Zhou Shizhang: Satisfying the Three Guests

Zhou Shizhang was born in Hong Kong and graduated from the Lausanne School of Hotel Management in Switzerland. He joined Hyatt International in 1978 and worked in Hong Kong, Seoul, South Korea, Macau, Indonesia and other places successively, and served as the manager of Hyatt Regency Tianjin. General manager. In 2001, Zhou Shizhang came to China again, and served as the head of the general manager of Beijing Oriental Grand Hyatt Hotel in Oriental Plaza.

Zhou Shizhang's successful journey is accompanied by his happy family: his 14-year-old son and his beautiful and elegant Korean wife often travel the world with him.

The Oriental Grand Hyatt has been one of the most expensive and profitable hotels in China for more than a year. How did you do it?

In the hotel industry, the two basic criteria for evaluating business operations are the average occupancy rate and the average room price. On the surface, Beijing's hotel industry is fiercely competitive. But the average occupancy rate of five-star hotels is less than 70%, and there is still more than 30% room for improvement. In 2002, we ranked first in Beijing in both indicators: the average occupancy rate was 81.47%, and the average house price was $129/day. The International Club with 200 suites is right behind us.

When we entered the Beijing hotel industry a year ago, many people were not optimistic. It took us 1 year to build our name. Relatively speaking, we pay more attention to how our peers see us. When it first opened, colleagues often came here to investigate and make unannounced visits. We must always be cautious and be the hotel with the best service in Beijing. Now, I am happy to see that peers have basically agreed on this.

From your personal experience, what are the most important management tips in the hotel industry?

Our industry is special and all business and management revolves around human relationships. My trick is the "three guests" principle. In a nutshell, I manage the hotel with only three guests: one is my employees; two are my paying guests; and three are my owners. I have to satisfy these three guests before I can consider how the hotel is doing.

Specifically, my first guests, the hotel staff, are the most important part, serving them 50% of my day-to-day work. As a hotel manager, I usually don't have the same close contact with customers as a regular employee. They are the ones who meet the needs of customers in the lobby, dining room, and various floors, so I must first make them happy and meet their needs in terms of training, benefits, career opportunities, etc., so as to ensure that the hotel has a good service and environment.

As for my second guest, they are business people in my opinion who need delicate and thoughtful care. I want to provide them with a sense of security and personal service, and at the same time make them feel at home.

My third guests are the owners who have invested in this hotel. I want them to know that as professional international hotel managers, we have the ability to do better than other international hotels. We have an impeccable reputation, which we take care to maintain.

What are the specific management challenges encountered by Grand Hyatt Oriental?

Be aware that it wasn't us, the Hyatt Corporation, that initially planned to take over the management of this hotel. After the first foreign hotel group withdrew, the owners hoped to find a well-known manager to intervene. At that time, Hyatt carefully investigated the software and hardware environment here, and thought it could be used as a flagship of Hyatt's development in Beijing. We only had 4 months to prepare before the official opening. The group urgently mobilized more than 100 professionals in various fields from all over the world to carry out training for the recruited personnel.

Most of these hires were brought in by the previous group according to their style, so we went to great lengths to get these employees to accept Hyatt's management style and requirements. The challenge at the time was enormous because we were so demanding and it was almost unthinkable to have these newbies become an international Hyatt Group employee in just 4 months.

Until now, training our employees has been a challenge. Instead of mobilizing experts in various fields as we did at the beginning, we have developed a long-term continuous training program and hope that employees can integrate into the Hyatt family. The Hyatt brand on them is not yet evident.

Hyatt Group has experienced a long wait in China. Are you confident in its future expansion?

Hyatt's reputation and confidence come from keeping every hotel profitable, and we have to be patient. Hyatt Group tested the market in mainland China in Tianjin and Xi'an in 1986 and 198_9 respectively, and then waited 10 years for the opening of the third store. We are very careful to wait until the right moment. Now is the time. By 2006, we will have at least 12 hotels managed by Hyatt in China. At that time, we will also build a Park Hyatt Hotel by the wide Chang'an Street, facing the International Trade Center.

What kind of management culture do you admire?

I am blown away by the philosophy of the Hyatt Corporation. The Group adopted me like my parents. For 25 years, the Group's corporate philosophy of attaching importance to people and respecting people has left a deep imprint on me. In different countries and different environments, I have learned the truth of hotel management: win-win. You have to satisfy your three categories of guests, and then you will win.

How would you describe your personality?

I love challenges, I love dealing with people, and I haven't failed yet. I have always been more patient, and now I am especially patient with all kinds of trivial requests from guests. I also have many hobbies, including skiing, kickboxing, fishing, golf, and more.