Inside Asian Gaming

IAG SEP 2022年9月 亞博匯 80 Austria and also happens to be right next to the casino. I did two years there, went to a restaurant in London, then to Budapest, but I needed to go further abroad and ended up back in Qingdao. I wrote some letters to some hotels in Qingdao, and the Crowne Plaza thought I was a suitable candidate so three weeks later I was on a plane going to China. OG: And you’ve stayed in Asia ever since? VRP: I started in Qingdao and then I got a very good opportunity with Accor to move to Guiyang. There were two properties that we have there, Novotel and the Pullman Hotel. Accor said, “Please set up the food and beverage divisions for us.” I was very young back then, around 25, so I was just thrown into ice cold water. But I had a very experienced general manager who guided me and brought me through these early stages of my career. And that was a beautiful experience. Since then I've been always with Accor and with Sofitel, Pullman and also the legendary Raffles Hotels, and I’ve continued with the company and stayed obviously very loyal. OG: You also spent time in Chongqing, Shanghai and Shenzhen before coming to Macau. What was your initial impression of Macau when you first arrived? VRP: I was in China for 11 years before I came to Macau. And the interesting part is I just arrived in December 2019, so one month before we closed Macau. So, the real Macau: I’ve never experienced how it was before. I’m only a Macau pandemic manager. OG: How would you define the Asian customer? VRP: The Asian customer, and especially the Chinese customer, always looks for the best value, so if you create a product at a good value, which means the quality is there but the price matches it, they will buy your product. The worst for a Chinese customer is when you sell them something that is below their expectations. So you need to understand their expectations and give them a price that they can anticipate. If you do that you will have happy customers. You can create loyalty very, very fast with a satisfied Chinese guest, like nowhere else in the world. We have guests that have been coming for 13, 15 years. Once you catch them and they really trust you, and trust INDUSTRY PROFILE