In the Lounge with Henry Sun at Sheraton Shanghai Jiading Hotel
Henry Sun began his hospitality career 25 years ago as a receptionist. Since then, he’s worked across continents and climbed the leadership ladder, eventually becoming General Manager at Sheraton Shanghai Jiading – and more recently, Area General Manager for Marriott properties across Anhui, Jiangxi, and Northeast Jiangsu.
In this episode of In the Lounge with…, Henry shares what it takes to lead in a world where the only constant is change. From adapting to new generations of talent to balancing the rise of AI with the enduring value of human touch, Henry offers a thoughtful perspective on the evolution of the hospitality industry.
He also reveals how he’s empowering next-gen leaders, why emotional connection will only become more important in the age of automation, and what it really means to lead with purpose in a high-tech, people-first industry.
Transcript:
My name is Henry Sun. I'm the General Manager of Sheraton Shanghai Jiading.
I started my hospitality career 25 years ago and have been a hotel General Manager for almost 15 years now. I started as a receptionist at the Shanghai Portman Ritz-Carlton Hotel. Moved across departments to within the rooms division and eventually became a Director of Rooms.
With my career expansion, I've worked in various locations such as Vancouver, Canada; Bangkok; Vietnam, and now here in Shanghai.
I recently was promoted to become the Area General Manager of the Marriott Anhui, Jiangxi, and Northeast Jiangsu.
What advice would you give to aspiring hotel leaders?
Stay relentless. Stay positive. Keep that passion that you have for the business that you're in. Only when you are passionate about what you do will you not really feel that you're coming to work every single day. You actually enjoy the moment, the procedures, the process to success, and the only thing that does not change is change itself.
So, stay perseverant stay relentless and you're going to be able to tough it out the real way.
As technology plays a bigger role, how do you ensure the essence of hospitality remains at the heart of the guest experience?
I think we should take full advantage of all the technology that we can gather around and make sure the technology itself is serving us, serving the people, to improve our efficiency of work but at the same time let's not forget as our industry is going forward I think the human touch will play a crucial role – even more important than it is today.
Can you imagine if our surroundings are being taken over by all the robots, or the machines, or the AI technologies, would you not feel a little bit more human touch is more critical to your overall satisfaction when you're staying in a hotel?
Would you not appreciate when someone is serving you a hot tea or coffee when everything else is robotic.
So, I think those are the two key things that we should pay very high attention to and the essence of hospitality will never disappear and it's going to become more and more crucial to the success of our business and it's actually the nature of our business and we should never forget about it.
How are you preparing the next generation of hoteliers to thrive in a rapidly changing world?
I can very much relate to my role here with Marriott. I'm actually looking after the central China Business Council Next Gen.
How I approach this is to make sure their voice is heard their opinion is valued. I understand that, and they understand, the change of the industry, the change of their work environments is rapidly changing every single day.
They are more adaptive than we can ever imagine – the Gen Z, the Generation Alpha – those are the young talents that we have and the foundation that we can build on.
The one thing we can help with for them to thrive rapidly within this changing world is giving them the opportunity to discover; to find out what their interests are and make sure they understand that, when they enter the industry, they're not only supposed to be working for one single department. Make sure they spend their full potential and expose themselves across all the departments that we have within our business and so once they realise their interests they can start to focus and to concentrate on further developing their skill sets.
They're not normally or easily convinced to be put in a role that they don't desire.
I would recommend giving them the opportunity, to discover for themselves within the hotel. Like I said, only if you're passionate about what you do can you do it well.
So, let's make sure they have that chance to find their passion.
If your hotel had a theme song, what would it be?
"I'll Be There" by Calum Scott. The song basically says that I'll always be there regardless if you're going through, all the turbulence in your life. And I want to say this to our clients who has – or will – stay in our hotels: we will be there for you as your home away from home here in Jiading, Shanghai, or anywhere you might be.
If you could have dinner with anyone – dead or alive – who would it be and why?
Alright, that's going to be a very expensive dinner. If I could pick one person I would pick Warren Buffett. Why Warren Buffett? For one key word: longevitity.
He's someone I think has a long vision for everything he does and I would like to share dinner time with him to learn how one person can be so focused on one thing and implementing, or carrying out the same principle, across his life.
The second part is personally for myself. He's now, this year 95 years old. I want to know his secret of still staying active being at the age of 95.
What book have you recently read that inspired you?
2049 by Kevin Kelly. He's basically telling you what are the possibilities in the next 10,000 days. I'm very interested in how our world will be and so that's one of the books that I have in my bag.
He's been able to predict the future very successfully in the previous two books that he's written.
What’s a motto you live by?
This is one of the mottos I learned when I joined the Marriott company.
Just quoting Mr. Marriott: “Take care of your associates, your associates will take care of your customers, and your customers will return.”