INTERVIEW: Starwood's Stephan Vanden Auweele

GM of Abu Dhabi’s Aloft Hotel Stephan Vanden Auweele tells Caterer that hotel F&B outlets need to start considering the needs of the modern traveller

A ‘modern traveller’ could be 20, 30 or even 60, believes Stephan Auweele Auweele, complex general manager of Abu Dhabi’s Aloft hotel, a funky and fresh brand from the Starwood Hotels and Resorts portfolio.

After opening two Sheraton properties in the Canary Islands and Spain, Auweele was on the lookout for a new challenge and jumped at the opportunity to launch the new Aloft brand.

Strikingly different to your regular hotel, you’re met with a pool table in the entrance, before seeing graffiti wall art on backgrounds of teal and magenta – not the usual shades you’d associate with the luxury Starwood brand.

“The last thing you want to do today is to develop a product that everybody likes and nobody dislikes. I often joke that most hotel lobbies are off-white or beige,” says Auweele.

“I think it is just because hotel lobbies have to please everyone and displease no one. Aloft has taken a slight risk with its offering. Some get a bit of a shock but then we’re not out to appeal to 100% of the population.”

Auweele says the brand was born out of a frustration from the modern traveller who required convenience and instant, up-to-date information, without the unnecessary ‘frills’.

The Aloft Abu Dhabi is the largest in the world with 408 rooms and is conveniently located across the car park from the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.

Rooms are not high-end luxury, but they are comfortable – again fulfilling the needs of the on-the-go client. The self-serve tea area in each room features take away paper cups.

“It is modern, but it’s not modern to the extent that it feels unpleasant. As I say the first time I saw an Aloft hotel I was a little bit shocked; shocked because there are so many things that are there that are not common in our industry,” says Auweele, pointing to a ticker in the lobby which gives visitors up-to-the minute news.

“I think Aloft has adapted to the reality of today’s world.”

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And the food offering is of course in line with the rest of the hotel. While there is an all-day diner most of the F&B outlets cater to the modern business traveller – quick, casual and in a lot of cases are designed for sharing.

The rooftop bar, Relax@12, offers oriental bars and snacks and Mai Cafe encourages you to come in your flip-flops. Most interesting of all however, and another unique hotel feature, is the Re-fuel outlet, a self-serve coffee, sandwich and breakfast offering area.

“I know some who prefer to make the coffee themselves at the right temperature, with the right amount of milk,” says Auweele.

But that’s not to be mistaken with quality-cutting he insists: “One of the filaments that you see in today’s world is that people want to be in control.

By allowing people to do it themselves they don’t perceive it as low value, they don’t perceive it as self-service, they perceive it as “I’m in charge”.
He adds that by cutting out the middle man where necessary, it has allowed for cost-savings to be translated to the consumer.

“Traditionally you would go to the bar and you would basically sit down and a waiter would come with a menu, you would order a Coca-Cola. He would go back and punch in a machine and after five minutes you would get your Coca-Cola; but at a serious price.

Now the option we offer with Refuel is you come in, you open the fridge, you take your Coca-Cola and you drink it. So first of all it is half price and secondly it takes a third of the time. But the most important thing that I think is the change that you are in control.”

This change has not come easily, particularly when there is a perception of what a hotel offering should look like.

“There’s a lot of hidden things in our environment. When you go out most places, most hotel bars would offer beer in a glass.

Now when you would go to the most exclusive nightclubs, they’d serve the nice green bottle and everyone drinks from the bottle. How is the exclusive nightclub allowed to serve a bottle and in the hotel bar it has to be the whole glass thing with the whistles and the bells? There is obviously something that we associate hotel service with traditional classic service.
Those are the kind of taboos that Aloft is trying to break away from.” But is the trend a tad too modern for some?

“You have the traditional customer who wants his platter, but you have the more adventurous or modern people who say I don’t mind, let’s put three plates on the table and we’ll share. This is the fine line between catering for a more traditional traveller, customer or a more open one.”

Auweele is convinced that Aloft’s method of questioning ‘what’s needed’ and sticking to this across the outlet’s operation means it doesn’t necessarily have to be attached to an exhibition centre or in a business environment to survive.

To today’s hotel customer, free Wi-Fi, tablets for check-in and of course a bed and shower are the most important things. He adds that to the Gen-Y customer, control is what is key.

“Re-fuel, it might not be perceived as high-end but for me it is an integral part of modern luxury because as a customer I can decide what I eat and when I eat. I have that choice. And for me this is modern luxury.”

He believes that more hotels will follow this trend eventually, but first there needs to be a re-evaluation of what the hotel model should look like.

“We have confused two things in hospitality: formality and quality. Many hotels, most of the five-star hotels are high quality and very formal. What Aloft has done is disconnect the two. It is high quality but informal. What we’ve seen happen in society today is that the world has become a lot more informal. And it has nothing to do with money or disposable income.”

“I think today you are seeing already in many places, there will always be the top end traveller who doesn’t mind spending $400, $500, $600, however, I do not think it will be the majority of the people. The majority of the people still want a price point where value, money, price quality has a relation,” he concludes.