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Gostelow Report: Melbourne GM wears game face

“I run a hotel that could be said to be dictated by annual events, but this month’s Australian Open (which started January 16) is perhaps the most challenging”, said Ilan Weill, general manager of the Grand Hyatt, Melbourne.

The calendar of the 550-room hotel is busy every year, starting with the first tennis major of the global circuit and continuing through Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in March, June’s Melbourne International Jazz Festival, racing’s signature Melbourne Cup on the first Tuesday of November and finishing, of course, with New Year’s Eve (and in between are slotted cricket matches, comedy festivals and masses of conventions).

“The hotel runs close to 100% during all major events with many bookings carried on from one year to the next, and for some, room rates can double, and sometimes there are minimum-nights in place,” Weill said. “During the Australian Open, however, we dramatically and intentionally over-book but we have never yet had to walk anyone.”

Grand Hyatt Melbourne GM Ilan Weill is hosting Australian Open players this week
Grand Hyatt Melbourne GM Ilan Weill is hosting Australian Open players this week

This is how it works. As even a rudimentary knowledge of arithmetic will show, Australian Open players are knocked out. Once this happens the beaten players leave quickly: the Open organizers help them on their way within two hours, if it is a morning match, or the next morning if it is an evening game. Since, unlike most other world-class tennis venues, Melbourne has three courts with instant-close roofs, there is never the rain-stops-play situation of matches being deferred. So the short-term forecasting is fortunately pretty fool-proof.

“We know how many tennis players will be checking out every day but we do not know who they are until they finish a match,” Weill explained. “Our director of revenue created a link from the official Australian Open site that automatically updates an Excel sheet within seconds. We know who has won, who has lost, and which room that person is in – it also alerts us if someone has been knocked out in singles but still has to play a doubles game. We therefore know almost immediately which rooms we can schedule to turn around. A team of housekeepers is always on hand and we can turn a room around in 27 minutes. It is always amazing how much these players leave behind, such as rackets and other equipment, and laundry.”

As well as extra use of laundry, which is done in-house, the Grand Hyatt Melbourne sees increased uptake of private dining, and Weill’s 500-strong team know this is high-pressure time.

They eat a lot, these players (seven-egg omelettes are popular at breakfast, and other meals see big pasta take-up). Some have access to the hotel’s 31st floor Grand Club but, wherever, no player is hassled by paparazzi. Although Tennis Australia, which runs the Open, has its own superb facilities at the event, 15 minutes away, players often use the hotel’s big, 24-hour gym, and even its own covered tennis courts, always painted in Open colors during the event.

Weill is no stranger to the sporting world. His father competed in the Maccabiah Games, often called the Jewish Olympics, and it seems his 14-year old daughter, in Australia’s national swimming squad, is following suit (“My only responsibility is dropping her off for her 5 a.m. practice,” he laughed.).

After mandatory three years’ military service, which taught him responsibility, team work and the minutiae of security, Weill started studying business management at Mount Scopus University, Tel Aviv, and, a year in, an odd job hauling bags at Hyatt Regency Jerusalem caused him to add hotel management into his curriculum. He has been with Hyatt ever since, progressing from Melbourne, Jerusalem, Merida (his first GM role), Guatemala, Mendoza and Mumbai, until he returned to Melbourne January 2011. “And I am not moving on anywhere else in the foreseeable future,” he confirmed. “What other hotel would be so eventful?”

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