The Talent Jungle presents our featured hotelier, our "chosen one". This feature highlights the talented and devoted professionals in the hotel & hospitality industry and brings out their experiences, strengths, background and more...in an effort to build a base of knowledge and connect people together.

I had the pleasure of experiencing the renowned hospitality of the Sheraton Belgravia in Central London a few weeks ago and had the chance to corner the hotel's very capable and warm General Manager, Sofia Vandaele and ask her a few questions...

[JJ] Please tell us a little about your background and what milestones have brought you here today?

[Sofia] Well, I graduated with Distinction from Hotel School in Bruges in 1994 having worked as a placement student and later in management positions in a number of Hotels, including the Sheraton Brussels Airport Hotel. I joined Starwood in January 1996 as a Sales Executive at the Sheraton Brussels Hotel and Towers and progressively moved up through more senior roles when, in 1999, the three Brussels hotels became a complex and I took on the role of Assistant Director of Sales. A year later, at the age of 26, I was promoted to Director of Sales and Marketing at the Complex and was responsible for a team of 14 sales people. In February 2003, I moved to London to take on the role of Director of Sales and Marketing for the Central London Complex, where I took on the responsibility for a team of 20 Sales, Events and Reservations associates. I enjoyed this role immensely and was quite successful, driving the Sales and Marketing initiatives and gaining recognition not only for my Hotels, where the Sheraton Park Tower was named Hotel of the Year by Visit London in 2004 but also as a Sales Leader of the Year 2003 in Starwood’s Global Awards.

I was promoted to my current role of Hotel Manager of the Sheraton Belgravia Hotel in March 2005 at the age of 31, becoming one of the youngest hotel managers in a top London hotel, a great moment, especially because London is one of 2 key markets in our industry, together with New York.

[JJ] You've had a great career...what are the achievements in your role of Hotel Manager at the Sheraton Belgravia you're really proud of?

[Sofia] I've always championed the Sheraton Brand initiatives as well as Property Service Culture rollout - this resulted in the Sheraton Belgravia being the first EAME property to complete the brand training.

I've also passionately led a team that lives the Human Truths and delivers the Sheraton Core Values to the guests and associates through each and every interaction.

I've ensured successful financial and operational results with increases in Revpar and ADR, as well as other internal performance indexes for the Hotel.

One of my key strengths is in the development of others - I call my associates my “family” and have taken great strides to address everyone by name and to even learn basic greetings in their respective languages. This development has been clearly evidenced through the internal promotions and transfers of Belgravia associates within the property, to the Central London Complex and throughout the company worldwide. My team and I have also ensured the lowest labour turnover year on year for the past two years of the Central London Hotels and Complex offices.

[JJ] Amazing...! The Sheraton Belgravia has a great word-of-mouth reputation, mainly due to the warmth and personal attention given to guests - what are some of the other unique undertakings and efforts you've championed for the hotel?

[Sofia] Through many partnerships and initiatives, we've firmly entrenched the Sheraton Belgravia in the heart of the local community. Some of these include business with local embassies, Southbank Sinfonia, supplier relationships such as Molton Brown and Godiva, the Hotel’s annual participation in the Motcombs Street party and creating and leading the “Belgravia Book Club”.

I've also been heavily involved with industry outside of the Hotel as a Board Member of MPI (Meetings Professional International) UK chapter, and created many valuable networking opportunities.

[JJ] You're a real inspiration! Any plans for the near future?

[Sofia] Actually, yes... London has been a great experience and holds many fond memories, but I've just accepted a new position as Director of Operations, W New York - The Tuscany and W New York - The Court ...so I'll be moving on shortly to my next big challenge!

[JJ] I'm sure London will miss you! We'll keep an eye out for new and happening things at the W New York! Good luck and thank you...

Book Club Article - Belgravia Magazine



Conference and Incentive Magazine



Who's Who in Belgian Hospitality



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Excerpts from the Who's Who article responses:

A General Manager and the changing Hotel world

What is the essence of your job as general manager; and what are your priorities in this respect?
- inspire staff & colleagues to drive perfectionism in performance & delivery.
- passion, commitment & perseverance
- making sure that guests & residents relish their experience away from home ~ fulfilling peoples expectations & dreams
- dare to be different
- in my current role, running a 89-bedroom hotel, you can really approach it as running a large family-house ~ personalised approach both to guest & associates is key
- understand that you are leading a very diverse team, each head of department has their own motivational triggers
- appreciate and consider the diverse mix of cultures and experiences to which you need to be sensitive

What is essential in motivating your staff in order to form the 'hotel team'?
- realising that management is not leadership and that leadership is a lot more important
- succesful leadership inspires people to achieve more than they actually thought they were capable of ~ it is extremely rewarding to see people progress and to challenge your team to exceed their own limits ~ develop & being developed, day in & out
- excell with passion ~ talk the talk and walk the walk
- be honest, be yourself and be there for them ~ be part of the team
- have fun
- celebrate success

How do you see the evolution in the role of a hotel general manager in the coming 10 years, and how can you translate this to your own job?

In terms of reservation procedures?
- web, web, web ……………
- know the distribution channels that matter for your business, for your unit/hotel, for your chain
- actively work with these channels in order to drive the most cost-effective reservations through to your hotel ~ even as a hotel manager, work closely with your revenue manager and director of sales & marketing in order to facilitate the easiest possible reservation access for guests, whilst maintaining costs related to reservations as low as possible
- understand that flexibility remains a key word, especially when trying to personalise reservation procedures for regular guests

In terms of staff training?
- cross-training becomes more and more important
- introduction of departmental trainers has shown very good success stories, by giving ownership within the team
- development at all levels
- especially focuss on continuity and grooming people to move on whilst ensuring that strong people are ready to take over from their superiors

In terms of day-to-day guest relations?
- endeavour to personalise your guest relations as much as possible
- know your guests and the residents within the property
- focus on genuine hospitality & back to basics
- smile ~ it’s an expression of welcome, there is no cost envolved, it’s voluntary and usually sincere, it is a commitment to service and moreover it’s contagious
- take & make time for your guests
- listen to their feedback ~ leverage intimacy with currenct guests by creating raving fans ~ maximise the quality & quantity of interactions with people you already know
- very often the hotel is (especially for frequent travellers) the third place between home & work, we therefore need to focuss on authenticity of the relationships and endeavour real connections ~ make them part of your family.

In terms of dealing with unsatisfied clients?
- personalise & anticipate
- i personally pick up the daily e-questionnaires that are completed on-line by our guests, if something was outstanding, i send a thank you email and hope to welcome them back ~ if anything was not up to scratch, then i ask clarification and more detail as to what was not so good ~ if we have in the mean time changed any processes or details of our services, i highlight this to our guests ~ it shows a great & personalised follow-up to guest feedback
- also, when i pick-up feedback from in-house guests out of the daily duty managers log, i would do a similar personal email or voice mail (if still in house) so that i can ‘recover’ the situation and make them leave with a sense of being wow-ed

In terms of change management?
- in 2001 starwood hotels & resorts became the first hospitality company in the world to embrace six sigma, an internationally recognised approach that enables starwood associates to develop innovative customer focused solutions and to transfer these solutions across the global organisation
- six sigma is a customer-focused, fact-based, analytical system (approach & tools) for improving our processes so that our customers are more satisfied, our associates’ time is spent more on value-added activities, and we operate more profitably.
- it is program that is part of the day-to-day jobs of all our key players within a hotel, it is certainly not a stand-alone & separate to the operation program

In terms of crisis management?
- prepare, trial, prepare, repeat
- you never know how well you are prepared to handle crisis situations until you are confronted with them, however, the security & safety council that provides the back-bone for gm’s within starwood hotels & resorts provides excellent guidance in order to deal with threats or security level issues. We trial our crisis communication plans on a regular basis and the safety & security of our guests and associates within the hotel is of the utmost importance to us.
- overall, you can have minor crisises to deal with in your daily routine, and the key is to keep your calm at all times, share the situation with superiors & all necessary people and more than anything, use your common sense, because by using your intuition, you can often come up with the key solutions to crisis
- on a wider scale, the management of the impact of external events such as 9/11 and the london bombings, especially in terms of managing the business impact, comes down to good business practice and is a balancing act between contingency planning and maintaining the quality of the guest experience

What is your reaction to the fact that there are increasingly less hotel chains and increasingly larger hotel holdings? Does this evolution affect your own job as general manager?
- globalisation is a buzz-word of the 21st century that is definitely here to stay ~ it reaches far beyond our own hospitality industry
- this trend shows both positive and challenging impacts ~ which mostly come down to how ‘people’ deal with it
- i would consider this to be down to the brand/hotel chain itself to ensure that hotel properties and hotel property managers have the opportunity to put their own identity or their own ‘local’ flair into a hotel ~ within brand standards ~ sometimes it is all about ‘translating’ the standards within acceptable limits
- further hotel industry globalisation would/could affect my own job only positively in that it would create more opportunities for development &/or transfer, if the hotel portfolio is growing

Are there any remarks or comments you would like to make regarding the changing hotel world?
- back to basics ~ sometimes we all want to make things overly complicated, whilst the answers are sometimes right in front of us
- one of the biggest challenges i see towards the future will be to keep your individualism and continue the innovation in a very rapid changing industry & world
- wherever your job takes you ~ on a discovery of the world ~ make sure to create a home and ‘adopt’ the city you work in as your ‘home-town’

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A deeper look... Sofia on bring brand values and theory to life in real-world hospitality

Last year, on 2 November 2006, we were celebrating at Sheraton Belgravia! We were the first Sheraton hotel in EAME to finish with the leadership & line-staff Service Culture Training ~ 8 modules & 2 leadership modules, delivered with pride by our 2 ‘flight attendants’ to nearly 60 associates.

Because a journey it was, one that is still continuing up to now… as you never stop to search for new destinations within the brand development. And as Hotel Manager, you then ask yourself the question: “How do you keep all this ‘stuff’ alive and in the focus of our associates and our guests?”

When thinking back to what has kept it alive, I filter 3 key activities:
- Embrace the brand initiatives (passionately): These provide a backbone to the way you do your daily business, Sheraton-style.
- Respect the 5 human truths (& remind yourself daily). It is so simple to do, so simple to forget. But boy, what a result you can achieve!
- Communicate, communicate, communicate (it’s your story). Inspire your leadership team and your associates to use the brand voice & language in everything they do, by doing it yourself. Daily brand standards on your HOT-sheet, team communications, departmental meetings, praise & acknowledgement or coaching & guidance, find that brand angle that triggers the reminder and the recognition with people you communicate with.

If you want to measure it, look at your brand value questions in your Guest Satisfaction Index scores or just simply listen to what your customers tell you in person. Only just today, when I met a regular resident arriving for yet another 11-night stay, she said to me: “… thank you for the very warm welcome”. I knew we were doing something right, if even our guests talk in our brand language.

Dr Aron Harilela, our owner, wrote to a resident recently: “…<> … treats it like her own home and each guest as a guest at her home. I am very proud of the team at the Belgravia.” And that is exactly how you make people BELONG.

What’s your story?

“It’s a people story, where emotion & excellence blends into a unique brand experience.”
Sheraton Belgravia 2007 strategy, Sofia L. Vandaele
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A deeper look... Sofia on Family, Passion and the Power of Giving

‘Speech’ written for the Sheraton Belgravia Leadership Xmas dinner, Tuesday 19th of December 2006 (first day back after following a Leading Starwood course in the States)

People have asked me all day, how was your ‘holiday’ ;-)
Believe me, it was far from a leisurely trip, but worth every minute, even though I struggled at times with the 7.30AM start :). Apart from the Sheraton Stamford experience (for lack of better words … a true xxx) it was a very fulfilling, close to the heart discovery of ‘MY’ lessons of experience and I would like to therefore share one of those with you tonight.

I was reading this book the last weeks on the flight and during my travels, Mitch Albom’s ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ and I would like to read this out: I told him he was the father everyone wishes they had.>

The father everyone wish they have or have had …
Can I share you a story about my father?

I’ve only realised nearly 3 years ago though how many people he actually inspired through his life ~ the proof at the funeral touched my heart, as so many people really genuinely shared their stories with me, the stories on how he touched them in their lives. And this is a message about only one of the steps you all can do as leaders to inspire people.

My father never used many words and wasn’t a man of ‘grand’ conversations (yeah, he would say, your mom talks enough for the two of us). And mostly, it is not even about the words (only 7% of what people retain is in the verbal comm’n, right?), but much more about listening.

My father was a great listener.

Yeah, off course there are moments I wished he would have shared more, especially on how he felt about things that mattered in his life, what happened inside him when confronted with professionally challenged times & adversity (i.e. bankruptcy of 2 own restaurants); I would have wanted him to use many more words to say he was proud of my steps in life (even the wrong ones), to share my heartache or to say he loved me.

But then again, I was probably too fast-paced too often to take the time to listen to him, effectively listen; to grasp so much more than what he was actually saying.

It isn’t about the words, it’s about ‘listening between the lines’ (I’ll have to trademark that one), active listening too and giving someone your undivided attention. Mitch Albom describes it as being ‘fully present’, be with the person you are with.

In the end the “meaning of the message is in the receiver of the message” ~ it’s all about perception & how your messages are received. Whether you are the one talking or listening. Everyone who cares for you will always have a message for you in their ‘words’.

To all of you, I wish that you have discovered some of your own ‘lessons of experience’ in 2006, another year nearly gone, flown by; wishing that you may use these in 2007 to talk & listen to each of your teams and individuals within them. Take time for individual people beyond the group communications when you ‘feel’ they need it.
It’s not the words you use that will leave the impact, those are merely the box … it’s the content that counts, that’s your gift to them.

Do not underestimate the ‘power of giving’, especially giving yourself to the others. Morrie would say: ‘Offering others what you have to give: it’s not the money, it’s your time, your concern, your story-telling

This could not have been more true on what I learned on my course last week. And for all you each individually and as a team have ‘given’ me in the past year, I would like to THANK YOU.

Whatever you do in 2007, do it with PASSION and do not forget to tell people, around you, up & downwards as well as side-ways, regularly, how much you appreciate them & how much you love them.

Love is how you stay alive;
Even after you are gone.


Sofia L. Vandaele, 19 December 2006

To get in touch with Sofia, email blog (at) thetalentjungle (dot) com and we'll pass on the message! Comments on this blog / post are most welcome too.

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About the Sheraton Belgravia Hotel:

Nestled in a leafy square in the heart of Belgravia, Sheraton Belgravia Hotel, London offers a comfortable and intimate atmosphere. The hotel has the feel of a private residence, yet provides the service and facilities of a modern, international hotel. The boutique style allows for friendly, personalised service and great attention to detail. Each guest is offered a glass of complimentary champagne at check-in, providing a warm welcome to London. The 89 guest rooms and suites feature a distinctive traditional English décor and comfortable beds. Guests may relax and unwind around the clock in The Lounge, offering full English and American breakfast throughout the day. It’s a great place to unwind with a glass of wine or cocktail and a light bite. The Dining Room is the perfect venue for an informal lunch or dinner with a selection of classic, international, and English dishes. Sheraton Belgravia Hotel, London is located in the heart of London’s most exclusive residential district and is just a five-minute walk to the fashionable stores of Knightsbridge and Chelsea.

tags: featured-hotelier, hotels, resorts, hotelier, sofia, vandaele, sheraton, belgravia, london, uk, starwood, interview, people