Hong Kong & Macau with Mandarin Oriental & Acorn Scholarship
I have now come to the end of my stay in Hong Kong and Macau. I have seen a great range of properties under the management of Mandarin Oriental and few that are not.
Since my last blog I have visited 2 other hotels in Hong Kong one of which was the Holiday Inn Golden Mile (Kowloon). It was great to see and understand more about how the standards are carried throughout the world with Holiday Inn but they do still put their own personal touch on things in Hong Kong which is very limited and perhaps should not be done; service is very high on the agenda for them to help keep their place in the competitive market. As with nearly all hotels in Hong Kong having space on the ground, lower ground & first floor for retail outlets is vital to cover the cost of the business. These outlets are generally let to high end shops and in turn help the hotel deal with the cost of land in Hong Kong.
During my time I visited Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong too which is one of the funding hotels for the group and where the Mandarin element of the title comes from. It really is a stunning 5* luxury property set in heart of the Hong Kong Business district, with a wonderful range of Food & Beverage outlets which attract a lot of local business guests and a beautiful spa which is central to all Mandarin Oriental properties.
From Hong Kong I went over to Macau which is a separate island (1hour ferry journey away) and a separate state but like Hong Kong feels like it is a separate country and not part of China. Macau is very different to Hong Kong as it has become very wealthy and popular due to the Casinos. These have all developed dramatically in the last decade and it is now considerably larger than Las Vegas; its main source of trade comes from residents of mainland China where gambling is very restricted.
I visited 3 hotels in Macau the newly open Mandarin Oriental Macau which has now been open for 14 months. It offers real luxury but away from the casino’s which in Macau is something that can be hard to find due to the fact that the casinos have become such large business for the Island. I also visited the Grand Lapa another property managed by Mandarin Oriental but not under their branding name. It is a resort style hotel with 416 bedrooms but with a large outdoor resort complex including wonderful spa, outdoor swimming pool, jacuzzi, water slide, children’s play area and nursery; as well as indoor gym, sauna, steam room and jacuzzi. Like Mandarin Oriental Macau it has no casinos in the main hotel and therefore attracts more people coming away for a relaxing break but not wanting to leave the hotel.
Whilst I was in Macau I visited the Venetian Hotel which is currently Macau’s largest casino hotel comprising of 3,000 bedrooms. It has the largest casino area in town too and sees hundreds of thousands of visits each month from residents but also a large amount of non-residents coming to the casino which is open 24 hours a day. It also offers everything one could want outside the casino including 5 swimming pools, over 100 conference & banqueting rooms and an arena for artists to perform to list just a few of the attractions.
So what has my time in Hong Kong made me consider about our industry. It made me consider the working culture of staff and how it varies in Hong Kong and Macau, and from speaking with people throughout Asia, compared to the UK. Also the fact so much of our industry is now international whether it be MacDonald’s, Starbucks or L’Occitane toiletries.