"We Only Need One Rule." Growing a Service Culture: An Interview with John Caparella, President and Chief Operating Officer the Venetian Las Vegas, the Palazzo Las Vegas, and Sands Expo and Convention Center
2012; Volume: 17; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2326-3709
Autores Tópico(s)Sport and Mega-Event Impacts
ResumoIntroductionJohn Caparella became president and chief operating officer of The Venetian Las Vegas, The Palazzo Las Vegas and Sands Expo and Convention Center in May 201 1 . He oversees an integrated resort that includes 7,100 suite accommodations, upscale food and beverage, entertainment, casino, retail operations and their 2.5 million square feet of convention facilities. The Venetian and The Palazzo are AAA Five-Diamond rated resorts. John's 32 year career in the lodging industry includes serving as a principal at Redmont Hospitality, consulting in asset and hotel management services, real estate development and design, investment fund management and strategy. Prior to Redmont, he served as executive vice president and chief operating officer for Gaylord Hotels. He was the opening general manager of the 1406 room Gaylord Palms in Orlando, Florida. Mr. Caparella' s career also includes serving as a senior executive with Planet Hollywood International and with ITT Sheraton. A two-time ITT Ring of Quality recipient, Mr. Caparella was also recognized as 2005 's American Hotel & Lodging Association's Large Hotel GM of the Year and also received other prestigious awards in the lodging industry. Mr. Caparella graduated with honors from the State University of New York at Delhi and has an MBA from Rollins College. He has served on the board of the Florida Hotel & Lodging Association, the AH&LA Government Affairs Committee, and as an Overseer for the Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College.Authors: Tell us a little about the group of hotels you now manage.CAPARELLA: The campus has 2.5 million square feet of convention space which is 25% more than what we had at Gaylord . It is more square feet than the Las Vegas' s convention center and the largest single site hotel convention center in the world. We have 7,100 rooms spread across three hotels - the Venetian, Palazzo, and the Venezia Tower. We host convention attendees for about 800,000 room nights annually and leisure/transient guests for about 650,000 room nights annually.Authors: Do you have anything to do with Macau or is it all Las Vegas?CAPARELLA: All Las Vegas. Mike Leven is the Corporate President and COO, he is my direct boss and he reports to Sheldon Adelson. Mike oversees Macau, Bethlehem and Singapore as well.Authors: Tell us a little about what in your previous experiences made you an attractive candidate for your current job in a hotel that has a significant gaming operation.CAPARELLA: OK. The reason the Venetian hired me was because their leadership was looking for someone with award winning convention hotel experience, experience managing complex multiple hotel properties, and five star quality experience. The casino side was less important to them as they have extreme competency on that side. Las Vegas has been a bit slower to adopt the service model and customer service trends that the lodging industry has followed elsewhere as for many years it was focused primarily on gaming. People that work in Las Vegas generally stay here, creating an insular industry. The hotels here haven't brought in traditional hoteliers from other places to the degree that other cities have. While die casino related competencies are extremely high, many operational, cultural, and service initiatives outside die casino operations in Vegas to some degree have been left behind. I think mat was a big reason why tiiey were looking for meAuthors: Building on that, do you think guys like Steve Wynn, the owners of Wynn's Hotel, would agree with that assessment?CAPARELLA: I think he would. In fact, his number 2 is a guy from Orlando who was a hotel manager at me Grande Lakes Ritz Carlton and J. W. Marriott and was Director of Operations there. So he was interested in hiring somebody with a non- Vegas 4 Star/5 Diamond background.Authors: Were there other factors besides your hotel experience that made you an attractive candidate for this job? …
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