GM interview: Four Season's Didier Jardin

The Four Seasons Hotel Kuwait at Burj Alshaya has opened its doors in the capital of Kuwait, and with 217 guest rooms, as well as 67 suites, the property promises to offer a new level of luxury in the Arab state. Conceived by architect Gensler, and designed by Yabu Pushelberg, Four Seasons Hotel Kuwait features bespoke furnishings and original works of art. Another stand-out attribute is the ‘floating staircase’, which shoots up 13m in the lobby. The exterior of the hotel features glass with mashrabiya lattice work in a traditional Arabic pattern, and the building is located on the city’s first ring road, on Al Soor Street, within the two-tower Burj Alshaya development in the heart of Kuwait City.

Although conceptualised by interior design firm, Yabu Pushelberg, the property’s general manager, Didier Jardin, asserts that all stakeholders were adamant that the design ultimately followed the Four Seasons’ standard. “The vision for this hotel is to be avant garde, to be slick, to be contemporary, to be a museum. Every piece that you look at has a meaning, and every little walk you take around the hotel is an Instagram opportunity. It sets the bar for Four Seasons for the next 20 to 40 years. We have beautiful buildings all around the world, but usually the latest one will set the tone for the future of the company. This one will be way up there, and I’m very excited about that,” he says.

Jardin has been with Four Seasons since 1994, when he joined as assistant food and beverage manager at the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea. He went on to work for the operator at various  properties, based in countries including Mauritius, Egypt, French Polynesia, and the US.

After more than three years in Mauritius, Jardin took the initiative to research Kuwait and the property that was being built there, and enquired about the possibility of  moving to the new hotel as general manager. A few months later, he was called in for the job.

He tells Hotelier: “I came here in October 2015 to meet with Mohammed Alshaya, the chairman of Alshaya, and then started my Kuwait love story.”

After that meeting, Jardin moved to Kuwait in January 2016. His first tasks were to put the ExCom team together, and to gain a better understanding of the country and its hospitality market. He was assisted in this by the team from Alshaya, as well as Four Seasons’ corporate team.

Nearly 40% of the hotel’s employees have, like Jardin, transferred from within the company, and hail from around the world, including from Jardin’s old stomping ground, Mauritius, as well as the Middle East. “We wanted to promote diversity. Out of the thousands [of job applicants] that we saw, we picked the best 440. We now have 50 nationalities in our team, and we are also trying to have more women in the workplace. Balance is important,” says Jardin, adding that women currently comprise 30% of the hotel’s workforce.

Jardin says that the purpose-built employee housing in Mahboula is a major draw and motivator for his team. With its amenities, which include a swimming pool, gym, movie lounge, and cafeteria, it could be “a four-star hotel”, he claims. “It’s one of the best employee housing [facilities] I have ever seen.”

The pre-opening process may involve its fair share of challenges, but “that’s what pre-opening is all about”, he says. “It’s all about promoting flexibility because, as much as you know where you want to go, how you’re going to get there is going to be different, wherever you are in the world.”

One of the biggest challenges Jardin’s team faced, he adds, was that of time, with construction taking longer than expected. However, he explains: “When you put such a product into Kuwait with the requirement of luxury, it takes longer. We have such a beautiful building — even the contractor had to learn a lot from this hotel. This is a piece of art, and to create that piece of art for a designer is one thing; to realise it from a contractor perspective is another.”

He continues: “The most important part to me [once we open] is going to be service — giving guests a memorable experience. Service can mean different things when you’re in a hotel, but what’s important is being intuitive.”

The French GM says his leadership style incorporates the “four Fs” — firm, fair, flexible, and fun: “This is what I strive for. Hopefully, the vibe that I send to people is to make sure that they come to work because they want to, not because they have to.”

While the hotel’s target market is “anyone who enjoys luxury”, Jardin is confident of the ability of the Kuwait National Development Plan, set to be realised by 2035, to further diversify the country. The priority for the hotel is the corporate market, followed by government business, and leisure. Saudi Arabia will play a big role in the latter.

“We have a strong presence in Saudi. I believe that market will come here as they know what to expect from Four Seasons,” he notes. “Even though we are a city hotel, we can expect some good weekend business. We have been asked why we are not on the beach, but I don’t worry too much about that because it’s all about the experience. I would describe this hotel as an urban resort.”

The operator has, of course, done its due diligence on the state of the market. Kuwait is expecting 570,000 international visitors by 2027, up from a 2017 visitor forecast of 368,000.

Jardin comments: “We have studied the market long and hard. The Kuwaiti market is a destination with about 45% occupancy, unfortunately. I think there might be opportunities in the future for this to grow. So yes, there are more people coming to the country, but there’s also more inventory of rooms. The question is how do you get your fair share of the market? We don’t go into the market to grab the business off everybody else.”

Jardin plans to stand out with his product’s offering. He explains that, while competitors’ entry-level rooms range from 28m2 to 40m2, the basic rooms at the Four Seasons Hotel Kuwait start at 45m2. It’s all about the experience, he emphasises. “We are not getting into the market to be the cheapest; we want to make sure that we retain quality, the promised service — and all of that comes with a price. We will spend more time and more money to ensure the quality is there. You can’t compromise on that — it’s part of the experience.”

Jardin asserts that it is the perfect time for Four Seasons to enter the Kuwait market. Kuwaiti travellers are a big market for the brand outside of their home country, and Jardin believes this brand recognition will provide a solid base within the local market. He also cites projects like the Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Cultural Centre, informally known as the Kuwait Opera House, and the first phase of Al Shaheed Park, as indicators of the country’s cultural growth.

“Kuwait is flourishing; it is the right time to come to the market. People are hungry for luxury, so [Four Seasons] is here,” he concludes.