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Interview with
Lic. Juan de Pablos,
President of Hotel Las Brisas
March 4th , 2000 |
What have been the most significant changes since joining the STARWOOD group?
There have been tremendous advantages as the group have some of the most important hotels in the world and their management strategy is second to none. Starwood have a very strong marketing strategy worldwide, not to mention especially as they have very strong roots in Europe. This has enabled us to enter into new markets and also underline new and diverse products to our clients. Starwood, today, is the most innovative company globally. Our guest program, the Starwood Prefered Guest (S.P.G.) frequent guest program is the number one in the world. There are no blackout days, and has brought new ideas and formats to attract visitors. We are proud to announce new innovations such as " the heavenly bed". By the end of year 2000 this type of bed will be in use in all our Westin hotels. There has never been any type of innovation like this before in the hotel industry in the last 10 years. The bed itself has been well received and has brought us great publicity: Luxurious, stylish and plush, the heavenly bed is a crisp white cloud of pure comfort. Starwood spent millions of dollars in research for the right type of bed.
Service is always what the client is looking for, and the client profile has changed considerably over the last few years. we are now seeing the usual tourist and the combination of the business tourist combined………
Las Brisas has and will always be a hotel for couples, we market it in many areas as a honeymoon destination. Las Brisas is a destination by itself although it is in Acapulco, it remains as an individual outright destination. Sometimes during the high season, we receive families and we offer baby sitting services to give extra time for the adults to relax and enjoy this paradise but on the whole we see that it is couples that are the mostly interested in Las Brisas. What has changed over the years is the origin of the visitors at Las Brisas, which has been in operation for more than 43 years. We used to have approximately 90% foreign visitors, traditionally being the host to the jet-set. More recently we have seen an average of 50- 50, a 50% rise in national visitors. The growth of the national tourist is a result of the vast improvements in the highways and this has meant that we have many more week- end visitors. There is a potential market of 30- 40 million people not only from Mexico City but also from many other surrounding areas that have easy access to Las Brisas.
Q:The concept of Las Brisas has always been unique, there were never Televisions, has the service or needs of the clients changed in recent times?
We now have 70 Televisions with cable, in all Suites and Royal Suite categories. We have done research to see how many persons wanted a television set and the results were 50-50. The main reason that people want a television is purely for business i.e. to be constantly updated on the change in the finance market and the major world stock exchanges. In the near future we will provide this service in all the other casitas. We will also be creating by the end of the year a full international spa. We are producing this in conjunction with a venture from a Mexican / Spanish group.
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As for the future of technology in hotels is concerned, will Las Brisas keep a strong grip on its originality?
Of course! But we can allow ourselves to do this as we are one of the most advanced hotels in the world. We have one of the most advanced systems, that being Fidelio. We provide last minute information to guests on their bills and reservations. However, the style of the front desk and service appears to look the same. This hotel has a charm of its own and we will continue to provide our customers with that personal touch.
What is the image today of Las Brisas?
We have always been profiled in the international media as one of the top destinations in the world, Conde Nast traveller is one example where we appear yearly. We are listed as a top destination for travel and leisure in Latin America. We have kept this status year after year. Also we are at the top of all lists concerning guest satisfaction, mostly for friendliness and service quality. This is a great achievement as this hotel is difficult to operate due to the way the casitas are spread over the mountain complex.
Last year you were honored with a 5- star award…
We won a five- star award for our restaurant, the Bellavista restaurant and for the hotel by the American Society of travel Industry.
You have been with hotel for how long?
Three years in total.
Are there any expansion plans that are becoming of interest to the hotel:
We are going to build new meeting facilities, in the planning stages as we speak. The main expansion right now though is the spa and adding more televisions.
Forbes Global will not be returning to Mexico for another report of this type. We enter the country when we see that the time is right to profile it, when we return what will you have to say about the hotel?
Las Brisas as I said earlier is a destination by itself: It will always have an identity and a life of its own. This is a community, roads and a private club. We have always kept a lot of privacy, a feature that has attracted the most important figures of the Arts, politics and heads of state from all over the world.
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© World INvestment NEws, 2000.
This is the electronic edition of the special country report on Mexico published in Forbes Global.
July 3rd 2000 Issue.
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MEXICO
