Kanit Sangmookda, General Manager, Le Méridien KK

Kanit Sangmookda – Le Méridien Kota Kinabalu

In this interview, Kanit Sangmookda, General Manager of Le Méridien Kota Kinabalu shares his growth in the industry and some challenges faced over the pandemic.

What do you do?
I am the General Manager of Le Meridien Kota Kinabalu. I have been in this hotel for almost three years. I lead the operations and business of the hotel and work closely with my marketing team to turn around our hotel market positioning to be the leading hotel in the market.

How did you get into the industry?
My family has a hospitality background. My parents used to run a Thai restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand. Then I followed my family’s legacy by studying a Hotel Management major in my Bachelor of Business Administration degree. I got a chance to support my family business for a while before having a career in hospitality industry.

Share with us a story from behind the scenes.
I started my career in the hotel industry as a Reservation Sales Agent at JW Marriott Hotel Bangkok. Then I got a chance to have exposure in Revenue Management when I transferred to Marriott Vacation Club Thailand to manage the first Marriott Timeshare Resort in Phuket. Afterwards, I continued my journey in the Revenue Management field with both Marriott and Starwood until I became Regional Director of Revenue Management for Starwood Southeast Asia, looking after a total of 30 hotels in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. I gained exposure in hotel operations through my corporate role working closely with 30 GMs, management teams and owners. Subsequently, I had a chance to reach my dream job as a GM at my first post at Four Points by Sheraton Sandakan, Sabah Malaysia. Then I moved to Le Meridien Jakarta and now currently I’m at Le Meridien Kota Kinabalu as my third GM post.

What’s a food memory from your childhood or travels that stands out?
I have always had my passion for exploring local food, especially street food. So, wherever I travelled either for leisure or business, I would try to spare time to get chances to taste local street food in those destinations. I had a very good memory of street food in Taipei, Seoul and Osaka.

What’s the best/ worst part of your job?
The best part of my job is to have the opportunity to develop people to achieve their career desires. I have a great passion in mentoring and coaching. It is a true pleasure to see many people I used to lead and guide have grown up in their career which is my honour to be part of their journey.
The worst part of my job would be in the past two years which I had to make multiple tough decisions, especially those which involved people aspects. It was not easy to get our team through some difficult contingency plans. However, I have pulled through until now which managed to save lots of jobs and our team is now stronger than ever.

Kanit Sangmookda’s favourite food and beverage pairing?
The best but simple pairing that I always enjoy is a perfectly cooked Wagyu ribeye steak and a glass (or two) of fine red wine.

What’s one of the most memorable things you’ve seen behind the scenes?
I would share my experience leading our team to arrange a charity run at Four Points by Sheraton Sandakan in 2015 called “Run to Give” following our company initiative. Our team had taken a challenge to arrange a 10km run around town and was only expecting 200-300 runners to participate as we are just in a small town. However, word spread fast and before we knew it, we had runners from other cities signing up as well. So, we decided to go big and expand the event to up to 1,000 runners. And with only a very lean team we had at our hotel, everyone needed to work day and night to support this event especially towards the last couple of days till the event date. I had never seen that kind of collaboration regardless of job level or department. All of our associates put their hands together to pull through such an event in a small town which put our hotel name on the map together with other hotels around the Asia Pacific in this charity run event. It is absolutely a memorable craziest event I ever witnessed and led.

The perfect day off would be…
Starting off with a good morning run then enjoying a nice brunch with my family. Afternoon catching up with either favourite movies or series. Ending the day with cooking dinner for the family to enjoy together.

A day in the life of a Kanit Sangmookda is…
Starting the day by reviewing overall business and operations of the day such as occupancy, VIP guest arrival, banquet events, and projection for the rest of the week. Then being on the floor to observe and assist with operations is a must throughout the day. In between, there are meetings to stay on top of business and operational movements then lead the strategies for the team to strive for the best results.

What does Kanit Sangmookda do for fun?
I love music and I have my hobby as a DJ. So, I will spin my favourite music, record them and share it with my friends and family. I also like diving and since I am very close to great dive sites in Kota Kinabalu like Tunku Abdul Raman Park, I will take my off day to go the island for a diving day trip to rejuvenate myself.

What’s something you’d like guests to know about Le Meridien Kota Kinabalu?
Rooftop @ Le Meridien is definitely on the top of the list of many things at our hotel which I would like our guests to know and visit. Guest can witness one of the most beautiful sunsets in the world from our Rooftop bar. And we would like to introduce to our guests the concept of “Sunset in Motion.” There is not just a simple sunset to see but also the movement from the sky down to the sea and street in front of our hotel. The planes will fly by, the fishing boats will sail in the bay right there, and the buzzing night market just down in front has lots of cars and people moving around along with the sun setting through the skyline. Therefore, it is a must for our guests to be at Rooftop @ Le Meridien when they are at our hotel.

How has the pandemic changed you, your perspective, or the way you operate?
The pandemic has pushed many of us in the hotel industry including myself to think out of the box and reshuffle our priorities in business. There have been so many things happening along with this situation that I have never experienced before. So, many unique decisions have been made which required tremendous careful analysis before my team and I could come up with solutions. Many jobs have to be reimagined and re-profiled to cope with multitasking to balance between lean operations and still be able to maintain our products and service quality for our guests. We certainly have learnt a lot through this experience, making us stronger and hopefully, we can last until full recovery.

What’s something you’d like people to know about being a hotel general manager as a profession?
Typically, people perceive hotel general managers as strategic leaders of the hotel. However, nowadays with the pandemic, general managers are much more hands-on than ever before. We need to lead by example in supporting operations and being on the floor to understand the real groundwork situation so we could learn and use the experience to adapt our operational strategy to keep up with rapid changes and also upkeep associates morale at the same time.

Kanit Sangmookda’s view on the hotel industry in Malaysia?
I think in the past few years the hotel industry in Malaysia has evolved and grown so much more extensive especially in terms of a range of brands from both local and international ones and also classes from boutiques to the top luxury brands around the world. Like Marriott, despite the pandemic situation, we have opened a few hotels in the last two years such as Four Points by Sheraton China Town, Fairfield Kuala Lumpur Jalan Pahang, and The Palm Garden Putrajaya, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel. It has become much more competitive in services offering, customer stay and dine experiences even before the pandemic. It also becomes handy for the local market to explore with staycations and emulate international vacations whilst the international border is still closed which does help the industry to survive through the current situation.

What practices do you currently implement or hope to implement in the future to work towards social responsibility and sustainability?
Le Meridien Kota Kinabalu is going to implement residential-sized bath amenities to reduce the single-use plastic from our guest rooms. This is following Marriott International direction to move away from using loads of small bottles of bath gel, shampoo, and conditioner to a big size tamper-proof bottle that can last much longer and can be recycled afterwards. This initiative shall happen at our hotel by Q3-2022.

What’s in store for you in the upcoming months?
We have our Chinese New Year promotion coming up from 31st January till the end of February 2022. We offer from takeaway Yee Sang sets to the dinner buffet at Latest Recipe to serve our guests on Reunion Dinner night, the first day of Chinese New Year Lunch with Lion Dance and join us for the longest Yee Sang tossing in Kota Kinabalu, and Chap Goh Meh dinner to close off the lunar new year festival. We will have many more exciting promotions in the pipeline all the way to the year-end. Find out more information about this upcoming promotion from our social media channels like Instagram or Facebook.

Find more interviews similar to this one with Kanit Sangmookda here. And, stay up to date with the latest food and beverage happenings around Malaysia here.