IN BANGKOK
AN ERA of sorts is drawing to a close. Kurt Wachtveitl, the legendary GM of the legendary Mandarin Oriental hotel in Bangkok, is retiring very soon – and on Tuesday evening gave a talk at the FCCT (Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand) rich with memories and anecdotes from his career.
It was a special evening for the FCCT, which was once (1972-76) based at the Oriental. AP's Denis Gray – himself somewhat of a legend and a former president of the Club who goes back to those times, introduced Mr Wachtveitl.
The 72-year-old Bavarian recalled how he first arrived in Thailand to run the Nipa Lodge – at that time the first hotel in Pattaya. When the town was flooded with engineers and defence personnel building U-Tapao air base, business boomed and Mr Wachtveitel was often "caught between the bottles and the women".
PHOTO: NIRMAL GHOSH
The Oriental was in the doldrums then. "When I first came to the Oriental it had 10 per cent occupancy, and when I leave in June I think it will again be 10 per cent - but in between we had a fantastic run," Mr Wachtveitl quipped.
Key factors in the success and image of the grand old hotel by the Chao Phrya river, include owner Ital-Thai's unquestioning support for the GM's decisions and recommendations, and the "basic value" of a close and compassionate relationship between management and staff.
"Without the staff we are nothing," he said. "Trust is the most important value... You have to earn the trust of the staff; have honesty, respect for each other and accountability – and never let the customer down."
It was important to be fair, he said, recalling how in 1969 he had proposed giving the service charge to the staff. There were cries of opposition from other hotel owners, but the Oriental's owner agreed with Mr Wachtveitl and the change was made.
"The Oriental's secret is consistency," he said. "The owners have been the same for over 40 years, and have never said no to suggestions involving capital expenditure. The staff consider the Oriental a lifetime job; we have an average service length of 16-17 years and a turnover of only 3 per cent."
He related several anecdotes about celebrity customers, some of which went back to pre-Oriental days – most memorably when movie stars Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor had their long and feverish relationship including torrid and drunken liaisons in Lausanne, where Mr Wachtveitl worked before he headed to Thailand.
"Richard Burton would fall down the stairs and crawl across the lobby to get back into his Cadillac and return to his wife in Geneva," he said with a chuckle.
Years later it was Elizabeth Taylor who saved the day, he said, when she persuaded a sulking Michael Jackson to perform in Bangkok after the King of Pop was hit by accusations of child abuse in the US and said he was not up to performing – with 40,000 fans having bought tickets.
The most memorable guests, he said, were those that gave the hotel the hardest time. Celebrities were easy to deal with provided their every wish was granted.
And it is the customers who make a hotel, he said. "What the architect does, it is just an object. What really brings a hotel alive is the customers."
And he recalled a moment during the APEC summit in Bangkok in 2003 when then prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra at a dinner had a microphone passed around the leaders at the table, requesting them to state three challenges they faced.
"I was standing in a corner pretending to be a restaurant manager," Mr Wachtveitl said.
When the microphone was given to then-US president George W. Bush, the leader of the world's most powerful nation related three jokes.
"Nobody laughed," recalled Mr Wachtveitl.