Pan Pacific Perth, on Australia’s West Coast, commands an idyllic location: on Adelaide Terrace with views of Swan River. And it’s getting better: To elevate its services and enhance guest experience, the hotel has been undergoing extensive renovations since 2023.
The AU$50 million ($32.77 million) transformation, which is a significant milestone in the hotel’s history, will redefine the essence of graceful luxury, said the hotel’s general manager, Paul Flett.
The hotel’s major refurbishment encompasses a complete redesign of key areas of the hotel, including its 392 guest rooms and suites, guest room corridors, the convention floor, the Pacific Club lounge, lobby, elevator landings and the porte-cochère.
Guests can also expect art upgrades to the convention facilities and bespoke brand experiences at the hotel, once the renovations are completed by the third quarter of 2024.
It’s a lot, and all being led by Flett, who has been with the hotel for just short of two years.
In an exclusive interview with HOTELS, Flett elaborates about enhancing the hotel’s service standards, ensuring sustainability, finding inspiration and more.
HOTELS: Pan Pacific Perth is an icon. How will the refurbishment improve the hotel’s hospitality and reputation?
Flett: The hotel landscape in Perth is ever-changing, with new hotels introduced to the market and more on the way. It’s essential for us and our brand to continue to be innovative and offer an enhanced stay experience to our guests. Through modernizing the rooms, our technology and the public areas, the refurbishment is an opportunity to elevate our position while offering a new product and maintaining our dependable and sincere service that forms the true roots of our hotel.
HOTELS: How are you planning to enhance your hotel’s service standards?
Flett: The Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts brand is built on providing sincere and gracious service; the guest experience is at the heart of everything we do. While we uphold a high level of service standards, we continuously strive to further develop our associates through ongoing training and development. In the past year we have welcomed a dedicated Learning and Development Executive and introduced a new platform for training called EdApp.
HOTELS: Sustainability is a ubiquitous buzzword within hotels. What is Pan Pacific Perth doing?
Flett: Sustainability has been front of mind for our hotel, even pre-dating the refurbishment, with water and energy saving initiatives already in place. What the refurbishment has been able to provide in this space is an opportunity to upgrade controls in place in guest rooms, such as introducing energy-saving air conditioning controls. We have also committed to installing water filter systems in rooms to replace the plastic water bottle minibar items and introduce dual waste bins providing guests the option to separate waste and recycling to reduce landfill.
HOTELS: Where do you draw inspiration to improve Pan Pacific Perth?
Flett: I read a wide range of hospitality publications, along with articles across such platforms as LinkedIn and other hospitality forums.
HOTELS: What do you do differently than other GMs?
Flett: Interesting question, as I would assume that most GMs would do things in a similar manner. I would answer this based on the feedback I have received from others, which indicates they find me a highly engaging GM and one who is very strong at motivating their team to achieve the goals of the business, owners, staff and the community.
HOTELS: Do you have mentors and what is the best piece of professional advice you have ever received?
Flett: I have had several mentors over my career, including fellow GMs, managers and even line staff. The best piece of advice I have received: “Don’t sweat the small stuff, boss, as you can only control what you can control. The rest is in the lap of the gods.”
HOTELS: The pandemic altered the landscape of hostelry. What have been some of the biggest lessons learned from it that you are applying today?
Flett: The mental health and wellbeing of your staff is paramount if you are to be successful. To this end, we have focused a lot of time in this area and even gone so far as to train myself and other key leaders in the business to be qualified mental health first aiders.
HOTELS: Which emerging trend are you focusing on?
Flett: The increasing use of AI across all businesses and what impact/benefit it may have for the hospitality industry. The debate here is on how we can use it in our hotels to get better efficiencies, while not losing the human touch, which is the whole basis of the industry.
HOTELS: What’s the biggest threat to the hospitality industry?
Flett: Government policy and the industry itself contributing to the ongoing labor shortage. Not recognizing most jobs in the industry as being skilled labor hinders the number of eligible visas allowed and the industry not placing the right value on staff inhibits the amount of young people who want to enter the industry.
HOTELS: What is one unusual thing you learned on the job?
Flett: This one is tricky as I have learned a lot over my time in the industry; however, to narrow it down, I would say learning the ability to anticipate what your stakeholders require, whether staff, guests or owners, before they even know they require it.
HOTELS: Where are you finding happiness today?
Flett: Like most people, after the pandemic, I am finding happiness in spending quality time with friends and family and enjoying the simple pleasures of life in being in each other’s company.
HOTELS: Which famous figure—dead or alive—would you like to host?
Flett: Muhammed Ali. He has been a hero of mine since childhood, not just because I like boxing, but because he stood up for his beliefs in doing the right thing, which is a valuable lesson for children of all ages.
HOTELS: What’s your hotel pet peeve?
Flett: Not having staff, from all levels, wanting to engage with their guests as this is what the industry is all about. You should not be in it if you do not like people.