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Sal Gowili: Custodian of a London legend

The focus is firmly on people for newly appointed general manager of The Ritz London, Sal Gowili. Just as he drew inspiration at the start of his career from the likes of Hilton’s Rudi Jagersbacher, Red Carnation’s Terry Holmes and now at the Ritz, Deputy Chairman Andrew Love, so he aims to inspire and encourage the teams throughout the iconic 5-star hotel, which this year marks its 110th anniversary.

What did he learn from those great names of hospitality? “I learned the priority in running a hotel is actually the people,” Gowili said. “You treat people the way that you want to be treated. They’re the ones that make a hotel. The Ritz may be a Grande Dame of London but it’s bricks and mortar. It’s the people that bring it alive.” He will have his work cut out in a hotel that has 350 staff for 136 rooms, serves 200 for lunch and dinner in the restaurant and bar, and does an average of 410 covers, seven days a week, for the famous ‘Afternoon Tea at The Ritz,’ which starts at 11:30 a.m. with the last sitting at 7:30 p.m.

Gowili and Love share the view that the success of The Ritz is that it is as open and welcoming to someone taking afternoon tea at 11:30 a.m. before a theatre matinee as it is to the Lords and Ladies whose children grow up with The Ritz at the center of family celebrations and repeat the traditions when they bring their own children along. “We have families who’ve been coming here for three or four generations,” Gowili noted. One of the things that make his day is the faces of people when they visit The Ritz for the first time. “They’re in awe,” he said. “But then I love meeting our regular guests, too. For me that’s very rewarding.”

“It’s not for me to make major changes at the hotel, it’s about fine-tuning and having respect for the legacy. We’re just custodians of this property and we need to maintain the brand, the service and the legend.” -- Sal Gowili
“It’s not for me to make major changes at the hotel, it’s about fine-tuning and having respect for the legacy. We’re just custodians of this property and we need to maintain the brand, the service and the legend.” — Sal Gowili

Calm, formal, immaculate, 40 year old Gowili epitomizes The Ritz. Measured in all he does, a sudden burst of passion lit up his face when he expressed his frustration that hospitality is not respected as a profession in the UK in the way it is in Switzerland, France or even Germany. “I don’t think we’ve done ourselves any favors,” he said.  “We’ve still got a way to go to change the perception. There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done within the industry to promote it as a whole. Two years ago we started The Ritz Academy, getting young people in, training them up and giving them skills.” In his downtime, Gowili reads, follows industry stalwarts like Harry Murray on Twitter and plans to be more involved in the industry.

If he could change anything, he’d like to make the hotel bigger. “I’d love an extra 100 suites – we could certainly fill them,” Gowili said. But despite Andrew Love’s role on all the important local community organizations, Gowili will have to content himself alongside Executive Chef John Williams MBE, with pushing the boundaries of afternoon tea. They have recently introduced ‘The Epicurean Tea Tasting,’ featuring six rare teas chosen by certified Tea Master Giando Scanu, available each day in the Long Gallery for £95 (US$137) per head.

Gowili is content. “The Ritz is The Ritz and anyone who comes in has to treat it with respect,” he said. “It’s not for me to make major changes at the hotel, it’s about fine-tuning and having respect for the legacy. We’re just custodians of this property and we need to maintain the brand, the service and the legend.”

The true luxury for the GM of The Ritz is that if anything needs to be done around the hotel, he has two teams of people to do it. One team does maintenance and the other works on projects. One person is employed full time in the hotel just to touch up the gold leaf throughout the property.

Gowili emphasized that managing The Ritz is a team effort and was quick to sing the praises of his eight colleagues on the leadership team, who work together, he said, to make any changes that need to be made.

His meteoric rise in the hotel, from front of house manager to general manager in five years, is said not to have surprised anyone. Gowili served his apprenticeship for this role while hotel manager in the 12-month interregnum following the shocking departure of his predecessor, Stephen Boxall. They did not look outside.

The owners of the hotel, Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, famously private people, are nevertheless all encompassing when it comes to the major decisions on the property such as hiring and firing GMs.

The biggest lesson Gowili has learned is how fast things happen and change in a hotel. He was on duty on April 8, 2013, the day that Baroness Thatcher, the famous ‘Iron Lady’ Prime Minister of Britain from 1979 to 1990, died of a stroke at The Ritz, where she had been recuperating for several months. The hotel had to ensure privacy and respect in the midst of the biggest media furor anyone had ever seen. “No one can train you for that,” he said.

The year 2015 was a record for The Ritz, but 2016 is so far proving more of a challenge. The international threat of terrorism and the attacks on Brussels and Paris have caused a few cancellations. The present strength of sterling is a concern, as is the number of 5-star hotel rooms in London, with five major brands from Four Seasons to The Berkeley, within walking distance and a new Peninsula slated to open in 2021.

Born a ‘hotel child’ to a father who worked for 20 years for Trusthouse Forte, Gowili spent all his university vacations working in hotels. The only question is what led him to him study chemical engineering for his degree. Working with people lured him away from fluid mechanics. He has clearly never looked back.

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