The popular image of the hospitality industry is the jolly inn-keeper, the hail-well-met host who is everyone’s best friend and who just loves the buzz and bustle of meeting people.
But there is another side to the hospitality industry, just as vital as the front-of-house public face, and that is the back-room dynamo: the industrious worker bee toiling away far from the guests, making sure that the important but invisible work gets done.
And that, in a nutshell, is Kim Weber, Group Commercial Manager for Century City Conference and Hotels.
“On my first-ever day of ‘real’ hotel work I was assigned to wait tables,” she says. “And I cried. I really did not want to go out there. Put me in a room with a lot of people, and I will shy away. But put me in a room with a vacuum cleaner, and you will get the best-vacuumed room of all time!”
Kim had never intended to go into hospitality – after school she been signed up for a psychology degree at UCT when she took a holiday job at an apartment block that was being retrofitted to be a hotel.
“I was mopping floors, cleaning tiles, carrying equipment up and down stairs,” she says. “It was hard work, but it made me feel as though I was adding value and doing something concrete, part of a team, getting something done. Even now, after more than twenty years in the industry, that feeling has not stopped.”
“I believe in doing a great job,” she says. “I believe in constant improvement, you can say I am a permanent student.
“We are now in a new phase of the industry. COVID has led us to get back to basics…… we need to give back to that next gen now. Not only is there new talent coming in, the existing talent are more hungry than ever to upskill themselves. It is important for us, as the ‘old fuddy-duddies’ to lead with kindness and to encourage curiosity. I always tell my team: ‘You must ‘krap’ (scratch) at everything. Always ask “Why not? Don’t accept that things must always be done one way, always look for better ways to do things, how to make things more seamless.”
“I keep up with things through podcasts and opinion pieces. There are always things to be done behind the scenes, whether in marketing, revenue management or improving distribution efficiencies. I spend a lot of time looking for things to solve. Sometimes I do get bogged down in the details, but when I am not seeing the wood for the trees, I take a walk to clear my head and remind myself of the core objectives .”
Century City Conference Centre and Hotels has become known for its efforts towards sustainability, and this is one of Kim’s hobbyhorses. But she is firm on the idea that sustainability as a concept is not enough, there needs to be clear goals and measurability.
“We need to see what impact we are making,” she says. “We can’t just say we are sustainable, we need to measure it. So we are working with international bodies on a benchmark, a gold standard, setting clear measurable obectives
“Personally, I feel that our job in the industry, as the old guard, is to elevate the industry. It is not just a job, there is room here for skilled professions and more specialised on-property roles and responsibilities. . This is what I would like my legacy to be… people must say they learned from me, and they learned that anything they do, they must try to be the best at it.”
