Four Seasons Hotel Macao, Cotai Strip announces the appointment of Kris Kaminsky as its new General Manager. Kris previously served as Hotel Manager of Four Seasons Hotel Denver in Colorado, USA, a post he held for two years.
Born and raised in Kansas City in the American heartland, Kris earned a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. He harboured an interest in marketing but came to hotels through work at independent restaurants, including a French restaurant and bar at a luxurious ski resort in the Rocky Mountains. Kris subsequently worked his way up the management ladder in food and beverage with Ritz-Carlton, including opening the Ritz-Carlton Shanghai before becoming an executive assistant manager at Ritz-Carlton Tokyo.
When offered the managerial job at Four Seasons Hotel Denver, Kris did not hesitate to come on board. He recalled, “With its renowned service standards and the deeply instilled ethic of personal service that supports them, Four Seasons was always doing things that I admired.” The opportunity included overseeing sizable projects, but Kris is most proud of the way the team developed over his two years in Denver, time that included the Hotel achieving an AAA Five Diamond Rating in 2015.
During the time spent honing his management skills at the upper realms of luxury hospitality, including his experiences in Asia, Kris gained a deep understanding of the region’s ingrained culture of service. “One of the words that will always be part of my vocabulary is omotenahsi,” he says of the Japanese term to entertain guests wholeheartedly. “That level of service is so refreshing and powerful. In the age of push-button immediacy, we focus on meeting the unspoken needs of our guests. It’s about giving them what they need in the time and the way they require.”
In addition, Kris emphasizes the importance of the team, saying, “The task of delivering the exceptional service that underpins the Four Seasons brand rests heavily on the team; I look forward to providing guidance and support, setting the tone and motivating them to do more.” A true hotelier, he adds, “You talk about teamwork – everybody does everything and at a level of connectivity I’d never seen before. Once I was introduced to the hotel side of hospitality, I was hooked.”
One challenge is to deliver “upper-tier-level personalisation” of services and amenities at Four Seasons Hotel Macao, as a non-gaming hotel in the Las Vegas of Asia. Such heightened levels of attention not only satisfies guests’ desires but encourages them to indulge in the spa, restaurants, bars and boutiques. “If they’re here on business or for fun with the family, the very fact that they’ve chosen Four Seasons from so many other hotels in Macau offers us a unique opportunity to show how well we know our guests.”
