Marcel van Aelst is the only non-Japanese director on the board of Okura Hotels. He tells ABTN about working for the luxury hotel chain which is now planning to expand into London and Paris
Marcel van Aelst, general manager of the Okura Amsterdam, is proud to point out his hotel is doubly unique. It is not only the only Okura property in Europe but the hotel is also alone in having two restaurants with Michelin stars.
Ciel Blue, its French restaurant on the 23rd floor has two stars - the only one in the Dutch capital which has - while the one-star Yamazato is the only Japanese restaurant in Europe which has any Michelin stars. Unusually for a hotel, but not in this case unsurprisingly, the Okura Amsterdam gets 60% of its revenue from food and beverage (F&B).
The hotel has been an outstanding fixture in Amsterdam since it opened, with Mr van Aelst already working there, in 1970. Okura had opened its first property, the luxurious Hotel Okura in Tokyo in 1962 and the Amsterdam hotel became its second property.
But after that it concentrated its expansion in the Far East in Japan, Hong Kong, China and South Korea, leaving Amsterdam as its only outpost in Europe. That might soon change as Mr van Aelst, in another of his roles for the company, is in charges of international expansion and busily looking for properties in London, Paris and possibly New York.
But the Amsterdam property will be a hard act to follow. Apart from its Michelin stars, it has 301 rooms - it used to be 400 but the number was cut in order to provide space for larger bathrooms - a range of suites which cost up to €10,000 a night and are usually occupied by pop stars, heads of state or the chiefs of major companies, two other restaurants and substantial meeting and banqueting facilities. Its spa and beauty area naturally has the largest indoor pool in the city.
Like many large hotels, there is always something happening in terms of re-furbishment or additional facilities. It has just finished a €3.5m renovation of its lobby area and is now building a "culinary studio" where young chefs can learn about French and Japanese cooking. It was a "comfortable feeling" both owning and managing the hotels and there was no need to go to the bank to raise cash for such projects, Mr van Aelst said.
The hotel is located near the Amstel Canal - it has its own boat there - and is just over ten minutes from the city centre in Dam Square. For its business guests it is close to the Zuidas business district, where banks like ABN Amro and ING are based, and to the RAI Convention Centre. For its leisure guests, it is a few minutes from the Van Gogh Museum, the Rijksmuseum and the Concertbegouw.
"The majority of our guests are business travellers although a number of corporations are not allowing their staff to stay in five-star hotels. So we have fewer business travellers at the moment but it is coming back. I am sure it is coming back," he said.
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Okura Amsterdam |
But the compensation is that the number of leisure guests is holding firm. "We have a lot of people coming on healthy weekend packages. They have a Japanese lunch, go to a concert, have a French dinner and then the next day they go to the fitness centre.
"We enjoy a nice business from this, especially from the Concertbegouw as most conductors and soloists, 90% of the Japanese virtuosos, stay with us," he said.
The hotel's meetings facilities include two board rooms which take from 12 to 16 people, one room which takes 750 for cocktails but can be divided into three separate rooms and the Grand Ballroom. This can take more than 1,000 theatre style but can also be split into five smaller rooms.
"This business has dropped off as well," he said. "These business meetings were our bread and butter. But I do see light at the end of the tunnel. Bookings for the RAI look very promising and there have been no cancellations this year or so far next."
He said the city had enjoyed some phenomenal years recently and had to take the good years with the bad. "But I think we are over the worst. The Japanese economy is not too bad and the American banks are not too bad. I am not an economist but I have the feeling that things are getting better," he said.
Mr van Aelst's various roles with Okura - he is also a member of the board - take him to Tokyo many times a year and there is also the visits to potential properties in his role in charge of international development. It all means a lot of travelling.
"I am in Japan six times a year, four for board meetings and then there are general managers' meetings and budget meetings. I have also to visit Macau where we open next year and Hawaii where we open this month (September) and then I have to visit San Francisco and New York." He also serves on one of the committees of the Leading hotels of the World group of which Okura is a member.
In his regular visits to Tokyo, Mr van Aelst has picked up what he calls "elevator Japanese" - just enough to get him through a conversation while the lift zooms up to the board room floor. "At the board room meetings, I have a translator and I get all the documents in English. I understand Japanese but I could not get through a difficult conversation. I can just do the easy bits," he said.
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Okura's Teppanyaki Sazanka |
He stayed a while before moving to the InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG), working for the company in Frankfurt and Vienna before getting his first general manager's post in 1982 in Copenhagen. From there it was to IHG's flagship Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco, than to open a new property in Atlanta. It became a Starwood property before the opening and Mr van Aelst next found himself working at that hotel chain's HQ in Boston.
There followed one last overseas appointment in Toronto before returning home to manage the Amsterdam Okura. He still, after nearly 40 years, enjoys every moment of it. "If I did not, I would say ‘Forget it. Get someone else to do it'.
"But I don't want to walk away when things are not good. I want to hand over when the business is fine," he said. Before he does walk away, he has one determined goal: to keep up the quality of service at his hotel.
"We have given a little bit away on rates and we have a lower occupancy. But I am not giving up quality. The quality of service is the most important thing. We are a service industry. You can ruin a reputation in a day that has taken 20 years to build up. The main issue is to keep the quality up," he said.