Meet Bharat Mehra – resident manager, Neptune Hotels
Did you always want to be a hotelier?
Since I was 14 years old, I used to visit different hotels with my father, and I was fascinated by the hospitality sector lifestyle.
So at the back of my mind I had two choices as career goals, to be an engineer or establish my own hotel.
I went for engineering, but I left in my second year of study a nd joined the hotel industry.
Did you receive any training in this field before you joined?
I am a hotel management graduate from the Institute of Hotel Management, Gurdaspur, India.
To keep my learning up to date, I engage my free time in online management courses from eCornell, International Business Management Institute Germany, the University of Michigan, Amity University and currently pursuing Strategic Management courses from Copenhagen Business School.
I believe to be an effective and efficient leader, one needs to learn all aspects of management relate them with the situation and experience them from the real world.
So why did you choose to work in Kenya, Diani in particular?
I had heard and was aware that Diani has one of the best beaches in the world and the second best in East Africa after Zanzibar.
So the opportunity to work here would be compared to sitting right on the laps of mother nature.
Neptune Hotels cater for the European clientele and not to mention that it sits on over 60 acres of land, so it makes for the biggest Indian Ocean area in Diani.
What would you say are your best moments as a hotel manager?
When the hotel is full, which is around 600 guests! My most successful moments though, are when the guests are satisfied and happy.
I am happy when I don’t get any complaints from guests or distress calls while at home from work.
It is satisfying when your team likes working with you and see you as an effective, approachable leader... those are my best moments.
Any future plans... say in the next five years?
I love my job and I am looking forward to growing within the company. Covid-19 might still be around until 2025, so we cannot predict what is going to happen after five years.
Achievable targets should be based on experience, learning and the current organisation environment.
