Raymond Bickson: Still Riding The Wave

By Jeff Weinstein, Editor in Chief -- Hotels, 11/1/2007

Inside Raymond Bickson is the soul of a surfer who, now at age 51, has learned to go with the flow and ride whatever waves come his way. The man who grew up in the surf of Hawaii with honest “aloha” spirit, trained in Europe, worked around the world with renown luxury hotelkeepers and now heads a 100-plusyear- old historic hotel chain has had quite a ride in the hotel business. And all along the way, the genteel Bickson has remained true to what he learned in the surf and from his mentors: be patient, be genuine and just “be there” for your team and your guests.

One of the most well-liked figures in the hotel industry has “been there” for more than 30 years now, first earning his stripes in the kitchen at the Berlin Hilton, then as general manager first in 1987 at the Regent Shanghai and, perhaps most memorably, at The Mark in New York City, and now as managing director of Taj Hotels Resorts & Palaces, Mumbai. For his incredible people skills, a career full of global luxury hotel successes and most certainly for his aloha spirit, the readers of HOTELS magazine have voted Raymond Bickson 2007 Corporate Hotelier of the World.

“Working for entrepreneurs helped direct me to where I am today,” says Bickson, who sat down for this interview in a suite at The Pierre in New York City, a hotel he acquired in 2006 as part of Taj’s plan to expand globally into key gateway cities. “I have always worked with that attitude— first at Regent Hotels and then with the Rafael Group. Hoteliers then were trained to look at service and luxury as if they were true proprietors and that point-of-view helped me adapt and gave me the backbone for running a business larger than one hotel.”

Another part of Bickson’s success formula involves “just being there for your guests,” he says. “At the end of the day it is like being in a big house. One should welcome someone at your hotel as you would into your family. The aspect of creating that type of environment so the entire staff feels as committed as you do about the hotel has always been very important to me.”

Bickson, a family man who always seems to have a welcoming smile, adds that putting life into perspective is also crucial for success in this personally demanding business. “Hoteliers have so many challenges everyday,” says Bickson, who has been married for 21 years to Connie and is the adoring father of daughters Annick, 17, and Alix, 15. “One thing that has helped me is having a great sense of humor and at the same time being able to step back from some of the difficult moments and make sure [I] don’t take it that seriously. You have to be able to see through those moments with some humor.”

And if you don’t think Bickson’s somewhat laid-back style has its fans, read what one of his mentors has to say about him: “I have known Raymond forever. He was still at school and surfing on the beaches in Hawaii when we met,” says Georg Rafael of The Rafael Group, Monte Carlo, and one of the founders of Regent International Hotels, where Bickson cut his hotelkeeping teeth in the 1980s. “He has all my admiration for what he has achieved in his career and what he has given to our profession. Rarely do you see such commitment and so much passion for our business. Apart from that he is a wonderful family man and a great friend. To write anecdotes about him, it requires a book.”

Naturally Hospitable
Coming from Hawaii where hospitality was booming as Bickson grew up in the 1970s, the high school athlete was naturally predisposed to the business through his father, Irwin Bickson, one of the founders of the Budget rental car company. In fact, Raymond’s fascination for hotels started as early as age 10 when he traveled to France and was overwhelmed by the great palace hotels on the Côte d’Azur. “It felt like being on the set of a movie and it seemed so glamorous,” Bickson says. “Those moments have always stayed with me.”

Growing up in Honolulu, Bickson also got to meet many great hoteliers when he was still young and impressionable, including Rafael, Bob Burns and Adrian Zecha, who together opened their first hotel in Hawaii in 1970, which formed the basis for the original Regent brand. Bickson’s early mentors encouraged him to head to Europe and get first-hand experience as they did. So, at age 17, he was in the kitchen of the Berlin Hilton, then off to the Plaza Athenee in Paris to learn French and Le Montreux Palace in Switzerland before going to the hotel school in Lausanne.

After school, Bickson went to work for Regent and in 1979 came to New York as front office manager at the Mayfair. Over the course of 10 years he was fortunate to work for a growing organization and most often was part of the opening team in cities like Chicago, Dallas, San Juan, Melbourne and Shanghai. “I have been fortunate in that the fraternity of hoteliers around the world is such a great, small group to work with and learn from,” says Bickson, who cites his 25 years with Rafael as making the biggest difference in his career. He also speaks of his admiration for hoteliers who have made an impact by being in one hotel for a long period of time, delivering outstanding service and becoming significant holders of a brand they helped create. “One looks at Kurt Wachtveitl at the Oriental, Natale Rusconi at the Cipriani and great hoteliers who have been able to sustain that over a long period. That is quite an achievement.”

The Mark Years
In 1990, Bickson arrived in New York City to serve as general manager and vice president of The Mark for the Rafael Group. It was over the next 15 years that he honed his skills and experienced both light moments, such as getting stuck in a hotel elevator for an hour with Prince Albert of Monaco and 10 members of his entourage, as well as horrific moments, such as operating a hotel in New York City on 9/11—a moment, he says, that taught him most about patience, being agile and mostly about the humane element of being both an employer and innkeeper.

It is, in fact, that humane element that is at the core of Bickson’s style. ”You have to understand the humane aspect of motivating the people that makes up the everyday experience of being in a hotel,” he says. “You have to teach that same type of understanding and feeling to those that represent your hotel, or on a larger scale, running a larger company.” To that end, Bickson loves to roam the back of the house to take the pulse of the hotels he operates. “Managers have to walk into the staff locker room and focus on the heart of the house and the people who make it happen,” he says. “When I come into a hotel, I look for the back door, go down to the locker room and see what is really going on as opposed to just polishing the apple when the CEO comes around.”

While Bickson embraces technology and understands its role in driving business and keeping busy travelers connected, he truly believes this is a one-on-one business driven by people who have contact with the guest. “Gimmicks take you only so far… One looks for sincerity in the one-to-one experience and making sure sincerity is also a part of your staff experience. We need to be very careful in the luxury business that the aspect of touching the guest with service is in place and that staff has all the right tools. This is a challenge we have to look at all the time.”