逐梦 初心
——专访上海新园华美达广场酒店总经理陈莹女士
Chasing Dreams with Unswerving Aspirations
——Exclusive Interview with Ms. Charmine Chen,
General Manager of Ramada Plaza Shanghai Caohejing
上海新园华美达广场酒店是温德姆酒店集团旗下的高端品牌四星级酒店， 2002年开业后,凭借漕河泾开发区区域优势，迅速成长。2004年酒店正式加入隶属于温德姆酒店集团麾下的华美达品牌，2010年倚借世博会举办的契机，面对开发区招商引资需求和发展要求，完成了全面改造,华丽转身，升级为华美达广场品牌，酒店经过十几年的磨砺愈发光芒璀璨。
不论产品、服务还是设施，酒店专业细致的服务团队始终致力于为宾客营造独一无二的尊贵体验。221间舒适典雅的客房和套房里，特设女士客房、零压力舒眠客房等个性化房型。专属的行政楼层，以私密的空间，管家式的服务，高端精良的客房设施和用品，让居停体验如家般温馨。宴会厅和多功能会议室配备先进的视听、影音和无线上网等设施，是举办商务会议、婚庆喜筵与休闲聚会的理想场所。以海鲜烧烤和西式零点为特色的全日制餐厅知味轩、以江浙美味和周末广式点心俘获人心的高人气中餐厅兴园坊、以打造高端尊享粤菜的私密包房式餐厅品珍坊、荟萃东瀛风味日本料理的一番屋、和拥有现场经典live和户外亲水平台花园的休闲酒吧,以及提供星级酒店标准高端甜点料理的新园西饼屋等六间食肆,全面打造舌尖上的饕餮盛宴。酒店还拥有24小时自助健身中心、自助式商务中心多功能娱乐室、SPA、茶艺室等各类休闲设施，以期打造一家全方位满足商务客需求的国际品牌酒店。
近日，我们有幸置身于这片令人舒适惬意的世外桃源，与酒店总经理陈莹女士促膝交谈，了解酒店和她的成长发展。陈莹女士在雅高、香格里拉、洲际、温德姆等国际酒店集团旗下工作已有20年，她熟悉多家国际酒店管理公司的运作模式、酒店前期筹建及后期运营管理。自2011年任上海新园华美达广场酒店总经理以来，酒店经营业绩持续飙升，不但每年超额完成经营指标，同时以杰出的营运品质和业界口碑脱颖而出，荣获“2013年温德姆酒店集团最佳进步奖”，成为亚太地区华美达品牌酒店中唯一获此殊荣的酒店；2014年温德姆酒店集团更授予陈莹女士2014年度亚太地区华美达品牌最佳总经理称号；2015年酒店荣膺《酒店职业经理人》杂志颁发的环球（中国）城市杰出商旅酒店称号。 成就每一项荣誉背后的动力都源自于陈莹女士对她学生时代那一份初心的坚守——成长为一个优秀的酒店职业经理人，打造一家有口皆碑的国际品牌高端品质酒店。
一走近酒店，两位印度门童热情好客的服务，洋溢着酒店国际化的气息。酒店拥有在城市钢筋水泥森林中难得一见的庭院景致，提供时尚简约与中国风韵相融合的客房与美食，它所散发的这种婉约柔美气质，一如其当家人——陈莹女士。20余年的职业生涯，让陈莹女士从初入行业的懵懂女孩出落成大气优雅的酒店高层。我们的话题，很自然地开始于她所执着的酒店梦。
说到梦想，经营一家有品位有口碑有业绩的酒店是陈莹女士上高中时就有的梦想了。为此，陈莹女士不仅选择了“酒店管理”作为大学专业，更脚踏实地从基层做起，一路向上提升自我，直到如今。在她看来，坚持国际品牌酒店管理理念很重要，同时兼顾开发区的服务使命，注重服务文化，利用有限的设施和空间实现"服务领先", 也是新园酒店成长和发展中不可或缺的驱动力。
在采访中，陈莹女士就酒店管理的独到见解与我们做了分享： “面对激烈的行业竞争,酒店确立了‘提高产品与服务品质’、‘提高酒店的赢利能力’ 、 ‘提供宾客优质的居停体验’、‘提供员工优良的工作体验’四个目标,将每年度的经营管理工作分成‘市场销售计划’ 、‘服务和产品提升计划’以及‘员工关爱计划’三条主线,有计划有执行有反馈有分析有评估地有序展开，并通过市场策略、销售策略、产品策略、服务策略和质量策略,这五大竞争策略的融入，保持着行业优势与竞争力，全面达成经营管理目标。”
当我们问及酒店连年荣誉的秘诀时, 陈莹女士坦言没有什么秘诀而言,只是发挥作为酒店职业经理人应有的职责,让团队成员用心且快乐地一起忙工作享受工作乐趣而已。首先,作为一名特许经营酒店的总经理, 需要付出很多的时间和精力, 需要平衡好各种关系，整合好各种资源,既要满足业主方对品牌的期望和利润回报的要求，又要达到品牌方对品牌标准的要求，做一个坚定的品牌维护者和执行者。还需对酒店的安全负责,并培育好团队以及处理好各种关系，才能达到员工，客户和业主对酒店的期望。
而在谈及“团队建设”时, 陈莹女士坚定地表示,推动酒店成功运作的首要因素是团队建设,尤其是管理团队的建设. 管理团队的表现影响着整个酒店的文化,驱动着整个酒店的绩效.而新园管理团队倡导的精神面貌是"充满激情,善于面对挑战与压力,善于突破自我",践行的工作态度是“高效执行与敬业务实”。
经过多年的运作,酒店不但已形成了以服务为中心的政策和制度,而且也形成了以精细化管理为主要特征的服务管理与质量管理的模式.酒店的整体氛围与管理是否符合国际品牌酒店形象,是通过无穷尽的细节体现的,因此新园团队在致力于服务建设过程中,也脚踏实地地推行着细节管理。
而针对酒店业正面临的互联网行业的跨行冲击，陈莹女士表示在今后的酒店的经营管理中,运用互联网思维，突破常规，打造适合市场的经营战略，是推动酒店前行的必然之路;而针对行业刚性成本不断增加,利润空间受到挤压的现状, 陈总认为,如何在确保业主利润回报的基础上,提升员工的工作价值和体验,是职业经理人必须解决的重要课题。
上海新园华美达广场酒店即将进入品牌升级开业的第七年,我们相信陈莹女士将以她独有的职场魅力，微笑从容地带领团队,直面酒店业日趋激烈的竞争与挑战，继续坚守初心,追逐共同的职业梦想,谱写新园酒店前行发展的新篇章。
Ramada Plaza Shanghai Caohejing is an upscale 4 star hotel of Wyndham Hotel Group. Launched in 2002, it experienced phenomenal growth with geographically advantageous location in Caohejing Hi-tech Park and joined Ramada Worldwide of Wyndham Hotel Group in 2004. In 2010, when World Expo was held in Shanghai, the hotel made comprehensive transformations and was upgraded into a Ramada Plaza hotel, in order to meet the needs of business catering and development of Caohejing. The hotel is now a shining star among its counterparts after more than a decade of growth.
Be it hospitality products, services or amenities, the hotel offers unique, premium experience with its professional and meticulous service team. It has 221 cozy and elegant guest rooms and suites, including those dedicated to female guests and those with stress free beddings. Homelike intimacy is created for Exclusive Floor where private space, butler service, upscale and exquisite room amenities are available. pillarless ballrooms and function rooms, each equipped with advanced equipment, are ideal and exclusive venues for business events, conferences, wedding and leisurely gatherings. All Day Dining Restaurant offers a choice of exquisite seafood and grilled lunch buffet and international cuisine a la carte. Xingyuan Restaurant is a popular Chinese restaurant featuring delicacies of Yangtze River Delta and Cantonese snacks. Private Restaurant serves Cantonese and Fujian Cuisine in an elegant and intimate space. Japanese Restaurant offers a collection of authentic Japanese cuisine. There is also BUB Bar where live performances are staged and which is connected to a waterside platform with a garden. In Treats Deli, there is a delightful selection of top quality bread, cake, pastry available. The 6 restaurants combine to create luxury dining experiences. A 24-hour self-service gym, multifunctional entertainment rooms, a SPA, a tea house and other leisure amenities that cater to comprehensive needs of business guests of the hotel.
In the idyllic ambiances of the hotel, we are privileged to have an intimate talk with Ms. Charmine Chen, General Manager of Ramada Plaza Shanghai Caohejing, for an insight into the hotel and this hotel executive. Having worked at Accorhotels, Shangri-la Hotels and Resorts, InterContinental Hotels Group, Wyndham Hotel Group for 20 years, Ms. Charmine has at her fingertips the business model, launch preparation and operation management of multiple hospitality groups. Since she was appointed as General Manager of Ramada Plaza Shanghai Caohejing in 2011, the hotel’s operating performance has been soaring, exceeding performance targets and standing out from the crowd with excellence and favorable word of mouth. It became the only winner, among Ramada Hotels in Asia-Pacific, of the "2013 Best Progress Award" of Wyndham Hotel Group. In 2014, Ms. Charmine was entitled Best General Manager of Ramada Worldwide, Asian Pacific, by Wyndham Hotel Group. And the hotel was entitled Global（China）Outstanding Business Hotel by Hotel Executive Magazine in 2015. The driving force of these originates from Ms. Charmine’s adherence to her aspirations of her school days, to become a brilliant hotel executive and make an acclaimed international upscale hotel.
As we arrive at the hotel, we are greeted by two hospitable Indian doormen and exposed to the international atmosphere of the hotel. The hotel boasts a picturesque courtyard, something of a scarcity for this metropolitan city of brick and mortar. An integration of stylish simplicity and Chinese elements are incorporated in its guest rooms and delicacies that coincide with Ms. Charmine’s graceful and feminine demeanor. 20 year hospitality career has turned Ms. Charmine from a fresh graduate into a dignified, elegant hospitality executive. Our interview naturally unfolds with a discussion of her long cherished hospitality aspiration.
Speaking of her hospitality dream, it can be traced back to Ms. Charmine’s high school days when she aspired to manage a tasteful, reputable, well performing hotel. To realize this dream, Ms. Charmine chose hotel management as her university major and started her career from entry levels and got straight promotions to where she is today. She underscores the adherence to management philosophy of international hotels, while meeting the needs of Caohejing Hi-tech Park, by fostering a service oriented culture and taking advantage of finite amenities and space, which are indispensible driving forces of the hotel development.
During the interview, Ms. Charmine shares with us her insight into hospitality management. Confronted with fierce competition, the hotel aims at refining hospitality products and services, increasing profitability, providing premium accommodation experience, offering sound working experience. Annual hotel management tasks are carefully planned, implemented,and performances are reviewed, analyzed and evaluated on a regular basis. Annual plan are divided into 3 parts, namely, marketing and sales, service and product improvement, staffing caring. By implementing marketing strategy, sales strategy, product strategy, service strategy and quality strategy, the hotel meets its overall operating targets and maintains its competitive advantages.
As we inquire about the secret of the hotel’s successes and honor, Ms. Charmine replies frankly that it is the result of the combined efforts of hotel executives and its staff, with the former undertaking their responsibilities and the latter working together in an efficient, devoted and pleasant manner. Firstly, as the hotel’s general manager, Ms. Charmine is an uncompromising guardian of the hotel brand and key implementor of its plans, who must devote considerable time and effort to integrating various resources, maintaining balanced relationships, in order to reach profitability targets, meet both the expectations of the property owner and requirements of the brand owner. Meanwhile, she is expected to ensure the security of the hotel, building an efficient staff team and maintaining favorable relationships with all relevant parties, so as to meet the expectations of hotel owner, its clients and staff.
When it comes to team building, Ms. Charmine says unhesitatingly that the key to the hotel’s successful operation lies with its staff team, and more importantly, with the management team. Performance of the management team has a direct impact on the hotel’s culture and overall performance. The spirit that the management team advocates is that they are passionate, and deal with challenges and stress with courage and tact, and pushing back their own boundaries. The working attitude is to fulfil tasks efficiently, and maintain a dedicated and pragmatic manner.
Over the years, service oriented policies and rules have been formulated, and a meticulous management style has been formed in terms of hotel service and quality control. Since the brand image is represented in numerous details pertaining to its international atmosphere and hotel management, details are well managed in a practical way while particular efforts are dedicated to service improvement.
Ms. Charmine stated that it is necessary to adopt an internet oriented mentality in formulating operating strategies that cater to the changing landscape of the hospitality market, which is increasingly exposed to inter industry competition from the information technology industry. With rising fixed costs and shrinking profit margins, Ms. Charmine believes that it is a key task for the hotel executive to further enhance on-the-job experience and self-worth of the staff, while meeting profitability target set by the hotel owner.
Six years since the launch of Ramada Plaza Shanghai Caohejing, we believe that Ms. Charmine Chen will lead her team with her serene smile, unique professional charm, unswerving aspirations to confront increasingly fierce competition and meet greater challenges and to chase their career dreams and open new chapters of the development for the hotel.