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SR: Good Morning
This is Stuart Jay Raj for Hotelier on the Grill,
and we're here at the Rembrandt Hotel in Bangkok.
We're interviewing the General Manager Mr. Eric Hallin.
And we're here also with teh Publisher of Hotelier on the Grill,
and Hotelier Herald,
Miss Wimintra Jangnin.
Hotelier on the Grill,
twelve straight questions.
Eric hasn't seen the questions yet,
so I think it's going to be a great interview.
So Eric, could you just tell me ...
give me a quick introduction of who you are?
EH: There's no quick introduction.
I'm a hotelier that has been based out of Thailand for many years.
I've been here since the 70's.
I've been in the hospitality industry since the mid-70's.
(I've) enjoyed being in Thailand.
I've been at this hotel ...
I'm on my sixth year now.
At the Rembrandt Hotel.
Enjoying it
Prior to that I was with 6 Senses Resorts
and I enjoyed that very much too .
Briefly, I always enjoy what I'm doing.
SJR: Wonderful.
So we'll jump into the first question then.
** Question 1: Where did you first 'cut your teeth'?
.. Where did you first get into the industry?
EH: Oh, it depends on which indusry
because I started as an outbound tour operator
in Stockholm, Sweden.
I was part of Jambo Tours.
SJR **Question 5: And so how did you get through that?
We were doing all the long-haul outbound (tours).
There I travelled widely.
I was quite young, but I did lots of things.
I negotiated with the Sychelles government.
I negotiated contracts and what have you.
I did a lot of the sales.
I did many things and later became far-east manager here.
And later I became inbound-tour operator.
And from there I became the Director of Sales and Marketing
for Indra Regent about 30 years ago.
Here in Bangkok.
And from there I've been doing ...
Well I became General Manager in '85 or '86 at the Rose Garden in Sampran.
And then The Dusit for many years.
I was corporate officer plus I ran several other hotels.
And I took a lot of courses in the meantime.
From places like Cornell and the University of Hawaii
in Hotel Management.
SJR: So looking back at that long string there,
** Question 2: What was your first big break?
EH: Being born.
(laughter)
SJR: But your first big break into ...
EH: I was always successful.
I don't want to boast, but I was very fortunate.
When I did tour operating,
it was very successful.
So I became an inbound tour operator here in Thailand.
We were very successful
And then from that, he hotel business.
I was 2 years as Director of Sales and Marketing,
and I was offered many General Manager positions.
So I was successful.
So I don't know which is my big break.
They were all big breaks.
They were all good breaks.
SJR: Now you're here as the General Manager at The Rembrandt.
** Question 3: Why were you able to make it to where you are today?
EH: Well, because in the hotel business you never work alone.
A General Manager can never run a hotel.
You know it's teams that run hotels.
I've been very fortunate in having good people to work with.
And it's the people that I've been working with that's made me
and my hotels successful.
SJR: Right, so it's the teams around you there.
I'm sure your career has probably been through ups and downs
with all your experiences.
** Question 4: Can you tell us about one of your darkest moments in your career?
EH: Darkest moments?
I usually don't have many of them.
Darkest moments?
I think you're putting me on the spot.
Well I had a few storms when I was in the Maldives,
but that wasn't too bad.
You know in the Maldives, you are responsible to do your own electricity,
your own water.
And I had a fire there.
I think that's probably the worst that I've been though.
SJR: A fire in the hotel?
EH: Yeah, I mean they're wooden houses.
With thatched roofs.
And you know to have anybody to come and help you takes hours
because the nearest government fire-station comes by boat.
It takes a few hours,
so you have to basically sort things on your own.
SJR: ** Question 3: So how did you get though that?
EH: Well we just had to be a little bit ingenious.
And we managed to basically save most of them.
We had to wake a lot of people up.
We had to get everybody to help kind of put water on the thatched roofs
so that the fire wouldn't spread.
We had to make our own fire engines.
Which we hadn't got at that time,
by converting other things.
But we managed to do it.
But of course we basically lost the spa,
but the guests with us were all fine.
That's probably the worst time of my life
because fire is probably the biggest nightmare of any hotelier.
SJR: Right. What caused the fire?
EH: I think somebody in the spa had not shut of one of the machines properly.
SJR: So seeing that, we can see that you're positive with your outlook,
and you're saying that you're a fortunate and lucky person.
**Question 6: What drives you?
EH: Well, I like people.
I like the guests that we have.
I like the people that work with me.
My team.
We are always trying to think of ways to make what we do better.
We mainly want to behappy with what we have.
Which doesn't mean like here,
I'm unashamedly four star,
not trying to make this five star.
We do many things that are five-star,
but we are not trying to convert this hotel into a five-star hotel.
It's a four-star hotel.
We have some elements of a five-star hotel.
You're going to Rang Mahal today.
I think that that's basically a five-star restaurant.
We have many other aspects.
Even here, this lounge.
It's basically five-star.
The hotel I ran prior to this
Six Senses Hideaway in Koh Samui,
we were fortunate to get called and asked to accept the
Best Hotel in the World award
the year that I left.
Unfortunately a month after I left.
But still, it's my team that achieved it.
You know,
it doesn't matter if you're running a five-star or a four-star.
But we have to take pride in what we do.
We have to enjoy what we are doing.
And we have to always try and think of how to make things better for guests.
And of course we make money from that.
And how to make money ...
If we make money, we don't have problems with owners.
SJR: Question 7: Do you have a mentor? If so, Who? and Why?
EH: I haven't really had a mentor.
Possibly my first job in 1975.
SJR: Who was that?
EH: She's passed away now.
She was a lady who was the ...
after joining that company,
after three months I became a share holder.
They asked me to buy shares
I was one of five share-holders.
I'm no longer a share-holder there,
but I learnt a lot of things.
I learn everywhere.
Even now I think life is a mentor.
I keep learning.
Sometimes from people who work below me,
or with me, or
...you learn from customers.
I think life is a big mentor.
SJR: Wonderful
** Question 8: Could you tell us about an experience in your career that's made you proud?
Oh, well I've been fortunate enough to
do several things for His Majesty the King of Thailand.
And Her Majesty.
I used to do several things for the Princess Mother -
His Majesty the King's mother.
And I guess that's probably what...
I'm very proud.
SJR: Are you able to expand on that?
EH: I've done so many of these things,
but I think His Majesty the King of Thailand
is an exceptional person.
And so was his Mother.
And its just a privelage to have been able to do things for them.
But there are so many things that I have done
other than that that I am proud of.
So at the Rose Garden,
we expanded our theme party business to
there, apart from having the hotel.
And the golf course.
And we often had functions.
So when I came to the Rose Garden they had like five functions a year.
When I left there, we had 56 functions.
We had big incentives.
Big congresses.
And it was fun.
We used to be able to charge money that even would look good today.
For what we did, which was nice.
SJR: **Question 9: So what's the best advice that you could give somebody looking to be a successful GM?
EH: You know,
I'll just take it down a knotch.
When I work with people,
I usually never tell them how to do things.
I usually tell them what I want.
I tell them the goals set.
Because I think that every person has a different
way to achieve the same goal.
We all work in a different way depending on what we are doing,
and how we are doing things.
So there's no one simple way of doing things.
Like for example, the person who I would normally choose as an assistant,
is usually very different from me,
because I know that I have a lot of weaknesses.
We all have weaknesses.
We all have strengths.
So I need people who can carry my weakneses.
So that I can become stronger by having strong people around me.
I think that the most important thing for a General Manager to remember are two things.
1. Customers.
2. The people who work with you
And (know) that you always have to work as a team.
And that our job is to serve people to make money.
So if we don't lose track of that,
and we keep making our customers feel good
and feel important,
we are never going to be out of business.
SJR: Definitely.
**Question 10: So what is one thing that GM's should not get wrong?
Or one thing that you see GM's in other places getting wrong?
EH: There's no rights or wrongs.
Everyone has a different way of doing things.
To be a General Manager, you need a certain amount of ego.
And the question is that you have to also know
what part is 'ego' and what part ...
you shouldn't over-inflate your own ego.
And then let your ego sit on other people.
In my view, I really think that you have to work as a team.
And I think that the days of running it like an army used to be run 40 years ago
is not always the best way.
Working with people for common goals.
It's probably this.
You can't have your staff running around scared all he time.
Because we are in a business which is 'service'.
So people have to have their heart in it.
And if they're always worried about making mistakes,
then that's difficult to keep giving good service I think.
SJR: That's amazing.
From all the interviews that we have done,
(there are) very similar themes in that answer.
** Question 11: If you weren't in the hotel industry, what would be your ideal alternate career?
My choice was either to become a diplomat or a hotelier.
And actually when I was in France which was like in '70-'71,
I wanted to go to Hotel School in Lousanne
But at that time for non-Swiss people, there was a 6-year wait.
I had friends who went in, but you know
6 years when you're young ... that's too long.
And then I went into the army.
And when I came out I started straight into this
but I was close to going into the diplomatic service.
SJR: That was with your family?
They also had a background there?
EH: Sort of.
SJR: That completes the main body of questions for Hotelier on the Grill,
but there is one last question.
And I see you have your iPhone there.
The question is:
** Question 12: What is one app that you find yourself using a lot, or that you would like to recommend?
EH: Oh, I have a lot of apps,
but there are several.
If it's only one,
SJR: Pick an interesting one.
EH: Well I use Wonder List quite a lot.
Which is to just put memory things.
I use something called 'Punch it Out'.
Which is also basically you can take a picture
when you walk around and you see something that needs to be done,
you can take a picture and make a note to yourself.
Or to somebody else.
And send it to get it done.
SJR: So that's 'Wonder List' and 'Punch it Out'.
EH: Yeah, those two I use quite a bit.
There are many other things I use too.
But they are fantastic tools.
The camera .... part of 'Punch It' is the camera.
And you know, we take pictures all the time.
When we go and visit something.
If we think it's a good idea,
... an idea that we could steal ...
(laughter)
We take a photo sometimes.
When we see something's wrong in the hotel,
we take a photo sometimes.
And it's so easy to just send the photo together with a small note
to say look, we should fix this,
or whatever it is.
SJR: Fantastic.
So you're actually using technology as a Hotelier Tool.
EH: Absolutely.
Yes, I think most of my colleagues and I do use it nowadays.
SJR: Well Mr. Eric Hallin,
thank you very much for being our Hotelier this week on the Grill.
It's been an honour and a pleasure to meet with you.
And hear about all of your experiences
and how you've made it to where you are today.
Thank you.
EH: Thank you very much too
It's been nice speaking to you.