Jurg Siegenthaler: Preserving landmarks and the niche market

Andrea Tejokusumo ,  The Jakarta Post   |  Wed, 05/20/2009 1:36 PM  |  Supplement

Transforming a country's most iconic building into a five-star chain hotel may not be an easy feat - but this isn't the first time that Kempinski Hotels has succeeded in doing so.

For some years now, the Germany-based hotel group has been focusing its expansions on restoring landmark properties across the globe, such as can be seen through the transformations of Ciragan Palace in Istanbul and Hotel Adlon in Berlin into two of the group's most celebrated estates in Europe and the Near East.

J*rg Siegenthaler, Kempinski Global's sales and marketing senior VP, believes that Indonesia is well into becoming Kempinski's new flagship outpost in Southeast Asia. The group's latest endeavor in Jakarta is the revamping of Hotel Indonesia into a state-of-the-art, top-star hotel to meet the changing times and trends.

Needless to say, such projects have always proved a great challenge for there are government regulations protecting the landmarks from major modifications or alterations. Yet Siegenthaler thinks it is all part of the process.

"While there is a challenge in revamping Jakarta's former Hotel Indonesia into a Hotel Indonesia Kempinski, so long as we are able to tell customers about the history behind the building and what we have done to improve and preserve it, the investment would definitely pay off."

What is often more tricky, he said, is to establish a "red thread" connecting all Kempinski's "collection of individuals" together.

"Kempinski is a very individualistic hotel group in the sense that none of our hotels are the same. Each of our properties is done according to the local ways and makes use of the best in local circumstances and resources - which can both be a weakness as well as strength," admitted Siegenthaler.

He went on to explain that even though many Kempinski properties may look or feel extremely different to one another - such as the case of Leela Kempinski in Goa and the Djibouti Palace Kempinski in Djibouti on the horn of Africa - guests should know what they can expect from the group's hotels.

"The trick is to keep up our level of service and to get the clientele updated with what we do. Selling is not rocket science, so you have to constantly talk to people, discuss and tell them a story about your products. Most essential of all, never try to sell something you don't have," he said.

With more than 22 years' experience in the airline industry, Siegenthaler joined Kempinski four years ago, when he was assigned as VP in sales and - later on - in marketing as well.

According to him, there is a close association between the tourist, airline and hospitality industries. During his time with Swissair, he did various marketing initiatives in collaboration with hotels in Central Africa, Spain, Russia, Turkey, France and Germany - so he was pretty much familiar with how the hospitality business worked.

Still according to him, having been in the market for so many years means he gets to know how field staff operate, how they function and what they expect. "The worst people to interact with, to me, are those who change their shoes into slippers once they get to work," he chuckled.

During his very brief visit to Jakarta last month, Siegenthaler expressed his optimism in Hotel Indonesia Kempinski becoming a reference point while the group prepares its future developments around the region. One project that is ongoing is in Bangkok, where the iconic Siam InterContinental will be turned into Siam Kempinski to open in 2010 as the group's first city resort property.

Siegenthaler continued: "In terms of tourism, Jakarta too still has a lot of potential to grow and be more organized."

Furthermore, he added that "tourism is very much linked to the development of a country's national airline", which makes it paramount to go on maintaining a good service and security level as well as making it easy to come to the country.

Speaking about the global downturn, Siegenthaler stated that there had been mixed signals with regard to its impacts: "We can't really say that it's been 100 percent bleak; although hotels often complain of low occupancy rates, at other times - during conventions and such - planes are full and all lodgings are fully occupied."

The surefire strategy to create business during hard times, therefore, is "to concentrate on your immediate neighbors", which not only means targeting neighboring countries but also the immediate environment that the hotel is in.

"This might also be a good time for change. The Middle East region, for example, would need to reorganize their money situation and redefine what they are. This is an opportunity for change and to do things differently," commented Siegenthaler, noting that Kempinski group will also announce its rebranding in the near future.

Likewise, the group is ever striving to target the unique and niche market segment. This has given rise to a number of hotels in second cities such as Shenzhen and lodges in remote sites such as in Tanzania and Nambia.

Above all, Siegenthaler reckoned that hastily changing strategies in a time of crisis might not be the wisest decision. "We are still going ahead with our original growth strategy. We keep maintaining rates and in turn try to add value for the guest wherever we can. We keep fighting in terms of sales. That is our strategy," he said.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

BACKGROUND

Name : J*rg Siegenthaler
Born : July 1960
Status : Married

Education
Administration School, Biel

Work Experience
2006-present : VP sales and marketing, Kempinski Hotels
2005-2006 : VP sales, Kempinski Hotels
2004-2005 : VP corporate marketing and sales, Thiel Logistics
2002-2004 : VP marketing and communications, Thiel Logistics
2000-2002 : GM, Swissair Germany
1997-2000 : GM, Swissair France
1996-1997 : GM, Swissair UAE.

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