All articles by Ky Nikitha
Ky Nikitha
A career of a lifetime
With 25 years at the helm of Pandox, Anders Nissen has navigated financial crises, market transformation and two IPOs, establishing the Swedish company as one of Europe’s largest and most influential hotel owners. Patrick Kingsland hears Nissen discuss how he draws on a lifetime of experience in hospitality, the challenges of managing brand relations and why one will always find valuable business lessons out on the sports field.
Step into the breach
In November 2018, in what could prove a paradigm-shifting moment for the hospitality industry, Marriott International reported the second-largest data breach on record. With the UK watchdog already having announced plans to fine the hotel giant £99 million, what lessons has the sector at large taken away from this crisis and what is happening to data security questions as regulators clamp down? Patrick Kingsland investigates.
Set the tone
Held in the midst of headlines dominated by the collapse of a historic travel player and a hardening attitude around the need for fundamental behavioural adjustment to tackle climate change, as well as continued uncertainty surrounding Brexit, this year’s Hotel Investment Conference Europe felt markedly different in tone and outlook to that of recent years. Was this a welcome to the downturn? Hotel Management International travelled to London’s Hilton Bankside to find out.
City planner
Head of UK at OYO Hotels and Home for a little over a year, Jeremy Sanders is helping lead the Indian operator’s push into Europe, following its incredible success across large swathes of the Asian hotel market. Prior to joining OYO, Sanders co-founded the Italian fast food chain Coco di Mama with a childhood friend at just 26 years of age, eventually selling it to private equity-backed Azzuri in 2017.
Landscape to portrait
If interior architects are the rock stars of the design world, landscape artists are all too often treated like the backing singers. However, in a number of properties, particularly in the resort space, guests will spend far more of their waking hours within carefully sculpted outdoor environments than anywhere other than the bedroom. Michael Shaw talks to John Krizan of Krizan Associates and John Goldwyn, vice-president and director of planning and landscape at WATG, about the emergent phenomenon of the ‘landscape hotel’.
Straight up with a twist
The creation or evocation of local experience and culture has become a common feature of design briefs as guests increasingly shun the cookie-cutter model, and demand ‘authenticity’ from the hotel experience. But what does the term truly mean and are hotels capable of creating new authenticities? Ross Davies takes a look at some recent award-winning projects feted for this very quality and hears leading hoteliers, including Nick Jones of Soho House & Co, discuss applying fresh spins on old concepts.
High five
The Intercontinental Shenzhen recently revealed it is to become the world’s first 5G smart hotel, having signed an agreement with Chinese telecoms giant Huawei. Promising guests everything from intelligent service robots to VR rowing machines, could this signal a new dawn in the digital transformation of hotels and is the industry ready to fully harness what 5G has to offer? Ross Davies speaks to industry experts to find out.
Plenty of fish in the sea
Driven by a love for the ocean and concern for marine conservation, Ángel León has long promoted sustainability from his flagship Aponiente base, and within three other restaurants, including one housed in the Hotel Gran Meliá Sancti Petri. He tells Tina Nielsen how this approach has garnered four Michelin stars and why he is on a mission to open diners’ minds when it comes to teaching us how much we have left to learn about the bounty of the sea.
What’s cooking?
In a dining scene experiencing constant reinvention, shifting guest demands and a shortage of adequately skilled labour, an ability to design both restaurant and kitchen spaces that are simultaneously appealing environments and easily reconfigurable is a must. Patrick Kingsland hears from food and beverage directors, and kitchen designers, about the opportunities that arise from meeting this challenge head-on.
A clean conscience
With recent protests focusing attention on both the climate crisis and hotel working conditions, operators have no margin for error when it comes to minimising the environmental impacts of housekeeping. Isabel Ellis talks to Debra Patterson, The Savoy’s sustainability manager, and Christian Lond, head of procurement for Denmark’s Brøchner Hotels, about balancing environmental and operational concerns.