A WAVE of fresh new ideas arrives at Crimson Resort and Spa with the introduction of its new resort manager, Kristofer Quadros. He was appointed to the post earlier this year, and prior to that, has been with the property since 2013. Kristofer holds nearly two decades of experience in the hospitality industry—a career that first saw him in front desk duties, and rising through the ranks in various departments. For 2015, he said that much can be expected from his new role in Crimson, as he plans to push for more innovative and exciting activities for his guests.
“To sum it up, I would say it’s going to be a new (experience) that is competitive and will allow the resort to make its mark further in the Philippines,” he says, adding that renovations for the property are also in the pipeline.
Hailing from India, Kristofer received his degree in hotel management from the Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration there. Since then, he has been part of several hotel chains, Marriott among others, across India, Malaysia and Vietnam. Crimson is his first in the Philippines.
With much enthusiasm and dedication to his profession, Kristofer recalls that what inspired him to pursue a life of a hotelier was a friend of his who used to work in a hotel, and who had relayed to him stories of its diverse environment. “I was still studying at that time,” Kristofer shares, “and when we’d hang out every evening, he’d tell me about the guests of different nationalities he met—and he seemed really passionate about his job. I knew I wouldn’t want a job that was routine, or that was a desk job. I wanted to be in an (industry) where every day would be different.”
Nowadays, Kristofer’s responsibilities mainly involve doing rounds in the property and overseeing its facilities, and touching base with his team and leading them to consistently create a memorable experience for the guests. He attested that it’s a different challenge each day, considering the resort’s diverse profile of guests coming in throughout the year.
“My day usually starts going through the previous day’s records, and then having a look at what can be expected for the coming day.
Being in the people business, it’s all about interacting with the department heads, the associates... and what keeps me going is when I see them go out of their way to provide extra service, which we measure with the comments that we receive,” he shares.
In a service-oriented industry, Kristofer says that as a leader he is very mindful of the fact that as humans, mistakes are inherent.
“People will make mistakes and slip up,” he explains, "and I would attribute that mistake to human error rather than an attitude problem. Then we discuss how we can prevent it from happening again. But I’m also very firm against what’s immoral or illegal, and my team knows that those are things I won’t stand for.”
Over the course of his career, Kristofer shares that he has gone through so many memorable experiences that he finds it hard to pinpoint one that particularly stood out. “It’s all about the genuine interactions you have,” he shares, “What really makes an impact from a memory standpoint is when you have genuinely touched a guest, like when a guest brought in his mother for her 80th birthday and you make it memorable for them—you know you’ve touched them in more ways than one.”