An Asia hotel mogul has run a luxury chain for decades. He says hospitality is the worst industry to be in.
It can be grueling, the 72-year-old told Business Insider.
"The worst business to be in is hospitality," he said, on the sidelines of the International Conference on Cohesive Societies held in Singapore last month.
He outlined the challenges of running a global hotel group that has grown to 90 hotels, from Cuba to Saudi Arabia to Japan.
"It is so management intensive. It is so time and people-intensive, and it is so vulnerable to event risk," Ho said.
"A health disaster like Covid-19. A natural disaster like an earthquake. Political events. It's event risk-based," he added. "So many events can just put travel to a halt."
Amid the pandemic-induced hospitality shutdown, Ho said in an interview with CNBC in July 2020 that he took a 100% pay cut. The company also had to lay off up to 15% of its global workforce.
The company has since made a recovery. In January 2024, Banyan Group said in a statement that its 2023 performance had surpassed "pre-pandemic metrics across various regional markets."
Ho, whose company is now worth nearly $373 million, started his career as a journalist. In 1981, after his father suffered a stroke, he took over the reins of his family business, the Wah Chang Group.
In 1994, Ho opened his first resort, Banyan Tree Phuket, after converting an abandoned tin mine he purchased a decade earlier.
Ho told BI he's learned two key lessons about running a luxury hotel chain like Banyan Group.
"Getting the corporate culture right is so important because people are so important," Ho said.
"You go to a hotel. You forget about the 10 good experiences you have. One screw-up, you will never forget. People are not very forgiving about screw-ups," he added.
To tackle this, Ho said he tries to create an environment that minimizes fumbles while giving his staff the space to make mistakes and learn from them.
"I also learned to be very resilient financially because disasters will always happen," Ho added. "So it's a difficult industry, but it's fun."
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