Untold - some of hospitality's incredible tales from around the globe.

A Dutch National and as authentic as they come – Christian is a truly incredible hotelier who has shaped and developed Khmer Hospitality tremendously over the last decade and a half – developing leaders, improving standards and setting in place team cultures and hotel experiences that are amongst the World’s very finest. 

This episode covers a few of Christian’s early years working for Richard Branson at Virgin and follows his journey to Siem Reap unpacking some key milestone events and talking about some of Christian’s career and life highlights. 

It runs 80 minutes and there are many lessons and anecdotes that made this such an enjoyable episode to record – Christian talks about: reinventing room service, how to get a hotel to #1 on tripadvisor, how to make a destination plastic free and why all hotels should focus primarily on guest experience by placing the guest at the centre of all sales and marketing efforts. 

Noteworthy Links

https://refilltheworld.com/

https://www.jayahouseriverparksiemreap.com/

https://www.cambodialandminemuseum.org/

https://www.facebook.com/MadeinCambodiaMarket/

This episode of Untold is with Melbourne-based travel impresario Mr. Adam Schwab. Adam tells us about some of his early-life entrepreneurial flourishes. Adam also shares how reading the law and his early career as a solicitor provided Adam with a super foundation for business and allowed him to hone his eye for precision and attention to detail which has helped steer the success of many of his businesses. 

Luxury Escapes emanated from Adam and the co-founders comprehending that their digital marketing consulting business had the potential for bigger baskets and huge growth runway through concentrating efforts intensely on the travel business.  Adam’s colleague Mark headed up Thailand to source product and the first Thailand week of Sales received an incredible response. The Khatatani resort generated a few million $ in new sales and the team had a glimpse into how successful Luxury Escapes had the potential to be. 

As well as covering new strategic initiatives for the group which include a new hotel marketplace, Adam also shares some business insights, talks about his daily rituals and drivers and covers his passion for philanthropy and how he is passionate about supporting Australia’s next generation of entrepreneurs. 

We also talk briefly about Adam’s book about the global financial crisis called ‘Pigs at the Trough’ and his new Podcast on entrepresunuarship From Zero which is looking to leave a positive legacy namely allowing potential business owners to learn about funding, resources available, potential approaches and ultimately to inspiring them to launch and grow a business. Enjoy Untold with Adam Schwab!

This episode follows the career of the dynamic larger than life character, Showtune Shane Jameson.

From Country Victoria, Shane studied Hospitality in Melbourne as well as honing his love for fine coffee running Hudson's Coffee early each morning next to the Stock Market - providing caffeine and a refuge for traders looking for a much needed break.

Shane then headed to the Middle East, taking up a banqueting position at Jebel Ali Resort and Spa for the princely sum of 1,000 Dirhams a month.

Shane moved into Sales and his career really started to take off. Under the mentorship of David Thompson, Shane learned the leisure business inside out travelling the globe promoting the resort and Dubai as a destination. Shane then spent time with IHG across the Indian Ocean and Deira before joining Jumeirah. This chapter is worthy of a book in itself as Shane shares his experiences selling Al Naseem and Burj Al Arab and shamelessly name drops his favourite encounters with the global A List.

Shane is now in Bangkok with IHG writing the next chapter and awaiting the opening up of International travel and with exciting projects including a Bill Bensley project and a new Kimpton in Koh Samui, Shane is in his element and is leaving his indelible personality on the group.

The episodes intro and outro is kindly provided by Shane who has a residency at the Rosewood Bangkok and has a voice that makes a welshman jealous. Enjoy.

Post College Italian American Francesco followed many of his peers into the World of Investment Banking with roles in New York and London. Always a keen networker a chance interview in Ecuador on the same day of his wedding subsequently saw Francesco and new bride Brigit relocate to South America from London with Francesco given the opportunity of running a telecoms company.

Faced with a tough business climate beset with politics Francesco was transferred to head up the small boat cruise division with a fresh license overseeing the Galapagos Islands.

With the Peruvian and Ecuadarion economies booking and Francesco getting restless - a vacation discussion with his father in law Fred saw the ideation of Aqua Expeditions with the maiden launch of Aria Amazon just 9 months later. Despite the global financial crisis the launch was highly successful with the offering of luxury, design, great culinary and authentic destination experiences though leading guides proving to be a winning formula.

With Aria Amazon firmly established Francesco looked East, setting up a global HQ in Singapore and launching boat #2 - The Aqua Mekong. 12 years later Aqua Expeditions have grown to 4 boats with the launch of Aqua Blu and Aqua Nera.

This story captures Francesco's relentless energy, passion and entrepreneurial spirit and gives some insights into his views on hotels, restaurants, safari lodges, destinations as well as how he approaches management and leadership.

Following on from the first episode Pariva talks in intricate detail about her time at Marriott which saw growth from 6 to 40 hotels in India. Pariva & her team were responsible for completely changing the hotel selling landscape in the country via many India firsts: the first Marriott showcase, the opening hotel pathway, the first full sales team incentive plan as well as many new brand introductions to India. 

Pariva was subsequently headhunted to join hotel giant Hilton and to recruit and build a World Class Sales organization from the ground up. Her mandate was to create an enviable sales legacy and to create and build something new – she certainly successfully did that and she explains in detail the strategy and tactics she employed.   

Pariva then talks about her move with Hilton to the Asia Pacific Head Office in Singapore and her focus in relation to driving meetings and groups business and initiatives  in her strategic leadership role. Pariva also gives her view on diversity in the India and global hotel arena and gives some views on how female role accession can be improved.   

The pod concludes by seeking Pariva’s opinion on inbound itineraries to Incredible India, her post-Covid vacation plans and her guide to where one can find the very finest Indian cuisine in Singapore. 

In this enthralling episode Pariva talks about her early career and formative years in India. 

Hailing from a small town equidistant between Delhi and Jaipur in Rajasthan, Pariva followed in the family tradition in attending boarding school at the tender age of 4 and a half, to ensure she was recipient of the very best education possible.

The passionate delivery of a career counselling session by a visiting lady hospitality professional when she was in year 8 resonated strongly with young Pariva and set her on her journey.

Post Convent School and fully supported by her family, Pariva signed up to Mangalore University, specifically spending 3 years in Manipal. Following the best 3 years of Pariva’s life it was time to enter the world of work. Her early mantra was that: “Discipline and dedication are here to stay” and “bring the best version of yourself to work each day”. 

A productive management traineeship with International Travel House which included many shifts from 20.00 in the evening till 04.00am concluded with Pariva determining that her path was to be via sales and marketing as opposed to operations. 

The episode concludes in Delhi with Pariva sharing insights, learnings and experiences from her progressively senior roles across some of the world’s top luxury hotels and brands and their growth in India. The luxury training was particularly technical which included the presentation of business cards, in-depth understanding of design, wine and how to sell rooms north of $800 per night through storytelling. 

Another few soundbites encapsulate these years perfectly namely:

“I stuck my heels into the ground and said, I am not giving up!” and on the power of networking – “I constantly reminded myself – people need to know Pariva, they need to know me!” 

The Anand story is one of tremendous success from modest origins. Dev and his brother Ranjit setup Expotel in the early 70s and by the time they sold it two decades on it had a turnover in excess of £100m. 

Expotel was the first hotel booking agency globally and with a slight degree of serendipity, its foundation coincided with London opening scores of hotels off the back of the Tourism Act transforming it from a sellers to buyers market almost overnight. In addition to favorable market conditions Expotel managed to dramatically increase their business marketly through buying one of the UK’s first telephone numbers when a US company IRL retreated from the UK market despite having conducted a year long campaign in the Evening Standard promoting the very number that Expotel purchased. 

Other pioneering business practices included the inception of the corporate rate, the London hotel wallchart, the foundation of the Hotel Booking Agency Association, commission on catering bookings and many more. 

Dev was also one of the first adopters and sellers of corporate hospitality and he tells the tale of how this started and its transition from sketchy cash in hand deals to the purchase of Keith Prowse, complete with Royal Warrant which still today remains a leader in global corporate hospitality from many groundbreaking innovations started by Dev. 

Dev reviews some of Impetus Marketing’s stand-out successes and concludes by talking about how business has been for the past decade as an active hotel broker through his company The Hotel Property Team. 

The episode contains Incredible insights and anecdotes which span five decades and with no sign of slowing down, debonair Dev continues to be at the heart of the industry – continuing to liaise with hotel buyers, sellers, agents and development professionals with his trademark humour and eye for a deal. 

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This episode of Untold follows the early career of one of New South Wales’ best exports, Mr Andrew Hughes. Andrew talks extensively around some of the experiences and learnings that shaped his approach to business and indeed career. A recurring theme throughout is Andrew’s love of storytelling and the importance he places on it.    

Andrew truly caught the travel bug as an 18 year old. Skillfully winning a place on a Rotary exchange programme, and financially supported by his proud pom parents with extra spending money from shifts at his local McDonalds, Andrew headed off to spend time in Northern Germany. During the early weeks of the exchange, the highlight of each day was the noise of the letterbox, triggering a Pavlovian-like response from Andrew as it meant fresh letters from family and friends had arrived to help combat his homesickness.   

A post Uni exchange to Southern Germany was followed up with a full European Tour consisting of bar jobs as well as becoming a professional tour guide spinning yarns about some of Europe’s most prominent Cities before making it back home to Australia. Andrew also talks about how he almost became a Travel Presenter and a household name across the region – the tragic events of 9/11 putting the kai bosh on this. Australian TV’s loss was definitely hospitality’s gain.   

Andrew talks about his early days as a hotelier with Best Western and how his career changed gears when he joined IHG Australasia in a business development role. 

Then Dubai came calling – Andrew joined Atlantis Dubai and in this career defining pre-opening role was ideally placed to hone and develop his love of storytelling taking it to the next level. With Atlantis the Palm successfully positioned and launched, Andrew teamed up with Mike Scully at Seven Tides. 

This edition of Untold is with luxury travel market and community builder, Serge Dive. 

Serge talks about his early career and how after studying Financial management at the university which should have led him to a career in Investment Banking, he joined the Ministry of Finance to hold a wide variety of international events promoting France’s many greatest exports including, fashion, technology and french gastronomy over the globe. 

Following such a successful event in the UAE, Serge was headhunted by the Government of Dubai and became a Deputy Director in Paris where continued success led to the Government asking Serge to also take up the reigns for promoting Dubai Tourism. With Serge’s passion for pleasing people the move into the travel industry was inspired.  

Amongst the travel landscape, Serge spotted a gap in the market and with both the vision and fortitude launched what has become an iconic show – ILTM on the Cote D’Azur in Cannes. Following the show’s tremendous success, Serge expanded the show taking it to Shanghai with ILTM Asia in 2008. 

Following the sale of ILTM to Reed, Serge did not slow down and has become even more prolific with successful shows under his company banner This is Beyond including: LE Miami, We are Africa, Pure Life Experiences and Further East. Serge covers all of these shows with tremendous illustrative narrative and conveys with passion how these events are driven by purpose and how they have built genuine communities. 

Never standing still and always innovating Serge also talks about 2021 and the recent announcement of This is Beyond, Private Members Club called the House of Beyond (www.thehouseofbeyond.com) as well as hinting at 3 new events to launch – watch this space.