Meet Rutger Verschuren | 2022 General Manager Finalist
As one of the first European students to undertake hotel training in Asia, take a look at how Rutger Verschuren established a successful career in the hospitality industry alongside cultivating best practices for business recovery by maintaining an open mind for the impossible and thinking truly outside the box in an entrepreneurial manner.
Please share a short introduction about you and your career.
As a Dutch national, I obtained my Bachelor’s Degree from the Hotelschool The Hague in 1986 and received my certification as Hotel Administrator from the American Hotel and Lodging Educational Institute in 2000.
In 1985, as one of the first European students to undertake hotel training in Asia, I took the opportunity to pursue my management training at the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok under the legendary Kurt Wachveitl’s supervision. After graduation, I worked for 1.5 years back in the Netherlands, but soon realised that my fantastic experience in Thailand had a magical effect on me. As a result, I ended up buying a one-way ticket to Bangkok where my career rapidly developed – starting as Food and Beverage Director in playful Pattaya.
I was 27 years old when I started my first General Manager’s job in Phuket for one, and later two, hotels for over 7 years. After this, I moved to Indonesia, then to the Philippines, back to Thailand, Libya and, finally, Macau. I first worked for Sheraton Macao as the Managing Director before moving to Shun Tak Holdings where I became Vice President and General Manager for its subsidiary, Artyzen Hospitality Group for Macau SAR. It is here where I took over the management of two hotels and clustered the management teams.
I love to spend my free time with my family and friends, and I enjoy giving back to society through my role as Chairman of the France Macau Chamber of Commerce and Vice Chairman of the Macau Hotel Association.
What best practices have you implemented to manage the stop-and-go pandemic situation in China?
As for everyone, the last couple of years have been very challenging for the two hotels under my wings in Macau. At the very onset of the pandemic, we worked with the government and offered our hotels to be used for medical observation. COVID was still referred to as Corona, and employees were feeling quite nervous about dealing with this yet unknown phenomenon.
I spent several weeks often wearing a hazmat suit to join the team on the frontlines, welcoming stressed-out guests checking in for quarantine – mostly locals – from overseas throughout the day and night. At the same time, I wrote daily encouraging notes to guests, treating them with little extras and gifts, online games and mingling with the service teams before then saying goodbye to our guests upon their departure. The infusion of warmth and personal care during quarantine stays was truly appreciated by the local community, and we witnessed great enthusiasm from locals afterwards when Grand Lapa returned to regular operations. The same protocol was executed very successfully at Grand Coloane Resort.
We started to organise outdoor garden barbecue events and all sorts of other fun activities whenever the city was not in lockdown. To this day, one of our hotels under my supervision, Grand Coloane Resort, is still the favourite hotel for quarantine in Macau thanks to our entire team providing true hospitality to quarantined guests. Having said that, the renowned classic Grand Lapa went on to conclude its full and majestic renovation and we decided to commence the rebranding journey of Grand Lapa Macau to Artyzen Grand Lapa, becoming the first flagship hotel under the global Artyzen Hotels & Resorts brand.
At the heart of the brand, we celebrate “Art, Culture and Emotional Wisdom” by connecting with guests through unique designs and exemplary service with a focus on local culture, our rich history and Portuguese colonial heritage. This change marked a significant milestone in our company’s journey, providing an opportunity to reflect on everything that the Grand Lapa Macau stood for and everything that we aspire to become as we move forward into an exciting future.
The rebranding of Artyzen Grand Lapa has been very rewarding as we managed, despite or perhaps thanks to the dependence on local guests in the absence of any volume from elsewhere, to infuse more culture, art and heart into our hotel through exciting inclusive programs while capitalising on our lush outdoors. As a result, we have been regarded as one of the leading staycation hotels in Macau for the past two years now, and are for many the “darling” hotel in the city. This, considering the ongoing crisis and limited resources, shows that the team has done a terrific job. To now, the team has been extremely agile and creative, with a never-ending energetic flow of new ideas on how to stay diverse and attractive for the limited market we have.
What is it you are most proud of in your career to date?
I could tell you about business successes, achievements within our hotel teams, guests, owners and other stakeholders, but what I would like to mention is something I am proud of on a personal level and that can be hard for many in our industry – finding balance. You might have heard the saying:
“a true hotelier must be a diplomat, a democrat, an autocrat, an acrobat, and a doormat. Able to entertain prime ministers, captains of industry, pickpockets, gamblers, bookmakers, pirates, and prudes. He must be on both sides of the political fence and be able to jump that fence…”
In short, a hotelier must know enough about everything in order to have meaningful conversations, and be everything to everyone all the time. My wife once jokingly compared me to a 7-Eleven; taking the idea from me being available for any requests to everyone, around the clock, and serve them well. Happily, I can look back at a successful career partly thanks to being able to magically juggle responsibilities towards work, family, and friends in a fun and stable way, and with a generous dose of giving back to the community, since I realise how blessed I am in my professional and personal life.
I truly enjoy being active in associations that I am closely involved with, such as the France Macau Chamber of Commerce and Macau Hotel Association as I believe wholeheartedly that it is the right thing to do. Because once we grow into a certain senior leadership role in our business, we have a responsibility to do something meaningful outside of the hotel job description that also keeps the mind fresh and engaged. Indirectly, it actually helps our business, as we learn of new ideas and make new contacts. I am always grateful that the hotel owners where I work dearly appreciate and support this contribution to the society.
Can you share what you believe is key in leading a successful hotel today?
To me, this is quite straightforward: times have changed our circumstances, environments and market in the widest possible way, and we need to adapt along with this. Keeping an open mind for the impossible, thinking truly outside of the box in an entrepreneurial manner, and listening to outsiders in order to pick up ideas and learn new things are some of the traits that we need nowadays more than ever.
Being open to change and diversity is key, so we can cope with the changes of our target markets, be open to change to new target markets, and deal with new employees and stakeholders expectations. We need to learn about and also from Gen Z as they are increasingly a part of the hotel teams and guests, so our hotels can be steered into the right direction. It is not easy to change a hotel’s direction, and it needs proper study of past, today and tomorrow and serious strategizing, followed by solid action plans and subsequent evaluations.
In order to be a successful hotel, it takes bold decisions and humble yet firm leadership with a good dash of democracy and listening to those around us.
What do you think the next few years hold for the hospitality sector and its continued recovery?
The hotel industry is one of the oldest service industries, and its management and operating style has evolved very slowly over the course of many decades. Everyone knows that the world has changed tremendously in the past 10-20 years, yet the hospitality sector is just waking up to this, coping with a sudden overflow of data and technologies, while dealing with a global pandemic and looming recession. Technology will play a more and more important role in our sector, as it does everywhere. We cannot think that our sector is unique and will remain the same forever with just some tweaks. Hoteliers should be on the lookout as to how we can run our hotels more efficiently in terms of quality of services and facilities, cost control, processes and stay motivational for our employees and guests alike. Not every invention is useful though, and a mere change of interior design is not the answer to all.
A deep dive, and not simply going on gut feeling, into the needs of the hotel’s target market is key, and I believe diversification, experiential storytelling and further specialisation of hotels will be the future. The volume of data available to study, benchmark, and measure your market, and also the methods and strategies to reach them are enormous these days. But to analyse and make sense of all this, we need more professionals in this field. Thanks to COVID, technology has advanced even faster, and our guests have also quickly developed new expectations to be reckoned with.
Hotels need to continuously review their operation and administration processes from A to Z, and must have the willingness and find time to make changes. It gets more and more important financially to find means to reduce non-guest impact-related costs, and technologies and new processes will allow that.
Overhead costs have gone up but traditional room and food and beverage revenues have not, so we have to find ways so that automation can reduce our costs. And more importantly, our new guests of tomorrow are already exposed to quick changing new trends and fashions, and as a hotel that wants to grow its business, you can’t simply afford to fall behind without evolving and exploring new means of revenues, finding better and innovative ways to improve administration and operational processes, and expand beyond the usual. Change has to happen fast too, and if it doesn’t work, we need to try again and try something else, faster and faster. All of us should be on the lookout on how we can make hotels work smarter while not losing the personal touch, at a level that each one feels their own brand should be. We are the same – a hotel – yet want to be different.
What is a book, podcast, or media resource that you have recently read / listened to regularly that inspired / inspires you?
I recently read a book called “The Serendipity Mindset” by Christian Busch. It is a promising and uplifting book to read during this age of pandemics and other global threats. It shows how we can use unpredictability to our advantage by seeing and connecting the white dots. Relying on stability and consistency doesn’t make sense any longer, and cultivating serendipity is an active approach to managing uncertainty. I have applied this to our business and it works.
Bad luck only happens when we stop there. It can be turned into good luck if we play smart and reframe bad luck as an opportunity for growth, reflection, change and developing resilience. It talks about being purpose driven, being authentic and true to yourself as, in the long run, this will bring more success (including financially) opposed to being purely money driven. Core qualities of a serendipity mindset include: optimism, open-mindedness, curiosity, perseverance and adaptability.
Aside from being a hotelier, what is your passion?
As a student, I had my own Drive-Inn Discotheque for several years and love listening to what I call “Music by Mood”. The right music gives your body and soul the right sensation for each mood. Mood to work, play, relax, cook, eat, reflect, sport, drink, dance, and read. This gives a huge variety, and I love it all.