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Holiday Inn Lido: 20 years and counting Beijing icon celebrates by sharing secrets of success

What English word do Beijingers most easily recognize?  "Hello", "DVD", or "Bye-bye"? One that may surprise you is "Lido": a one-word destination all Beijing taxi drivers know the way to.

With name recognition of that quality, it seems hardly surprising that this year marks its 20th anniversary.  Started as a classic joint venture, in its history the hotel has been home to an entire generation of foreign representative offices, become China's premier hospitality staff training school, and still fields the classic question each week from guests "Aren't you the biggest Holiday Inn in the world?"

Business Beijing talks to Holiday Inn Lido's General Manager, Jeffrey Brown, about the last 20 years and plans for the next.

BB: So, let's answer that question?

JB: No! You'd be amazed how often we're still asked. It comes from the fact that on opening we were the biggest. Not any more though.

BB: Talking of ideas that persist, you've really stuck with the training school over the years. Our research tells us you're often called the Huang Pu Military Academy of the hotel industry in China!

JB: It's become a very well known institution. In fact, wherever you go in China, at any four or five star hotel you'll find people who have come through our school. The school has been key to our success. Very early on we just couldn't find the kind of staff or numbers we needed, so starting the school was a strategic move. Anywhere between 60 and 100 new trainees complete the program every year - we have 65 at the moment - and it provides a great resource for us.

BB: What about you? Can you describe the journey that's brought you here?

JB: Next month I will be two years in the job. I was in Xi'an and Wuxi, four years in total with Holiday Inn, nine years in Hong Kong, two of those with Holiday Inn. Nearly twenty years in China, just like the Lido.

BB: And the Lido itself, can you give us a potted history?

JB: Lido was a joint venture between a Singaporean company and the local company CTS. In 1995 that joint venture was sold to Lee Kow Sing's Hong Kong enterprise, and they wanted a company to manage the hotel, and that's where Holiday Inn came in. We are the management company.

BB: People know the hotel, what are the other businesses you spoke of?

JB: Well, we are still a multi-complex business, but when we started Holiday Inn was not just a hotel. We managed our own apartment complex, two international schools, our own kindergarten, the office complex, and a very large number of restaurants. Some of our guests have been here since the very beginning. People just felt tremendously at home here. IBM was here, Shell was here, and BP was here, among others.

BB: What kind of hotel have you tried to make the Lido?

JB: Before my arrival the demolition of the old 500-room hotel bought home to the staff that the "old-Lido-of-one-thousand-rooms" just couldn't survive in the modern environment. And when a huge percentage of your staff are people who've been with the company 10 years, that change is an emotional journey too.

BB: Let's expand on that. What are the staff numbers?

JB: 800 employees at the hotel, and 500 have worked here for 10 years or more.

BB: How do you achieve an amazing staff retention rate like that?

JB: Once people get attached to a job or attached to a position, the financial rewards become less important. And many of our staff came on under the old system, where once you'd worked 10 years you were automatically employed for life. Our long-term staff members really do know our long-term guests. We have a tremendously high guest-return ratio.

BB: Is there anything in your management experience that you brought specifically to the Holiday Inn Lido?

JB: I think one of the great myths about working in China is that once you have experience in one area of China you have "China experience".  Nothing could be further from the truth. If you've worked in Shanghai then you have Shanghai experience, if you've worked in Wuxi then you have Wuxi experience. The regional cultures and business environments are quite different.

BB: So is there anything that's transportable?

JB: One word: patience. You have to have patience. Rushing has killed innumerable deals in China, as every situation is multi-faceted.

BB: What does the future hold for the Holiday Inn Lido?

JB: Well, I think a general manager in the hotel industry comes into his or her own in the third year. It takes a full year for the staff to get to know you! The new 500-room hotel next door will require staff, and I want our existing staff to be on the top of that list. That's their future; that's our future. Look at it strategically - we're a 5-story building that doesn't capitalise on the value, size, or location of our land. The new hotel on the Phase 1 site is just the start. It will be finished in 2007. Moving on past 2008 I use our future plans to both motivate and focus the training of our staff, not just training for its own sake.

BB: Let's briefly talk money. I've been given an amazing figure of 6.1 billion yuan turnover over the last twenty years. What re-investments has Lido made based on that success?

JB: Well our last major re-investment was 1997-98 when we extensively renovated. Of course, in the hotel and leased apartment businesses we are constantly renovating and upgrading as fittings wear out and new long-term guests move in and out. But going forward there are extensive plans for investment through to 2008, including a brand new hotel on the site of the old "Phase 1", our first 500-room hotel. The ground has been prepared and construction on that is beginning later this year.

JB: Thoughts about 2008 and afterwards for this industry?

JB: This will not be a Los Angeles or Barcelona experience. We're starting from a lower baseline in Beijing. I don't see any oversupply; return on investment is a key indicator that some of the larger hotel investments around town see a big future post 2008. We're an underpriced industry here, because the culture values high occupancy over returns per room. That will change.

BB: Thanks for your time and your insight.

"到丽都。"北京几乎所有的出租车司机都会准确无误地将客人送到位于机场路的北京丽都假日饭店。如此的知名度源自丽都饭店20年来在北京的超前经营和为客人提供的周到服务。

北京丽都假日饭店建于1984年，20年中，丽都创下了北京酒店业许多"第一"――第一家中国境内的假日品牌酒店；第一家开设公寓式酒店的饭店；第一家拥有会员俱乐部的饭店；第一家拥有自己的培训学校的饭店，丽都也因此被誉为北京酒店业的"黄埔军校"……20年中，丽都也写下了许多"之最"――曾为全球最大的一家 "假日"酒店，并拥有最多的客房数量；最早拥有，且经营各国风味食品最全的超市的饭店；最早拥有国际幼儿园的饭店；最早拥有，且曾为北京最大的保龄球场的饭店；曾为拥有世界各地美食餐厅最多的饭店之一……

丽都饭店见证了中国饭店业20年发展的历史，也筑就了中国饭店业的辉煌。