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Gostelow Report: One can be better than 30

“I gave up heading 30 hotels for just one, but to be in charge of Gran Hotel Manzana Kempinski, La Habana, Cuba is the chance of a lifetime,” said Xavier Destribats, whose 246-room hotel takes it first paying guests on June 1, 2017.

All hotels in Cuba are at least partly government-owned. This one, named for the city’s first shopping mall built on this site in 1894, is the new-build pride of Grupo de Turismo Gaviota, which had been working on it for nearly four years. The group’s far-sighted President Carlos Latuff was determined to get the best Europe-based luxury company in as management, and the contract was finally signed December 22, 2016, he explained.

 Xavier Destribats on the rooftop of Gran Hotel Manzana Kempinski La Habana Cuba
Xavier Destribats on the rooftop of Gran Hotel Manzana Kempinski La Habana Cuba

Destribats, a fluent Spanish speaker who had translated the final negotiations between Latuff and Kempinski President and CEO Markus Semer, arrived back in Havana, work permit in hand, on January 24, 2017. He found the hotel more or less complete, as far as construction is concerned. His 370-strong Cuban workforce, all union as is the norm in Cuba, was already hired, and now he waits for two expat Spanish-speaking chefs from France and Japan.

“But we are unique among hotels in Havana,” Destribats continued. “First, we are directly managed by an international luxury brand. Our team is being trained by a Kempinski task force, so we will be compared with the best in other top world cities. Our location, next to Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes and facing Calle San Rafael and Gran Teatro de La Habana, is the best in town, and our mall has such designer brands as Emporio Armani. No carpets anywhere means humidity in the hotel is kept at bay. All bedroom windows open and some have balconies (our cigar lounge has six balconies, each sponsored by a top cigar company). And, important to our travelers, our Wi-Fi is hotel-wide and complimentary (other hotels’ guests buy Sim cards that only work in public areas).”

Looking ahead, Destribats cautiously anticipates 45% occupancy in his first year, starting at US$500 per room, but quickly moving up to overtake competitors’ US$600 top rates for 95% average occupancy. The United States will be his biggest market, followed by Germany, then other European countries, and Mexico, with 85% solely leisure, and average stay 2.7 nights.

Interestingly, four of his first seven confirmed bookings are for top suites. “Virtuoso cannot wait for us to open as its travel advisors have been waiting for luxury-level in the increasingly popular destination of Havana,” Destribats explained.

One challenge, common throughout Cuba, is that Americans’ credit cards do not work here. To avoid guests having to arrive with wads of cash, the hotel will work to a pay-ahead system via Kempinski’s headquarters in Geneva. Bookings will be taken on room-only, or bed and breakfast, or half-board basis.

There are more challenges: All water has to be brought in daily, by truck; then there is the question of supplies, but fortunately weekly meetings with his owners can sometimes speed up bureaucracy; and lemons are simply unavailable in Cuba, and importing any edibles is time-consuming, sometimes requiring three months’ planning, which is not what a French gourmet is used to.

Back home in Bordeaux, France, the dyslexic teenager was, admittedly, a pain both to his patient parents and his teachers. Destribats wanted to travel, so the diplomatic world or hospitality beckoned, and he chose the latter. “My mother always wanted the best for me and she said only Cornell or EHL Lausanne would do, so I headed for Lausanne, met a fellow student – now, my long-tenure wife – and never looked back,” he recalled.

A Hyatt corporate trainee program led to many years with that company, culminating in opening the 387-room Grand Hyatt Tokyo, after which he moved over to the hotel’s asset manager, Panorama Hospitality. Next came 3.5 years with Morgan Stanley in Tokyo (a grey period, he admits, but he learned the inside details of finance), and he was lured to Kempinski by its then-bosses Reto Wittwer and Duncan O’Rourke.

Destribats’ all-time mentor remains Hyatt veteran Michel Jauslin, whom he first met at Hyatt Regency Jerusalem. Power of persuasion meant it took the initially-reluctant GM to agree to open an airport hotel, Hyatt Regency Paris-Charles de Gaulle, France.

“I once wanted to be a CEO but now I have the best of both worlds,” Destribats said. “I am SVP Americas for Kempinski and already have a new-build on Dominica, another Caribbean island, in the pipeline. But at the same time I am a practicing hotelier, involved in every detail of what will be Havana’s signature world hotel.”

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