Mr. Sammy Carolus. Hyatt Regency Bangkok Sukhumvit, Sukhumvit Rd., Bangkok. January 2023

Meet the GM

Sammy Carolus, an Indonesian, has been the General Manager of the Hyatt Regency Bangkok Sukhumvit alongside Nana BTS in central Bangkok for the last four years.

Sammy began his career with the Hyatt Group in 1992 as a sales associate at the Bali Hyatt in his home country of Indonesia swiftly rising to Director of Business Development at the Grand Hyatt Bali. I first met Sammy 12 years ago when he was Sales and Marketing Director of the Grand Hyatt Erawan on Sukhumvit in Bangkok. Hard work and a unique sense of style with his conservative suits and collarless, formal white Asian shirts without a tie, make this good looking man stand out from the crowd.

From there he was appointed to his first General Manager’s role at the Hyatt Regency Hua Hin and The Barai Spa, where he was awarded the coveted Jay A. Pritzker Award for Leadership. He soon established himself as a firm favourite with his guests, suppliers, industry peers and most importantly his staff.

After four years in Hua Hin Sammy was coaxed overseas in 2016 by Hyatt Asia to take over the 850 plus room Grand Hyattin Taipei, Taiwan near to Taipei 101 where he oversaw a major refurbishment programme. It must have been tough decision for him, as his beautiful Thai wife is a businesswoman in Bangkok where she leads the British designer brand Jo Malone London. They have a 7 year old son who is now studying at NIST so to further his career and answer the call of his brand employers Hyatt, he left his young family in Bangkok and went off to Taiwan. Commuting back to Bangkok when it was possible to be with his family – that’s devotion to the role for you.

The hotel is owned by leading Thai development company Grande Asset Hotels and Property Public Company Ltd. and he was appointed to oversee the build up and launch of the Hyatt Regency in the one kilometre crowded stretch of Sukhumvit Road between the Asok junction and Soi Nana where there are at least seven quality five star hotels and countless other smaller hotels in the many Soi’s leading off it.

He accepted the role and the ensuing battle to establish yet another five star hotel in this short stretch of high traffic/high wealth central tourism and he soon made his mark not only on rooms occupancy, the food and beverage and rooftop scene, but also in launching his 800 theatre style seating ballroom and workout room facilities. Capturing countless diplomatic/foreign embassy events, international women’s groups, HiSo Thai weddings, Government, industry and commercial launches, announcements and exhibitions. His ballroom now, has to be the most frequently used venue in this key area of central Bangkok. Not an easy task when amongst such strong established competition and all within a one kilometre stretch.

I have never once seen him lose his cool demeanour, he has a seemingly calm and relaxed manner of management. He leads from the front and I watched on in admiration over the festive period this year as he helped his staff clearing tables in the breakfast room when he was needed, as his staff were struggling to keep up with the constant stream of guests looking to breakfast.

I have met and got to know many of his staff over the years and I have never heard a bad word against him. His enthusiasm and flair for hospitality rubs off on all of his staff from the concierge to the front office staff, all aspects of the F&B departments, housekeeping, security and back office. The level of professionalism displayed is first class.

I asked Sammy a few questions:

Sammy it has been a tough three years how has your hotel fared?

We are fortunate that we can put the past two challenging years behind us and move forward towards a brighter future. Since Thailand and other Asian countries have lifted the restrictions in April/May 2022, the hotel is in much better shape and overall we performed better in 2022 than we did in 2019.

May I ask how many staff you employ? Did you have to lay off any staff through the Covid pandemic?

Before Covid, we had 280 and during Covid we had 150 staff. We did not lay off any staff but some chose to resign voluntarily and others took sabbatical long leave. Now we employ around 210 staff.

In what order are the various revenue aspects of your income in terms of contribution?

It is Rooms Revenue followed by F&B.

Working with an experienced owner obviously helps you enormously, how many hotels, condominiums do Grande Asset own?

Our owners are very supportive and they helped us through the pandemic period. They own six hotels and three luxury condominium in Bangkok.

How much has the Bangkok/Thai market recovered and will it ever reach 2019 levels and when?

Bangkok hotels generally did very well in 2022 with the recovery for legacy hotels almost reached 2019 levels whilst some new hotels, including us, have surpassed the 2019 level. We are very optimistic with the 2023 momentum and business outlook.

Which foreign markets do you think will fuel Thailand’s tourism recovery?

Definitely the Asian markets first i.e. North Asia, SE Asia, South Asia. The Middle East followed by Australia, USA and Europe.

Hyatt Regency Bangkok Sukhumvit 1, Sukhumvit Soi 13 (BTS Nana) Bangkok. 10110 02 098 1234 hyatt regency bangkok sukhumvit