Situated up the hill of Bandung’s ‘Dago Atas’ area, where the climate is a tad cooler and the traffic subsides, there’s something about Sheraton Bandung Hotel & Towers’ that makes you not want to leave. What’s New Jakarta recently sat down with the hotel’s General Manager,Mr. Akhmad Fadholi, in the beautiful hotel to talk about his hotel and his favorite Bandung spots.
Tell us a little about yourself?
I was born in East Java and raised in Surabaya. In the early 90s, I had my own business with a couple of friends; it was a great business, but I ended up feeling very bored with the routine. So I went and look for a more challenging job. One day I found a job vacancy in a five star hotel in Surabaya. At that time, I had zero hotel experience in the hotel industry, but the opportunity thrilled and excited me. I was also lucky because I was given the opportunity to try all lines of work, which has provided me with a great understanding of the industry.
How long have you been with Starwood?
Exactly 18 years, which is an accumulation of my time with Sheraton Surabaya, Lombok, KL, Brunei Darussalam for a short period, W Bali, and now in Bandung.
To you personally, what are Sheraton Bandung’s strong points?
We are fortunate that Sheraton Bandung is a hotel with a really strong resort ambiance, and also the only one in town that has an actual private balcony in every room. Not only that, 2/3 of our total land reserved exclusively for our garden. Supported with our five star facilities, this hotel truly answers all of our customers’ type; be it business, leisure, honeymooners, or family vacationers.
Fun fact: Sheraton Bandung is one of three ‘twins’, along with Sheraton Lombok, and Sheratong Lampung, which are all built and opened at the same year. If you go to these three hotels, its layout, total area of rooms, are all almost exactly the same! Although for us exclusively, the total transformation we did 2 years ago completely changed the look and feel of the hotel.
What are your recommendations to do in Bandung?
Basically, mostly, people come to Bandung for three main reasons; nature adventure, heritage, and of course culinary. For nature, we have so many great destinations. And what’s best about exploring places around here is that if you go to one place, you will get multiple spots. For example, if you go to ciwidey, it’s not just Kawah Putih. There’s Ranjabali tea plantation, Camping Ground Ranca Upas, Situ Patenggang, it’s beautiful and they’re all close from each other.
It depends on what’s your preference; for families, I recommend heading to the many family destinations around Lembang like Farmhouse, Maribaya, etc. For adventure seekers: from Tangkuban, go hiking to Jayagiri, Parompong, Burangrang.
For heritage travel, Bandung is immensely rich with very well-preserved buildings that date back to the colonial era, more than other parts in Indonesia. Nearly all buildings in Bandung is historic, and Bandung people are very well aware of it.
Last but not least, for culinary, there’s good food in every corner of Bandung! Some of the must tries: Ronde Alkatiri, Sate Maulana Yusuf, and many more.
Me as a GM, and also for my staff, we need to know all these for the sake of our guests that want to know and exlplore Bandung.
Favorite things to do?
I love doing many things, but I particularly love hiking, movies, go to music festival, and short (one day) travels.
In your management, what is your style of leadership?
I’m more into authoritative, affiliate, and directive.
Authoritative means that I like to explain my vision. In relations to that, it’s important for me to have a clear vision and to explain it to my team. Because the hospitality industry is very-very dynamic; what people need today, might not be the same with what they need next year. For example, ‘staying in a hotel’ today, is not like what it was in the past. Today, hotel is not only an accommodation, but a lifestyle. This is some of the example of ideas that I like to brainstorm with my staff.
Affiliate means that if you can’t do something by yourself, let’s do it together, all departments, hand in hand.
Directive means that, I need my directive leadership, to avoid overlap in instructions from the management.
In your work, what puts a smile on your face?
When I see both my staff and my guests put their smile on their face. This means that one of my main jobs is accomplished.
What’s the most challenging issue in your industry?
Not only in Bandung, but in other area: the fact that currently there’s an oversupply of hotel rooms. So it depends on us, how to find an opportunity to tackle that. We need to know what people really want and really look for, because as I mentioned earlier, the need is always changing.
Give me five words that describe you!
People person, detail-oriented, hard-worker/dedicated, fun, talkative!
For more information about Sheraton Bandung Hotel & Towers visit sheraton.com
Sheraton Bandung Hotel & Towers
Jalan Ir. H. Juanda 390, Bandung, Indonesia 40135
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