News • 19 January 2003

What a week!

The opening of the five-star Intercontinental Hotel yesterday promises to bring new life to Paceville. Ramona Depares speaks to sales and marketing guru Alex Incorvaja

Monday: Up sevenish, jumped out of bed and straight to the local coffee-shop for my daily espresso. I lived in Rome for two years and during that time got used to my espresso – that’s my idea of breakfast these days.

Off to the office at 8.30. Am practically living at the hotel now that finally our "baby" has arrived. I’ve been in the hotel industry for five years – nine years working in tourism – and I know what to expect upon the opening of a new hotel. As sales and marketing assistant director, my main job here is to make sure that the hotel is full. There’s a whole team concentrating on sales, of course, and I can tell you that everyone is kept quite busy. We meet clients, we develop the hotel’s identity, make sure that everyone knows about us and so forth. It’s like building a house: at first you have nothing and then suddenly it’s full business.

Busy today: kept going straight through without stopping for lunch. The job tends to bring a number of business dinners with it so in the mornings I limit myself to a sandwich or a light snack. Met a client for dinner… stretched until the early hours of course.

Tuesday: Made sure I got at the office early. Sifted through the fifty odd emails that came in overnight and decided which ones had priority. I like to settle in a bit before going to meetings in the mornings. Then off to the daily sales meeting, where we discuss our goals and objectives for the day. And then it’s off to meet clients, of course.

Had a meeting with a couple of Destination Management Companies and gave them a good tour of the hotel. I could tell they were favourably impressed with the way the hotel is designed, very modern and comtemporary and quite unlike any of the other five star properties on the island. The emphasis is on modern and stylish: Inter-Continental as an international chain enjoys a very high reputation and we want to maintain – and exceed – it of course.

Evening spent entertaining as well: I like to get the business aspect of a meeting done with first and afterwards we can all relax over a couple of drinks and some nice food.

Wednesday: Rushed to the office straight after breakfast. Had a meeting with a client scheduled earlier than usual. In the last rush before the hotel opens I’m making sure that we’ve established contacts with all the major players in the field, whether it’s the travel agencies, the corporate clients or the destination management companies. We go that little bit extra towards making the hotel almost a home away from home for the corporate traveller. There’s an excellent Club Lounge that delivers that little bit more and the corporate rooms have superb business facilities. So I guess we’re quite corporate oriented. We’ve had good feedback on the conference facilities as well – no surprise there, since we made sure everything was state of the art.

Evening dined at Il-Harruba, which is our main restaurant and which offers Mediterranean style cuisine. Even here, the décor has been kept very modern and innovative and it’s always a pleasure to gaze at the surroundings while enjoying some lovely wine. Off for squash tomorrow to burn off the calories.

Thursday: Surprisingly, the day turned out to be quieter than expected. There was the usual rush of meeting clients, of course, but nothing unexpected cropped up. Hotel work is very much like that: I might go to the office with a certain plan in mind, knowing which tasks I want to get out of the way. And suddenly, one telephone call will overthrow all my carefully laid plans, especially if it’s a client wanting to see the hotel at a short notice. In these cases I drop everything immediately and see to the clients’ needs. Most of these calls are a last minute thing and cannot be put off for too long!

Still, this morning everything proceeded in the correct order.

My job is two-fold: there is the "meeting the clients part" and then there’s the administrative aspect which I usually keep for late afternoons.

Actually the afternoons are my favourite part of the day because by then you can really tell how the day is going to turn out. Basically whether it’s going to be great or whether it’s going to be "one of those"!

Finished reasonably early and went straight off to Cynergi for a couple of rounds of squash with one of the managers at the hotel. Squash is an incredible way to unleash all that pent up stress and energy – and afterwards we can both enjoy a drink and talk about how wonderful life is. Cynergi, I should point out, is another aspect of the facilities that will be offered to the hotel residents. And there’s also the beauty studio, which will be opening soon and which I have to make it a point to check out for myself. A massage is in order, I should think!

Friday: Up at the usual time and off to the office to do a bit of paperwork for a change. Had quite a number of emails to catch up on. Contacted a couple of travel agencies and then took a client around the hotel. We finished with lunch at the Eastern Breeze, the hotel’s Asian Fusion restaurant.

A lovely meal, I love the way that the team makes East meet West with this type of cuisine: it’s not just oriental, it’s Chinese, Malaysian, Japanese… with a touch of the Mediterranean. Lunch dragged until about three but then rushed off to the office because I wanted to check on some replies on my email.

Evening rather busy: spent taking care of the administrative side of things and then off for another squash session.

Saturday: Had a leisurely espresso and wandered into the office at about ten. The beauty of working on the weekends is that once you manage to drag yourself to work you manage to achieve a lot more than on normal days. The fact that it’s so quiet probably has something to do with that!

In the hotel industry you get used to the fact that there are no weekends when it comes to work. If a client wants to meet on a Saturday… well, that’s that. And also, most hotel guests, especially corporate ones, will check in on a weekend. I don’t really mind.

Had a productive day and then off home to chill out with a plate of pasta and some good wine.

Sunday: A relaxed day. Up late, had a late lunch and then decided on what to do for the evening. Due to the fact that I go to so many business dinners during the week, I’d rather do something quieter and different on my day off.

Asked some friends over for dinner. I do enjoy cooking myself and I prefer it to going (yet again) to another restaurant. When I’m with friends I tend to enjoy being with a smaller group. Had a very pleasant evening and then caught up with the newspapers. Back to work tomorrow!