Can you introduce Longemont Shanghai as a MICE hotel?

Longemont hotel opened 7 years ago and our building is part of Shanghai architecture design scene.

Our hotel’s boasts 511 rooms and suites with a minimum surface of 42 sqm. Each room is appointed with huge showers. Our rooms are located above the 27th floor and thus offer breathtaking views over Shanghai skyline.

When we opened 7 years ago, our pillarless ballroom was the largest one in Puxi. With no less than 928 sqm, we can easily accommodate delegations up to 700 guests.

Due to advanced design and good maintenance, the modern lobby, spacious guestrooms, the ballroom with big foyer and 11 breakout rooms are still the best choice for meeting planner.

In terms of hotel software, our team is very stable and experienced which allows us to provide exceptional service to our customers. A substantial part of our customers are indeed recommended, and we receive several awards from authorities and great ratings on different Travel Website, such as TripAdvisor and Ctrip.

What was the Shanghai hotel scene looking like when you started your career in 1992?

When I started my career back in 1992, there were only seven five star hotels in Shanghai.

At that time office space was very limited in Shanghai and a lot of foreign companies were just starting to enter China market. Because of limitations in space, many companies were hosted directly in hotels.

Hiring staff and finding customers was not an issue for hoteliers back in 1992. Nowadays market structure is completely different and thus we face completely different issues. Shanghai hotels market is short of staffing resources and supply outweighs demand.

In the meantime, thanks to the emergence of new technologies, new booking channels come into play and significantly change the way hoteliers market themselves and generate revenue.

Where does your passion for hospitality comes from?

Many people in hospitality industry change jobs frequently, they argue that changing job helps to “keep the passion for the job”.

I am myself a very stable person and only worked for a few hotels or jobs during my career so far. Working in a hotel is a journey itself and every single day is different from the previous and the next one. To be a successful salesman, you have to be alert to the changes from the market, customer and competitors at any moment. Thus, you will keep great passion and motivation with your achievement.

I feel myself very lucky to have the opportunity to meet everyday new customers with very different needs and expectations.

The most enjoyable and challenging part of the job is to develop a good team, achieve both management & owner's expectation and overcome difficulties. I am also very proud to see my team members' growth from a freshman to senior positions in different hotels.

As a Shanghainese, what is your favorite place in Shanghai?

I spend a lot of time at the hotel and at home with my family, two naturally favorite places.

Shanghai indeed offers a lot of options and I would recommend destinations like Zhouzhuang and the Bund. The only advice is "Don't go during holidays".

I enjoy very much taking my car and driving to university campuses a bit aside from Shanghai city center and having a walk in the surrounding gardens which usually offer a very calm environment with smell of the history and culture, far away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

What is your career best memory?

A Chinese proverb says “痛并快乐”, which literally means “pain and pleasure”. My best memories actually come from the most "painful" moments.

I have been through 3 hotels re-brandings and the last one was a very memorable experience.

Only four month after taking over my current position, our hotel terminated our contract management with “Regent” brand which was not achieving the results expected.

The hotel was renamed overnight into “Longemont Shanghai Hotel” and directly operated by ourselves. All this happened within one night andon the second day our email inboxes and GDS access were shut down… and we had to move on.

It took us three weeks of hard work to rebuild gradually everything without impacting our existing customers. Global sales system was reestablished accordingly.

Thanks to the whole sales team joint efforts we managed to go through it very successfully with increased performance compared to before. This made us further believe that " Our destiny offers not the cup of despair, but the chalice of opportunity".