Hotel management guru

I’m glad I ran into an old friend, Senor Miguel Cerqueda just a few days ago. Over lunch, he told me of his company’s latest projects.

Senor Cerqueda, for those not in the know, runs the Genesis Hotels and Resorts, one of only a handful of local companies specializing in managing hotels, condotels, full-serviced apartments, and resorts around the country. It is proudly an all-Filipino company too. A professional hotelier all his life, he parlayed his expertise into a profitable venture through Genesis. The benefits have not only redounded to himself and his family, it has also provided employment to many in the industry.

Many of these employees have retired from the 5 or 4-star hotels they have served all their lives. Though still highly productive, they had to bow out of service due to mandatory age limits. Senor Cerqueda himself retired after working as General Manager of the prestigious Manila Hotel for decades, so he knows whereof he speaks. He says “we fully recognize many Filipino hotel managers in senior management positions as qualified ‘innkeepers’ in their own right and are capable of doing as well as, if not better than, their foreign counterparts.”

This isn’t to say that Genesis Hotels and Resorts is all old blood-there is a mix of young blood as well to bring in fresh ideas and inject dynamism into the company. But the equilibrium that experience brings along provides the balance to this equation. Senor Cerqueda certainly packs a wallop when it comes to this, alongside his well-chosen staff plucked from well-known hotels and resorts. Being a family-run corporation, members of his family are also active in the corporation, in the company of young and bright new professional hoteliers eager to fire off in the new career they have chosen.

Don Miguel as I also fondly call my friend, honed his talents even as a young boy when he used to help out his parents run a small hotel back in Spain. These days, we call them by a fashionable name – boutique hotels – and he relates that he used to spend summers as a young boy toiling hard at his family’s hotel and missing out on a lot of fun which he envied his friends for. It is not surprising that he would end up in the hotel industry, working his way to the top, finding himself in different parts of the globe until he settled down with a family in the Philippines.

Today, Genesis Hotels and Resorts runs a wide array of properties. Astoria Plaza, a condotel located along J. Escriva St., Ortigas Business District, Pasig is one, a 35-story first class apartment with 110 fully furnished studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom suites equipped with kitchen facilities. A restaurant, bar, deli, pool, and business center complete the facilities.

They also manage the A. Venue Hotel Suites, a 29-story luxury residential tower along Makati Avenue; the Antel Spa Residences which will rise by April of this year and which promises a spa lifestyle in a luxury hotel setting; the Boracay Gold Crowne Resort in the premier island paradise which promises more upgrades soonest; One-Tagaytay Place Hotel Suites which is a popular venue for corporate workshops as well as private weddings because of its excellent climate and superb scenery. 

Lately, there’s Bellarocca Island Resort and Spa, the newest addition to the Genesis family. Like their other properties, Bellarocca is an upscale luxury resort, but what makes it distinctive is it is situated in a mountainous terrain, its highest point at 114 meters above sea level. It is in Marinduque, and the developers clearly had the picturesque Greek islands in mind when they built the resort. Imagine cliffs dotted by white buildings, a stark contrast to the azure waters and the emerald backdrop of trees and vegetation.

Bellarocca is all of 20 hectares, fully developed with 69 luxurious suites, casas, terrazas and private villas with individual jacuzzis and infinity pools. Apart from the complete aqua sports facilities, a full spa and wellness facility, there is a 9-hole golf course right in the resort. I had the privilege of visiting this resort once, a long time ago when it went under another name, and it was fabulous. Guests arrive either through private helicopters or chartered flights, or yachts. Now, under Senor Cerqueda’s mantle, I’m sure it will get even much better.

Always a place for a good man

Congratulations to Ping de Jesus on his election as new president of Meralco.

The affable Ping brings with him a wealth of experience to this new job. When he was with the Manila North Toll Ways Corp., he set the company right, made it super efficient. There are significantly less road accidents now at the toll ways, a well-traveled route and a fast one. Accidents then were taken almost as a matter of course, especially with the reckless provincial buses regularly plying the route.

Now the MNTC prides itself in having a world-class facility, with well-maintained roads and a well-planned network. Emergencies, roadside assistance, vehicular accidents, security are all addressed in a carefully laid out contingency plan. It is a neat, clean, well-paved artery of roads that is comparable to the highways of America and Europe. 

I specially appreciate the wonderful scenery that is there for the taking for all the travelers taking the North Toll Ways. The long stretches are such a pleasure when your eyes feast on greenery so lush, and your senses are calmed by smooth paved roads with nary a bump. If all toll ways were maintained in this manner, local tourism would flourish and weekends would see more families traveling together to nearby towns.

I hope they don’t go about spoiling things at the Manila North Toll Ways by allowing humongous billboards to spring up along the highway. It makes for a great marketing tool, definitely, as far as visibility and strategic location are concerned, but what about the poor traveler who just wants to travel in peace and serenity, drink in the luscious scenery and arrive in one piece and on time? Billboards detract from the beauty of nature that engulfs this vast expanse. This bounty is given free to all travelers and we are all entitled to it. Plus, billboards also serve to distract, and on fast freeways such as this, accidents are bound to happen when huge billboards of scantily-dressed women beckon from the roadside.

Anyway, congratulations again to Ping de Jesus. MNTC’s loss is definitely Meralco’s gain.

Mabuhay!!! Be proud to be Filipino.

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