Chatting with a dictator
Le Meridien Jeddah | There
can’t be many people who’ve had Idi Amin Dada, one-time president, dictator
and butcher of Uganda, drop in regularly for a casual chat. But when Rudolf Borgesius
was in Saudi Arabia from 1984 to 1986 - as GM of Le Meridien Jeddah – Amin,
in exile after being kicked out of power, was a frequent visitor. “We all
knew his reputation, but when you met him in person he was entirely different.
He came to my office often because he liked to speak French with me. He liked
practicing the language to pass the time while living in Saudi Arabia after fleeing
Uganda,” Mr Borgesius explains with a smile. He has met many national
leaders. While in Egypt in the 1990s, running Le Meridien Heliopolis in Cairo,
he successfully hosted an Arab Summit involving 16 heads of state and later an
African summit. “The African Summit was a lot harder because there were 45
heads of state,” he says. Phuket, and Phuket again
At the front desk | Mr
Borgesius is a Meridien man through and through; so far he has racked up 25 years
with the company. In 1996 he was GM of Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort. A later
promotion saw him put in charge of all three Meridien hotels in the south of Thailand
– two on Phuket and one on Koh Samui. In between, he moved around
rapidly - back to Egypt, then India, and then Singapore. In September 2005, he
was asked by the owner of Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort to return to help get
the hotel back on its feet after the 2004 tsunami, which wrecked the hotel’s
lower floors. “When I first came back, the tourism situation along the Andaman
Sea coast was still uncertain, and running a hotel here was a challenge,”
Mr Borgesius says. Business at the hotel improved rapidly however, partly because
the hotel has a low staff turnover; about 400 of the employees have been there
for 10 years and more than 100 joined the hotel when it first opened - it will
celebrate its 20th anniversary in November this year. Mr Borgesius notes
that every place has its pros and cons for hotel work. At one time he worked in
Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. He liked it a lot, he says - more than many other cities,
even though it could be a considerably more dangerous living there. “In some
countries, hotel staff are not good at service work, as they are in Thailand.
Here, the locals are good at hospitality. On the other hand, junior staff often
do not know how to say ‘no’ to guests when they have to. This can cause
problems, which is why we need a supervisor overseeing them,” he explains. Environmental
issues
Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort |
Mr Borgesius’s connection with Phuket goes much deeper than his
work alone. When he left Phuket for the first time in 2000, he and his wife decided
to let one of their sons stay on as a boarder at what was then Dulwich International
College. The boy stayed in the same school for 10 years.
This decision came
about because Mr Borgesius and his family believe education here is first-class,
and see Phuket not just as a holiday destination but as a pleasant place for family
and children to live.
He does have some concerns, however. “When I returned,
I could see there were too many property developments all over the island and
that there was not enough infrastructure. There are virtually no controls on where
something may or may not be built. Luckily, there are still some good areas left
untouched, and there are some good quality development projects around,”
he says. Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort itself pays close attention to
environmental issues. It has an efficient water treatment system, whereby grey
water is recycled for use in the gardens. Every month, hotel staff clean up the
beach in front of the hotel and the public roads nearby. Over the years the hotel
has won several Green leaf Awards as proof of its commitment. Yet despite all
of this, Idi Amin Dada has yet to drop in for a chat… |
