“Having 120 luxury travel professionals in-house is a really good way of showcasing our hotel,” says Neil McInnes, general manager of the 290-room Conrad Tokyo, Japan, which two weeks ago hosted the fifth annual International Luxury Travel Market (ILTM) Japan.
McInnes has only been boss of the hotel since January, but he already knew the property. “I was EAM in charge of business development here for over two years, so I understood how Conrad Tokyo works, and the potential for getting the ILTM event right. It was, admittedly, a bit of a challenge having our 80-seat executive lounge, on the 37th floor, closed for a new look, by Super Potato design, but we made a temporary lounge out of a meeting room on the 28th floor, behind front desk,” he explained.
The ballroom was the venue for the 400-guest opening night buffet, with masses of real branches of early sakura, cherry blossom, and an amazing video ballet entertainment from Enra, the way-out Japanese visionaries who opened the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.
There were no hiccups in transforming the ballroom, in just four hours, into the following day’s conference set-up. Yes, many in-house guests wanted in-room dining breakfasts, and elevator usage peaked at times, but the hotel usually runs at average weekday occupancy of over 90% anyway. In addition, like all Tokyo’s upper-echelon hotels, Saturday nights are invariably 100%, thanks to staycationers. “They are standing in line in typical Japanese style, long before 3 p.m. check-in, and they leave as late as they can before the 12 noon deadline, Sunday.”
ILTM conveniently started on a Monday, February 27. Longer-haul flights touch down at Tokyo’s two international airports at sunrise, but the hotel is ready, and if rooms are not ready there are shower facilities in the fitness center, which is 24/7.
Neil McInnes lives 10 minutes’ drive from the hotel, and his own serious daily schedule starts with necessary care of his French bulldog before heading to the gym at 5.30 a.m. “I got my work ethic from my father, a printing typesetter in Glasgow, Scotland, who believed in hard work to help his family,” he explained. Today he might have a breakfast meeting and he is certainly in the lobby to say goodbye to guests leaving around 7.30 a.m. for long-haul international flights. Next come standard morning meetings: “Two weeks ago once-off initiatives were deciding turndown gifts for those luxury professionals, who subsequently found hand-made cards, and sushi, on coffee tables.”
Ongoing concerns are maintaining labor count and bringing yet more locals into the hotel. “We have over 400 employees and around 20% turnover, under Tokyo norm, but it is getting more and more of a challenge to find new recruits, though it helps being an international brand. At any job fair I find about 80% of interest is from females, whereas finance and IT attract around 90% males,” he said. The hotel is surrounded by the financial sector, which fills restaurants at lunch and dinner, and there is already extra afternoon tea potential since the government encouraged Premium Friday early departure, last week of every month.
When he has time off, McInnes drives to one of Japan’s small inns to enjoy onsen, hot spring baths. “For some reason I wanted to work in travel and tourism from as early as I can remember,” he recalled. At 17, straight out of school, he was a waiter at the Glasgow Hilton, and he still credits his front office manager, Karen Watt, as his ongoing mentor. She is now hotel manager at the forthcoming InterContinental Beverly Hills. After rising to front office manager in Glasgow, he transferred to Sydney, Australia, before moving to Japan in 2010. Apart from a spell as regional director of revenue management for Japan, Korea and Micronesia, he has always been in one hotel – he returned to Conrad Tokyo from his first GM position, at Hilton Tokyo Bay. “Yes, I am Hilton through and through,” he laughed.