In September 2019, Zsolt Siket arrived in Boracay to take the helm as vice president for operations and business development at The Lind Boracay, the five-star hotel nestled on the pristine shores of Station 1 along White Beach.
Armed with an extensive career background in hospitality from his home country, Hungary, as well as various stints in London, Switzerland, Thailand, and China, working for a premier resort in one of the most highly awarded islands in the world should have been a breeze.
Then, the pandemic struck.
Siket was essentially stranded on the now-quiet island, which once welcomed nearly two million tourists a year, less than a year into his tenure. Eventually, he managed to leave Boracay amid the myriad travel restrictions and momentarily returned to Hungary, where he continued to take charge of the hotel through remote work.
“You should be ready that the path that you planned will get adjusted multiple times at a very rapid pace,” says Zsolt Siket
“Unfortunately, COVID taught us that some things [for which] we had long-term plans, and yet those got very quickly changed—we should still be thinking long-term, plan and head towards that direction. But you should be ready that the path that you planned will get adjusted multiple times at a very rapid pace,” Siket says. “So to be able to accept that yes, you can still head towards that direction, but the crystal-clear plan that you aim for might change and might do so rapidly than before because of technological advancements and various challenges around the world.”
Siket managed to return to Boracay in 2022, where he was quickly met with a shifted landscape. The island was still on the verge of regaining its pre-pandemic tourist levels yet even the makeup of its regular clientele had changed.
Where most of its guests had come from China and South Korea in the past, The Lind Boracay’s doors were welcoming more Filipino guests, in addition to travelers from Southeast Asia, Taiwan, the Middle East, and Europe.
This also meant some tweaks in how the hotel presented its service to guests. Once a thriving hotspot for island nightlife and tropical pleasures, The Lind once leaned into Boracay’s vibrant reputation as a party spot with a bar atop its infinity pool deck, allowing guests to partake in cocktails and tantalizing beats with a million-peso view of the famous Boracay sunset.
Today, a major factor behind The Lind thriving is its constant and reliable roster of return guests, many of them families vacationing together.
Siket shares that being mentally prepared for changes from the beginning has helped them weather various challenges.
“Developing your people and continuously focusing on them and relying on them, that will always be a support and always be a safety net that will help you through challenging times. Our team has responded extremely well to various challenges, and we pulled together stronger as a team and solved it together… From time to time, you need to step back, breathe, think it through, and be able to see it’s an opportunity to improve as well. Or that you need to re-evaluate how we do things, and you might need to do things differently,” he shares.
“Developing your people and continuously focusing on them and relying on them, that will always be a support and always be a safety net that will help you through challenging times”
And as Siket and his team try to operate from a fresh perspective, he knows that the island itself is Boracay’s main selling point as it moves past its old party-island identity.
“From guests’ feedback, the white sand beach, and especially Station 1 is extraordinary not only in the Philippines but also worldwide… Our job is also to maintain it and to keep it up that way,” he says.
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“Boracay is not only its white sands. There are also gorgeous dive sites around Boracay, which are probably not that famous, but it’s great to know that they are around as well. Also, more dining options and more options for the guests who wish to explore the island a little bit… So if we combine the natural beauty that Boracay has to offer with our fantastic location, with the warmth of the Philippine hospitality and with our service standards, I believe it’s a winning combination, not just for now, but for the long run as well,” Siket adds.
Harnessing Filipino hospitality for global guests
Still, Siket contends that there are new challenges to face in the industry, with rising competition from other tourist spots in the Philippines as well as the region.
“We now have more Filipino guests than prior to the pandemic that we are very happy about and proud of as well. Being a Filipino brand, that’s something very important for us… But this is not something to take for granted. Many other locations within the Philippines are becoming more popular and developed. So it’s not something that Boracay can take for granted, that ‘Oh Boracay is gorgeous and people will come.’”
“Many other locations within the Philippines are becoming more popular and developed. So it’s not something that Boracay can take for granted, that ‘Oh Boracay is gorgeous and people will come’”
Welcoming more savvy, well-traveled guests have also led to a rise in expectations, which Siket says is a challenge they embrace.
“We all need to do better. We could be looking at our neighbor physically next door [on what they’re doing], but what a five-star hotel does in Mauritius, or in the Seychelles or in Bali might be equally relevant to us. So open-mindedness for great examples around the world is absolutely needed in order to stay competitive in the local and global market,” he says.
Siket believes he and his team are not “reinventing the wheel” but ultimately, it’s a matter of harnessing the best of Filipino hospitality with the best practices found around the world.
During this writer’s stay, three destination weddings took place in a span of five days, all met with warm sunny weather in the daytime but with a chance of rainshowers at night. One wedding did get rained on when the clock struck 10 p.m. but the reception had all but ended then, with guests making their way to the indoor ballroom for their after-party.
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The property has hospitality essentials down to a tee—it has a sweeping shoreline that can rival few others, while food-wise, the hotel has proven it can showcase a large repertoire at a consistent standard of quality, from breakfast to their grilled dishes and Asian dishes.
However, what truly stood out was the level of service. While riding the boat from Caticlan to the island, and while dining at times when the sun was at its peak, the staff would pass around ice-cold towels to cool down from the heat.
“This is a marathon that we have to run every day. It’s okay if we do a great job on Monday, but the guests arriving on Tuesday or Wednesday don’t care about it. [We] make sure that we are doing a great job every day and we keep improving on that bit by bit”
It’s these little details that not only showcase their attention but also their genuine malasakit for their clients that stood out.
Siket describes the level of work and hospitality they deliver as “not a sprint, but a marathon.”
“This is a marathon that we have to run every day. It’s okay if we do a great job on Monday, but the guests arriving on Tuesday or Wednesday don’t care about it. [We] make sure that we are doing a great job every day and we keep improving on that bit by bit,” he says.
