Magdy Anis:The Westin Xian Arrives In The Ancient Western Capital

Managing Director of The Westin Xian Mr. Magdy Anis

　　With over 3,100 years of history, Xian was at the beginning of the ancient Silk Road and was the gateway to the Western world. Home to many Dynasties, Xian is rich in history, culture, and tradition. When asked how it feels to work in such an historic setting, Managing Director Magdy Anis said, “it is great to be here and to see the history that everyone comes to see. There is so much history here you can never finish it, it’s amazing. It’s a very good feeling. Imagining what it was like during the ancient Dynasties “It must have been fascinating how it was thousands of years ago because It is like magic when you see the Qin Terracotta Army and imagine how beautiful and wonderful these dynasties were, one after the other, the whole history is here. I come from a country with a lot of history so for me it is like a second home. From Egypt with 5,000 years of history and now in China I feel I am in the middle of history everywhere I go.”

　　Mr. Anis got into the hospitality business “over 30 years ago in London and immediately found myself interested in talking with people and every day was a different day, it was beautiful and something new was always happening and it takes you all over the world. It is innovation, creativity, there is so much and you are always with people, always with events and there are always things happening, not just sitting in an office, which is not for me. As soon as I started working I felt that this was me, this was what I wanted to do, and I like good food and wine, it is the whole thing blended together. One of my hobbies is traveling, and working in hotels, especially international hotels like Starwood, makes me travel everywhere. I worked in London, Dubai, Egypt, Iraq and then I went to Africa to work in Zimbabwe, and then I came to China and went to Tibet. It’s amazing that you can go anywhere and learn from different countries, and coming to China for 7 years I learned a lot from the Chinese. You meet important people as well. I met approximately 100 heads of state, including Kings, Queens, Prime Ministers, and Presidents and it’s fascinating to talk with them.” Once having entered the hospitality business, Mr. Anis took a Food & Beverage path to General Management. “I started in Food & Beverage in London, which is the backbone of the industry and reached the level of Director of Food & Beverage, and then a lot of competition got involved so I transitioned to Director of Sales & Marketing and I understood both sides of the business. Then I moved into General Management where I have been for the last 14 years. It is fascinating to be a General Manager because you can wake up in the morning and do what you want to do. It is doing promotions, doing things to make the guest’s experience beautiful and you do for your team as well. You can develop them and this is what we do most of the time, training and developing them to achieve their potential.It is in your hands to do it. In every hotel I go, the first thing I do is training in Stephen Covey’s ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’ so they are all talking the same language. It is a great training program and I do it for young Chinese as well, who are going to be promoted in the future to management positions. The third habit is to be Proactive. Proactive means I am responsible, so it is in my hands to be Proactive, not the environment, my boss, or my partner. Our staff understands this from day 1, that the sky is the limit, there is no limitation, that they can reach anything they want with hard work. One of the most difficult habits to teach is Win-Win because so many of us have been brought up Win-Lose, I win, you lose. In a hotel we can only win together.If one of the managers is a genius, but he is not a team player he will never be successful.The last habit is balancing life.You have to balance your life in everything you do in the 4 areas of life, which are Spiritual, Physical, Mental, and Social, and I believe you can not be successful in one part of life and not in the others. Everything has to happen together, and you have to look after this machine (your body) by doing the right things like doing some exercise and eating properly. If you don’t take care of it, you will have problems.”

　　In addition to The Westin Xian, Mr. Anis is also Managing Director of the St. Regis Lhasa Resort and Four Points by Sheraton Lhasa. When asked if it is a challenge to manage 3 hotels in 2 of the most famous tourist attractions in China, he explained, “It’s not easy, but it’s amazing being in Tibet.The St. Regis is the first luxury hotel there and the Four Points is the first middle upscale hotel. Staff is easier to find in Xian than in Lhasa because it is far away, but in Lhasa 50% of the staff are local people because we want to give back to the community and make the community feel that we are part of them. We are also a ‘green’ hotel so we are looking after the environment. In Xian I am very proud of this hotel due to the location, where we have the best location in Xian, definitely number 1, with The Big Wild Goose Pagoda in front of us and surrounding us are a lot of new restaurants and cafes and shopping malls. It is beautiful, you can go out of the hotel and you have hundreds of choices to make. Plus, The Westin brand in China is recognized as very consistent with high quality of service and a place where guests can really relax. We are introducing all of this to the Xian market. Before we opened everyone was talking about the hotel and you can see from the first month we are busy. We have the Heavenly Spa where you can get the Heavenly Massage and different kinds of spa treatments. We have 3 different restaurants, Seasonal Tastes for all day dining with International Cuisine, Mai Japanese Restaurant with traditional and Teppanyaki styles, and Zen5es Cantonese Restaurant will open soon. You can also get drinks and a snack in The Lobby Lounge or baked goods and desserts in Daily Treats. Inside the hotel we have the Hotel Garden, a sunken garden with a pool and a pavilion where we can do outside weddings, cocktail parties, romantic dinners, BBQ, and other special events, and this will soon be the talk of the town. Finally, we are the first Westin hotel to feature its own museum.We have so many things that are not available elsewhere in Xian.”

　　Mr. Anis explained his views about hotel development in Xian and how The Westin Xian fits into this picture. “There is a lot of development in Xian and a lot of new hotels are opening, but Xian can take it. We can see the development everywhere in Xian, and the future for Xian will be more and more growth. Many new companies are coming to the High Technology Zone and there is room for new hotels to come here and The Westin Xian has the location and the facilities that will position the hotel well in Xian, and the beauty of the location is that it is not exactly in the city center, which is more conjested, it’s just outside the city wall and with all the attractions around us the guests like very much to stay here, including our long stay guests. We already have a lot of meetings and MICE planned and confirmed. What really differentiates our hotel from the others is the location, exemplary service from our staff, the sunken garden for events, and our museum with many rare pieces. It is so convenient because even if you come for business for 1 day, you can just go to the museum in the hotel and see all these pieces of beautiful Chinese history. We will have cocktail parties, dinners and special events there with musicians playing traditional Chinese instruments, and whatever we do will blend with history and celebrate the history of China. It will be a complete historical night. No other hotel has this.

　　Mr. Anis was happy to express his 2 favorite philosophies of hospitality management. “I always tell my staff, if you love what you are doing, you are not working one day in your life because every day when you wake up you do what you love, and that is how I look at the last 30 years of my life.One of the questions all hotel management teams ask is, ‘how can we increase profit?’I believe that if you excite your staff, you look after them, they will excite and look after your guests, the guests will come back and you will make more profit and that’s all.

　　Every day you should wake up and say ‘how can I make them excited, how can I look after my team?’ They will do the same, they will look after the guests and the guests will keep coming back, you will make more profit. This is the only equation. I think we have one of the best staff, not only in Xian, but maybe in the whole of China.They are excited, from inside they want to serve the guests, and these are the comments we get and that’s what keeps the guests coming back again and again, it’s not the chandelier in the lobby. Guests come back because of the personalized service here and success will be guaranteed, but it has to come from inside, you earn it from inside. There is nothing else.”