Creating

CREATING Meaningful Connections

As The Chedi Luštica Bay General Manager, Jan Albers has the responsibility of leading his team to success and creating memorable guest experiences. According to Jan, this involves building meaningful connections, continually improving the offer, and nurturing exceptional teamwork. Luštica Bay Magazine caught up with the GM to find out more on how he makes this happen.

Jan Albers is a seasoned hotelier who has worked in diverse locations that include Croatia, the UAE, Malta, Germany, Switzerland and now Montenegro. Having gained experience in many different destinations, one thing remains constant - his commitment to delivering great customer experiences. As an exceptional hospitality leader, he firmly believes that effective and cohesive human resources and teamwork play a key role in ensuring success.

1. What is the philosophy of this hotel?

Our mission is to inspire meaningful connections between guests, clients and partners alike. The Chedi Luštica Bay was born out of a desire to celebrate an active, healthy lifestyle: to experience the beauty that our peninsula’s nature has to offer, to build community, to engage with locals and fellow travelers, to work and enjoy new adventures.

2. The Chedi Luštica Bay is part of the highly regarded luxury brand of The Chedi, how would you describe The Chedi as a brand?

The core of The Chedi brand is the slogan “Where One Finds Peace”. The word ‘Chedi’ typically refers to a place of meditation and has been associated with settings where one finds peace. In the same way, The Chedi hotels are created as tranquil environments so that travelers, on their journeys, may rediscover the joys of stillness and be soothed by the calmness in a backdrop of beauty and comfort.

At Orascom Hotels Management (OHM), we have created 3 landmark hotels with this brand within the setting of our bespoke destinations. The jaw-dropping The Chedi Andermatt in the beautiful Swiss Alps, the most anticipated opening of this year: The Chedi El Gouna in

Egypt (in September 2022) as well as our The Chedi here in the heart of the Mediterranean. In Luštica Bay, a place to belong. At OHM we are first and foremost customer-driven, focusing on adapting to an ever-changing guest expectation by delivering new forms of value to our clients and of course, continually tapping new types of customers. That only works with a spotlight on service quality, creating loyalty to our brands but also and moreover to our destinations. With more than 30 hotels and 8.000 rooms in operation, we have overall more than 5.000 team members looking after our guest journey.

3. What makes The Chedi hotel stand out in Montenegro’s highly competitive luxury hotel sector?

An individualized approach is the centerpiece of our guest journey, along with being personal and authentic. To give you an example, we reach out to our guests ahead of their arrival to assist with anything they might desire, from a limousine pick-up at the airport to pre-booked personal trainer sessions, individualized excursions, dietary requirements, pre-set room temperatures, distinguished minibar offerings, planning special occasions in a romantic setting...the list goes on and is, effectively, endless.

As we strive to create meaningful connections, our goal is to create the place where this magic happens. But what is making the difference really? The team does. We have an incredible high number of colleagues who have been here since Day One, joining us before the hotel opened.

In previous years, particularly in the lower season months, we have turned our attention to developing our talent. From training to task force missions in our sister properties around the globe, we do everything we can to increase our service levels. That being said, it is a journey. Hospitality is a people´s industry. Our cornerstone is the team. Giving our talent space to be creative, to participate, to engage, and to actively participate in developing our guest experience is not only fulfilling, but also rewarding. For the guests, and also for every team member. There is nothing more beautiful than enjoying what we/you do! 4. To what extent does The Chedi Hotel focus on healthy habits in everyday life and the organic products it chooses?

The recent challenging years made us realize that we need to focus on the biggest luxury we have, the outdoors. People visit a destination not because of a hotel, but guests do come to our hotel to explore a destination; our destination and home, Luštica. We have built around that fact and have come up with a whole range of daily activities for our guests to enjoy the outdoors (and even indoors), such as boot camps, running, (e-)biking, hiking, sailing, kayaking, swimming, tennis, paddle, quad tours, even sport tournaments (like the Luštica Bay Aquathlon), to name just a few.

We have formed a recreation team to cater for exactly those needs who have become lifestyle ambassadors for our resort. One can check our daily activities and events on our website as well as by following us on social media. Along with encouraging a healthy lifestyle, we also translate the philosophy into our cuisine offerings. Sourcing local produce whenever we can is something we take very seriously, even if that sometimes means that we purchase more expensive products than our competition. Sustainability and constantly working on the reduction of our carbon footprint is part of our DNA. There is no Planet B.

5. A unique activity where you have combined hospitality with healthy habits by enjoying the morning rituals of running around the Lustica Peninsula with your guests - That’s an excellent hospitality mindset.

You’re known for enjoying morning runs around Luštica Peninsula with your guests. This is unique and a great combination of merging hospitality and healthy living, can you tell us more?

The beauty of a resort environment is the fact that our guests share the most valuable time with us and their loved ones - their free time. I love meeting and speaking with our guests, and with our weekly run, we in fact meet as a team with any guests who would like to join us for a morning run. This is not about a particular pace or distance, it is about working on a healthy habit, building a relationship with team members and guests alike, and kicking off the day with a great exercise. I particularly enjoy the conversations I have with our guests during those activities, as it is a completely different environment and type of contact with guests than what we usually have. We sometimes also go e-biking together or take a kayak. Our aspiration is to bring Montenegro closer to our guests’ hearts; for them to become our storyteller and to return home and help share with the world the wild beauty our destination has to offer. If we can pursue that, alongside a healthy habit, it’s pretty awesome, isn’t it?

6. How would you define luxury in the hospitality industry?

If you ask friends and colleagues who appreciate the finer things in life ‘what defines a luxury hotel, you will likely get a range of responses. Why is that? Particularly in recent years everyone has potentially reviewed their very own focus areas, privately and in business. For some, luxury is associated with expensive items, from a watch to a car, or in our case as a hotel, from architecture, to interior design to food & beverage offerings. For us at The Chedi it also means nature, space, fresh air and outdoor activities. Essentially luxury means different things to different people, it can be a small thing such as creating a meaningful experience or showing that you care. But be it large or small, it should create an emotional connection with people, the hotel, the brand and the destination. It is about doing things right, the attention to detail, following through on everything. Ultimately luxury has to be defined by each customer - individually.

7. And is the gastro experience a big part of that too?

A monumental one. We crave authenticity, local ingredients, local tastes. In particular when you are travelling. The food we serve represents an array of delicacies which is based on the concept of Mediterranean cuisine spiked up by the freshness of herbs from our garden. The fusion of traditional flair, contemporary culinary technologies, local produce and a holistic approach is what stands out when it comes to our food & beverage restaurants. The menus represent a blend of Montenegrin traditional gastronomy, taste and aroma of the surroundings with an Asian twist that The Chedi brand represents.

8. The international team at The Chedi Hotel play a key role in the property’s success. Can you share some insights here?

Whilst we offer legendary Montenegrin hospitality with the vast majority of our team members being Montenegrin, we effectively have colleagues from fifteen countries. By being diversified we have added a beautiful international flavor to our local excellence. This results into a multi-lingual, global expertise and cultural influence that benefits everyone in an ever-expanding learning environment. If you follow the media, it’s impossible not to stumble on the coverage of the shortage of labor force, particularly in hospitality. Although this is generally and admittedly true, the question we need to ask ourselves is: have we as an industry also analyzed the situation appropriately and asked why finding and retaining talent has become a bigger challenge year by year? Competitive compensation is only one thing, more important are training & development, a work/life balance and being able to offer year-around employment, both at Luštica Bay and at our other remarkable destinations. In addition, the team ethos has a huge impact on employee satisfaction. Showing very low turnover in our team, speaks for our team. I am humbled to be part of it.

9. On what leadership and team values is your team based? As a leader, how do you lead and motivate your team?

In hospitality as much as in any other business, communication is key. From sharing our vision and philosophy to setting clear goals, encouraging teamwork, giving positive feedback, empowering, recognizing to rewarding achievements. We also give our talent opportunities to develop, and all of these elements are key guiding principles in creating a successful and prospering environment which ultimately creates memorable guest experiences.

I strongly believe that successful and modern leadership today is influence, not authority. People doing good work feel good and people doing exceptional work feel exceptional. When that happens, and it happens all the time, let´s also talk about it. Sharing experiences and building an environment where mistakes are seen as an opportunity to learn are ingredients for a hotel to ensure continuous growth of every single team member. Maya Angelou, an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist once said: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – it very much sums up how I try to lead the team and also communicate with guests. If we touch their hearts, team members will not want to leave and guests will want to return. In some cases, being a good leader means retaining our talented ladies and gentlemen, and then getting out of their way. The more often that happens, the prouder I am.

The trend is that modern travellers want to immerse themselves in the local culture more than ever. Not long ago you’d go to the Mediterranean, enjoy the beaches and sun, and that was it – but what’s the difference between Croatia, Italy, Greece and Montenegro if you don’t have access to the local community? Now, the more local flavor you can add, the better for the traveler. Visiting a local olive farm on Luštica for example, e-biking through local villages and having a refreshing drink in places off the beaten track, spending a day in a hidden bay - almost alone in peak season - those are experiences money cannot buy. But we can help to unlock them.

Above all I also think modern travellers expect hotels and resorts to support their communities and be well connected with them. Among many of our initiatives to support our local community, we have recently established our “The Giving Bag” initiative. You can picture that as a laundry bag, the only difference is that you do not get it back - it contains valuables which you don’t personally need anymore, and we donate them to the Red Cross Montenegro, to give a new meaning to those products for people in need in our locality.

10. Can you share some of the amazing things that your concierge is able to arrange in terms of authentic local experiences?

11. What is the most significant value of The Chedi Hotel - not from a hospitality perspective but a people’s perspective?

We ask ourselves daily what we need to add as it relates to guest experience. In some ways, we’re also asking ourselves what we need to subtract or discontinue. What has been successful yesterday is not necessarily successful today or tomorrow. Our internal tagline has become “Keeping Momentum” and the intent there is to celebrate the difference in our customers, how they use our hotel, what they expect from our resort and its facilities. Then we review, develop and train ourselves until we are confident that an implementation of a new service will be successful. That process does not happen in every hospitality business.

We make it a top priority to listen to our guests - and to act accordingly. We have also adopted the general philosophy of remembering that we are in the entertainment business and that means we can take a lot of the formality away. You can pay people great respect. You can create what we think is a luxury experience for you, but you do not have to have airs, formality, or be snobby. It does not fit with Luštica Bay. Our guests want to come here to seek enjoyment and relax, and not to be remembered for the tie they left behind at home. I think it is incredibly important to have the social IQ to know when to engage or withdraw. 12. A brief reflection on the beach experience?

The beach experience in the destination will offer more variety and will be richer than ever. The Chedi Beach and The Rok will have an added and upgraded Lounge area, but also become better in terms of other facilities, such as the beach path, beach showers and restrooms. We have also worked on upgrading the service to ensure that our guests can focus on enjoying whilst the drink and cocktail is on its way. The Marina Beach will feature an added and exclusive Garden area. Almara by Luštica and Beach21 are amazing places to enjoy summer days. Additionally, The Truck area will offer an adults-only lounge and access to the sea. Above all, even an allnew beach close-by will have a sincere, and positive impact on the resort’s offerings. 13. Finally, what makes your hotel memorable and unforgettable this summer?

Some places you visit, you pay for the views. And most of the times those views deliver. In other occasions you pay for the location, e.g., ski slopes. And if there is snow, those locations usually deliver. In our case we truly believe in promoting a healthy and active lifestyle, to experience the beauty that our peninsula´s nature has to offer, but also and moreover, to inspire meaningful connections between guests, clients and partners alike. We also offer incredible views, an exciting location, yet we can be proud to be so much more than that. We are passionate hosts, and having you being guests in our hotel, for us means opening the doors to our home. Making you feel at home is our aspiration.