Michel Noblet is overseeing the launch of 20 middle east hotels in the current pipeline, having opened 10 properties within the last 12 months.
Closing the GAP
But in a world where it is increasingly difficult to find those people willing and eager to go the extra mile, how does Noblet pass this message onto his team today? He says it’s down to “non-stop coaching” and ensuring there is no gap between his head office and his hotels.
He is also of the mindset that ultimately, it is the general manager who is responsible for the asset he or she runs.
“This asset has to be well positioned in the marketplace, successful, dynamic, with a good image, good product, good standard and good service, and more importantly, profitable. But you can only do this if you have the right GM, the right people, the right training, the right induction, the right evaluation, so it’s a combination of all things, but the manager has to be a guy who is excited by the job.
| Advertisement |
“For me, if the bottom line is not correct, it doesn’t match the expectation of the operator and the owner, then there is something wrong definitely at the top.”
Ultimately, at HMH, Noblet has 30 different owners to please and 30 relationships to balance and maintain. So what made him, after such a long and consistent career with Le Méridien, go it alone and set up HMH with his partners and friends, the Al Qassimi family?
“I’m an entrepreneur, a man of action, so after Le Méridien I had to continue, life goes on, the journey goes on. If I want to reach 50 years I have to do some work!”
A Blank Page
The move was bold, but not easy, he admits, with a great deal of adjustment necessary, not to mention the challenge of making sure people “know” your new hotels. The most important factors were behind the scenes — mastering technology and developing a powerful central reservation system.
“Our goal was not to build the greatest hotel of all times, but simply to create an experience that offers something different from the status quo. And this became the guiding force for the group that quickly became synonymous with exceptional service, respect for local traditions and harbinger of innovation,” says Noblet.
Throughout this process, his approach remained as it has always been throughout his career: “Literally, every day I start my life with a blank piece of paper,” says Noblet, withdrawing a sheet of white A4 from his blazer pocket and unfolding it — the air of the aforementioned magician about him.
“When I start my day, I do not know how it would end. And that’s the beauty of our business. It’s just so unpredictable. You have a surprise waiting for you at every step,” reveals Noblet.
“You need to re-engineer yourself not from time to time, but every day. Don’t forget the blank page. Every day I start with this blank page,” he says. “It means that every day you need to find ideas, to find something that will be [unique] in the marketplace.”
This philosophy has ensured Noblet remains the humble hotelier he was when he started out helping his parents.
“For the time being it would be very pretentious to say I am going to do this and that,” he says. “I must say that my focus is to consolidate. It is not fair to say I am going to have 100 hotels — this is ridiculous.
So what we are looking for today is to deliver the very best in terms of service quality, standard and procedure and to make our partners satisfied.”
The 20-strong pipeline no doubt reflects the fact that Noblet has established HMH as a company that is both respected and trusted, but as he says, this is not the end: “The journey goes on, my 50 years of vacation is still on”.
Article continues on next page ...
Search our database of more than 2,700 industry companies
