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GM De Leon: Baguio Country Club’s visionary -2
Source: Manila Bulletin
Author: Jaser A. Marasigan
Date: 2003-11-02
 
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He also clarified that they have no plans of opening the Club to the public, it will maintain its exclusivity, although they accommodate guests as long as they are sponsored by members. He said that it will devalue the shares of the members and it will also go against the BCC constitution and by-laws.





DE LEON IS AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE CLUB’S RENOVATION PROGRAM. The renovation and rehabilitation project is a 10-year program which was started in 1997 and is worth over half-a-billion pesos. Aside from the renovation of rooms, the project also includes building of log cabins, spa facilities and videoke room; renovation of the ballroom and training center; and rehabilitation of the golf course. He said that the objective of the Club is to be ahead of the competition. A steady growth of 15 percent in operational income is expected after the 10-year program.





When it comes to innovations, BCC pioneered in Baguio City the ‘butler service’. “We introduced that for our executive floor (4th floor) when we opened the West Wing last year. If you check-in at the executive floor, the person who checked you in will be the same person who will check you out, who will do your laundry, housekeeping, serving your food, etc. He’s going to be the same guy who will serve you on the duration of your stay. And he will be on-call anytime.”





When the East Wing opens, the butler service will also be introduced on the 4th floor and the presidential suite. There are also plans to convert all of the Club’s rooms to butler service instead of the typical housekeeping services.





The ‘express service’ is another innovation that BCC introduced wherein guests will press just one number on the phone and get all the services that they need. “Now other hotels are adopting our express service. That’s the problem when you have hoteliers visiting the club, they try to copy my idea. Well, we copy theirs too. It’s part of the industry practice (laughs).”





DESPITE HIS BUSY SCHEDULE, he still has time for his family. “Every morning I drive my kids to school. Then I pick them up in the afternoon. In the evening, we enjoy watching movies.”





De Leon said that he also loves to travel and his favorite is Las Vegas. “Because it’s a tourist-oriented city. They say it’s the ‘sin city’ but I look at it as a city with a lot of very good hotels. So when people here in the Club say ‘Sir pasensya na ho busy kami’. You don’t know what busy is unless you have seen how busy it is in Las Vegas. Their front desk is as wide as our verandah here and room rates are very cheap because they know people will spend in their casinos.”





“I enjoy myself there. I enjoy the architecture of their hotels and the layout. I observe and take note of them. So trabaho pa rin...”





De Leon admires Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon’s efforts in reviving the country’s tourism industry, adding that, “he is one of the very few aggressive tourism secretaries that I know of because I work closely with him. He does have very good projects for the Philippines and I am proud to say that BCC is an active participant of ‘WOW Philippines’. He may not be perfect but he is serious, and he has the stamina and the enthusiasm.”





One of the visions of BCC is to become one of the leading training institutions in Baguio City for the hospitality industry. In line with this vision, De Leon established last August the Hotels and Restaurants Association of Baguio together with its 30 members and was likewise elected president. The objectives are to standardize the training programs of hospitality workers in Baguio City and to come up with their own hotel laboratory school. “This goes to show that we are serious when it comes to tourism because Baguio exists because of tourism and nothing else.”





 

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