GENERAL MANAGER PALACE HOTEL TOKYO
LAGNIAPPE
MASARU WATANABE ,
GENERAL MANAGER PALACE HOTEL TOKYO
Masaru Watanabe was deeply involved in creating the Palace Hotel Tokyo , a ground-up replacement of the Palace built in 1961 . Starting as a bellman 30 years ago , Watanabe worked front desk , housekeeping , F & B and sales positions before becoming GM for the reopening in 2012 . He manages 700 employees at one of the few independents in Tokyo ’ s red-hot market .
HOTELS : You are a rarity : 30 years at the same hotel .
Masaru Watanabe : I love this hotel . I love the company . So I do not think about moving to other opportunities .
H : Where do your guests come from ?
MW : Seventy percent of our guests are from the U . S . and Europe … They ’ re coming into the city to enjoy the weekend , so we showed that we can shift our business model from business-centric to more leisure . Our rooms , banquets , restaurants and events all contribute equally to our overall revenue . So our challenge is to be rated among the top in each area .
H : How do you keep continuity in the culture ?
MW : I think it might come from our history because , as a hotel , we ’ re only six years old , but as a hotel company we ’ re over 50 years old . When we opened as a new hotel in 2012 , more than half of the staff were from the original hotel ... That ’ s what leads to the Japanese atmosphere , or our service style .
H : How would you describe your management style ?
MW : I think that the most important thing is communication ( with younger colleagues ), I try to hear feedback from them , and not speak too much .
H : How has the job changed you ?
MW : I have always thought that it is important to maintain or control my work-life balance . However , since I became a GM , the sense of working life has become stronger . I ’ m always thinking about hotels ... and then , to my surprise , I am coming to actually overlap my personal life with my professional life .
H : What are you reading ?
MW : Mostly I like to read Japanese history books . Samurai warriors … It ’ s very much related to the hotel business . Samurais have ( bushido ), a song of determination and of faith . I think you learn about human relationships , such as the teacher-student relationship or the relationship with junior staff or colleagues .
H : Where do you find inspiration ?
MW : Many fashion brands have a very good sense of themselves , and that they have strongly established identities that are not easily influenced by passing trends .
H : As a young hotelier , you spent a paycheck on a pair of shoes in order to dress as well as your well-dressed guests .
MW : I learned fashion from our guests .
H : And you still have the shoes .
MW : Yes . I ’ ve changed the soles four times already .
64 hotelsmag . com September 2017