Quality is the key

The global financial crisis and H1N1 flu scare have taken their toll on many hotels, and Legendale in Beijing, one of the nation's most luxurious, is no exception.

But while certain properties slashed prices to attract more customers in troubled times, Evan Pavlakis, general manager, Legendale, refuses to risk its high standards.

"If we had joined the price-cutting war, our reputation and image would have suffered. That is something we will never allow," says the Australian, who has 32 years of management experience in Asia.

Located in the bustling Jinbao Street of Wangfujing, and boasting 390 elegant and spacious rooms, 79 apartments and 126 private residences, Legendale Beijing is a 5-star platinum hotel.

Opened in September 2008, the hotel was intended as a venue for putting up honorable guests. Its neoclassical design reflects a southern European style that makes it stand out from its peers. Pavlakis says the building is a sign of cultural diversity.

"It is a European building in a very traditional Chinese environment. The building has created a lot of interest in not only Europeans but also a lot of Chinese," he says.

Although room occupancy is still low in Beijing, Legendale's occupancy has increased by almost 300 percent since January, mainly as a result of strong sales and marketing efforts. The general manager expects the sales to pick up at an accelerated rate after the first quarter of 2010. "Slowly but surely more people are learning about the hotel. The market will get stronger in April 2010 and 2011 will be the peak year for Beijing hotels," he says.

This year, Pavlakis and his team set up an action plan to hook the business community, travel agencies and websites, covering the domestic and overseas markets. They will also be doing more to promote Legendale as a leading international brand.

The hotel has joined the Preferred Hotels group comprising 450 member star hotels all over the world, a well-known hotel referral company especially in America, Europe and Asia, which will help to promote the hotel in the coming three years through its powerful GDS distribution system.

"It is the best way to reach more market resources and is geared to promote individually branded hotels like Legendale," he says.

In November he attended the World Travel Market to sell the hotel in London to the worldwide travel industry, having been the only foreigner among Chinese organizers.

"I want more exposure for the hotel, make more contacts in the overseas markets, as foreigners want to visit China both for tourism and business."

Legendale was given the prestigious World Travel Award in London for "China's Leading Luxury Hotel 2009", which Pavlakis received as its representative. This was considered an incredible achievement, given that the hotel was only in its first year of operation.

The event was televised by the BBC.

Going by his experiences of running hotels in Asia, Pavlakis believes service standards in Asian hotels are far superior to that of those in other parts of the world.

"Generally speaking, the service standards in Asia are certainly much better than those in the United States and the European countries."

One of the reasons being that Asian hotels can afford to hire more staff as the wages are much lower than that in western countries.

"If the hotels in the United States and Europe hired the same number of staff as Asian hotels do, they would probably go broke," he jokes.

Back in 1984 he worked towards the opening of the Garden Hotel in Guangzhou as rooms division manager and director of sales and marketing. In 1986 he worked in Beijing as general manager of the Moevenpick Hotel.

"In those years of the 1980s, there were very few international standard hotels. However, since then, China has seen its hotels reach truly international standards, competing with the finest in some of biggest cities in the world," says Pavlakis.

Though Pavlakis is a fan of Chinese culture and likes to explore the city, he does not have much time for recreation, having to work on weekends.

Meeting friends and going to dinners are among some of his after-work activities.

(China Daily 01/02/2010 page10)