Redoing the executive club lounge has definitely helped raise repeat business, says Thomas Hoeborn, general manager of the Conrad Hong Kong.
The 59th-floor lounge in the 61-floor building high above the Pacific Place mall on Hong Kong Island has always had strategic views across Hong Kong harbor to Kowloon and the mainland. Since the 512-room hotel opened in 1990, the lounge has consistently attracted about 25% repeat business, but Thomas Hoeborn wanted more. “I arrived here in 2012 and started planning,” he recalled. “The lounge had 2,745 square feet of space, but structural columns meant it was easiest to divide it into two areas.”
The result is, indeed, two identical lounges. At low times, only one side is used; when pressure intensifies, both sides operate. The placement of the reception desk means one attendant can look after both sides, if necessary, or a second desk can be opened up.
In total the two lounges have 96 seats. The hotel has 150 designated club rooms, sold at a surcharge of HK$1,000 and up, and those in 54 suites also get club access to the lounge, free high-speed Wi-Fi, four items to be pressed and use of business facilities.
Arrive at the lounge and the two identical serving areas are reminders of many kitchens back home – though unlike at home, here robes and bedroom slippers are specifically discouraged. “I deliberately wanted to instill a residential feel,” Hoeborn explained.
Both serving areas have glass-front chill cabinets, at eye-height, for help-yourself juices, yogurts, fruit platters and cold canapés at cocktail hour. Glass-fronted ovens, with oven gloves provided, invite you to take out fresh-baked brioche and croissants (or hot canapés at cocktail hour). Breakfast buffets include a range of Chinese and Western hot dishes, but if you want something special a chef immediately behind the scenes encourages orders for quick delivery. There are coffee machines and a pair of tea counters with boiling water on tap and a range of tea caddies.
In all 14 staff, part of the front office team, operate the lounges from 6.30 a.m. to 11 p.m. dressed in uniforms created by French comedian-turned-designer Laurent Ginioux.
All lounge team members are chosen for, and skillfully trained in, two additional skills. “I want them to be friendly concierges, to talk to tourists at breakfast about what they might like to do and see today,” Hoeborn added. “And sometimes the team has to tactfully suggest to parents of over-energetic children that there are other guests to consider, and why not use the other lounge which has more space for them?”
The executive club team has its own morning meetings to learn about VIPs and other arrivals. “Without that team the lounges would never work,” Hoeborn said. “You can only give genuinely authentic service with the right mindset and my people have freedom to use their initiative.”
Thomas Hoeborn, born in the Franken region of Germany, worked his way up through culinary. He has an acute eye for detail and design and, having masterminded the executive lounges of Conrad Hong Kong, he is now turning his sights to room renovation.