In the latest of a regular series, we find out what makes some of the leading figures in the serviced apartment and aparthotel sectors tick. This time, we speak to Bill Barnett, branded residence expert and managing director of C9 Hotelworks Company.
• The best part of my job is…
“Working on independent hotels or with clients who see their dreams blossom into reality. In the last two years, we have projects we worked on in Condé Nast’s Hotlist so something must age working right.”
• The most challenging part of my job is…
“Knowing when to call it a day and switch off. Finding work/life balance and realising this is not the only thing you have in life.”
• My biggest achievement in business is…
“The older I get the more I understand the importance of paying it forward and creating NexGen talent in hospitality. Seeing the success of those who work for and with you, so this achievement just keeps on. I’m focused on adding to it as long as I work in this industry.”
• My biggest mistake in business was…
“Naming a restaurant after myself. I always tell my friends, if I say I’m opening a bar or restaurant, just take half my money and give me back half after a year, that’s preferable to losing it all on what seemed to be a good idea at the time. I’d prefer to be a customer rather than an investor when it comes to restaurant start-ups.”
• If I wasn’t working in our industry I would like to have been a…
“So many things – a writer, architect, film-maker, explorer, tech start-up innovator, musician, major league baseball player, the list goes on…”
• The best piece of advice anyone ever gave me was…
“Be relevant, in any situation for the daily norm to a crisis – be relevant, stay relevant.”
• If I could tell my 18-year old self one thing it would be…
“Don’t do drugs. Enough said.”
• The person I admire most in hospitality is…
“It’s not an individual, it’s the type of people that the hotel industry attracts who are passionate, love hotels day in and day out, and find the job they were meant to be doing.”
• The person I admire most in history is…
“Martin Luther King, game changer, brave, bold and did it all with love and respect.”
• I am surprisingly good at…
“Creating ideas or making order of chaos into seeing an idea from the light bulb flipping on to seeing it come to to life. Somehow these things play out in my mind and are able to materialise. That said, I have had my share of very bad ideas.”
• I am surprisingly bad at…
“Golf. When I first moved to Phuket I played 240 rounds of golf the first year I lived here and managed to get worse. I was obsessed and would tee off into the dark each morning. My swing is tragic and impatience my constant companion. I have since given up the game out of pure frustration. But again, you never know one day I am start again.”
• My perfect day off would be…
“When you work in hotels, it’s hard to explain, as I’d do this job for free. It’s a pleasure to get paid for something you love so much and feel it’s not work at all. I’m lucky to have found that one thing so my perfect day is today, tomorrow or the next day. They are all blessed and full of adventure and wanderlust.”
