Adding a little spark to Aleppo

Francois Waller is the current general manager of Sheraton Aleppo Hotel, the first international hotel operating in Aleppo. Having spent all of his life outside of his native Netherlands, at the age of 17, Waller knew he had the natural desire to travel and explore, and the curious mind to see the ways of the world. “I wanted to travel to many exotic places, as quickly as possible.” With a degree in Hotel Management from Lausanne University in Switzerland and fluency in five languages, Waller made his way to the world of hospitality and made his dreams come true, filling posts in exotic locations such as Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Oman, Egypt, Jordan and now Syria.
When asked why he chose Aleppo, Waller replied, “Coming to Aleppo was not my original plan. I was supposed to be posted in Beirut, but a few days before moving to that post, I got a phone call, asking me if I would come to Aleppo. I changed my route. I made the decision. I came to Aleppo, I loved it and I do not regret it at all.”
You’ve worked and lived long enough in the Middle East. What was your first impression of Syria and of Aleppo? How did your impression change over time?
People in Syria are very open, friendly, and really welcoming compared to what the international media portray. The interesting part is when you try to convince your parents and in-laws that you are taking their daughter and grandchildren to Syria. You have absolute silence on the other end of the line. They have this image that Syria is all militarized, and there are guns in the streets everywhere. Once they have come and visited, they have a completely different view. I personally believe that 99% of the people who come to Syria leave with a
very positive attitude.
As a foreigner, Aleppo can initially be seen as a hard city to visit because of the language barrier, as a large number of people speak only Arabic. It makes it hard for foreigners to understand the city in the beginning. However, once you start to know about the people and the culture, you grow to love it. You will find that Aleppians are very friendly and treat you nicely.
Sheraton Aleppo has been the first international hotel to operate in Aleppo. Can you give us a general overview about it?
Our property is located in downtown Aleppo, in the Bab al-Faraj district, in the middle of the business and cultural centers of the old city. The hotel has 199 rooms composed of a Presidential suite, a Diplomatic suite, 5 Executive Corner suites, 2 Executive suites, 10 Junior Suites, 39 club rooms with separate check-in facilities in a club lounge and 141 Classic rooms. Our Italian Restaurant Leonardo’s, Ikebana A Taste of Asia and The Silk Road, our all-day-dining restaurant, cater to the modern business person. The property is fully covered with wireless high speed internet in all rooms and public areas. We also have a Turkish bath, an effort to keep the historical traditions of the city.
Has it been challenging to be the first five-star international hotel in Aleppo?
It has been very challenging. As a team, we realized that employees have a different vision of what the five-star culture is. We know that we had to hire young, talented, green, fresh employees with absolutely no experience.
Was that your only criterion for hiring?
We made a selection system; I call it “The Sparks”. It is “Smile”, “English,” and “Positivity.” We want our employees to be natural, welcoming, and warm in attitude. The way this works, you have only three basic questions—you have five minutes to show me your spark. Then you get categorized into High Spark, Middle Spark and Low Spark. The logic behind this is you can always teach skills, but you cannot teach someone to be positive and to smile. You can never take out a negative attitude. On the technical level, we constantly offer training to our employees.
Where do you see Sheraton Aleppo now?
We have a very crystal clear path. We have made a lot of improvements. Our customer satisfaction index has gone up from 7.3 in the first month to 8.6 out of ten in February 2008. Are we where we are supposed to be? Not yet. Are we on our way? Absolutely.
What benchmarks have you achieved?
First, we got the grand opening. Second, I believe we became the place to stay in Aleppo for VIPs both from the governmental sector and the private sector. Ramadan in 2007 has been a great success with 12000 table covers. It was also a great honor to have President Bashar Al-Assad celebrate the opening of Sheraton. Actually, having the head of the state celebrate with the team showed the great interest of the country in creating tourist projects, in encouraging and promoting tourism, and opening up to the world.
What is new for Sheraton in 2008?
In 2007, we realized that outdoor dining is vital. We are launching a complete new restaurant on June 1st, Mawal Poolside Restaurant, with pure Aleppo specialties.
For Aleppians, food is both a culture and a passion. How challenging was that to your food and beverage team?
We had the alternatives: Asian, Italian and international restaurants. We thought our restaurants would work like clockwork, with new cuisines and the very nice buffets. We realize that we were trying to push the market too hard. Let’s offer what Aleppo wants, and that is why we are launching Mawal Poolside Restaurant.
Most of the members of the senior management at Sheraton Aleppo are either westerners or non-Syrians; did that create a barrier to understanding the Aleppian culture?
Our initial plan was to hire Syrians. Honestly, we deeply wanted Syrian expertise, but it was not as easy as we thought. As Syria is still opening up to tourism, the five-star hotel industry is still a very tight market. We had to go to the Gulf. The whole purpose of having foreign expertise is to allow Syrians to eventually take over, and they will, it is only a matter of time.
As an expert in the hotel business, in your opinion, how important is it for Aleppo to see world-class brands like Sheraton investing in the area?
It is very important, but the other question we have to answer is what an international hotel brings to Aleppo. We help create some awareness of the city. In the grand opening, we had 45 journalists who came through Starwood network. We create international exposure of the city, especially in the Gulf.
What do you see as Syria’s touristic wealth? What do we need? And how are we improving?
Your wealth is your history, your diversity, your harmony. I have been enormously impressed by the amount of historical sites. Syria is a documentation of history; many different historical eras that can be seen in a matter of a week. Syria has a bit of everything—history, culture, religion, and beach areas—you can attract a great number of people. Improvement is needed—you really need to improve the frequency of the airlines. You also need more than one reliable airport to the country. All tourists arrive in Damascus. Relieve the pressure. Give more credit to Aleppo. Double your tourism intake—It is in the interest of increasing tourism in Syria. Tourism solves your image problem; people attract people. When tourists go back to their countries, they would see Syria in the news and would say, “Do not believe what you hear.” This is what I have seen; this is where I have been, and what is in the news is not true.