INTERVIEW: ANDREW GIBSON Notable hotels in the FRHI portfolio
RAFFLES ■■
Raffles Dubai, UAE ■■Raffles Singapore
■■Le Royal Monceau, Raffles Paris
FAIRMONT ■■
The Plaza, New York, USA ■■The Savoy, London, UK
■■Fairmont Peace Hotel, Shanghai, China ■■Fairmont Monte Carlo, France
■ ■Fairmont Le Montreux Palace, Switzerland ■ ■Fairmont Banff Springs, Canada
SWISSÔTEL ■■
Swissôtel The Bosphorus, Istanbul
■■Swissôtel Krasnye Holmy Moscow, Russia ■■Swissôtel Tallinn, Estonia
this stage I’m not presenting on future plans as I’m still working my way through those myself,” he says. With 52 hotels in the pipeline over the
next three to five years, spa development is another obvious priority. Gibson’s already been pulled onto 12 new projects to offer his advice on the design and layout of spas. “The FRHI openings and integration team has a very efficient system where people from every depart- ment, including design and construction, purchasing and myself, can read notes [about upcoming projects] and add comments. I’m a creative person so I love seeing things evolve, grow and take shape.” The work at FRHI isn’t hugely different
to his job at Mandarin Oriental where he split his time between guiding the development team, which was led by Sean O’Connor and overseeing operations, which was headed up by Andrea Lomas. At FRHI though, Gibson feels everything’s “much more strategic and focused on motivating teams to perform”. Due to the large number of spas already
open, he’ll be taking the 80/20 approach by focusing primarily on the group’s 12 flagship properties plus some other key accounts (see above). One of his favourite aspects of the job comes in at this macro level. “I’m driven by motivating people and it’s amazing to visit a property and talk not only to the general manager and management team, but also to the spa therapists. I tell them what’s happening in the industry, what the trends are and
Part of Gibson’s new role is motivating the spa teams
Having someone from the senior team come to see the spa means and lot. Sometimes a simple gesture, like explaining how valuable the team is, can make the biggest difference
how it affects them all. Quite often, having someone from the senior team come to see the spa means a lot. Sometimes it’s just a simple gesture, like explaining how valuable the team is, that can make the biggest difference to performance.” When time won’t allow him to get so
involved with facilities, he’ll work with regional group operators and general managers in a supporting capacity. “I won’t get involved with recruitment unless it’s a spa director, for example,” he says. “Or I’ll step in when there’s a problem. One hotel at the moment has some particular issues with setting KPIs so I’m helping them with that. Spa KPIs
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are a whole new thing for some general managers, but I’ve told them they’re going to have to learn. It’s not about me saying ‘this is the action plan you need to implement’, I’ll just be providing them with the tools and pointing out areas that they need to focus on.”
OUTSOURCING AND MERGERS It’s clear when talking to Gibson that in order to keep up with developments, he’ll need to set up his own supporting team quickly because at the moment it’s just him. He’s looking for someone to handle facili- ties in America – which has 14 spas – and possibly someone else to help with training:
Spa Business 2 2014 ©Cybertrek 2014
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