Benny Lee:I Am A Workaholic

——Interview with Mr. Benny Lee, General Manager of Suzhou Marriott Hotel

Whenever Suzhou is mentioned, the first things that appear in people’s mind are the soft local dialect and classical gardens. In my memory, this city with winding streams has special charms just like a girl from the southern regions of the Yangtze River. A prosperous city now, Suzhou has assumed mature confidence as a tourist attraction in China while keeping its historic elegance. Such a new feature is also reflected in the architecture style and service philosophy of Suzhou Marriott Hotel, the most luxurious Marriott hotel up to date. With the arrival of the new General Manager Mr. Benny Lee, what changes would the hotel go through? Grand Hotels has the honor again to exchange ideas on hospitality and the work life in a hotel with the General Manager who has served Marriott International for 18 years.

Located in the west of Suzhou city at the connection of the old urban area and the new, the high-end business hotel Suzhou Marriott Hotel, an assembly of five-star hotel, international first-grade office building and top serviced apartment, is in the proximity of the Municipal Government. The main city zone of Suzhou is the kernel of the local humanity, economy and culture. According to Marriott, it is here that the true flavor of Suzhou is fully represented. The 2500-year history of the city is not only the unique heritage of the main city zone but also the major contributor to the glory of the hotel. The modern structure of the hotel building alludes to the image of Huqiu Pagoda in the moonlight, matching sceneries of the historic city. Enhanced by the modern technology and deco inside, Suzhou Marriott Hotel has attracted considerable attention since its opening one and half years ago. Being only 5 to 10 minutes’ ride away from prestigious tourist spots including Hanshan Temple, Lingering Garden, Temple of West Garden, Shantang Street and Suzhou Amusement Park, the hotel is the best choice for tourists thanks to its convenient location. Its 175-meter-high building stands out so conspicuously in the city that people are able to locate the hotel easily without wasting much time. In addition, Suzhou Marriott Hotel offers a chance to appreciate the landscape of the city. The 302 five-star deluxe rooms from the 29th floor to the 48th are all luxurious full-view rooms where customers could enjoy Huqiu, gardens, and traditional residences in the main city zone, the distinctive scenery of a southern riverside town. Mr. Lee acknowledged frankly that the customer flow has not reached a satisfactory level due to the ongoing construction of the metro line near the hotel. The situation is expected to improve by the end of this year. Nevertheless, after we arrived in Suzhou by the bullet train from Shanghai, we were impressed by the convenience of driving to the hotel via the elevated road. With the approaching of summer, “Parents-Child Program” is currently the feature offer at Suzhou Marriott Hotel. It would surely enjoy high populARIty as a perfect combination of hotel accommodation and recreation of Suzhou Water World.

Speaking of the food and beverage of the hotel, Mr. Benny Lee, who has a background in managing catering, claimed confidently that “the food and beverage of Suzhou Marriott Hotel should be reckoned with because we have the best Italian restaurant in Suzhou and the Chinese restaurant provides authentic Cantonese and local dishes cooked by chefs from Hong Kong and Suzhou.” The brand new Asia Bistro complements to the simple and delicate garden outside. Customers would have an unprecedented double enjoyment of taste and sight when eating in the surrounding of natural beauty. Man Ho offers classical Cantonese cuisine and fresh seafood. The southern Italian dishes at Alto Vino are all cooked by the head chef personally who adds unique flavor to the food. In addition, it is a heavenly experience to sip a glass of wine in the enchanting ambience of Pulp Bar. The spacious and bright lounge bar is the largest one in all Marriott hotels in China. In a word, the seven fashionable restaurants and bars have distinguishing features and collect signature food all over the world. Customers would be guaranteed with a fantastic world trip of taste!

Having served in many hotels in Marriott International, Mr. Lee worked as the General Manager in Ningbo Marriott Hotel before assuming his position in Suzhou, where he also works as the General Manager of Courtyard Suzhou. It is easy to imagine how industrious he is as he has to deal with everything whether important or trivial. When he started in hospitality, Benny squeezed orange juice for three months as a Food & Beverage intern. Repeating such a monotonous task day after day, he thought of quitting but eventually held up. Now, as a general manager of an international brand hotel after shedding sweat through hardships, he still visits the hotel where he worked as an intern whenever he goes back to Hong Kong. With a vivid memory of his past experience, he always encourages young and new employees that “a foresight is important for a hospitality job. You should believe in your future.”

Modest and patient, Mr. Lee is vigorous and resolute in work. Famous for being diligent, he impresses others as “having extremely high requirements for himself and working almost all the time”. Within the single month after his arrival in Suzhou, he realized a fast profit gaining for the hotel, creating a new outlook for its development. Such an achievement is closely linked with his working style and philosophy. Unwilling to stay in his office all the time, he likes to communicate with customers and tries to solve problems complained by them within the same day. His style of doing everything in person has won him the title as a “workaholic” and he enjoys such a status. He said with a smile that a good general manager is like a compass directing the hotel to the right direction. His personality charm and high efficiency have influenced everyone in Suzhou Marriott Hotel. The working environment of the hotel has acquired a completely new look as staff became united with team spirits. In our chat with the hotel driver, we learned that now every employee would re-evaluate his job from the perspective of the hotel to find out how he would contribute to the improvement of service quality with unremitting efforts.

As representative cities in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, Ningbo and Suzhou share many similarities in humanistic culture while differing from each other in a number of other aspects such as consumption concepts. When referring to his managing Suzhou Marriott Hotel, Benny stated frankly that it was a novel opportunity and challenge and his former experience in Renaissance and Marriott would grant support. During his reign at Ningbo Marriott Hotel, he won the Championship in the 2010 Customers Satisfaction Survey in the Asian and Pacific Region by Marriott International and over ten awards including Best General Manager, Best Customers Satisfaction, Best Service, Best Employee Satisfaction, Best Marketing Director, Best Catering Sales Group, Best Operation, Best Construction Maintenance, Best Internet Service and Least Customer Complaint. It is definitely not easy to win so many honors and we have to admit that fortune favors the diligent.

As the fundamental things remain the same, Mr. Lee believes that “no matter how luxury the hotel is, it needs a core team for service.” Living in a delicate and gentle city and managing the most luxurious Marriott Hotel, he is imbued with all sorts of feelings and enormous pride. “We have various multi-functional meeting rooms totaling a space of 1600 square meters. The 465-square-meter Ballroom can accommodate up to 450 people.” Indeed, such a large hotel is rare in Suzhou. How to incorporate the local culture, to transmit the essence of Marriott brand to customers and to optimize the use of resources would always be a tough task for the hotel leader.

Suzhou Marriott Hotel is where the extravagance blends with the classics, style with quality and fashion with nature. Extraordinary taste illustrates extraordinary qualities. With the rapid development and maturing of Suzhou Industrial Park, international five-star hotels surge into this area. As a result, the city center is gradually moved to the east, making the competition in the local hospitality market even fiercer. However, we believe that Suzhou Marriott Hotel is heading into a brighter future with Mr. Benny Lee and his management.