Hotel boss homes in on tree change
THE former general manager of Palazzo Versace is now chopping wood, parking cars and making coffee for guests – and he couldn’t be happier.
Subash Basrur left the Main Beach hotel last month – the third general manager in three years to leave the waterfront icon – for the mountaintop luxury of Spicers Peak Lodge on the Scenic Rim.
In his new job, he heads a team of eight on a 3235ha property two hours drive from the Coast. Many of the high-flying guests arrive by helicopter to a cold champagne and a warm fire.
It’s the sort of hands-on hospitality Mr Basrur has long aspired to and is well removed from the glitz of the 200-room Versace.
Although both attract wealthy guests, the hotels are like chalk and cheese.
“They are very different – it depends which one you want to call chalk and which one you want to call cheese,” Mr Basrur laughed, saying he had left the Palazzo be- cause Spicers was a better fit for him.
“At Versace, managing such a big property, you can’t be face-to-face with guests as much as I’d like.
“Here I love every minute, it’s very different, we have only 12 rooms, so we have to be hands-on.
“Everybody does everything – I’m parking cars or making coffee, it’s true hospitality.
“This is something I’ve always wanted to do.”
Mr Basrur left China to start at Versace in 2014 after an illustrious hotel management career across Asia.
He did not have that far to move when he, with wife Lyn and toy poodle Chewie, made the lodge their home this week.
Spicers Peak Lodge started as a holiday home for Graham “Skroo” Turner and wife Jude, rich-lister founders of Aussie travel juggernaut Flight Centre.
Ms Turner, however, wanted to share the vast property with others – and make it earn its keep – so it became her first of 10 Spicers resorts across the country.
The Basrurs’ tree change is stark – unlike Versace, where the cries of newborn babies have joined the atmosphere since it struck a maternity deal with Pindara Hospital, children are not encouraged at Spicers.
While the world-famous Versace is a shiny mecca for shoppers and show ponies, Spicers is a retreat into the fresh outdoors, with bushwalking trails and fourwheel-drive tours.
“People come here to destress,” Mr Basrur said.
“It’s more of an outdoor venue, the whole lodge is built like an extended home.
“Australia is such a beautiful country – every day the sunset is beautiful, there is no screaming, no noises, no nothing.
“It’s heavenly.”