Working across time zones to woo the world, a hotel MD never clocks out
A CAREER opportunity of a lifetime is rare. For Clive Bennett, the opportunity came when Kerzner International asked him to be MD of One&Only Cape Town five years ago.
“I was approached to make a contribution and put the business back onto the right financial footing,” recalls Bennett, who completed his schooling in Zimbabwe, trained at the Savoy Hotel in London, and began his South African career at the Carlton Hotel in 1974. “It was a wonderful business challenge.”
Despite much coverage of the grand opening in 2009, the hotel wasn’t performing well a year later. Many hotels suffered a post-World Cup slump, and Bennett’s key goal was to turn things around and put the property on the “sound financial platform” it has today.
“One of the most important things we did was to bring in Manley Communications, a public relations company that understands the hotel business well and has significant contacts in the media,” Bennett explains. “We set about getting the media on our side because market penetration and reach was the route we had to go.”
Although the hotel’s current key market is the US, it hadn’t made inroads into that country. But while establishing a support base in North America is a professional highlight for Bennett, there have been challenges.
Last year’s Ebola outbreak in West Africa led to “significant cancellations” from US travellers, while the xenophobic attacks harmed bookings from other African states. The strict new visa requirements had a material effect on reservations from China and India, made worse by complicated new procedures for travelling with children. Combine all this with a sluggish economy and Bennett admits that “trading conditions aren’t as buoyant as they were 12 months ago”.
“We had to make sure that in the event of something catastrophic — like 9/11, which froze the world — we didn’t find ourselves with a business where a high percentage was overseas people. So, while we pursued the international market, we also accommodated the South African people. Up to that point, I don’t think the hotel had reached out to embrace the people of the city. So the most important thing was to get Cape Town to buy into the hotel.”
Getting the balance right is tricky. Bennett admits that reaching into key international markets was always going to make a difference to the hotel. It’s the reason he appointed key people to sell One&Only’s services and facilities abroad. It’s also why he’s been eager to capitalise on new opportunities, such as airlines from the Gulf states flying directly to Cape Town.
But although the rand’s recent downfall makes SA a cheap destination, he emphasises that pricing the One&Only for overseas visitors only would be disastrous, especially for wining and dining at the hotel.
“It’s fine when you have high demand from overseas tourists in the summer months, between October and March, but the advent of winter affects people,” Bennett says.
“We have a big support base from local people into Nobu and Reuben’s Restaurant. And particularly into Nobu, where a lot of food is imported and bought in dollar terms, we have to engineer those menus to accommodate the South African market. Otherwise we will price it out.”
There are exciting opportunities ahead.
The Boston Consulting Group reports that of the $1.8trillion spent on luxury goods and services in 2012, $1-trillion went to “luxury experiences”, half of which was for travel and hotels.
The United Nations’ World Tourism Organisation reports that international trips rose 4.4% to 1.1-billion last year.
“We’re aware of about 1,000 hotel rooms being built into Cape Town over the next 24 months,” Bennett says. “So the city is going to become a lot more competitive.
“It’s about maintaining standards of service, standards of cuisine, and staff retention ... about making sure the 450 staff members are motivated, directed and feel proud to work for the business.”
But all these considerations are for Bennett’s successor, Richard Lyon, who took over as general manager on September 30.
Bennett is confident Lyon will bring in “new ideas to enrich the business and take it to the next level”.
Meanwhile, he’s looking forward to semi-retirement in Knysna, where he’ll take on some specialist project work and enjoy some time in a kayak on the lagoon.
“In today’s environment of social media, working in a hotel is a 24/7 occupation,” says the 63-year-old father of three. “There’s always something happening. It’s a business that never stops, unlike a factory where you close on Friday afternoon and press the button again on Monday morning.
“You’re working through endless international time zones, which is exciting because you feel that you’re on the cutting edge. But it’s also demanding on one’s time.”
In a recent conversation with friends, Bennett came to realise the importance of achieving life’s objectives when one is still in good health. For him, that means taking a couple of months off to “recharge the batteries”, and travel throughout SA (“not just luxury properties!” he laughs), to places he hasn’t seen.
But although he’s excited for whatever new challenges lie ahead, the “wonderful and rewarding time” he’s had at One&Only Cape Town will always make his five-year term a highlight of his career.