COVERSTORY
The Accidental
Hotelier
Thirty years ago, you
would have never guessed
the young boy with the
messy mop of hair would
become the owner of
Singapore’s hottest
hospitality group and be
married to a classical
violinist. But, that’s Loh
Lik Peng for you. He is the
master of his own destiny.
Being married
and having a kid
has made work
that much more
meaningful.
I have to be
honest; it’s been
a real plus.
“Thank you Mr Loh. It’s been a
pleasure,” I said at the end of the
insightful interview.
“Please, call me Peng,” the hotelier
says, shaking my hand before
placing a friendly, reassuring hand
on my right shoulder. Then, he
whips out his smartphone to attend
to the next pressing issue and, just
like that, he’s gone. Barely forty
minutes ago, the two of us were
total strangers but by the end of the
interview, I was completely at ease
in his presence and we’ve become,
dare I say, acquaintances.
That’s the magic of Loh Lik Peng, or
Peng as he likes to be known – an
innate ability to comfortably draw
you in with a wide smile and a hearty
guffaw. It’s the same philosophy
his guests can find in his sprawling
hospitality kingdom, spanning
across three countries and two
continents. And he’s already making
headway into the Land Down Under,
overseeing the construction of his
new hotel in the gritty, inner suburb
of Ultimo, Sydney.
Peng is the founder and Director
of Unlisted Collection, an empire
of hotels and restaurants that
he’s carefully nurtured. The
organisation’s inception was more
accidental than planned. In the late
nineties, Peng, a lawyer by training,
stumbled upon a run-down building
in Keong Saik Road, a former redlight district in Chinatown. He
fell in love with it, bought it for a
song (thanks to the Asian financial
crisis) and revamped it to become
Singapore’s first boutique hotel, the
ever-popular Hotel 1929. It was sold
for S$35 million this September but
Peng continues to operate it and its
in-house restaurant, Ember, which
he co-owns with Chef Sebastian Ng.
Despite the massive success of Hotel
1929 and the Unlisted Collection’s
ensuing expansion, Peng never
actually considered himself a
hotelier, but a barrister on an
extended break.
“When I first did [Hotel 1929], I
thought I would take a year off from
practice to complete the hotel before
returning to law. I guess you always
assume that when you study that
much for a law degree, you would
never give it up,” Peng ponders.
Numerous hotels and restaurants
later, Peng finally (and reluctantly)
embraced the mantle of Singapore’s
fastest rising hotelier-restaurateur
with the Midas touch.
Now, Peng is juggling an additional
responsibility, one which he
considers even more important
than managing his buffet spread of
properties and restaurants across
the globe – being a husband to his
wife of three years, Min Lee, and a
father to his son, Conor. Chortling
loudly, the 41-year-old reveals
conspiratorially that “it’s my third
wedding anniversary today”, the
day of the interview. And if you’re
wondering whether he’s planning to
bring his wife out to one of his many
dining establishments, he laughs
and emphatically shakes his head.
“Going to my own restaurant to have
a meal is like going to work! My staff
will keep asking me about stuff. No,
no, I’m going to bring my wife to a
different restaurant,” says Peng.
Once upon a time, before Peng
tied the knot, the self-professed
workaholic would have jumped
at that chance to accomplish two
objectives at one go. Now, the
dedicated father of one understands
8
Family & Life • Nov 2013
the importance of balancing work
and life, and drawing that crucial
line in the sand.
“It definitely is about finding the
balance between your daily life and
responsibilities, and the people who
rely on you. When you get married,
your family unit is an important
consideration, perhaps even more
than yourself,” shares Peng, “I have
to admit though: juggling demanding
work schedules with family life is not
easy lah.”
But, juggle he must. When he would
previously leave his office at 9 pm
almost every day, now, Peng aims to
power down his laptop and walk out
the door by 6.30 pm so that he can
head home to be with his wife and
son. Overseas business trips have
also drastically shortened from a
few weeks to a few days. The key,
according to the frequent business
traveller, is to squeeze as many
back-to-back meetings as possible
into one day.
And after three years of marriage,
Peng, who tied the knot at 38, has
become adept at compressing his
busy working schedule. He proudly
shares that he’s able to accomplish
more things within a shorter period
of time now, a shining example of
the productivity drive currently in full
swing around the country.
His secret: prioritising.
“I still have to work hard and I still
have to travel. I try to get as many
things done as possible during my
work trips, which means cutting
down on the time spent shopping,”
the avid collector of curios laments.
To Peng though, the sacrifices he
makes are very much worth it. And
it’s not just about having a lesser
amount of time to shop during his
travels. Peng had to adapt to his
wife’s living habits.
The collector has amassed a
wide variety of small trinkets and
large novelties, some of which
are prominently displayed at his
different properties while the rest
have been safely stored away in
a warehouse. If he 6