What timeless hospitality really looks like

the Future of HospitalitySouth. Yeah. Okay. The hotels. I remember I mean, we're almost the same age, and I remember it was indeed in The Hague and Westreicht. Those were the two prestigious Yeah. Ones. And not necessarily focused on business, but indeed more on the authentic traditional hospitality industry. Burgundig, you mentioned it yourself. What made you go to that particular school? Why didn't you go to a business school or what what is it that you attracted to go to that school?

Stephan StokkermansAnd that was a big question mark of my parents as well because I didn't have anything with gastronomy. My father was a blue collar worker, and my mother was just wasn't a management assistant, and so no affiliation with with hospitality. It turned out that my grandfather, which I never knew because he died early, had, in his early years, a bar. And so there there there comes the DNA of the hospitality. And and I I really fell in love at about 14 years of age in in hospitality, started as a dishwasher, went into restaurants, bars. So I was really like, wow. You even have an a management education on hospitality.

Stephan StokkermansAnd I'm honest, I was at that time 17 years old, so we're rather early, really early students. And and I thought I thought The Hague going to the the where all the big cities in The Netherlands were was a bit too spooky, and I had more affiliation with the, let's say, way of living in the South Of Holland. So that's why I decided to go to too much way.

the Future of HospitalityYep. Yep. Yep. As you mentioned at Brabant. Brabant is indeed a limber. It's it's they're known for their buggylic approach and the good way of life, as you mentioned. Indeed. So from there, fast forward, Hajstadijn, you met your wife there. That is also an amazing story. You're still married. You got kids, grandkids, I mean, the whole thing in once. Let me go talk about let us talk about Hajstadijn and and your vision, your insights. How do you define true luxury? Because luxury is what House of Sudan is about.

Stephan StokkermansYeah. You're right. And of course, think I if you define hospitality, it's one way to services one side and the other side the facilities. So luxury indeed is facility. It's the level of facilities you offer, swimming pools turned down blah blah blah blah blah. But for me, true luxury is indeed on the surface side. And at the end, luxury indeed is meeting the expectations. For me, luxury is exceeding them and try to find, let's say, the hidden spot of a guest where you can surprise him and where you are able to make a long lasting memory, which has nothing to do with exclusivity, but really touch people by the heart and and, well, basically conquer them for life.

the Future of HospitalityI love it. That resonates with I I saw a little line in your bio, if I remember it right, aim for the moon or shoot for the moon, and if you missed your at least you're with the stars. Yep. You're quite right. Okay. Tell me a little bit more about that. Why that particular line? I was intrigued.

Stephan StokkermansWell, I'm always trying to to improve either myself, the team I'm working with, and I don't think and that's also what I'm telling my my my the people we work with, like, try to be a colorful bird instead of a gray mouse. And by being a colorful bird, I think that that that automatically leads to the fact that you're trying to shoot for the moon. And it's a bit philosophical perhaps, but but don't don't go for the next step. Put your point on the horizon and just go for it and enjoy the ride with. And indeed, if you don't make it, you'll be among the stars if you shoot for the moon. And it's it's like many, many people say, it's not the endpoint of your journey. It's a journey itself. But It's a journey. The journey worth worthful and joyful, then of course it should be a great goal to aim for.

Stephan StokkermansFrom from the heart or from the gut, that's also what I'm hearing. Yep.

the Future of HospitalityTell me about memorable guest experience. What's your most memorable guest experience that you've been part of?

Stephan StokkermansWell, there there there were few, and and the most is, as a guest, depending on from which angle you take, when you call it, take you ask the question. I think memorable experience is when you are there being the general manager and the leader of the organization and you stand on the sideline and you watch the dynamics between your team and the guests. And of course, when that comes all to a great experience, that can be it can be a very, let's say, exciting one like a great wedding where the bride and the groom were really like everything was in order, how it should be, and you feel the energy of the love of those people, you feel the energy of the room. And yes, we were part of that creating that. But it can only be a funeral. It can also be a funeral where there's a lot of sadness in the room, but you were able to really make it such a, let's say, impressive event where everyone though they were being sad, everything was running so smoothly. That's beautiful.

Stephan StokkermansAnd so that makes that makes gives you the biggest feeling. And and going into the house of dining, we have some spots where you can really look into the areas, into the event rooms where you don't where you where you're not seen, but you can see how everything is running. That makes me most bright. And then you have, let's say, the the average things where every GM more or less gets excited about as welcoming some some VIPs. I I had the honor to to welcome president Obama in the hotel. Oh, wow. So and and being there in the meet and greet and and having, let's say, a personal note with those kind of people, and it's not only the president of The United States, but it can also be Olympic supporters, it can be within our hotel. We are very famous in Netherlands about hosting the Dutch soccer team and hosting those coaches and being on a one on one level and talking about personal experiences with them, that's that's so rewarding.

Stephan StokkermansAnd what I learned about that as well is that the true iconic leaders are those who are stick to themselves. And the most, let's say, well, disappointing experience are with leaders who are so much telling that they are leaders, but at the end, on the one on one level, they are not even capable of communicating on a normal way or so it's it's that those are the learning curves as a human being, which I think hospitality makes it a great profession to be in.

the Future of HospitalityYou mentioned funerals. That's the thing I didn't know. And this is the first time I hear funerals and a grand hotel. Can you tell me a little bit more? Is was that always the case?

Stephan StokkermansDid you implement that? I mean, you've been working there now for almost forty years.

the Future of HospitalityCan you tell me a bit more about how funeral the funeral part ended up being part of a hotel Grand Hotel Hasidane?

Stephan StokkermansYeah. Well, it's it I call it. It came up by just a question from the relatives of a well known guest who passed away and said like, well, he had a great life And let's say, the traditional Dutch funeral world in The Netherlands is that you get you go to this I go to the funeral company, there the person is there, you get old cold coffee with very dry cake. Bound cake. Yeah. Yeah. So that's that's not the way you do it. And they said, okay. He enjoyed life. He enjoyed your property. We had so many sweet memories. Can't we do the ceremony with you? I'm sure you can do a ceremony. And then, okay, the the second question was, but can we can we have the coffin as well?

Stephan StokkermansAnd he was like, okay. This is a challenges one. And we thought about it, and we're family on the run. So we we came together as a family because we all knew the guys said, okay. We're we're hospitality. Let's let's do it. Let's make sure, of course, it's not confrontating with other guys who are not part of that funeral. And so we were able to really run it fairly smoothly and also, of course, working with your team, with your staff, like, okay, we're going to do something different now. And it's a very, at the end, rewarding part of hospitality as well where you can where you can give people a kind of comfort and a kind of pride and a kind of good feeling, although you are very sad. So it and, okay, I I used to be a commercial guy. The the the nice thing about it, these niche markets, it's always last minute business. So Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Whenever you have the the the the it's also always welcoming. And the nice thing is, most of the times, those kind of events are all about people who loved life.

Stephan StokkermansAnd they celebrate their lives with nice food, with nice beverage, and there's always at the end a smile, although it's a sad story.

the Future of HospitalityI love it. I love it. It's very inspiring, by the way. And what's a tradition or ritual at Hajstadan that makes it stand out from other luxury hotels?

Stephan StokkermansWell, the history, we're 137 years old at the moment, so we have a long history. We have guests because we're working on the leisure market and on the meeting and incentive and converse market. But for the leisure market, we have guests who are now in the eighties, and they they they they learn to walk in our hotel. So with that history and having the third and the fourth generation of guests coming to the hotel, that that makes it already a unique place. The fact that we're directly on the beach with no boulevard in between, if you go to Europe, you you start up in Northern Europe, you have to go from Northern Europe to Beatrice, you won't find another five star property directly on the beach. So you have a history, you have definitely a one location and yes, you have a family who operates and owns it with a lot of love and inspiration to pass it to the next generation and then you have a very nice cocktail together.

the Future of HospitalityI love it. I love it. Who has been sorry. Who has been the most influential mentor in your career? And what's the most valuable lesson they taught you?

Stephan StokkermansWell, being such a long time on property, I always try to, let's say, do a lot of things besides being a hotelier. So I have participated in a lot of boards, both local, national, international. And being an international board member of Preferred Hotels and Resorts, I I got together with mister Ono Portier, who is the former CEO from Peninsula Hotels, also a Dutchman. And from an aging point of view, he could be my uncle, to put it like that. And the nice thing, we we met because he was the one who did the scrutineering of us entering preferred hotels. And there you have such an experienced hotelier who's coming to your property, which is an independent and definitely in the '90s, we were good, but we really improved a lot of things in service and facilities.

Stephan StokkermansAnd then you have the CEO of Peninsula Hotels, which, to my opinion, are one of the well, definitely top five brands in the world when it comes to luxury and how they improve themselves and everything like it. And we connected, and it's it's it's now a friendship of more than twenty five years, and he learned me great things.

the Future of HospitalityI need to have him on the podcast.

Stephan StokkermansHe sounds like an amazing guy. Too because what's a nice story about that one as well, Uno, as a legacy, because he he retired, of course, with Preferno tells, he he did some projects being an, I called, owner representative. And now he founded a company called NOW, which is totally in the ESG. And he sees this as a kind of legacy on paying back to society. The fact that he's been in hospitality, of course, sustainability and hospitality go a long way together from a good side from a bad side, but fortunately, nowadays, also from a good side. So with this organization, he helps Hauterias to become more sustainable and doing the right thing. So he would love to talk about it, and he's a great guy as well. Wonderful.

the Future of HospitalityYeah. No. I really wanna maybe you don't know that, but I I used to be a solar energy expert in in another life for for quite some years. And so, yeah, I would love to touch base with him and pick his brain of how and what he's doing. Sounds good to me. I wanna backpedal a little bit because you mentioned I didn't forget. You mentioned Obama coming to the property. How did that happen?

Stephan StokkermansWell, I can tell you many stories about how we did that, but it's very simple. They choose us. So we had a nuclear summit in in The Hague. And in June, we will have the NATO con NATO conference in in The Hague as well. And Mhmm. The summit was a nice warming up when you look to where we are now at the moment. And we knew we were in a picture for hosting delegations, and it turned out that The USA did some research, and they said based on where they are, the level of service, and also with all the security measurements they had to take, they decided to to go to the to go on to Al Hefsadan.

Stephan StokkermansAnd and we had a great well, it was a great experience also as a hotelier to see what comes around when you when you host president of The United States. So it was fun. So we stayed overnight. Is correct? Yeah. Yeah. He stayed with us. Okay. Check. You got that.

the Future of HospitalityThe next one. If you could give one piece of advice to someone just starting in hospitality, what would it be?

Stephan StokkermansNevertheless, which kind of service level you're going to always stick to yourself. And so yes, of course, it's with all the standards of operations you have in hospitality, depending on the level of service, at the end, those are standards, but it's most important you stay human behind the standards. And the standards are a good guideline. Michael, for some people, they say, okay, I don't want to live up to certain standards because I think it's too hardworking or it's too difficult. Okay. That's okay. It's a decision which level you want to play on your own. So I'm not a judge of that, but always stick to your human side of it. And standard can help you with a lot of situations at the end if it's not if it's not the standard, you have to do it yourself anyhow, and then the human part comes in. And then I'm always like it's also what I'm trying to to stimulate with with my own team,

the Future of Hospitalityalways be that colorful bird. Never be a green bird. Colorful bird always be the colorful bird. Could also say the bird of paradise, perhaps, but I like I like that that colorful colorful bird idea that you mentioned indeed. That was a piece of advice for for people starting in hospitality. Do you have a piece of advice for hospitality leaders perhaps? Because you're you're you're doing it from the heart. That's what I'm hearing. You you you just work from the heart and you resonate that. Do you have some advice for future hospitality leaders?

Stephan StokkermansNever forget, we are one of the oldest industries in the world. And when you look on how we rate it, I think we have to do better than we did in the past because hospitality is still not on the level of respect like many other people have, industries have. So we should try a bit harder for the future to do a better job. Then it comes with sustainability, of course, but also social responsibility towards the staffing as well. We can do better. We are so long around, but but we now really have to become professional. And there are a lot of opportunities coming up, so I think the the the next generation hospitality leaders, I'm a big fan of high-tech, high touch.

Stephan StokkermansYes. Everything which makes the work for our staff members, how you call it, become dull or being repeating, etcetera, etcetera, make sure you can put tech in that, put robots in it, whatever. So we remain with the fact that we get the human factor back on track because that will be the biggest asset for the future. And we then we can really be the leaders of many industries as well. And then we can get to respect this hospitality we truly deserve.

the Future of HospitalitySo what you mean is it kind of embrace modern technology, advanced technology to even increase the quality of service?

Stephan StokkermansDefinitely. But always with the human with the human touch. With the human touch. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. How do you see the future of luxury hospitality evolving and where does Hysterdam fit into that vision? I think the good news for us, where we are and who we are and also being an independent, that you can't keep up in the rat race where all the big change are going and all the high end properties where basically a lot of high end people, when you look to their social media activities are going. That's a rat race, which will end dead end street anyhow. So I think there is a lot of room for those who can create those individual experiences, which have nothing to do with the price of a bottle of champagne or the, how you call it, a kilo or two kilo of caviar or whatever or the next linen type.

Stephan StokkermansYes, you can go further and further and further. But again, going back again to true luxury is how can you capture that unspoken needs of a guest. Nevertheless, whether he's a millionaire or whether he's there for the first time and he saved a year to be able to pay for that room for that experience.

the Future of HospitalityI love it. The memorable guest experience. Yeah. Yeah. Stefan, thank you so much for giving your your insights and sharing your personal story as well, and thank you for being on our show.

Stephan StokkermansYou're welcome. Alright.