Rising from the ashes: Amanda Hyndman on reopening the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park London

In June 2018, two days after she arrived at the five-AA-star, 181-bedroom Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park London to replace Gérard Sintes as general manager, a fire broke out when, according to London Fire Brigade investigations, the byproduct of welding work landed in the felt lining of a planted wall.

Although the blaze was confined to the west courtyard, it knocked out the air-conditioning system, chillers and restaurant extraction vents, resulting in the total closure of the hotel for six months. Following the opening in early December of the public areas of the hotel, including the two-Michelin-starred Dinner by Heston and Bar Boulud restaurants, spa and ballroom, Monday 15 April will see the relaunch of the entire hotel, including all 141 bedrooms and 40 suites. The day will also mark the celebration of the £100m, two-year renovation of the hotel, which had been completed the week before the fire broke out.

When asked what Hyndman is most looking forward to about the reopening of the hotel, she does not hesitate in replying: "Oh my God, the guests and the opportunity to kill them with kindness. In brainstorming our vision for the hotel, we wanted to reopen as one of the finest hotels in the world, offering genuine and kind service. Most of our business is made up of leisure guests who are often coming for a special occasion. We have to be kind to them and make them feel comfortable so they have a sense of belonging and have an amazing memory, which will encourage them to tell people about it and make them want to come back."

A helping hand

Kindness is the word that crops up more than any other when talking about what Hyndman intends to bring to the hotel, and it sums up the extraordinary initiative that she instigated as soon as it became apparent that the hotel would be unable to reopen for several months following the fire on 6 June.

"The day after the fire, corporate colleagues started arriving from Hong Kong and Europe to support our security, engineering, finance and legal teams," says Hyndman. "I remember thinking that we've got to keep our colleagues; they are going to get bored not working and our competitors are going to want to hire them. I started thinking about the support we had from individuals and other businesses and organisations during the emergency and wanted to thank them. It was then that the plan to undertake charity work was born."

On 13 June Hyndman met with all 600 staff, in three groups of 200. It was the first time that she had introduced herself as the new general manager, replacing Sintes, who was moving on to Spain to oversee the renovation and rebranding of the Hotel Ritz Madrid to a Mandarin Oriental property. There was a lot of concern and worry among the staff about the future, and while Hyndman was unable at that time to tell them how long the hotel would be closed, she asked them not to look for alternative jobs and assured them that they would all be paid in full throughout the duration of the closure. Eventually, it was confirmed that all lost tips and service charges would also be covered.

"I told everyone that the priority was to keep the team together," she explains. "Colleagues would be given the opportunity to visit hotels overseas for work experience and we were looking to launch a major community initiative to thank everyone for their kindness."

The HR team spent three months sorting out the logistics, including the flights and visa applications needed to place 77 staff on overseas work placements across Mandarin Oriental's portfolio of 32 hotels. Some went to work in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Beijing, Santiago, Washington DC, Geneva, Munich and Prague, for between three and six months. "Our sister hotels were incredibly kind and welcoming to our staff, who enjoyed amazing, life-changing experiences," says Hyndman.

nwhile, back in London, work was getting under way to put in place the volunteering projects. However, it wasn't as easy a task as had been expected, with bureaucracy initially hampering the process. There was some frustration on Hyndman's part that corporate businesses such as Mandarin Oriental are expected to pay a fee for their staff to undertake voluntary work, such as cleaning up the River Thames, or to complete expensive courses before helping specific charities.

After much persistence and knocking on doors, a whole host of projects were eventually secured, from staff working in Oxfam shops across London to providing support to Age Concern by taking senior citizens on walks in Hyde Park or to bingo sessions. Support was also provided to the Felix Project, which delivers surplus food from suppliers to those in need; to homeless charity the Passage and its Hotel School, set up as a joint venture with the Goring hotel; and the Kitchen Social, launched by the Mayor's Fund for London to provide meals for malnourished children during school holidays.

With some colleagues working abroad and a core team in the engineering, security, finance and HR departments working in temporary offices adjacent to the hotel, around 450 Mandarin Oriental staff undertook some 40,000 hours of community projects. The initiative was widely reported in the national press, including BBC News, and it won Hyndman and her team the coveted Extra Mile Award at the Hotel Cateys 2018.

"We had time on our hands and could give back," says Hyndman. "It kept colleagues motivated and proved to be a very uplifting time."

Bouncing back

While she would not have wanted the fire to happen, Hyndman says she would never have got to know the colleagues and interact with them in the way that she did. "Throughout all this time I've remembered a Martin Luther King quote that really moves me and stems from when I was in Washington DC: 'The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.'"

Hyndman and the management team were focused on getting the hotel up and running and ensuring that all colleagues were continually kept informed of the progress. "Communication was critical, and it was helped by an app that enabled us to keep everyone updated as things happened. We also held regular motivational bonding activities, including a boat trip and a Halloween party. These kept the momentum going and were great for team morale."

The closure also provided an opportunity to undertake some minor investments, which would not otherwise have happened until a later date, such as changing over power supplies, renewing spa pumps and restoring the floor in Dinner by Heston and the Rosebery room, where afternoon tea is served.

Homecoming

Come Monday, Hyndman will at long last be able to take up the mantle of running the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park London as she had intended on 4 June last year. Her arrival at the hotel had come about after she had taken a year out of the business to travel and spend time with her family back in the UK. "I'd been overseas for 10 years and I had been general manager of the Mandarin Oriental Bangkok for five years," she says. "It felt like a natural time to take a break and put down roots again back home.

"I hadn't contemplated coming back to Mandarin Oriental, but I was approached about the relaunch of the London hotel and I got really excited about it. There had been a huge investment and the hotel was being put back to where it should rightfully be as one of the city's iconic hotels."

The time Hyndman spent abroad for Mandarin Oriental, joining the company initially in Hong Kong before going on to work in Washington DC and Bangkok, was invaluable. "I learned to be more respectful of other cultures. I never forgot I was a guest in their countries. By being respectful, you build teams and collaborations, resulting in a stronger outcome. For instance, in Bangkok, I wore more modest clothes that were always in the colours of the Thai court: yellow on Monday, pink on Tuesday, green on Wednesday, orange on Thursday, blue on Friday, purple on Saturday and red on Sunday. I didn't have to do it, but it is something that was noticed and appreciated.

"I learned Cantonese for 18 months in Hong Kong, although most people told me not to bother as it is very difficult - there are nine tones, where the same word can mean different things depending on the way you say it - but I thought it was important to show a cultural appreciation of the language."

Ten years of working overseas for Mandarin Oriental also means that Hyndman is fully versed in the service culture of the company, which is one of humility, respect and, again, kindness, focused on delighting the guest through a passion and willingness to please and deliver. Diligence, attention to detail, commitment and perseverance are also important.

The Mandarin family

It is the Mandarin way to promote talent from within, something Hyndman would always prefer to do rather than take a risk on someone from outside the business. "I would rather give our own people a chance," she says. "I was never ready for any job I did, I was always over-promoted, but someone believed in me and, by working hard, I got there."

Following a selective recruitment programme, there are plenty of opportunities for Mandarin staff to scale the career ladder. As well as a personal development plan for every team member to ensure everyone has a rewarding career experience, there are a number of internal middle and senior management programmes for development and a new Forward initiative to promote people into head of department roles.

"We are able to attract the best talent because people see they are going to be rewarded and have the opportunity to progress," says Hyndman. "It comes back to kindness again - between the company and the team, which in turn results in a respectful relationship between colleagues and guest. This undermines everything we do.

"We take our responsibility as an employer very seriously in looking after people's safety and welfare to ensure they flourish and fulfil their dreams, as well as in supporting London as a wider community, as highlighted by our charity work. It is a responsibility I hold very dear to my heart."