Lyssiemay Annoh chats to Deepak Ohri, CEO
of lebua Hotels & Resorts over a bottle of Vintage Blanc de Blanc
I crave to meet with anyone who really knows about luxury so I simply could not pass on the opportunity of conversing with the luxury experience guru behind lebua Hotels and Resorts. Award-winning Deepak Ohri is the Chief Executive Officer of lebua Hotels & Resorts, an international luxury hospitality company. Lebua has a collection of 5-Star hotels and fine restaurants in Thailand, New Zealand and India, His contribution to the hospitality industry has been recognized by most of the big wigs of the industry. Deepak joined lebua at its inception in 2003 and has brought the vision of the brand to reality as well as expand it across continents with several of the world’s finest five-star hotels, restaurants and bars.
He introduced The Dome at lebua, Bangkok’s preeminent culinary
destination, which includes Sirocco (the world's highest open air restaurant),
Sky Bar (named "the most stunning rooftop bar you’ll ever see" by The New
York Times in 2013), Breeze (highlighted by USA Today as one of the world’s “10 most cutting-edge restaurants”
in 2014); and Mezzaluna (honoured as a ‘Foodie Top 100’ fine-dining mecca in
2013).
Our meeting
Deepak
Ohri greets me with a very warm smile at first sight then orders a bottle of
Blanc de Blanc an organic commercial vintage from Champagne Salon, a small producer of critically acclaimed Champagne
made in the Blanc de Blanc style. I was
impressed – that was certainly a man who knows a thing or two about my
favourite drink. Salon, along with
Delamotte, has been part of the Lauren-Perrier group since 1989. It is regarded
as one of the greatest Champagnes on the market. I was definitely meeting the man renowned
with the term “luxury experience”.
The conversation:
How did you get into the industry?
I got
into the industry by default. As a
youngster, I needed to work to pay my way through education as well as for
sheer survival and since the hospitality industry is that largest employer it
became the obvious choice.
Nevertheless,
I love to talk, meet and understand people so I knew that it was an industry
that I wanted to work in. I fulfilled my
dreams when I formally entered the industry after graduation and 28 years on I
am still enjoying my biggest hobby.
Where did you start?
As a
youth I was a dishwasher for 3 years, then after graduation, I became a trainee
manager.
Education versus training - What is your view on this?
Most
companies think that one is more important than the other but I think
both. As a young “dishwasher” employee
in a hotel, I saw first-hand how junior employees were treated and made a vow to
myself that when I entered a managerial position in the industry, I would
ensure all my employees are treated the same, irrespective of their career
level.
At lebua,
all employees benefit from the private health scheme and enjoy the same amount
of holidays.
With
regards to education, we outsource to English Business schools in Bangkok and offer
our managers the unique opportunity of studying the worldwide renowned INSEAD
MBA graduate programme. It is also
important to ensure that all our staff receives adequate on the job training.
Lebua appears to take its F&B businesses very seriously – what is the notion behind the concept of a Restaurant before a Hotel?
Food and
Beverage makes better investment. Food
and beverage dictates the economy. When
you arrive at any destination and visit a McDonald’s, you can judge the economy
or standard of living of that destination by the cost of the “Big Mac”.
The lebua
F&B businesses have been very successful. The Dome at lebua is
Bangkok’s preeminent culinary destination, which includes Sirocco, the world's
highest open air restaurant, Sky Bar. We
also has Breeze and Mezzaluna.
We know our
trade. We have studied our markets and
know the most important things that can go wrong. One must not fail to fully develop a
compelling value proposition for their guests. Know whom you want and whom you
do not: you cannot be all things to all people. A second major cause of failure
is "cut and paste." No two
locations are the same, no two managers are the same and no two clients are the
same. A third common cause of failure is interior designers. This is a
critically important part of any restaurant and getting the interior ambience
wrong is deadly.
Create a
successful restaurant and then follow it up with a complete luxury experience
for the guest in a place to stay.
What would you say to any young person who wants to enter the industry?
Clear the
difference, create a difference, appreciate that hospitality changes all the
time and understand that service has no barriers; it is one hospitality, one
world.
Above
all, remember that hospitality means having an emotional connection with the
consumer.
Where do you see lebua in the future?
I am now focusing on expanding the lebua brand
globally. We are expanding our dining concepts to Europe through a strategic
partnership with Steigenberger Hotel Group, starting with the 2015 launch of
the Breeze restaurant in Frankfurt, Germany.
However,
it is not all about Food and Drink with lebua.
For Deepak, luxury
is about experience and rarity, not necessarily the “excess”. It is not about a price tag. I believe that hospitality has an emotional
connection with the consumer. In this
regard I want to ensure that lebua hotels connect emotionally with all its
guests. In my visionary future, check-in
desks will be a thing of the past. They
will not be the first thing that greets a guest when they arrive at the
hotel. Guests will be greeted by a guest
relations manager who will be subtly aware of all the guest’s needs and will
fulfil them without the bother of a check-in desk.
How do you feel when you stay in other hotels?
There is
something to learn from every property and I use the opportunity of staying
elsewhere to see what I can improve in our hotels because everyone is doing
very well.
When it comes to luxury brands’
value to the consumer, and their ultimate success, I think the key is staying
humble. We all have a lot to learn and we should stay close to the customer so that
we can learn properly. Things will inevitably go wrong but only true luxury
brands will do what it takes to make it right.
Deepak join lebua as its
first employee and created Bangkok’s best culinary destination – The Dome at
lebua in 2004. The Dome houses a collection of stunningly beautiful restaurants
& Bars such as Sirocco,
Mezzaluna, Breeze, Distil and Sky Bar which are of
international culinary acclaim and have won countless awards.
After the success of The
Dome, Mr. Ohri rechristened the Meritus hotel as lebua, an all-suite luxury
hotel in 2006. Then, he launched lebua Hotels and Resorts as a luxury hotel
chain that includes exclusive properties in Thailand, an ultra-luxury lodge in
New Zealand and India. He launched a new level of luxury hotel, Tower Club at
lebua in 2008. The suites are located on the top floors (51st to 59th)
featuring exclusive privileges; such as complimentary soft drinks and high
speed Internet, Acca Kappa amenities as well as access to Tower Club Lounge.
With Mr Ohri’s leadership, lebua & The Dome have won over 60 world awards.
