Today we had a very interesting site visit at the Park Hyatt! This is my second ever site visit, and it was much more interesting and unique than the first. When we approached the building, I thought it was another Vietnamese palace or political building, so it was surreal to be able to step in and learn deeply about such a grand establishment. Learning about how Park Hyatt manages that brand and feeling of luxury and high quality was very interesting. During the presentation the woman who oversaw the tour spoke to how the hotel focuses on being humble through having a modest number of guests and not stamping their logo everywhere on their building. I think these practices really work to increase the company’s strong brand.

The site visit was amazing, and I think I learned a lot just by seeing up close how it all operates, but surprisingly I took away a lot too from the class sections earlier today. It was very fun collaborating with my group mates during the class on sustainability and I think the teacher had a lot of insight. Hearing about his opinion of what services may or may not be compatible with Vietnamese culture was very interesting. For example, he mentioned that a French company tried to enter the Vietnamese market with a wholesale/membership business model like Costco and that it didn’t work because it’s not in Vietnamese culture to go travel far away to stock up on groceries for the week. What he said really resonated with me. In just two days of being here, I don’t see any massive retailers, and it’s mostly small convenience stores like he mentioned.