BADASS HOTELIER UPS HOSPITALITY GAME IN STREETS
After work, some let their hair down and go to parties in some bar or hotel. Brett Patrick Hickey does the opposite: he goes out of the hotel and party in traffic-worn Edsa … riding his motorcycle.
Hickey, who otherwise has fancy cars at his disposal, says of his preferred mode of transportation: “It’s not just to beat the traffic. It’s to get to places that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to get to in a car.”
So if you see someone trying to mingle with Angkas drivers and other motorcycle owners in all his leather and big bike glory, it’s the Seda group general manager parading his hospitality and charm in Metro Manila’s streets and dark alleys.
For Hickey, there’s not much difference between running a chain of hotels and plying roads in his KTM bike. “Everyone’s looking at you and say, ‘This is the big guy with a big bike.’ But then when you’re talking to people in the line, it seems like in the next minute and a half while waiting for the light to change, you’ve already got 60 friends.”
Back at the hotel, whether it’s the Seda Vertis North or the oneyear-old Seda Lio in Palawan, Hickey would be welcoming guests and talking to strangers.
In his 24 years in the hotel industry, five years of that in the Philippines, Hickey says he can easily differentiate what it’s like hobnobbing with Filipinos. He says he loves having Filipino customers around, especially since they’re always in a good mood and ready to smile.
“In other cultures, that has not been the case, they’re not so approachable. It’s not expected that the hotel manager will approach you, it’s not a cultural thing,” he says.
The Canadian, who started as a lifeguard and rose through the ranks covering all hotel-related positions in different countries such as China, Vietnam, the United States and those in the Middle East, says he would like the Philippines to be his “end game,” where he can settle down with his wife.
But for now, Hickey has his hands full overseeing the operations of the different Seda branches of the Ayala Land Hotels and Resorts Corp. and a new Chinese restaurant called Pin Wei.
The hotel property right across Ayala Malls Vertis North and Trinoma in Quezon City only recently earned its fivestar status. Originally planned as a boutique hotel, it became a 438-room facility catering to a growing clientele from different sectors in this part of the metro including business process outsourcing units and manufacturing firms.
Two weeks after opening in September 2017, Hickey says he made the rounds asking what the guests’ experiences were staying in Seda. One of them point-blank told him she could stay at a nearby hotel for P450 for four hours, while another told him there was now an option in the north without having to go to Mandaluyong or Makati.
“But that’s the juxtaposition— the huge, different markets that Quezon City has to offer. We’re trying to get both … we’re trying to get them to see the hotel as an affordable luxury,” he says.
The same thing can be said for Vertis North’s recently launched Pin Wei restaurant. The team behind the homegrown Ayala Land brand saw there was a gap for a restaurant catering to Filipino-chinese and fans of Cantonese cuisine in the northern part of the metro.
“The way this hotel was built was to service a huge area of Caloocan, Valenzuela, Novaliches and Bulacan. We realized that the staycation market here is composed of people looking for a place to go … without having to fight Makati traffic,” Hickey says. And that demographic also showed 60 to 70 percent of the guests were Filipino-chinese, he says.
While other stand-alone Chinese restaurants offer spaces to big groups, the 130-seater Pin Wei, on the other hand, can always welcome businessmen and individual guests who prefer to dine alone.
With a price point of P1,000 per person, the kitchen churns out dimsum, hand-pulled noodles and other Cantonese cuisine that executive Chinese chef Hann Furn Chen was known for during his days in Tin Hau in Makati and other hotels abroad.
Hickey also boasts of the restaurant’s sustainability mantra.
“I don’t know a lot of Chinese restaurants that claim to be sustainable because of the Chinese culture, there are so many things that are consumed regularly that are not sustainable such as sharks fin. That really bothers me, so it is very important for us that we opened this restaurant to be sustainable,” he says.
He says Pin Wei, which opened just in October, also hired “from scratch” service staff members who underwent rigorous training to provide guests with an authentic experience.
He notes repeat customers serve as an omen of success. One diner visited the place three times in just one week.
He says he is proud of this concept, which can always be replicated in other Seda hotels. For now, he’s just elated of the restaurant’s success even at this early stage.
For this executive, he can always ride into the night in his motorcycle knowing full well there are more opportunities that can be explored for a growing brand like Seda.