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…

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