After my first full night of sleep since Thursday, I was ready to take on Day 2. At UEF I was able to meet 2 new students and work on our business pitch for an idea that we would take from the US and implement in Vietnam. It was quite difficult to come up with something we have in the US that hasn’t already been adopted in Vietnam. However Travis, a student from UEF, mentioned seeing delivery robots on TikTok in the US. Even though none of us from Pitt had ever used one before, we decided that would be our pitch. Thankfully our poster and idea ended up winning, along with the pet daycare group, and we received a UEF notebook. Everyone in my group signed the first page, commemorating our win (image above). After we enjoyed some delicious mooncakes, my favorite was the yellow pumpkin one (cover image), we learned some Vietnamese. I knew Vietnamese has different tones, so I had one of the UEF students try to explain the differences in pronunciation. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t seem to detect the difference for each tone but I am trying my best to learn.

When we arrived at the Hyatt, I was taken aback by the level of luxury. I am a part of group 1 and we initially researched Hilton, so I was not entirely sure what to expect from this site visit. I didn’t realize that there were so many organizations under the Hyatt name because the only variations of the hotels I had seen near my house were the lowest level ‘essentials’ tier of hotels. Upon entering, I immediately felt the luxuries, from the plush rugs to the smell (I never realized I could smell “fancy”). I thought it was interesting that, although this is a luxury hotel in Vietnam, there were somewhat few Vietnamese elements. From my group’s research, it seems the Hilton prides itself on creating a unique and integrated hotel for each city it resides in. However, speaking with the staff at the Hyatt, the collaboration with local organizations seemed to be less of a focus. Most of the artwork had Vietnamese ties, but there was only one Vietnamese restaurant. I wonder if the inclusion of the French and Italian dining was to keep brand consistency for the Park Hyatt, or something deeper. Since the Hyatt is based in the US, I am wondering if the Western view of what high end cuisine consists of influenced that choice for the French and Italian. It seems in the US, European food is more often thought of as upscale, especially French food. While most Asian cuisine, barring Japanese Sushi, is not often considered “fancy”.

In terms of sustainability, the Hyatt has taken some measures to be more ‘green’. Automatic lights allow for less electricity use, QR code room service menu, and multiuse soap bottles are a few steps Hyatt has taken within their individual rooms. When I used the bathroom after our tour, I also noticed the reusable hand towels (seen above). To reduce food waste, we were informed that about 2 years ago Hyatt started using Illumine, a technology to measure food waste as a means to limit the excess in their breakfast and lunch buffets. However, I did not hear of mentions of donating leftover food, which was something that Hilton does with extra food. While all of the sustainability actions seem well and good, I am curious how impactful the measures they have already taken are or if it’s more for appearance, as mentioned in the lecture today.