#038 - Hospitality Meets Mark Kirby - The High Profile Multi-Property General Manager

What does it take to become one of a regions most prominent General Managers? We chatted to Mark Kirby, Regional General Manager of The Address Downtown, Dubai (www.addresshotels.com/en/hotels/address-downtown/) to find that out.We got through so much including Dubai (Of course), Chesterfield, School, AICR, London, Harvey Nicholls, reciting your career backwards at interview, Meeting Mr Armani, The Armani Hotel, Translating your CV into Italian, creating the right noises, Sustainability, PR, Exercise and a whole lot more.Mark talks with such energy and passion about what he does that it's hard not to get captivated by it. Mark also has some hilarious stories which he's shared with us.Thanks so much Mark.Enjoy.Show TranscriptionSUMMARY KEYWORDShotel, people, Dubai, hospitality, business, stories, London, Chesterfield, GM, The Lanesborough, The Goring, running, terms, part, Grosvenor House, Armani, manager, year, career, SPEAKERSMark Kirby, Phil StreetPhil Street 00:01Welcome to hospitality meets with me Phil street where we take a light hearted look into the stories and individuals that make up the wonderful world of hospitality. Today's guest is Mark Kirby, any general manager for the address downtown in Dubai. Coming up on today's show... Mark identifies a problem with a hotel's location.Mark Kirby 00:22Very dangerous being next to Harvey Nichols Not for good for the credit card I have to say.Phil Street 00:26Phil explains what it's like being the opposite of a morning person. I had days where I woke up and just thought..... uuuurggghh And Mark tells us a story about averting disaster.Mark Kirby 00:37I turned, around to literally leg it back to the front of the hotel to pick the right guest upPhil Street 00:43All that and so much more as Mark talks us through His story and journey to date, as well as some exceptional content on PR and creating the right noises. In addition, Mark really does talk with incredible energy about his craft a massive thank you to him for that. Don't forget, we launch a brand new episode each week telling the amazing and always amusing stories from hospitality. So make sure you hit that subscribe button and give us a like and share across your networks. Let's share these stories as far as we can. Enjoy. Hello, and welcome to the next edition of hospitality meets with me, Phil St. Today, we once again cross the seas. This time we're off to the Middle East. And I'm delighted to welcome to the show one of Dubai's most prominent general managers who may or may not thank me for saying that, but having worked in a few of the region's most prestigious hotels, including Le Royal Meridian Beach Resort and Spa, the Armani Hotel in Dubai and now Area GM of the address hotels downtown part of the Emaar Hospitality Group. I'm delighted to welcome to the show, Mark Kirby.Mark Kirby 01:46Thank you very much really, really, really nice to hear from you.Phil Street 01:50Brilliant. How are you doing?Mark Kirby 01:51Yeah, we're not not too bad. Actually, as you know, we everyone's been having an interesting time through this COVID. And getting used to the new norms, we're starting to see a lot more positivity in the market, which is really great. The buyer opened up, opened its international borders on the seventh. So we're just getting used to welcoming international travellers back into the city. And, you know, last weekend, we had 60% occupancy in one of our hotels. And that was quite exciting. Because, you know, we haven't seen 60% occupancy since with pre a pre COVID, you know, normally 60% occupancy, I think you would be be twiddling your thumbs thinking, well, we're not we should do a bit more. But we're sort of celebrating that that sort of occupancy.Phil Street 02:33Yeah. Well, I mean, that's why that's the new normal, right.Mark Kirby 02:39We get excited about small victories, we should do you know, when you've got 1000 dirhams, and you're happy that it's going across the cost the cash register. So we'll we'll see how that moves as we move forward.Phil Street 02:52Yeah, and I suppose as well for you, it's a double whammy at this time of year because it's right in the heart of deepest, hottest summer, which I guess is not normally your your, your best trading period, in any case, but then I didn't, the COVID situation on tops, and it's you're just getting battered from all angles.Mark Kirby 03:13Yeah, we were COVID actually started to hit us and really start to affect Dubai really, at the end of March. And that's a key season. So we were we were trading very, very positively in January. In fact, in January, we did our best month ever for the address downtown hotel, which I'm sitting in today. And that was really great. And everybody was celebrating those achievements 91% which was pretty, pretty full on. And then by March we were sitting with you know, we were we were dropping right off below 30%. And that was obviously quite worrying at that time. So you lose your you lose that key period of the the beginning of the year. And then you hit sort of June, July, August, September when it's traditionally our slightly lower season. Although having having such great things like the Dubai Mall, and all the facilities over that, whether it be kidzania whether it be things like the and the Dubai underwater zoo, and all the stuff that goes on in the in the world's biggest mall, you know, it's actually we actually do pretty well in the summertime because people don't tend to be on the beach so much. And they come to the hotels that are more centrally located with the facilities attached. Phil Street 04:21RightMark Kirby 04:21Uh, yeah, it's, it's an interesting time of the year to for it all to come together.Phil Street 04:27Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Well, before we get on to, I suppose a bit more about you and who you are and what you do right now take us all the way back to the beginning of your career and kind of just give us a run through of of you and how did you get into this industry and just take us far from now?Mark Kirby 04:46No, gosh, they take me back a few years. Yeah. Yeah. Originally from the UK, born in Sheffield. I grew up in a market town of political Chesterfield, for those who know it in the Middle East.Phil Street 04:59Really I didn't know that about you. But my wife's also from Chesterfield. No way. Well, there we go.Mark Kirby 05:06I should have I should have a talk to your wife at some stage, then we can probably tell the secretsPhil Street 05:10Absolutely, you know the one thing I remember about the first time she took me to Chesterfield to meet her parents was, this was quite some time ago, no, neither of us could drive at the time. So we were 100% reliant on public transport. And we arrived and on the train, and we were going to get a taxi to her mom's place. And she said, just bear in mind that the taxi driver will probably call me "me duck". And I was like, whatever. And of course, as soon as we got in the taxi driver, he said, Where are you off to me Duck? And I was like, Okay, so that's true, then Mark Kirby 05:45You were quite tuned into it. You've been given the inside info.Phil Street 05:49Yeah, absolutely. And of course, Chesterfield is famous for one thing only.Mark Kirby 05:55Well, one thing is the crooked SpirePhil Street 05:56ExactlyMark Kirby 05:58Its famous for a lot of other things. But we won't get into thatPhil Street 06:02yeah, but Anyway, I digress. But you'll get to see that that happens sometimes. But anyway.Mark Kirby 06:09So I grew up in I grew up in Chesterfield, my father was, my late father was a very successful businessman, security, electrical business. And I used to spend a lot of time actually going around with him when he used to go and meet hoteliers in London in the capital and all over obviously the UK, that sort of had a detriment to my school results. Because I actually left school I went to a grammar school in Chesterfield went in to do my GCSEs. And I left with some pretty poor results. So I remember, I remember one summer I was working with ads. My dad's firm, he was paying me a very low wage. He was very tight like that.Phil Street 06:47RightMark Kirby 06:47He was paying me less than the less than the normal wage, I would have said, to do some work in his warehouses. And I always remember as I was very scared of my mom, actually. So my mum came into me. She said, Have you seen your results? And you know, me, me being a bit nervous of mother looked at her in horror. So she said, Well, I don't know what you're going to do your man because certainly you're not going to you're not going to be hanging around us. You need to sort yourself out. So she came to me...