Journey into Hotel Excellence: A Conversation with Giovanni Andrea Beretta

Giovanni Andrea Beretta, with nearly 30 years in luxury hospitality across four continents, reflects on his career's unconventional beginnings and enduring motivation.

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Leading iconic hotels like Burj Al Arab and The Carlyle Hotel, he emphasizes the pivotal role of dedicated teams and the relentless pursuit of excellence. His insights span international management lessons, emphasizing adaptability, cultural sensitivity and overall “Savoir-être”. Beretta highlights the evolving luxury sector, where innovation and guest experience are paramount. For aspiring professionals, he stresses resilience and the importance of continuous learning in a demanding yet rewarding industry.

You have an impressive international career in the luxury hotel sector, with almost 30 years of experience on four continents. What initially drew you to this field, and what motivated you to pursue this career for so many years?

Thank you for reminding me of how old I am! On a serious note, these 30 years flew by pretty fast, and it is somewhat self-rewarding, at times, to look back on the journey and see what a long - albeit pleasurable - march it has been.

I can certainly call myself very fortunate; this career was not my true calling! I dreamt of being a professional football player; my father envisioned me as a lawyer to continue the family tradition... I guess this "Hospitality compromise," this "Plan B," turned out to be very rewarding, and I never looked back.

If anything, the main reason for choosing hospitality, back when I wasn't really sure what to do, was the firm conviction that I wanted to travel the world. I couldn’t see myself spending the rest of my life in the same city, and I still feel that way today.

You have held senior management positions in several prestigious establishments, including the Burj Al Arab in Dubai and the Carlyle Hotel in New York. What challenges did you face in leading these iconic institutions, and how did you overcome them? 

To begin with, what makes you assume that I have overcome them? All kidding aside, specifically, these two icons have been much easier to manage than others because in both, you find teams that were (and still are!) at the top of their game. Established hoteliers who want to play on the biggest stage and take pride in what they do.

You see, too often we run the risk of forgetting what really makes the hotel: the GM may be its brains, its soul, but all the body parts and the acts and shows that take place 24/7, every day of the year, are performed by the staff. The true superstars of both properties are their people. For many of them, working in such iconic places represents a point of arrival, the very statement of professional success.

When you find teams like these, the challenges are different from other places, and they are mostly related to handling the stress of never letting the guard down, being relentless in leading by example, coping with the weight of having all eyes on you, embracing the privilege and the burden of being at the top, with all its related consequences. Basically, there is a quite "declared" requirement to be successful: in these establishments, "good" is never good enough; you always have to overreach and give more.

To explain it easily, it’s like those football teams where if you win, you have simply done your job. If you draw or lose, well, you failed. It sounds harsh, but it is not for the people who are competitors. In these hotels, to fit in, you need to have that spirit.

Thanks to your experience across different cultures and markets, what are the main lessons you've learned about international hotel management? Are there any fundamental principles or values that guide your approach to management? 

Of course, there are critical differences from place to place, but when it comes to principles and values, those are at the base of who we are, at the core, and must always remain the same: fairness, ethics, drive.

When it comes to approach, indeed, that must be adapted as needed. Unfortunately, and at the risk of sounding cocky, such a need for differentiating approaches can only be appreciated by those who have been exposed to different cultures and markets. So, I guess the secret is to ensure your message is understood exactly as you meant to send it out. Common sense (not so common after all!) is at the base of everything.

Finally, there are a few key habits that differ from place to place, and therefore it is the responsibility of the visitor (in this case, me!) to learn and respect the local traditions and customs.

You've recently been involved in hotel development projects in Hong Kong and the United States. How would you assess the importance of innovation and adaptability in a constantly evolving sector like luxury hotels? 

Well, you said it: without it, we wouldn’t be able to succeed. I was recently in Shanghai for a conference, and I’d like to quote the CEO of Trip.com who spoke (I guess he invented the term) about "Innovetionism", today’s philosophy on the importance of continuous improvement in technology, education, and business in general, emphasizing the importance of creativity and new ideas. I found the concept very interesting and very current.

In the hotel business, specifically in the luxury sector (less so in the lifestyle branch), we can get away with always being a bit "behind" on trends, since we can balance it with "service and tradition" (a good excuse!), but the truth is that the best among us are those who adapt the fastest. None of us in the hotel sector can keep pace with today’s speed of innovation.

As a seasoned hospitality industry professional, what trends do you see emerging in the luxury sector, particularly considering recent changes in traveler behavior and customer expectations? 

Travelers of my generation look for "ease": of access, of process, of transactions. Nothing is better than being able to book, organize, and pay for your entire trip with a few clicks. The less time spent on the above-mentioned tasks, the better. We want time to spend on what we came to do.

Younger and ever-increasing number of travelers are not just traveling but rather "experiencing". I assume that this new "mobile-run era" is creating a thirst for the picture-perfect, the "Instagrammable moment". To quote Descartes: "I post, therefore I am." As crazy as it might sound, hotels now have to think about how they can create these moments. I'll go out on a limb and say that appearance could be more important than reality.

It's not our credo here, but this trend is right before our eyes. Also, the disappearance of the "classical" look. More and more, at almost any level, you can notice a change in the way travelers, in particular, and people in general, dress. The trend is towards "dressing down" (and in some cases, too far down). All of this has extended to hotels where, probably to appear more approachable to our guests and more in sync with the times, grooming standards have become a thing of the past. When I started working, it was the norm to undergo a thorough inspection, and tolerance was zero. Many of us were sent home for not having a perfect shave, nails not in perfect condition, or hair touching the collar of the shirt, and so forth. While that sounds crazy now (it didn’t at the time), we need to find a balance.

What advice would you give to young professionals aspiring for a career in luxury hospitality? What essential traits or skills should they develop to succeed in this field? 

Hospitality is not a 100m dash; it’s a marathon. It is key to be prepared for such. It is not immediately rewarding. To be successful, it is important to learn sooner rather than later that we need to keep swimming even if we cannot see the shore. At some point, it will appear, but only to those who have not given up. When you are young, at times the temptation of abandoning something that we feel doesn’t reward us is big.

Finally, on a more personal note, what would you be if you were...

A metropolis/city - Undoubtedly, Miami!

A plant - A coconut tree

A work of art  - A Basquiat painting

A quotation - I’ll leave you with two (that somewhat complement each other):

"Nobody is more inferior than those who insist on being equal" – Friedrich Nietzsche

Let me finish, with a thought of mine that I like to share to stimulate anybody collaborating with me: 

"Thinking independently is the first of the revolutions, the intellectual one: a revolt against “mandated” thoughts, politically correct and ethically corrupt."

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