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Aiming to lead
Tamir Kobrin, whose passion and dream lie in opening his own hotel one day, is perfectly happy at the moment as general manager for the Leela Palace Kempinski in exotic, mystic Udaipur.
Kobrin is an Israeli, brought up in Switzerland, and educated in the United States... as if that weren’t enough,he also speaks seven languages.
He loves reading whatever he can about the destination, culture, and history of wherever he is, and thinks that the quest to travel the world and work in different locations that have cultural distinctions, only makes the endeavour so much more exciting.
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“Assimiliation by virtue of language, is a great first step to capturing people’s trust and attention. This is what we strive to do as expatriate hoteliers - bring our experience and leave something behind, and it is more easily attainable by assimilation”, he says.
Kobrin is certainly in his element now, in an exotic locale like Udaipur, moreover, associated with a group like the Leela, who is known to spend lavishly on its properties.
However, is it possible to have luxury and sustainability co-exist? “Absolutely, one goes hand-in-hand with the other”, he avers.
“We endeavour to achieve responsible hospitality practices that would be recognised by the guests, who, more than ever, expect the opportunity of experiencing luxury through sustainable measures to be practiced by the hotel they patronage.
Our objective is to balance luxury surroundings with sustainable practices, in the day-to-day activities we operate. The quality aspect is a result of standards. Keeping costs in mind is a necessity, not only in today’s reality of the industry constraints, but as a general practice.
We take cost into consideration, never compromising the standards we have set forth for our operational requirements.
As hoteliers, we must balance our continued strive to excellence with cost parameters in mind; as they say, ‘keep your financial controller happy and your guest happier’.
“Kobrin is said to have a ‘handson’ management style, which he interprets as meaning to lead by example, and consistently. He says he sees both, the macro as well as the micro picture, as they each directly affect the other; according to him, without looking at the particulars that make the whole, one does not reach the objective, moreover, one must be careful not to over complicate and concentrate on individual milestones along the way, but focus on the end result.
It is said that the best hoteliers are those who plan for a downturn. Does he subscribe to this viewpoint; how did he anticipate and plan for the current economic crisis? Says Kobrin: “We understood early on that we are opening in a difficult time, and we recognised the need to look at anticipating where things can go wrong, especially in a new hotel opening.
A downturn is also an opportunity to look at other factors, such as the market we are in; for instance, we made it a point to open our restaurants to outside, non-resident guests to welcome their patronage, thus embracing the community and location we are in and not take things for granted, and being vigilant of the opportunities around us.”
Udaipur is a prime leisure destination, and the Leela has tough competition from the Lake Palace and Udai Vilas hotels, as Kobrin too has acknowledged.
Is there greater pressure on, and expectations from him, to perform? Would he care to share some of the business strategies he hopes to implement? “Yes we have tough competition”, he readily agrees.
“But we opened in Udaipur with a product that can easily compete and achieve our aim to be recognised as a leader in the destination. We have unique selling points that make the Leela Palace Udaipur stand out vice versa our competition, primarily our location on Lake Pichola.
We realise that hotel recognition is primarily service, quality of food and the overall experience. We have invested in a foreign chef (Udaipur has never been recognised as a culinary destination and the city offers very limited dining options).
We have the only Clefs d’Or concierge in town, again, important, as guests want to savour the secrets of a destination through the eyes of a professional.
We extend butler services to all of our guests no matter what rate you pay. Complemented with attention to detail and very sincere unobtrusive service, I believe we will achieve our goals. The pressure and expectations are there and that is what makes this endeavour an even more exciting one for all of us.”
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COMMENT
its really bng a pleasure to work under Mr.kobrin.