernise the rooms.

The Best Western Ambassador on Ruthven in Toowoomba, QLD, has recent-ly undergone an extensive AUD$500,000 refurbishment that’s had a dramatic effect to the look of the property.

The rooms have been completely trans-formed from very dated, cluttered and un-comfortable ones to meticulously designed, spacious, warm, stylish rooms featuring cus-tom design decor. The motel’s restaurant has also been transformed from a very ordinary dining room to an area exuding style and el-egance, highlighted by an ornate chandelier.

Over in the Cook Islands, the Pacific Resort Hotel Group has responded to the growing trend of luxury family travellers with refurbishments at two hotels creating two exciting new room offerings.

Pacific Resort Aitutaki created a new room category called the Ultimate Beachfront Bungalow, which caters to both small and large families by offering a new choice of one or two bedroom configuration with separate lounge area with a maximum occupancy of up to seven people. The one bedroom expands on the comforts of the main bungalow to include a sep-arate lounge area furnished with two day beds, 42 inch flat screen TV, coffee table and private deck. These day beds will accommodate children up to the age of 12 enabling the family to enjoy one bedroom option in comfort.

Pacific Resort Rarotonga, meanwhile, capped off a USD$500,000 refurbishment with conversion of Garden Villas into two-bedroom Premium Garden Villas. The villas underwent a complete renovation and refurbishment, providing guests with a new design for the kitchen and bathrooms and a fresh interior throughout with extra space.

This month (October 2011), Grand Hyatt Melbourne is expected to complete the final phase of the hotel’s extensive AUD$65 million redevel-opment. A complete interior redesign of all 548 guestrooms complements a refresh that has included spectacular new upper and lower lobbies, along with a ‘new’ restaurant (Collins Kitchen), bar (RU-CO), as well as the ad-dition of an exclusive retail environment and innovative events venue, ‘the residence’. The transformation, which began in 2008, will be completed just in time for the hotel’s 25th birthday next month (November).

Also in the Victorian capital, Mint Resorts and Apartments has completed a refresh of its latest acquisition, Rhapsody, in Melbourne. The refresh of the 145 room apartment hotel, now renamed Mint Rhapsody Melbourne, was designed by Trudy Tozer, who had al-ready been responsible for a number of Mint’s 4- and 4.5-star proper-ties on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane.

Resort Interiors International un-dertook a full FF&E for the project, includ-ing the design, procurement, manufactur-ing, delivery and installation of furniture and finishes.

With a total of 145 apartments on five levels, comprising of 20 one bedroom apartments and 125 studio apartments, Resort Interiors told HM they were excited to be a-part of this project.

“The final product fulfilled the initial brief and the overall experience of this project was a positive one,” the company said. “Resort Interiors were privileged to have worked on this exciting project.”

While unfortunately it remains closed because of its location in the city’s “red zone”, the Holiday Inn City Centre Christchurch has been one of New Zea-land’s most impressive refurbishments in recent times.

“The Holiday Inn City Centre refurbish-ment of the public areas was particularly pleasing because of the great spaces we had to work with, and the strong desire of the client to provide something unique and spe-

cial,” said Dalman Architecture’s Managing Director, Richard Dalman.“Artworks were selected to complement the décor but not exactly

blend in totally with it – each artwork makes a statement of its own and contributes to the overall quality of the space.

“Our client, Philip Carter, had the goal of providing a hotel with the best public area artwork in the city, and he has succeeded. Artwork was selected for each location within the space, and we have even engaged internationally renowned Christchurch sculptor Graeme Bennett to specifically create a large installation above the reception counter.

“The lobby is not just about great art. It is also practically laid out with comfortable seating, an upgraded bar area and a new business centre. New pendant lights have colour changing LEDs that create dif-ferent moods as required.

“Artwork in this hotel is not confined to pictures and sculptures. It also finds its way into the architectural fittings by way of David True-bridge cloud light fittings and a 'woven' screen suspended full height from the ceiling that separates the bar from the reception area, as well as a locally made Dilana rug in the bar,” Dalman said.

The hotel’s owner Philip Carter said: “Dalman Architecture under-stood what we were trying to achieve with our specific requirements for the public areas of this hotel. They have created a functional refur-bished lobby/bar space that our guests love.”

As the hotel is located in the central Christchurch earthquake “red zone”, it is currently closed for business.

Shangri-La Sydney

Resort Interiors

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ROOMSDIVISION

In today’s hospitality industry, running a hotel is significantly different than it was twenty years ago. Hoteliers are no longer all-round generalists.

Rather, hotel managers have become specialists. Today, hoteliers focus on brand management and yield management, while delegating the minor day to day tasks that are outside of their core KPIs. No longer do most hotels think about providing their own security, running their own laundries, or even baking their own croissants. The outsourcing of these areas have not only been proven to be more cost effective and efficient when performed by a specialist provider, the concept of the outsourcing of these areas are now taken for granted. Within the last 10 years, the outsourcing of areas such as housekeeping services have also become common-place in the industry.

It today’s economy, it’s all about finding the right business model for a particular hotel. It’s about reducing risk in the business and guarantee-ing results for the stakeholders. Outsourcing has been able to provide this to our partners through: • Bettercontrolofstaffingandlabourlevels;• Accesstoacontractor’srecruitmentnetwork;• Provisionofaflexibleworkforce;• Accesstoaverylargeworkforce(AHS,forexample,

employs over 3800 team members in Australia);• Reductionofworkerscompensationriskandultimatelypremiums

for hotel partners;• Reductionofhotelmanagement'stimeandresourcesinareassuch

as IR and HR; • Accesstoacontractor’ssystemsandproceduresthatcontrolquality

and result in consistency of services;• Increased control for hotel managers over their labour and their

service results;• Provisionofacontractor’smanagementinfrastructureatnoaddi-

tional cost to hotels, to assist in managing the departments, plan-ning and completing projects, and handling all employee related tasks accordingly; and

• Allowingthehotel’sseniormanagementtofocusonrevenuegen-erating departments.What savings can hotels make? The savings that can be achieved

through outsourcing depends upon the particular hotel and the labour structure being used at the site. However, from experience, a typical housekeeping department can directly save around 10 per cent of their current costs.

In addition to that, the savings of indirect costs through outsourc-ing can be just as lucrative to a hotel as the direct cost savings. These indirect costs can include things such as reductions in the hotel’s in-frastructure that is required to operate that particular department. It

can also include the costs of equipment repairs, cleaning supplies, and chemicals. It can include costs that are often forgotten such as re-cruitment, advertising, induction, training, and turn over costs. As the contractor includes the provision of all cleaning equipment required, it can also eliminate capital expenditure requirements for hotels in these areas.

How can it improve outcomes for the hotels as well as customers and staff? Ultimately for hotels, outsourcing can produce a more effi-cient and profitable business. By avoiding spending valuable manage-ment time dealing with routine details, hotel managers can focus on critical business KPIs such as increasing room occupancy and average rate. In addition, hoteliers will increase the financial and operational control they have over their operations. Equally important, within the department that is outsourced, hotel managers can control their oper-ating costs perfectly and save money as a result. They can reduce risk in their business and reduce the required HR / IR involvement. Equally important, they can increase flexibility in their workforce.

Hotels guests will enjoy an improved consistency of cleaning through independent systems and procedures. Most importantly, through a large workforce and focus on part-time staff, contractors can turn around rooms very quickly thus resulting in less wait time for guests to check into the hotel. At the end of the day, it’s all about the guest experience for the guest.

HOUSEKEEPING MATTERS

AHS HOSPITALITY’S CEO STEVE TOCHNER ExPLAINS WHY HOTELS SHOULD CONSIDER OUTSOURCING DEPARTMENTS.

Outsourcing departments can save hotels in a number of ways, not just financially


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There are more and more establishments, whereby virtue of size, cleaning is a continuous task.The janitorial trolley is one piece of equipment that has taken on a greater level of importance, becoming an essential mobile workstation equipped with all the operating facilities needed to meet fully professional standards.

It goes without saying if the operator is not fully equipped, the standard required cannot be met. It is therefore important good planning in the early stages coupled with good staff and equipment should bring good results.

One product that can fulfil these requirements is from Numatic. Their VersaClean range of janitorial trolleys is available in various configurations to suit different applications. These trolleys also offer 3 different mopping systems, vertical press systems,

wide press systems and MopMatic pre-treated flat mopping. Made of structofoam which won’t dent, rust, crack or corrode and fitted with 200mm heavy duty, super quiet castors, rotary corner protection and soft side-wall protection. This range of trolleys offers plenty of storage, a large waste bag and easy manoeuvrability.

Another area where it is important to find the right equipment is in the servicing of rooms. Here full consideration needs to be given in order to ensure efficient and orderly care, control and appearance. With this in mind Numatic have set about producing a range of VersaCare housekeeping trolleys that addresses a wide range of specifications including being able to carry what is required yet is easy enough to manoeuvre.

The height of the trolley also has to be taken into account. Large city

hotels can perhaps accommodate a taller trolley whereas a resort style hotel where the trolley is pushed along pathways may need a slightly shorter version so the person pushing can see where they are going.

There are many practical ways of improving the standards of cleanliness and, if care is taken in the planning stage and ‘good practice’ is followed much will be achieved.The Numatic is available from Yardley Hospitality. Visit www.yardleyhospitality.com.au or call 1300 659 053

With the right staff in place, it’s essential they are using the latest equipment.

VersaClean from Numatic

HOTELTECHNOLOGY

BANDWIDTH BUSTINGHM LOOKS AT THE LATEST HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE TO MAKE SURE GUESTS ARE WELL CONNECTED, ON THE BILL AND OFF.

Free hotel Internet is a bit like ‘give them an inch and they’ll take a mile’. Just like bathroom amenities, bottled water and even clean towels, Internet at a nominal charge, or even complimentary, is

fast becoming an expected inclusion for contemporary hotels.Travelling overseas, we find that Internet is offered without extra

charge in some far-away places. Japan, Thailand, Singapore and Ma-laysia are moving to a ‘free Internet’ model. But as hoteliers, you know there is no such thing as a free download. Somewhere along the line, someone has to pay.

It’s all well and good to plug in a computer and hand out access codes, but what are the implications of the all-you-can eat Internet offering?

Simon Cooper, President and managing director, Asia Pacific for Marriott International, was keen to remind the media that Marriott was the first of the big brands to offer included internet in their execu-tive room rates.”

“We upped the bandwidth in preparation for the launch,” Cooper told HM during a recent Sydney visit. “But do we need more? Yes. Are we adding more? Yes.”

The message is clear. When the service is offered, it will be used, and to your maximum installed capacity.

“Checking e-mail and web-browsing is not the issue,” he said. “But so much content is now streaming audio and video that it really con-sumes your capacity.”

Accor recently completed a comprehensive business traveller sur-vey which brought the issue of hotel internet to the forefront.

“Corporate travellers increasingly want ‘quality’ internet access above merely free internet access,” said Accor Asia-Pacific’s General Manager of Communications, Peter Hook, at the recent World of Accor event. “Internet access was high on the list of ‘preferred’ services for the overwhelming majority of respondents, but increasingly corporate travellers are seeking ‘quality’ download speeds rather than just free (slower) internet.

“They want to be able to work fast and efficiently, and many will pay a ‘reasonable’ amount for the service. Others just want to answer emails and print out airline tickets, and a large number of Accor hotels have introduced free internet stations in the lobby areas.”

While Accor is gradually including internet into premium room of-ferings at Novotel and Mercure, standard rooms will continue to pay extra for connection. All Seasons offer a limited internet time at no extra charge and many Accor properties now have Wi-Fi available in the foyer.

US-based A J.D. Power and Associates survey of 53,000 travel-lers found free wireless Internet access ranked above complimentary

breakfast and free parking as a hotel “must have” - across all classes of hotel. Curiously it’s usually the most expensive hotels that insist on Wi-Fi charges.

It follows that broadband management solutions is now a rapidly growing business unit for technology companies.

ReiverNet, the dominant hotel broadband supplier in our region, connect more than 250 hotels and 35,000 rooms on a revenue share model that they claim is both fair and transparent, but not necessarily the cheapest.

Their benchmark broadband system includes real time reporting of data usage, number of connections and billing summaries with clients retaining control of the look and content of portal pages.

“Without managing bandwidth, the hotel’s entire Bandwidth can be consumed by a few individuals who are streaming videos or shar-ing files using peer to peer applications, a term we describe as ‘Band-width Hogging’”, said iBAHN Managing Director of APAC South, Al-lan Smith. “This results in the remaining users having an unacceptable Internet experience.”

So ‘portion control’ exists in bandwidth management as much as in chef’s kitchen. But Roger Bilson, CEO International Hotel Technolo-gies, reminds us that some ingredients in guests’ menus can cause much more than indigestion for all concerned.

“In the case of New Zealand the new Copyright Protection Act makes hotels legally responsible for guest content downloads,” warns Bilson. “Expect this copyright issue to spread to other Australasian countries as the movie and music distributors battle illegal downloads. In New Zealand, essentially a test market for intellectual rights cam-paigners, you can now be fined or even have your internet services into the hotel blocked by a court or tribunal.”

The topic of guest internet services, whether free, included or add-on, is a burning issue with hotels at present. At stake is brand repu-tation and guest satisfaction, or in the case of New Zealand, serious financial penalties. Consult widely and examine your options before plugging in.

The Langham, Melbourne recently upgraded their wireless LAN offering with a new solution from Meru Networks and the guest feed-back to date has been overwhelmingly positive.

The 25-floor, 387-room luxury hotel on Melbourne’s Yarra River was keen to maintain a high level of satisfaction for all guests despite some engineering challenges.

Additionally, the many tech-savvy, affluent guests were frequently arriving with the latest technology devices and placing maximum de-

Wireless at Sheraton Taipei


71% OF GUESTS SAIDSPEED OF THEIR INTERNET CONNECTION

WAS A KEY FACTOR IN THEIRCHOICE OF HOTEL*

With an ever increasing amount of guests now carrying multiple devices,

the demand on your bandwidth is like never before.

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mand on the hotel’s network, especially during conference and events.The Langham, Melbourne Information Technology Manager,

Neeraj Subramanian, said: “We needed a wireless LAN solution that could provide a strong, stable signal strength, despite the potential hurdles of our concrete buildings. The ideal solution for our guests is to be able to surf the Internet without any interference in different areas of the hotel and this is made possible with the Meru product.

“This is especially important for guests who expect seamless con-nection whether they are relaxing at the bar or busy working on events in the conference rooms. We needed a WLAN provider that could not only reach every corner of the hotel, but one that could also accom-modate unexpected surges in guests’ online activity.”

The Langham, Melbourne explored a number of solutions, all of which were time consuming in terms of installation, before choos-ing to deploy a Meru Networks 802.11n wireless local area network (WLAN) on the premises.

Meru Networks’ virtualized WLAN solution uses unique architec-ture that enables all Access Points (APs) to operate off a single, seam-less channel, eliminating the need for channel planning.

The solution enables IT administrators, who may not be wireless experts, to easily compensate for coverage holes by simply adding ad-ditional APs.

Helping hotels keep guests connected is DOCOMO interTouch, which provides secure broadband internet access (both wired and wireless) designed exclusively for hotels and their guests.

The DOCOMO interTouch broadband system is a flexible and mod-ular solution that supports the different requirements and service levels of hotel and guest segmentation. With a global coverage in 65 countries, they are an industry leader in broadband deployments and support.

Some of the benefits of DOCOMO interTouch’s Broadband Inter-net Services include: Modular architecture, for scalability in supporting future applications and services; Customizable and interactive guest portals, enabling hotels to incorporate branding features; Ultra-flexi-ble bill plans and pricing modules, allowing creative billing strategies based on duration, download quota, bandwidth speed, and number of users, to be implemented. Ability to create price plans around guest segmentation; Support for bill-to-room wireless roaming within the hotel; Web based user interfaces, for ease of use and secure remote access for ease of maintenance and upgrades; Security functions for network protection against attacks are professionally evaluated and verified by Hewlett-Packard; and Two-way billing integration with the hotel’s Property Management System.

Wi-fi at Le Meridien hotels globally



buyersguide A SUPPLIER-SPONSORED SECTION

HOTPRODUCTS

LEADING PRODUCTS FOR HOTELS, RESORTS, MOTELS AND LODGES IN AUSTRALASIA.

HotelHome’s stylish rangeThe HotelHome brand is renowned within the FF&E and luxury hotel industries for designing and producing in Australia the highest quality commercial fabrics using Italian yarns and also manufacturing finished products for luxury hotel bed covering. This latest collection of fully washable flame retardant fabrics has a refreshing infusion of rich colour and lustre to give a sophisticated and understated look for prestigious properties wanting to satisfy even their most discerning guests.

Tel: 1800 468 354 (within Australia)www.hotelhome.com.au

Innova mobile cooking stationsInnova Group has launched a state-of-the-art

range of attractive and durable mobile cooking stations and buffet stations.

Made from the highest grades of Stainless Steel and Caesar stone throughout, these

fully mobile units also feature the best in commercial-grade cooking equipment,

including a choice of Blanco appliances. Designed in conjunction with one of

Australasia’s largest hotel groups, these units offer the ultimate in ergonomics, hygiene,

durability and good looks.

Tel: +61 (0)3 9709 3102www.innova-group.com.au

Sanpellegrino’s Aranciata Rossa in a can

Sanpellegrino Aranciata Rossa is the latest flavour to arrive in Australia packaged in a sleek and stylish ‘can’.

Aranciata Rossa is the fourth sparkling fruit beverage to be made available in a can, following Aranciata, Chinotto

and Limonata. Aranciata Rossa (Sparkling Blood Orange) has 12% fruit juice and is made from the finest sun-ripened Sicilian oranges with a sweet tangy taste.

Tel: 1800 660 189 (within Australia)www.sanpellegrino.com

peroni LeggeraPeroni Leggera (pronounced le-je-ra) has the crisp and refreshing taste of Peroni Nastro Azzurro with low carbohydrates and 3.5% alcohol. The only international premium beer in Australian that is

both mid-strength and low in carbohydrates, Peroni Leggera is perfect with lunch, for long summer evenings or anytime you are looking for a stylish easy to drink choice.

Tel: 13 COKE (within Australia)www.peroniitaly.com.au

Indel-B K-plus Compressor MinibarIndel-B has developed an innovative Compressor Minibar that will consume only a third of the amount of electricity of any other minibar currently in the market. Available from Vintech Systems, it is the only minibar in the world that has achieved the certification of ‘Class A’ energy efficiency. The new technology compressors are extremely quiet, having been designed with guest convenience in mind. They come in both 40 and 60 litres, with the choice of glass or solid doors.

Tel: +61 2 9472 2010www.vintech.com.au


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HM MAP FP.indd 1 1/06/11 3:01 PM

FOOD & BEVERAGE

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Rising star Cherie Stubbs-Timbery won the HM Award for the best Food and Beverage As-sociate remarkably just one year after complet-ing Accor’s Indigenous Jobs Ready Program.

As Food and Beverage Team Leader at the Swiss Grand Resort and Spa at Bondi, Stubbs-Timbery says that Academie Accor and its Indigenous Employment and Training Programs were instrumental in giving her the skills to win this prestigious award.

She is a strong ambassador for Indigenous employment and has been selected to repre-sent the state of NSW in Accor’s Indigenous Cadetship Program.

“I am very grateful for the support Ac-cor has given me in developing my career in hospitality and in providing the training I needed to achieve the highest levels of ser-vice,” Stubbs-Timbery said. “Accor really is committed to improving opportunities for Indigenous staff and I could never have af-forded to do this sort of training on my own.”

Stubbs-Timbery has used the Job Ready

opportunity to take on greater responsibility both in the workplace and in her home, where she has become the primary income earner. Stubbs-Timbery said she now looks forward to being a role model to other young Indig-enous people seeking jobs in hospitality and will act as a mentor to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff within the group.

Academie Accor is the training and devel-opment arm of Accor and recently launched a new Job Ready program that provides up-skilling for Indigenous staff to ensure they can progress their careers within the group and to help with retention of Indigenous staff.

Since launching its Indigenous Employ-ment Program in 2001, Accor has led the way in the tourism industry, providing full- or part-time jobs for over 600 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

The Jobs Ready program is a five-day train-

ing course that focuses on building practical skills in key areas of hotel operations and man-agement. Accor backs this up with ongoing support for indigenous staff on a range of levels from mentoring to access to further training.

Accor’s Lynda Robson of Academie Accor says it is an Australia-wide operation that al-lows Accor employees to develop their skills at no cost.

“The Job Ready program is aimed at en-suring Indigenous staff have the skills they require to deliver Accor’s standards of service and the support they need to grow and de-velop in their careers,” she said.

“Cherie is a great example of what our staff can achieve when presented with the right opportunities and the right tools and we will continue to focus even more on developing and retaining bright employees so they can be-come the future management of the company.”

ACCOR’S BONDI STARFrom Indigenous Jobs Ready Program graduate to HM Award winner, it’s been quite the year for Cherie Stubbs-Timbery.

Cherie Stubbs-Timbery receives the HM Award from Coca-Cola

Amatil’s Mark filmer


HUMANRESOURCES

The growth in the use of social media is creat-ing challenges for organisations in managing their employees’ social media activities out-side of work hours. For the hospitality sec-tor, this is a particularly relevant concern as a rogue employee could easily undermine the substantial investment in brand and reputa-tion that helps to attract customers.

Employers should take steps to ensure that, as far as possible, they are protecting their business and reputation by putting in place reasonable policies and procedures dealing with an employee’s use of social media. Doing so will not only assist to avert damage to an employer’s business, it will also help to demonstrate that employees are aware of their obligations in relation to social media activities if an issue arises in the future.

In one recent case, Fair Work Australia upheld an employer’s decision to dismiss a worker for his Facebook tirade.

The employee, worked for a large retail chain and was frustrated that the employer had failed to pay his correct commissions over three separate periods. On the first two occasions, the non-payment was rectified. However, on the third occasion, after ex-

changing emails with the operations manag-er who was responsible for paying commis-sions, the employee posted a Facebook status update reading: “[The employee] wonders how the f--k work can be so f--king useless and mess up my pay again. C--ts are going down tomorrow.”

The employee had about 70 Facebook ‘friends’, and around 11 of these were work colleagues. The employer was subsequently informed about what had been posted on Facebook by one of the work colleagues, and the employer formed the view that the post breached its policies and procedures, and con-stituted a threat to the operations manager.

The employer dismissed the employee for his Facebook post, providing him with three weeks’ pay in lieu of notice – despite the fact that the employer alleged the employee had engaged in serious misconduct. The employ-ee applied to Fair Work Australia for an unfair dismissal remedy.

In considering the employee’s applica-tion for an unfair dismissal remedy, a senior member of Fair Work Australia stated: “The fact that the comments were made on the [employee’s] home computer, out of work

hours, does not make any difference. The comments were read by work colleagues and it was not long before [the operations manager] was advised of what had occurred. The [employer] has rightly submitted, in my view, that the separation between home and work is now less pronounced than it once used to be.”

In this instance, Fair Work Australia con-sidered the fact that the employer did not have a specific policy dealing with an em-ployee’s social media activities outside of work. Despite the lack of a policy however, the employer was able to rely on other poli-cies dealing with harassment and bullying to support its decision to dismiss the employee, and Fair Work Australia ultimately found that the employer was justified in dismissing the employee.

This case highlights that an employee’s out of work social media activities can be used to justify the dismissal of an employee. It also raises the issue that having a clear social me-dia policy in place will help to demonstrate misconduct, should it arise. Michael Cooper, Senior Associate, Gadens, also contributed to this article.

THE

pERILS OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media is a tricky topic for hotels, especially when staff usage is concerned

Mark Sant, Head of Workplace Relations at Gadens, looks at a recent staff sacking because of a comment on Facebook that’s since been upheld by Fair Work Australia.


ROBERT GAYMER-JONES has been appointed Chief Executive Officer for Sofitel Worldwide. Gaymer-Jones joined the Group in 2007 as Chief Operating Officer Sofitel Worldwide after holding a variety of senior operational positions, notably with Marriott International. Over the past three years he has had the responsibility

of implementing Sofitel’s ambitious plan to reposition the network as a new global reference in international luxury hotels. This strategy included a complete restyling of the brand and rationalising of the network, plus an overall implementation of new hotel standards and concept, including the launch of the two ‘labels’ - Sofitel Legend and Sofitel So. Reinforced by this appointment, Gaymer-Jones continues to develop the network and to increase the brand equity through recognition and brand awareness. He has more than 35 years of experience in the luxury international hotel industry, having previously served in top positions for Marriott International and other leading global hotel companies across nine countries and three continents. After graduating from Hotel School in the United Kingdom, Gaymer-Jones went on to develop his career starting in food and beverage at hotels and resorts in Switzerland, The Bahamas and Bermuda before joining Marriott International in the United States, Middle East and Europe.

Park Hyatt Melbourne has announced the appointment of KATE FOWLER to the position of Director of Sales and Marketing. Originally from Sheffield in the UK, Fowler commenced her hospitality career in her native England with a number of operational and corporate management roles. She moved to Melbourne in 2003, where she

held the position of Director of Sales and Marketing at Sheraton Towers Southgate and was an instrumental figure in the hotel’s branding transition to Langham Hotels International.

Mantra Group has appointed YVETTE PEVERELL as its new Public Relations Manager for Australia and New Zealand, based at corporate head office. She joins Mantra Group as it rolls out significant marketing initiatives for the Peppers, Mantra and Breakfree brands including an association between Peppers Retreats, Resorts and Hotels with the popular MasterChef franchise and the announcement of tennis great Pat Rafter as the face of Mantra Hotels, Resorts and Apartments. “Mantra Group is at the forefront of the apartment hotel sector in Australia and New Zealand and the company is in an exciting phase of its evolution and brand identity in the market,” said Peverell. Mantra’s Director of Marketing, Ken Minnikin, added: “We are very pleased Yvette has joined the Mantra team, bringing with her a wealth of knowledge and industry experience.”

The Langham, Auckland has welcomed DARREN THURLOW in the role of hotel manager. Thurlow joins the five-star property most recently from Air New Zealand’s international division but has previously held a range of senior management and operational positions in hotel properties in New Zealand and the United States. “I am delighted to join The Langham

at this exciting time as the hotel brand continues to consolidate in the New Zealand market. I have worked across a number of hotels in Auckland and California, but am very much looking forward to joining The Langham and further contributing to the hotel’s outstanding reputation and success,” Thurlow said. The Langham Auckland’s Managing Director, Jeffrey van Vorsselen, said that the hotel always aims to create great memories for its guests and to bring true five-star luxury and elegance to Auckland. “We are thrilled to have a seasoned hand such as Darren in the role of Hotel Manager and to successfully lead the hotel into its next stage of development,” he said.

KERRY WILLARD has recently joined Rockford Adelaide Hotel as the new Business Development Manager. She is responsible for developing the Corporate, MICE and Leisure markets as well as raising awareness of the company and promoting the Rockford brand throughout South Australia. Before joining Rockford Adelaide, Willard was the

Business Development Manager for Stamford Grand and Stamford Plaza Adelaide where she specialised in the Meetings, Incentive, Conference and Events sector.

W Hotels Worldwide has announced the appointment of JENNÉ LOMBARDO, entrepreneur and style maven, as its new Global Fashion Director. For more than 12 years, W Hotels has had a continuous commitment to fashion, and in 2010 appointed the first-ever Global Fashion Director for a hospitality brand - Amanda Ross. As the W brand continues to expand its international

footprint and opens in fashion capitals around the world, Lombardo, a global trendsetter with a knack for identifying what’s new and next in fashion, will be instrumental in developing strategic initiatives and partnerships that showcase W’s innovative point of view on fashion. “W Hotels has established itself as a brand that is constantly searching for ‘what’s new and next’ across music, design, and fashion,” said Eva Ziegler, Global Brand Leader, W Hotels Worldwide and Le Méridien. “Jenné Lombardo’s international outlook and connection to emerging talent makes her a perfect fit as both the W brand and the role of Fashion Director continues to grow.” Lombardo’s intuitive approach to bringing like-minded brands together led her to the creation of M.A.C. and Milk, connecting the renowned beauty brand with a raw space to create a unique platform for emerging designers during New York Fashion Week. M.A.C. and Milk now serves as one of the premiere Fashion Week programs, providing space and other services to more than 40 designers per season. Prior to working with M.A.C & Milk, Lombardo served as the Executive Director of Global Fashion, Talent, and Special Events at M.A.C., where she launched projects with celebrities and artists, including the Viva Glam campaign with Lady Gaga, on a global level. “Throughout my career I have always looked at the unique ways in which artists, designers, and other innovators can work together,” Lombardo said. “With W Hotels, the possibilities are infinite. I am extremely excited and honored to be working with such a dynamic and global brand.”

Swissôtel Nankai Osaka has announced the promotion of TAKAFUMI KUMENO as Executive Assistant Manager, Rooms and KAZUNORI TANAKA as Director of Revenue and Marketing. Kumeno has had five years of hospitality experience in Canada. In 1994, after returning to Japan, he joined Hyatt Regency Osaka where he gained three years of experience in the Rooms Division. In 1997, Kumeno joined The Ritz Carlton Osaka for the brand’s first opening in Japan. At The Ritz Carlton Osaka, he gained management skills in various positions and he advanced as Director of Housekeeping and Fitness Centre. In August 2003, Kumeno joined Swissôtel Nankai Osaka as an Executive Member of

the opening team for the first Swissôtel in Japan. Since then, he has been overseeing the Rooms Division, Fitness Club, Security, Safety and Building Maintenance in his position as Director of Rooms. Tanaka first joined Hyatt Regency in 1994 and gained a wealth of experience in the Sales Department of various hotels under the Hyatt brand both across and outside of Japan. Tanaka’s experience overseas includes hotels in Saipan, Hangzhou and Beijing, where he was in charge of managing several high profile MICE groups including the Beijing Olympics. In his new capacity as Director of Revenue and Marketing, Tanaka will continue to lead the Sales, Wedding, Revenue and Marketing teams to improve brand awareness of Swissôtel Nankai Osaka.

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CONCIERGECORNER

What’s your direction with Les Clefs d’Or? Where do you see the organization heading over the next five years?Our motto is ‘Service through Friendship, Service through Excellence’. Over the next five years, our main focus will be more on the educational side of our profession. Secondly during my mandate we wish to strengthen our ties with the major hotel chains head offices so that the Clefs d’Or position is part of their entities... you cannot just have a concierge, you need a Clefs d’Or. We also expect a huge expansion in countries in the Middle East, South America and Asia. We ex-pect Poland to be accepted in January 2012, followed by Chile, Peru, Columbia, Egypt, Lebanon and Ukraine amongst others.

How has the role of a hotel concierge changed over the last 20 years? Is the role in essence the same as what it was back then? In the past we use to get a question like what are the best restaurants in your city, today we get the guest with a list of restaurants he got on-line and what is our recommendation. We are still the source of trustworthy local information that guests seek with all the information they Google. We are the local experts on destination and can understand rapidly the need of our guest. The original service role models remain very valuable. We absolutely complement the technology on line: 94% of our guests do their own research via internet and the concierge personally re-confirms their decisions.

How involved is Accor in Les Clefs d’Or, and Sofitel specifi-cally? What kind of support do you get from the chain? Sofitel is very involved with Les Clefs d’Or, we ask that each property have at least a member and if not, they must be in the process of becoming one. It is part of our standards. We also had different meet-ing of Clefs d’Or concierges over the years in North Amer-ica and now we will have one

coming up in London next January (2012) for all the members internationally. Sofitel has really come forward in our last congress in Toronto as a leader for Clefs d’Or hotel chain.

Why do you love being a concierge and how did you get into it? We do not need to travel much to visit the world, we have it at our desk everyday with our clientele and there is always a different question that will teach us something. I love serving from the heart, with attention to what you desire in a particular situation; empathy if you lost something, specific guidance to what you are searching, from a restaurant to trans-portation to a gift or whatever and finally also suggestions that make you discover some-thing new to that location. I love as much as possible to seize the moment of your visit and guide you through to elevate your experience to the fullest. When I started over 20 years ago there was no school we learned the profes-sion simply by working every day. Today there are hospitality institutes around the world that offer courses in the field.

Members were saddened to hear of the passing of Alberto Modolo – former President of American Express Australia South East Asia and New Zealand. Colin Toomey, 2nd Vice President Les Clefs d’Or International noted that “Alberto Modolo was a very strong supporter of Les Clefs d’Or Australia in our early days and was involved in supporting the Sydney Congress in 1995 and played an important part in our early history. The other amazing thing about Alberto was the uncanny parallel his life took with our own founding President in that both he and Tony Facciolo were born in Venice within two years of each other (Alberto in 1935, Tony in 1937), both began working in hotels in Venice as teenagers, both moved to London at a young age to advance their hospitality careers, both moved to Australia and settled in Sydney, both of them rose through the ranks from humble beginnings to become Presidents of their respective organizations and finally, both were awarded Order of Australia Medals (OAM) for services to Tourism, an almost unbelievable coincidence but true”.

On a happier note, our members were all exceptionally happy with the announcement of Steve Ciric, Chief Concierge at the Westin Melbourne as the winner of the Concierge of The Year at the 2011 HM Awards. It would be difficult to find a finer example of the Les Clefs d’Or motto “In Service Through Friendship” than Steve, whose willingness to assist his many friends and associates in the hospitality industry along with mentoring his own team at The Westin, has earned him a universal respect which transcends borders and the usual good natured competition between our various hotel brands. Steve’s measured consideration and diplomacy are matched by his willingness to go to endless lengths in pursuit of ensuring his guests’ needs are accommodated and he has also contributed in a major fashion to the activities of Les Clefs d’Or, encouraging the development of potential new members, arranging and assisting with the Golf Days, Concierge Balls and Tourism Expos, raising funds for our charities and also of course with his effective reviewing of the Society’s finances during his period as Treasurer.

pETER McBREARTYPR & Media LiasonLes Clefs d'Or

Les Clefs d’Or President Virginia Casale

PEOPLE MONTREAL

Casale's leading the wayHM catches up with the Global President of Les Clefs d’Or and Concierge at Sofitel Montreal Golden Mile, Virginia Casale, about her plans for the organisation going forward.

EVENTS SYDNEY

Les Clefs d’Or is preparing to host its annual Balls in Sydney and Melbourne. In support of St Anthony’s Family Care, the Sydney Ball is themed ‘Disco Inferno’ and will be held at The Westin Sydney on Saturday October 29, 2011 at 7.30pm.

Tickets are $130 and are available from Ron Greedy at The Westin on (02) 8223 1164. The Melbourne Ball, in aid of Bayley House, is themed ‘Cirque du Clefs d’Or’ and will be held at The Sebel and Citigate Albert Park Melbourne on Sunday November 20, 2011, at 7:30pm. Tickets are $130 and are available from Andrew Natoli at Sofitel Melbourne On Collins via email ([email protected]) or telephone (03 9653 0000).


A special congratulations to all the award winners and nominees!

A big thank you to all attendees and organisers who

made the event a great success!

Ph 132 467 www.intrust.com.au

Proud co-host of the 2011 HM AwardsAs a service provider to the hospitality, tourism and leisure industries for over 20 years we understand the industry you operate in, and we appreciate that good service is a combined effort. It was great to see people from all facets of the businesses receive recognition for their outstanding achievements.

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HM (Hotel Management) Magazine Oct 2011 V.15.5

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Transcript of HM (Hotel Management) Magazine Oct 2011 V.15.5