I just touched down in New York after two busy but exciting weeks in Singapore and Hong Kong. Of course, I shouldn’t mention the two cities in the same sentence or blog, but after some 20 hours in the air decide to play both the “foreigner” and “ignorance is bliss cards” at the same time.

It’s not quite as bad as Brazil/Argentina yet, with customized degrees of offensive jokes, but still – on a recent Sao Paulo trip the cab driver started with … “how does an Argentinian commit suicide? He jumps from the top of his ego.”

As I said, not that bad yet over in Asia.

We chose Hong Kong to open our office, but I also always enjoy spending time in Singapore – and it might be up next as an office location.

I stayed at the Mandarin in both cities and the group’s service levels are just unmatched by any Western hotel. Usually my European and US friends argue that that’s because labor costs are lower, but while that still might be true to some degree, many of the staff are from Europe (France, Germany, etc) and the prices are almost equivalent nowadays.

Be that as it may, here are a few examples that Western competitors should take into consideration. My London flight a day before the volcano eruption was at 6pm, so I asked for a late checkout- the Soho hotel, a wonderful hotel with great service, gave me until 1pm.

My flight last night from Hong Kong was at midnight – I asked the Landmark Mandarin whether I could check out at 4pm, they called back and gave me until 5pm.

Just as with the Soho hotel in London, we love to schedule meetings at hotels in Asia; it makes life just so much easier. The Oriental Executive Lounge at the Singapore Mandarin takes it to a whole new level. It overlooks the city, has gorgeous interior designs and the staff is superb. They set up a private conference room for a video conference with our board, and arranged quiet tables for clients multiple times.

Maybe you can get a similar service in the West, but not only was it impeccable, it was also all included in the room rate – along with the limousine to the airport, internet, food and drinks.

So I have to say that Asia also in this segment is sky high above the competition (speaking of sky
high, you know my views on airline carriers. Not even close).

Does it stop here? Nope.

The Shangri-La, which btw operates 25 hotels outside of China and 23 in China (for all of us that think it’s only worth going to Beijing or Shanghai), in 2006 started offering its guests in Pudong the use of a Rolls-Royce Phantom. But, since other hotels are doing that as well now, it just upped the ante and now has private jets for clients.

Some Westerners or course are fully aware of all of this and either have been living in Asia for a long time or know how to compete there. Steve Wynn yesterday announced the new girl in town with a Saturday wrap for the China Southern Daily:

Encore.

It’s a beautiful day in NY and I am enjoying the cool breeze of a spring morning in SoHo with a cappuccino while writing this, but my next flight to Asia is already on the horizon after short stops in Washington DC and Europe. Try it, it’s addictive.