TRENDING
executive who oversees the Shinta Mani Foundation , which aids the less fortunate in Cambodian communities where ecoconscious Shinta Mani Hotels are located . “ Our footprint should be small ; our sense of community should be huge ,” he says .
More precisely , Lark is the recently installed executive director overseeing operations and management for HMD Asia , the owning and management company for Shinta Mani Hotels ( SMH ), co-owned by renown designer Bill Bensley and Sokoun Chanpreda , the founder of SMH and the foundation , which is hugely important to both and is at the heart of everything done at SMH .
Among other things , Lark is focused on reawakening the SMH properties as business returns from its COVID-induced slumber . At the same time , he is involved in a very exciting 29-room Shinta Mani-branded project in Nepal with the high-profile Sherpa family and its Sherpa Hospitality Group called Shinta Mani Mustang Resort , which should open in October .
Lark says there is a modest pipeline for new-build and conversion opportunities with developers regularly approaching Lark , Bensely and Sokoun about creating Shinta Manis . But any opportunity must tick all the Shinta Mani boxes to be considered and Lark says there is no rush to build out the brand . “ The brand value is in Asia and the close Pacific area ,” Lark adds . “ We ’ re not going to build in Fiji and I don ’ t want to travel to Chile to open a Shinta Mani .”
But when Lark takes another breath to reflect , he can ’ t help but first think about his work with the foundation , which among other things provides interest-free loans to people in villages surrounding Shinta Mani hotels to help them start businesses .
A loan might be used to buy a weaving machine for someone to start a craft business , as well as receive help from the foundation to help place them in markets to sell their wares . “ I walked into a home two weeks ago where a woman abandoned
Tent at Shinta Mani Wild in the heart of the South Cardamom rainforest in Cambodia
by her husband with seven children and no support had received help from the Shinta Mani Foundation to get her back on her feet . She got on the floor and starting crying [ with gratitude ]. I felt like Nelson Mandela arriving in some village . It was incredible . What we ’ re doing to transform people ’ s lives is so amazing .”
In fact , Lark says the foundation has some 700 loans out in its communities right now – “ and not once has anyone not paid us back .”
All funds collected by the foundation – many coming from its guests and more recently from a wildly successful art exhibition and sale by Shinta Mani co-founder Bill Bensley – goes directly to the causes and not a penny to its administration .
Another example : 16 dentists are arriving from the United States and Canada to provide free dental care in the poor villages surrounding Shinta Mani hotels where many have never seen a dentist .
TAKING CHARGE AT SMH Of course , Lark has also been hired to run a business and as SMH grows he says it
needs a little more organizational structure , especially in finance , purchasing and HR , but without creating the proverbial standards and practices manual as training remains very hands-on and bespoke .
Among his first remits as the pandemic slowed was to rehire staff at Shinta Mani Wild and Shinta Mani Angkor , reconnect with the group ’ s travel partners and to continually engage with the foundation ’ s hospitality training program , bringing back teachers and students who eventually help staff the properties .
Lark is also helping Sokoun develop another 4-star , family-focused hotel [ maybe a new brand ] on a nearby island that is not part of the Shinta Mani brand and set to open next year .
At the property level , Lark is repositioning the Siem Reap property to better align the main lodge with the Bensley-branded pool villas . He is also better aligning marketing and branding initiatives across the portfolio to do a better job with storytelling , a prominent tool based on property locations and programming . “ Management is taking it more toward surprising and delighting guests ,” Lark
16 hotelsmag . com July / August 2022