One year in, the J.W. Marriott Phu Quoc Emerald Bay in Vietnam has attracted a lot of attention for its themed design. Celebrity designer Bill Bensley’s fantastic and painstakingly detailed Lamarck University motif arguably put this island destination on the map. Hotel General Manager Ty Collins shared his thoughts about running a luxury island hotel in an emerging destination.
HOTELS: How was your first year?
Ty Collins: We ran occupancy just under 30%. For a relatively unknown destination with limited capacity, we were quite pleased. When we opened there was one commercial flight to Phu Quoc, and now there are two, and four charters during the winter. We had fantastic publicity and awareness, especially in Asia. And domestically we saw more demand than expected from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
H: What’s your guest profile?
TC: It’s all over the map — well-traveled people who have been other places and are curious about the destination; expats from around Asia; a lot of people who follow Bill Bensley; a lot of celebrities domestically.
H: What kind of hurdles did you overcome to get up and running?
TC: It’s a pretty rural area. There is no grocery store on the island, and only one hospital about 50 miles away. And it’s an island, so most of the people we hired are not from here — the islanders are not interested in hospitality jobs. Everything is more expensive to source. And it rained a lot during construction. But we actually opened earlier than scheduled.
H: What is the hotel’s strategy to recruit staff?
TC: We offer better benefits, and staff housing, so they can save on that. A lot of people are curious about the Marriott culture. We have development plans for everyone, and Marriott has a number of hotels going up in Vietnam over the next couple of years, so they have opportunities to advance. We do a lot of training and work on retention. And it’s a cool, crazy hotel, so we try to make it fun. A lot of our associates come from big cities, and they love the idea of moving here, but after a few months they realize they are living on a small island.
H: What do you see as an advantage to running a hotel in Vietnam?
TC: Safety and security — there is no terrorism because of the government structure and their control of who enters the country. And the government is keen to develop this as a destination that will compete with Thailand and Malaysia. There seems to be a strategic plan for the island. Besides the new airport, there are plans for roads and trash and recycling facilities. And the people are genuine, hardworking and sincere. It’s a completely different culture than other Southeast Asian countries.
H: Less attractive aspects?
TC: The lack of experience in the hospitality industry. People are very sincere and hardworking, but across the board I think that mindset around the customer experience has to develop for Vietnam to be competitive. Retention is also an issue; with so much development there is a lot of demand for English-speaking, well-trained associates.
Contributed by Megan Rowe