SPECIAL REPORT
H W
of the
THE NIHIWATU PARTNER CHARTS A COURSE ON THE FRONTIERS OF LUXURY .
By BARBARA BOHN , MANAGING EDITOR
MCBRIDE INNOVATES
Independent Hotelier of the World :
JAMES MCBRIDE HAS ALWAYS BEEN A RISK TAKER .
“ When we opened the Ritz-Carlton Kuala Lumpur , it was in the middle of the Asia crisis in ’ 97 and we had no business ,” he remembers . Currencies were plummeting along with demand for hotel rooms .
“ We were not in the best location , and I kept telling him , ‘ be creative ’ – the typical corporate office speech ,” says Horst Schulze , then company president . “ I came to Kuala Lumpur and was shocked .”
When Schulze stepped off the plane and into the airport terminal , he saw McBride ’ s handiwork : a full-sized model of a Ritz-Carlton guestroom . “ The TV , everything was there to show customers the greatest room in Kuala Lumpur . It was first-class . It was an excellent , creative sales and marketing effort that people envied him for .”
“ It was unbelievably successful ,” McBride says . “ All the other hoteliers were up in arms . They never thought of it . It was tasteful and it was elegant – and it drove business .”
Bold , elegant and successful : Strokes like that mark his career and are one of the reasons McBride was voted Independent Hotelier of the World in 2016 by readers of HOTELS .
November 2016 hotelsmag . com 23