When I spoke with Mariano Silvestri, he was general manager of Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa. The book notes that he has since become General Manager of Park Hyatt St. Kitts Christophe Harbour.
Silvestri speaks to three subjects in The Luxury of Attention, and on each he is unusually direct. The first is recovery. The complaint a property never hears is the most expensive one it has, and he named the operator’s quiet dread of the review era: the guest who says nothing at the front desk and writes it up from the departure lounge has turned a recoverable failure into a public verdict, and taken the hotel’s chance to be at its best along with them. The second is digital presence. Running a resort whose isolation makes its online life more central than it would be in a city, he puts authenticity and responsiveness ahead of everything else, on the conviction that guests who can feel the property’s spirit through what it shares will be more engaged. The third is the cost of the career. He described a lifestyle of sleepless nights, unsociable hours, rushed meals and long hours on your feet, and he did so without complaint. It is a plain account of what a serious career in this field asks, and of the love for the work that makes it sustainable.
“One of my common disappointments is to find out through an online review a complaint about something that, if given the chance, I could have rectified immediately.” Mariano Silvestri, then General Manager, Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa
In the book, Mariano Silvestri appears in Chapter 10, The Recovery, where his grief at the complaint he never got to hear is one of four stations from which the chapter views a single discipline; in Chapter 12, The Digital Discipline, where his approach to Facebook applies the human touch to a digital channel; and in Chapter 13, The Long Game, where he names the toll of the work without softening it.
“The only way you will survive in this business is if you truly love your job. This is a lifestyle that will not love you back: sleepless nights, unsociable hours, rushed meals and endless hours on your feet.” Mariano Silvestri, then General Manager, Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa