After 36 years in the hotel business, as a General Manager for the last 20, he is well known by everyone working in this field or connected to it, and not only. His name is Igael Porecki and six months ago he took over the leadership of the JW Marriott Grand Hotel Bucharest – a city where his family once lived. As we start talking, he tells me about an old business card that he found some time ago, with his grandfather's name on it, and an address in Bucharest. We go back in time, we return, step by step, to the present, and we look forward to the next two or three years. But for the moment, Igael Porecki goes on telling me his family's history:
Before the Second World War, my father studied engineering in Paris, textile engineering – because the family was dealing with textiles. He and his cousin had been sent to Paris to study engineering. Then he came to Israel with the family. This was before the war, I think he came to Israel in 1936. But before then, the family had lived here, in Romania. And these are the roots that bind me to this country.
That’s interesting and I didn't know it. Did this have anything to do with your coming here last year?
This was not my decision, I work for the Marriott International Company, and every couple of years we move from one location to another. But it was somehow a dream, I would say, to come to Bucharest, just to close the circle. I also wanted to see other cities, like Ploiesti, where another part of my family came from. It is like a family history. I've never thought it would happen.
Have you ever been in Romania before?
I was here in 1981, during the communist period. It was a fashion for a lot of Israelis with Romanian origin, who spoke the language. They used to come on vacations to Romania, to get to know the language, the culture, and my father would take the entire family. My daughter was three years old, he took us to Poiana Brasov and we stayed there for two weeks.
So you came here as a tourist.
I came as a tourist and it was very nice. My mother was also with us, my wife's family as well, and I enjoyed it very, very much. My father was a very good host, he knew how to make everyone feel good. We had the best meals, if you can imagine, someone was waiting for us at the airport with a Mercedes, he had good connections. And now I'm here again.
You are coming from Georgia...
Yes, I spent seven years in Tbilisi.
You haven't gotten to know Bucharest very well yet, as you told me a couple of minutes ago, but still, how is Bucharest compared to Tbilisi, as far as you've come to know it?
I've been in many capitals and big cities in my life, and Bucharest is not very different from other big cities. It's very developed, in Georgia there were no shopping malls, very few shops, not so many restaurants and those are quite expensive, Tbilisi it's a smaller town. I was surprised when I came here, at the beginning of June, to see so many shops, and the traffic, a really developed and busy city, which in my perception was something else.
You have come here in the middle of a difficult period, and only someone with a solid background could handle things without being discouraged by the current economic situation. Tell us a little about your background and about what you have done before Georgia.
I've been in the hotel industry for more than 36 years; I started my career in 1973. After three years of army service, which is mandatory in Israel, I studied hotel management at Haifa University. In the hotel industry you cannot skip levels, you have to grow grade by grade, every couple of years. You cannot become a GM immediately, unless you are the owner of the company and your own GM. I started as a receptionist, then I was a reservation manager, sales manager, room operations manager, assistant to the GM and then GM, and I've been in this position for almost 20 years. Before Tbilisi I managed the Renaissance Hotel in the Philippines, which is part of the Marriott Hotel Group. You know that Marriott is a multi-brand company; one of the brands is Renaissance, a very successful brand, I managed in this brand for 11 years. Then I spent seven years in Tbilisi, and now I've been in Bucharest for seven months.
I believe that Marriott must have some difficulties in these bleak times, but is the recession a real threat to your hotel?
No, it is not a threat at all. On the contrary, it gives us opportunities, it makes us look at things differently and be more efficient. All crises bring also good things besides bad ones, they make us think how we can save money and do things better than before. Of course, the economy is suffering, Romania is suffering, but the hotel still has a nice occupancy level, it is not a tragedy...
You're still having nice occupancy?! That's great!
Yes, we are not in the position of other hotels, in other parts of the world, which are losing money. This is not our case.
Indeed, the first thing I noticed when I came to the lounge, upstairs, was that there are a lot of people around. There are only a few free tables.
Absolutely, and we are now preparing a wedding expo. We are expecting almost 2000 people every day in the hotel, from tomorrow afternoon until Sunday evening. Some of them are potential clients who will have their wedding party in our hotel. Of course the economy is suffering, like everywhere else, but as you mentioned, there are many people, we see activities going on in the hotel, the restaurant is busy every evening.
Do you have an explanation for that? Because I have to admit I'm a little surprised. I've been talking to many top hotel managers and most of them are optimistic but you are the first one saying that he is content with the current occupancy rate.
First of all, we are the leading hotel in town. I've been a modest person all my life, but when it comes to the hotels I manage, I was really very, very lucky. In Tbilisi, I also led and managed a very successful hotel, JW Marriott, and I'm lucky to continue with this trend in Bucharest. This is a leading hotel. Not only from the point of view of the infrastructure. You know Bucharest better than I do and you visit all the 5-star hotels. The moment you enter the hotel you feel the strengths of this hotel. This helps us a lot, we are successful, we have a very well trained staff, very well trained managers, everyone knows his responsibilities, what he or she needs to do and this helps a lot, to keep the hotel in good shape and maintain the highest standards.
What is your strategy, the specific steps that you plan to take in managing Marriott?
We have an exceptional training system. We don't neglect the training even for one day. We have a special method called “15 minutes training”. Every one of our associates is trained every day, in each shift, day shift, evening or night shift, everyone is trained daily for 15 minutes, we talk about the topic of the day. (Associate in the Marriott culture means employee, not only here, but throughout the world. Marriott treats all employees as associates, not in the sense that they are shareholders, but they are part of the business. They are not just working there, not only employees). This is the philosophy that Marriott has behind it. The Disney Company, for instance, also has good results with this philosophy, they call their employees “the cast”, like in a film. Not employees or staff. It makes you feel you share in the success of the hotel.
I heard there would be a renovation process going on.
Correct. On the 25th of January we are starting to renovate the entire first floor, except the Cupola restaurant, which will be the second stage, at the beginning of June. We are going to do a complete renovation of the Grand Ballroom, which is divided into 4 sections. When I say renovation that means a complete renovation: literally everything, we take the carpets out, the cabling, screens, technology, each section will have its own screens etc. The Vienna Cafe will also look completely different, we will have a beautiful buffet on that stage, where you see the glass table. We are planning to sell homemade truffles and chocolates and cakes, to take away. Calories! We are going to sell calories!
I'll surely come back for another interview at that time.
Marriott also has conference and seminar facilities. If I want to organize a conference and I'm looking for the right place for it, why would I choose Marriott?
Our facilities are much bigger and more diverse than those of other hotels'. We actually provide for all needs, from a small conference to a big one. We can cater for up to 500 people but also small events, of about 100 people. We have all the facilities, we have one of the best if not the best Food&Beverage department, best kitchen in town, great variety of food, everything is really at the highest level. The success of this hotel is growing year by year. The F&B department is doing a really great job. We have a very successful Sunday brunch buffet, with an average of 200 guests, and they are booking very early, on Wednesday it is already sold out, people are booking week after week. I see the same families coming for Sunday brunch. And at an affordable price: 170 lei, that is 40 Euro. You cannot get anything for 40 Euro in Europe, not in a decent restaurant, you will pay this money only for one dish, and here you get sparkling wine, soft drinks, juice, water, and lobsters, goose liver, Chinese, which are very expensive. The desert buffet is huge. People are used to coming here because they know they will get the things they like, over and over, at the same quality, it's a feeling of being at home and this is important. The strength of the Marriott is consistency. In a chain, if you go to a McDonald’s anywhere, you know what you can expect. Every McDonald’s in the city will serve chicken, hamburgers etc. In the hotel business it is a little more difficult, because we do not offer the same food in Paris as here, but the strength of the Marriott is consistency. Every day the guest will get the same nice clean room, the breakfast items, and so on. He will not ask: why did you have this kind of salad yesterday and today you do not. We comply with the brand standards, which are very strict, and we don't want to confuse the guests. We have more than 11 million guests worldwide who are loyal customers of Marriott, and have Marriott loyalty cards. This loyalty program is one of the strengths of the company, and almost every day, as I check the arrival lists, we have 20-30 people who are members or even platinum members. In order to be a platinum member, you need to stay 75 nights per year at a Marriott Hotel, which is a lot. And we have many platinum and gold members.
Marriott is going to open its 4-star brand Courtyard in Bucharest. Where will it be located and when will it open?
It's about 100 meters from here, on the other side of the Parliament, behind the ministries. There are still a couple of issues to be finalized with the municipalities. I think by the middle of this year the ground excavations will start, it will be a brand new building. It will be ready in about two and a half years, maybe at the end of 2012 or the beginning of 2013.
May I ask you if you are here with your family?
I'm by myself, I have grown up married daughters with children, they are independent, and my wife comes and goes, she comes when she misses me. That is why I'm living in the hotel. I'm used to life in the hotel, it's quite comfortable. I go to the health club, somebody takes care of me, it is not like living in an apartment. On the weekends I go to the kitchen, it's a habit, I don't know if it's a good habit or a bad one.... I check the kitchen.
Interview by Sorana MAN
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