Wow factor

W Hotel general manager Matthias Vogt did not start off dreaming of running hotels.

Growing up in Germany, Vogt enjoyed sport more than academia, and wanted to be a professional in either football or running.

"I did not want to go to university, I did not like it. My attention was always on sports."

Then, at 17, he started working in hotels to help out his father's friend, who was running the Zum Erbprinz in Ettlingen, Baden.

This was when his career goals changed.

"First of all, to be a professional sportsman, you have to be extraordinarily good and my skills were not the best. Secondly, you could get an injury very fast and then everything would be gone. There is no plan B. That scared me a little bit at that time," he explained.

The short internship soon turned into a three-year apprenticeship, divided into four rotations - each lasting six months - in various departments and three months of school in between. It gave him the chance to explore different stations and jobs around the hotel, including reception, room cleaning and catering.

While a career in hotels was not his initial plan, Vogt was no less dedicated to his new dream. He went on to do another apprenticeship at a two-star Michelin restaurant before studying at the Hotelfachschule Fritz Gabler Heidelberg.

"At that time I wanted to run my own hotel and restaurant. My former boss was so dependent on the chef because while he liked to eat, he had no idea about culinary aspects. I didn't want to be dependent on somebody."

He knew too that having a strong skill and knowledge base would inspire trust and help teach his personnel.

So he went to the Dorchester Hotel as a food and beverage management trainee, where he met movie stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tom Cruise. He later met Cruise again, as general manager at the Ritz- Carlton Vienna in 2013 and 2016.

"I told him I met him at the Dorchester 15 years before. Of course he couldn't remember me. He walked with me around the hotel for 20 minutes and said: 'I like your hotel, I will come back.'"

Having begun his journey with the Marriott Group after his management-trainee program, Vogt has been with the group since 1999 and has since contributed to 12 Ritz Carlton openings across the world, helping train its teams as a certified trainer or leading the new teams as general manager.

For Vogt, the best part of his role as general manager is talking to customers and making them smile. He also enjoys helping his staff meet their potential.

"In my opinion, a W Hotel is not a W Hotel just because of the logo on the roof. A W Hotel consists of the software, which is the talents who work consistently every day at a high-level for the customer," he said.

"I like a young and energetic team, open-mindedness and open discussion. I like an open-door policy and people who don't come to me with drama and politics - just tell me what the challenge is so we can improve together."

In November, Vogt was appointed the new general manager for W Hotel.

This was not his first role in Hong Kong. Vogt worked briefly at the old Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong between 2003 and 2006. Coincidentally, that was also a time when Hong Kong was plagued with a coronavirus.

The experience stood him in good stead as W hotel recently became a quarantine hotel. To make the stay more comfortable, it provides online classes like yoga and milk-tea making as well as an in-room shopping platform to buy items such as yoga mats or XO sauce.

Vogt added that his position as general manager in Hong Kong is like a "holy grail," saying: "It is very interesting, but also demanding because not only do you need to learn things, but the approach in a W Hotel is completely different. The focus is more on public relations, media, how people perceive this hotel and e-commerce rather than maybe in a traditional hotel.

"You have a different clientele. So they expect a different offering in terms of restaurant design, in-room features as well as uniforms and the way they are approached."

While there is room to learn, Vogt made sure that he brought the best practices from his own experiences for W Hotel Hong Kong, especially the skills he accumulated in food and beverage.

The ambitious hotelier has a grand vision for his latest hotel.

"I want to bring this hotel back to when it was a flagship for W in Asia Pacific, and that means in terms of offerings, renovation, being accessible for many different customers and having exceptional, consistent services of the highest level."

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