Forging a ‘Pat’ toward dreams and success
Maria Patria ‘Pat’ Alodia Puyat shares her journey from a young aspiring hotelier to an accomplished general manager of the Intercontinental Hotels & Resorts
Dreams are there, but it is only you as a person that puts a hindrance between yourself and reaching that dream. You need to propel yourself on the journey [toward] your dream” – Maria Patria ‘Pat’ Alodia Puyat
SEVEN-year-old Maria Patria ‘Pat’ Alodia Puyat lived in the village of the central business district of Makati, overlooking where Hotel Inter Continental Manila or the Intercon once stood. She would look toward the hotel and wonder what was happening inside those tall buildings.
Sure enough, her father, former businessman, councilor and assemblyman Gonzalo “Lito” Puyat 2nd, enjoyed dining at the Jeepney Coffee Shop of the Intercon and would be there every Sunday. She would go with him to the coffee shop, ordering the same thing all the time: buttered spaghetti with Parmesan cheese.
As the guest relations officers walked by, she gazed at them with awe and admired their beauty. Their similar uniforms, tall stature, slim kgures and slicked back hair captivated her deeply.
From then on, something sparked within her heart that grew into an even brighter flame that would never kzzle out a dream to become a hotelier.
Despite the initial cold-shoulder she received from her parents about her dream, Pat Puyat decided to push through with it. In her mind, she had already decided and was dedicated to work in a hotel no matter what.
Puyat said: “The main reason why I wanted to do that was because I saw the beautiful smiles that those people [gave] the guests that would go [in], and they would be able to change the mood of a person just by smiling at them and giving them fantastic service. I really got magnetized to that and I’ve never forgotten it up to this very day.”
In the pursuit of her dreams, Puyat persevered and got herself enrolled at Le Roches Global Hospitality Education at Bluche, Switzerland, one of the best hotel and restaurant management schools, according to her research.
“Just a week before I left, I told my dad ‘I’m leaving on this day. It’s all settled,’” she recalled.
“Ever since I was 13, I was telling [him] I wanted to be in the hotel business. So, for whatever it is, he gave me a triple A for tenacity and laser focus. And, he knew at that time, whatever I set my mind to, I would do,” she added.
After graduating at Le Roches, 0uyat worked briely in %urope but had to go back to the Philippines in 1992; this time, to work at the place where she krst fell in love with the hotel industry, the Intercon. It took her three tries before she landed a job.
She stayed there for 10 years and ended her run as the krst female Food and Beverage director; further demonstrating her resilient and focused nature.
Puyat ventured into other countries such as Ho Chi Mihn, Vietnam; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; and Vientiane, Laos. One of the challenges she faced was the differences in language and culture. Notably, she noticed that Vietnamese people didn’t like saying that they didn’t understand instructions.
After her work in Vietnam and The Westin Philippine Plaza, she was hired to work on the renovations at the Manila Polo Club. From there, she was approached by Bel Castro of Enderun colleges if she would like to try her hand at teaching. She grabbed the opportunity and found that it wasn’t that different from being a hotelier.
She would tell stories to her students about events management, and they would love it because it was interactive and were real stories from which they could learn.
“As a hotelier, you teach every day, and every day, you find a time wherein you can impart your thoughts, and hopefully, those thoughts become the learnings [of] other people,” she said.
Being a woman in the Muslim city of Dubai — under the InterContinental Hotels Group Dubai Festival City — was also a challenge in itself, as inclusivity and diversity were not yet at the forefront of operations.
It didn’t help that there was the stereotype of Filipinos as nannies. It was a struggle to prove that she was good enough to be a leader in the hospitality industry. What pushed her to persist was her krm mentality and resolution.
Puyat recalled: “Maybe because I was taught that ever since I was young, I was enough. Other people didn’t need to tell me how good I am because I should know that I am enough. So, maybe because that was my mindset when I went, it was easy for me to propel what I needed to do, and because it was what I wanted.”
It was also in Dubai where she learned how small the world was because she got to work with people of different nationalities. These diverse co-workers also taught her how to be more open, judging people not by their gender, race or nationality, but by their capabilities. She called it “rainbow hiring.”
“Include every single person that is willing to do what they need to do in order to achieve the goal. Inclusivity is all about saying ‘I accept you, because you are you,’” Puyat said.
Puyat added: “I learned that mediocrity will not bring you greatness. It needs to be something more than that. If you see that this is OK, you should never accept it. It should be something great, because ‘OK’ won’t get you to the next level.”
She ended her work in Dubai as the krst !sian general manager in the -iddle %ast and the krst !sian to open a state-of-the-art Holiday Inn in Dubai.
But perhaps her best memory in Dubai would be building the festival area, which was popular for being the venue of Tomorow land concerts.
Puyat recalled: “On April 18, 2018, I stood on that stage in front of $ubai as the krst ;&ilipino female] general manager of Holiday Inn being opened, and being introduced as the general manager and actually saying ‘I welcome you to this property, and I thank you for trusting me and the team for delivering this state-of-the-art property for all of you.’”
She continued: “I think that for me, that was a time that I will never forget. Even if my father passed away 4 years from that, I just could see that he was smiling because in his mind, he knew that I was focused enough to reach what I wanted ever since I was 7 years old. That day, I lived my dream.”
After Dubai, Puyat headed to Laos, which she described as close to her heart because it was a country that was very simple yet complex. It was there that she really felt she made a difference that was tangible.
Her stay in Laos was at the onset of the pandemic, wherein tourism and hospitality sectors experienced setbacks due to the lockdowns. Despite this, Crowne Plaza Vientiane did not close nor let its employees go. As a general manager, she proposed to have 40 percent of the salaries of the executive committee reduced in order to kll the salaries of the workers.
“That was the time that my mother passed away in the Philippines, and I was [unable] to see her. [I felt] the people of Laos embraced me in order for me to be OK,” Puyat wistfully recalled.
After that, Puyat became the general manager for Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria and Holiday Inn Manila Galleria under the management of InterContinental Hotels 'roup )(' 4here were kve more ihg-managed hotels in the Philippines and 6,600 all over the world.
She said being a general manager involved having to know every single aspect of the operations of the hotel without being an expert in it.
There were four main functions a general manager should be mindful of: creating a small team in order to have functional experts to propel the hotel business forward, creating a win-win and trustworthy relationship between the IHG management company and the owners, and putting strategies that were envisioned for the properties into action, transforming it into revenue or prokt for the owners. Most importantly, a general manager had to be the shepherd for the many colleagues in the hotel, ensuring to engage, inspire, enlighten, develop and push the teams to places where they had not gone before and in areas to which they never thought they could go.
As a woman of many achievements and krsts 0uyat encouraged women to show the world that whatever they faced, they could overcome.
Puyat said: “Understand that you as a woman [have] an integral part in any establishment [and] in any board room because you bring equilibrium, nourishment and empathy. They say a man can have it all; so can a woman. A woman can be a great wife, a great partner [and] a great mother, but most importantly, [a] light to the people [in] the workplace.”
As a leader who faced many obstacles, Puyat said aspiring leaders should be open to learn from others and to impart knowledge to them, too.
“Leadership is openness, accountability and saying ‘I’m sorry.’ Leadership is also being able to say ‘I don’t know,’ and most importantly, leadership is also being able to say ‘I need help,’” she said.
Lastly, the epitome of a woman who was living her dream, she advised every dreamer to continue pursuing what they wanted for themselves. Along the way, they would meet people who would help them achieve it.
She said: “Dreams are there, but it is only you as a person that puts a hindrance between yourself and reaching that dream. You need to propel yourself on the journey [toward] your dream.”