PERSONALITY PROFILE

Asif Raza - a man with mindfulness

It has been a busy few months for Asif Raza, general manager of the Hyatt Regency Cape Town, which opened mid-December. The hospitality fundi has had plenty of international travel in the run-up to his appointment at the new hotel.

Aside from overseeing the hotel’s transition into a new skin, instilling the Hyatt’s high-touch global ethos, and personally vetting each member of his staff, Mr Raza’s been relocating his family to a part of the world that is new to him, all the while taking time getting to know the Bo-Kaap community, where the hotel is situated.

He has done all of this at a remarkable time in history.

For Mr Raza, all that long-distance travel has meant lots of Covid-19 testing – twenty tests in all so far, each one negative.

He puts it down to awareness. “One way to stay safe,” he said, “is to be mindful.” Indeed, when you meet him, he’s careful to maintain a respectful distance, refrains from habitually sticking out his hand to shake yours, and carries a pocket-size sanitiser.

He’s methodical, too. He not only cleans his cell phone whenever he returns to his office, but assiduously uses wet wipes to sanitise his (and his family’s) airplane seats before he sits down, whenever he boards a flight. He said that being mindful is second nature – his job has taught him to pay attention. Not only to his own conduct, but also to other people.

That holds true whether he is looking after his own children when they’re flying with him or looking out for guests staying in his hotel.

Being aware in this way becomes instinctive, Mr Raza said, when your job is dedicated to taking care of others. And it is not about following a routine or protocol so much as being sharply attuned to the subtle needs of people who walk into your hotel. How else to know how best to serve them?

Mr Raza said that he thrives in the hotel business, never tiring of what he does, because he finds that making people happy is not only easy but energising.

Mr Raza is unique in that he came to hospitality not by accident, but by design. As a boy, growing up in Pakistan, his father regularly attended important meetings, and these would often be conducted in five-star hotels. Mr Raza often accompanied his dad, and he said that while he waited, he was awed by what these places offered: a sense of wonder that distinguished them from ordinary life.

He knew from an early age that he wanted to work in luxury hotels; he wanted to share that sense of wonder with others.

By way of hotel school in Switzerland, he landed his first significant hotel position in Telluride, Colorado. “I was the only person in that town who was still wearing a formal dress coming from London but quickly adapted to the mountain living. I learned to snowboard and when there wasn’t snow, there was golf!”

Despite never having visited Cape Town before, when the opportunity to manage the Hyatt Regency came up, he said he jumped at the chance to be somewhere new and recognised this as a globally important city. His managerial lineage includes a variety of large Hyatt properties across the Middle East, including hotels in important business, leisure and pilgrimage destinations such as Dubai, Jeddah, Riyadh, Muscat, and Makkah, where he’s been general manager since 2017.

He has, in the short time since opening, focused considerably on channelling the Hyatt’s “people first” philosophy into every aspect of the hotel. That human touch, Mr Raza said, extends not only to the way staff and guests are treated, but also to the relationship with the local community. Situated at the edge of the Bo-Kaap, the Hyatt Regency aims to be recognised as an active and significant part of what is essentially Cape Town’s most historic quarter. Not only a vital neighbourhood with deep heritage rooted in a robust and vibrant culture, the Bo-Kaap is also an important tourist destination.

Mr Raza said that building a strong connection between the hotel and the local neighbourhood is a priority for him and his team. “Not only are we a part of the Bo-Kaap community, but our guests get to enjoy close-quarters access to its cobblestone streets, its shops and walking tours, its famously picturesque façades, and its historic mosques. Plus, they’ll have opportunities to sample the local cuisine.”

And, while guests are within walking distance of several Bo-Kaap food stops, the hotel is destined to be a hub for quality Halaal dining within the community. Its 126 Cape Kitchen & Café, situated just off the lobby on the hotel’s ground floor, is headed up by chef Keith Frisley, previously of the Four Seasons Westcliff in Johannesburg.

When asked about the risks of opening a new hotel during a global crisis, Mr Raza said he’s hugely positive. He recognises the challenges but said that the business risks are outweighed by the opportunity to open a hotel that’s quite distinct from the majority of the city’s business-geared hotels.

Stringent guest profiling is a mainstay at Hyatt Regency, developed to help provide discreetly individualised service. This might include such thoughtful touches as finding framed pictures of your grandchildren placed alongside your bed prior to check-in.

Mr Raza, who is rather a stickler for delivering personal touches which are remembered, insists that guests are treated to individualised welcome amenities upon arrival. “Not everyone wants to walk in and find the same old fruit basket,” he said, “so rather than waste a banana or bunch of grapes on a guest who doesn’t like them, we try to find out in advance what they do like so we can provide them with something they’ll enjoy.”

While Mr Raza has only been in Cape Town a short while, he said that he’s quickly synced with it, finding grace not only in its natural beauty, but also in the friendliness, warmth and welcoming attitude of its people.