Here is a story written by Steve T for TANNetwork.tv, a website connected with ASTV Manager, one of Thailand's leading media groups. The subject is Joseph Beck, resident manager of the Banyan Tree Bangkok.

1. Banyan Tree Bangkok: Personal Touch Given Pride of Place
Blurb: Steve Thompson heads down Sathon Road to catch up with Joseph Beck,
resident manager at Banyan Tree Bangkok, who offers his opinions on the Banyan
Tree's unique style and the hospitality sector in general.
TANNetwork.tv's Steve Thompson recently met up with Joseph Beck, resident
manager at Banyan Tree Bangkok, for a chat about the luxury resort and life in the
hospitality sector in general.
Thai-Asean News Network (TAN): Firstly, could you tell our readers a bit about your
background and perhaps some of your experiences of working in the region.
Joseph Beck (JB): Sure, well I’m English and I’ve been an expatriate now for almost 15
years. I began my career (in 1996) in Beijing, working with the Shangri-La as a trainee
manager, which was my first real job outside of the UK after graduating from university. I
guess I was bitten by the international hospitality bug, so I moved to quite a number of
different countries.
TAN: Where did you head to next?
JB: Next it was Macau for two years (in 1997), which was really the ‘big boom’, bringing it to
the level it's at now. Then I went to Abu Dhabi with Sheraton for two years, where I was
based at a highly original golf resort, and from there to the Mandarin Oriental in Kuala
Lumpur (KL) for just over a year-and-a-half.
Next, I decided to take a short sabbatical following a family bereavement before heading for
the Caribbean where I spent two years in St Lucia at a private hotel – a beautiful place. And
then I got the opportunity to work for Banyan Tree for the first time.
TAN: Bangkok was you first assignment with Banyan Tree?
JB: No, actually I began my career with Banyan Tree in Bintan (Indonesia), which is about 45
minutes from Singapore.
As soon as I heard the name Banyan Tree, I thought ‘wow’, as I had always wanted to work
for this company. So I went to Bintan and started as a director of food and beverage and
then progressed to executive assistant manager. Next I moved to Hainan (China) for two
years to open a property there, then transferred to Bangkok to become resident manager.
TAN: What does your current job entail?
JB: For the property here I run the daily operations of the hotel and report to Bernold
Schroeder, who is the GM (and vice-president).
TAN: Could you please tell us about the hotel's recent expansion?
JB: Yes, we originally had an inventory of 215 rooms and half the building was given over to

2. office space - we had various embassies inside there and various office rentals. It was
decided then that there was potential - there was still a market to have larger rooms.
The existing inventory was about 48 square meters, so we decided to add more club rooms
and also some one and two bedroom suites, which we refer to as The Residence. These
rooms are quite a bit larger – 68 sq m up to 143 sq m – so I think in terms of the market, it
gives guests with families there with more space, especially the one and two bedroom suites,
which are fantastic - they have huge living room, bedrooms with their own en-suite
bathrooms and great views.
It’s also more modern and more chic, in terms of design. It is, I think, a very worthwhile
addition to the inventory of rooms.
TAN: How did the recent political upheavals affect this development?
JB: Well, unfortunately, we had just launched the expansion and it had been going really well
late last year and in the first few months of this year and then the political turmoil emerged.
This knocked everyone back a lot. We now look at the 227 rooms on the inventory and think
'how are we going to sell this now', so that’s the real challenge now – pushing sales.
TAN: So these are residences that people buy but that remain on the hotel's inventory and
are put to use by the hotel when the owners are not residing in them?
JB: Yes, they are one and two-bedroom suites (24 units overall) and basically we put them
up for sale. We've sold 10 units so far. It's lower down (the building) and there are just eight
rooms per floor. We have a sales team and in all the hotels that we own – Phuket, the
Maldives, Bintan – they do a scheme where people can buy an actual property (within the
hotel). The owners stay in their residence for a certain amount of time every year, and get a
return on investment from the hotel as we take it into our inventory and sell it as hotel room
accommodation.
TAN: Thanks very much for clarifying that point. Could you tell us about Banyan Tree
Bangkok's F&B offerings?
JB: Sure. F&B is an important part of the business and it accounts for about 60% of our
revenue. The guests utilizing our F&B, I would say the majority are from outside (non-staying
guests) and from other hotels. But there are a lot of foreigners and expatriates, too, who visit
our outlets.
“F&B is an important part of the business and it
accounts for about 60% of our revenue.”
We have a very strong Thai market and loyal Thai followers, especially for Vertigo (a rooftop
bar and restaurant). It also seems that anyone who visits the hotel with a copy of Fodor or
Guide of Bangkok in their hand is looking for the Moon Bar or Vertigo. It seems to be one of
those spots – one that people promote by saying, 'you have to go to Vertigo' or 'you have to
go to the Moon Bar', which is in the same area.

3. Now it's a little bit quieter due to the political situation, as we wait for international tourism to
come back again, but prior to the upheaval, almost every night we were doing over 200
guests in the restaurant and 600 for the bar.
TAN: Wow! And these guests are mainly foreigners?
JB: These are mainly expatriates visiting the bar or people staying in other hotels - the Four
Seasons, Mandarin Oriental and so on. People tend to say 'it's an experience that you really
should try'.
The views up there are fantastic and so people head up there for a sunset cocktail and then
sit down and have dinner and watch the sky changing, the lights coming on across the city.
It's just a really special environment up there, a great place to have dinner.
TAN: Could you give us an insight in terms of the importance training plays within the
Banyan Tree?
JB: If there's one thing we really focus on, it's training. We have our own in-house training
team and we have a corporate training department, which basically sets the guidelines and
sets the courses for each hotel and sets the standard for Banyan Tree hotel properties. And
we focus, I would say, a huge amount of time on training. We also push our internal teams to
push training within their own departments, as well as our core training from the training
department.
TAN: And what do you look for in terms of candidates?
JB: When it comes to people who have never worked in a hotel before, it's certainly not a
case of 'well, we're not interested in you then'. If someone comes in front of me who is
'green' [inexperienced] and they've never worked a hotel before in their life, I'm also very
happy.
If they have the right personality and they come to me and I can see that they have a natural
smile and they're open, a little talkative and can communicate with guests in terms of
possessing English-language skills, we have no issues because we know we can train them.
Sometimes you will take someone from another hotel, they may have already been trained in
a certain style, and sometimes it's hard to realign somebody's thinking into another brand. So
it's always easier if someone has no experience – to take them from scratch, build them up
and watch them grow is really quite good. But, again, if the person comes in with a great
personality, which is the main thing, and the right attitude for service orientation, then we
have no issues.
TAN: Finally, could you share with us your personal business role models or provide some
insights into your own philosophy regarding business in the hospitality sector?
JB: I have to say that I'm the sort of person who has always read quite a lot. Ever since
university I've read a lot and I read a lot of generic management books covering different

4. industries.
I think one book that was particularly interesting was by Jack Welch, who was CEO of General
Electric (GE) in the US. I read about his style and how he dealt with a very difficult
environment at GE. When he took over the reins, there were quite a few issues. It showed
how he went about his whole style of management and how he streamlined the company to
make it more profitable. I guess when you read those kinds of texts, it really makes you
think, since hotels possess some similarities. We're another form of big organization, which
has a lot of fixed costs and we're constantly trying to look for new ways to become more
productive with our teams so that we can try to reduce the fixed costs and become more
profitable.
TAN: Without reducing the quality?
JB: Exactly, and it's always good to look at other industries as a benchmark, not just other
hoteliers all the time.
As an individual, I would probably pick Richard Branson, who I think of in terms of being an
entrepreneur with a big personality – he's also a very courageous person in business – he
takes risks, he'll say 'okay, let's go for it and see if it works'. I've read quite a few of his
books, also to get ideas in terms of the 'innovation' style in which he works.
Hotels try to be innovative in our products, but sometimes I think we're a bit stuck in our
ways in line with traditional hoteliers and I think we have to try and break the mold from time
to time and try and do things a little bit differently. So it's always good to read about things
outside of the hotel business, look at other industries and see what they're doing and see if
we can bring in those ideas, whether it's from manufacturing, engineering, banking or
commerce. 'Could we implement something similar that would work equally as well in a
hotel?' is the thinking.
Okay, in hotels we have standards – we've always done x,y,z for 20 years – what are we
going to do for the next 20 years? I think we need to find more efficient ways of running
hotels, especially now.
TAN: Does this relate to cutting fixed costs?
I think if you think about the last global crisis, it has taught a lot of hotels, 'hey, you can't
have this huge, fixed labor force'. You need to know how to be flexible in your teams and try
to ensure that if a dip comes along, you're not stuck with these high costs. You have to find a
way of becoming more flexible with regard to these costs.
I guess we're now always looking for new ideas and inspiration from other areas. Our VP
(Bernold Schroeder) highlights the kind of books we ought to be reading – every day you
should be reading a newspaper, some trade magazines, you should be reading magazines
outside your area. I know my team will always say they're too busy, but I really think it's
worthwhile to read since you get so many new ideas.
TAN: Finally, is there a 'most important' factor when it comes to hotel management?

5. JB: The most important factor is 'people' – I wrote that down here!
As much as some hotels try to automate, when it comes to five star service hotels, the guests
want to see a person, they don't want to see a machine that they put their credit card in.
They want to interact with someone. Therefore, I think it's important that the people we
employ can interact with the guests, that they're not afraid of people.
If some issue arises, they should be able to deal with it quickly and effectively. You never
know who is coming to the door in a hotel! There isn't one single guest who is going to be
the same as an other. You need to be able to quickly 'read' the person – is it a businessman
who is in a real hurry, who doesn't want to mess around, he just wants to get his room key,
or people who are on holiday and want some general information before they check in, so the
member of staff will need to be able to quickly get a map out and show them some areas
with interesting attractions.
So it's very much people and being able to read people. And hiring the right people to take
care of the people coming into the hotel.
So, in short, the most important word in the hospitality sector is 'people'.
TAN: Thank you very much for taking some time out to join us today.
JB: You're welcome.