Jimmy Montenegro on top of Crimson and Quest

CEBU, Philippines - Leadership skills and qualities in the hospitalitybusiness, which is one of the fastest growing career fields, cannot be underestimated.

While it may seem like an easy thing to do, it takes some level of training and experience to be able to inspire among employees a yearning to excel, a desire to do their best and a determination to deliver outstanding service for customer satisfaction.

One such gentleman is Alan James Montenegro, Area General Manager of Crimson Resort & Spa and Quest Hotel & Conference Center. Jimmy, as he is popularly known, in his 17 years of hotel industry experience, focused on food and beverage in 5-star deluxe properties in the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam. Among his accomplishments through the years include development and upgrading of hotel standards in housekeeping and front office, resulting in an improvement in overall guest satisfaction.

Montenegro is an accomplished hotel manager who is respected by those who work for him, and perhaps the most significant element is the perception and belief among employees that he is hardworking, fair and simply likable. Lets meet him up close.

Q: You have held high management positions in various prestigious hotels, what convinced you to accept the position of general manager at Crimson and Quest Hotel.

A: After many years abroad, I believe every expatriate has aspirations of coming back to his/her home country to contribute, teach or share the experiences they learned while working outside his/her home country. It was no different for me since I wanted to come back to my hometown and work for a company dedicated to developing a Filipino hospitality group.

Q: What do you feel you bring to Crimson in terms of knowledge and experience in the hotel industry?

A: The hotel business is very competitive and is constantly changing. As such, we need to continuously upgrade or reinvent services and the manner in which we do our business. In order to do so, one must be exposed to the different areas of the hotel business and must have gained sufficient international experience. Having been in this business for over 20 years, I am able to develop, lead and drive my team to continuously meet the demands of our changing customers.

Q: What do you think Crimson has to offer to the Cebu hotel scene?

A: Crimson Resort & Spa has shown Cebu that resort hotels do not have to be a high-rise building or facility. As the only sprawling 5-star beach resort, we try to offer an experience tailored to each individual’s needs.

Q: What do you like best in your position as GM of Crimson and Quest Hotel?

A: Being the manager responsible for both these properties gives me a better feel of how the market, in general, is moving as I get to see an unadulterated view of how each market is performing. It gives me a better perspective on how the market is moving/trending.

Q: What do you expect will be your challenges in this competitive industry?

A: In Crimson, it is really to ensure that every guest has an experience like no other and to do this, we have to be consistent with our services and evolve with the ever-changing hotel/resort scene to always remain unique.

Q: What management style do you think is effective to achieve the hotel’s corporate goals?

A: I believe it is a combination of being democratically aggressive with MBWA (management by walking around). It is best to get the department heads involved in the decision-making process to build their confidence levels and let them take ownership of each goal or target set by the company. From there, I monitor their progress and fine-tune or realign where necessary. Then, MBWA allows me to get real-time feedback from the staff and guests about the various projects, targets and goals that have been set.

Q: How do you think Quest Hotel fits in the Cebu tourism picture?

A: Quest Hotel gives visitors of Cebu City a great alternative to the available options, which were high end and rather expensive, or cheap and offered mediocre facilities. With Quest priced in the middle, we offer great value with our modern and elegant facilities and a great location to boot.

Q: What can the city government improve on in order to make the city more attractive to tourists?

A: I am not alone in saying that the government needs to invest more money on the basic tourism infrastructure. A simple example would be the area around the Santo Niño Church. We need to have clean, unobstructed surroundings so that our tourists can walk freely around this area. If you really think about it, how difficult can it be to have proper signage directing tourist from one site touristic site to another and come up with a heritage walk? Nowadays, tourists are younger and like to explore the cities on their own, but we need to make it easier for our tourist to do so in order for us to be at par with other destinations.

Q: What Asian city hotel industry do you think Cebu should emulate and why?

A: I think we need to learn from Singapore where the hotels have very good working relations with Singapore Tourism Board and they focus on marketing the destination together. All programs and events are discussed and coordinated with the Singapore Tourism Board, so most of the events or promotions are very well supported or marketed by all the sectors in the tourism industry.

Q: What can the private sector business associations do to make the city more attractive to tourists?

A: The business associations can help the city in developing plans to bring the standard of our tourist attractions to international levels and review the current operating models to make the attractions self sufficient. In general, we have nice or interesting attractions in Cebu City, but upkeep and attractions can still be improved to bring the standards up to intl. levels. (FREEMAN)