Sean SL Choo

Company info:

• Sunway Lagoon is Malaysia's leading premier Theme Park
• This theme park employs 900 full time employees

Responsibilities:

• Drove year-over-year business growth while leading operations, strategic vision and long-range planning.
• Prepared annual budgets with control to prevent overages.
• Implemented operational strategies and effectively built customer and employee loyalty.
• Developed effective business plans to align strategic decisions with short/mid/long-term objectives.
• Maximized operational excellence mentoring personnel on management principles, industry practices and company procedures.
• Identified trends in customer marketplaces to develop valuable solutions.
• Enhanced operational efficiency and productivity by managing budgets, accounts and costs.
• Managed budget implementations, employee evaluations and contract details.

Achievements:

• YoY revenue growth from RM90M in 2014 to RM180M in 2019.
• YoY park attendance growth from 900k in 2014 to 1.5M in 2019.
• Product Development: Successfully plan, build and opened the 1st Nickelodeon Park in Asia as part of Sunway Lagoon's product offerings.
• Product Development : Jointly developed Nights of Fright (Halloween Horror month event) with Scream Park business partner into one of the most anticipated annual Horror events in Malaysia with an attendance of 75k and a revenue of RM6.5M.
• Guest Satisfaction Rating improved from 78% in 2014 to 93% in 2019 (4 consecutive years of Guest Satisfaction rating >90%)
• Employee Engagement Rating improved from 48% in 2014 to 84% in 2019 (by Global Employee Engagement Consultant, Aon Hewitt Consulting).

Property Info:

• Located inside Legoland Resort Malaysia in Johor Bahru
• This property has 263 Lego Themed guestrooms
• A Kids focus hotel.

Responsibilities:

• Pre-opening leadership role.
• Established pre-opening budgets - Manning budget, Marketing Budgets, Procurement Budgets by department etc.
• Formulated Timeline sensitive Recruitment and Training Strategies.
• Established Yeild & Revenue strategies to achieve the desired occupancy level, Average Room Rate and overall hotel's revenue.
• Developed Minimum Service Standards and Standard Operating Procedures based on Legoland Hotel Brand Promise.
• Established Kids Focus Food & Beverage concepts, menus and operations standards.
• Managed room inventory/public areas/back of house/ F&B outlets handover from owner's rep. Establish joint inspections with owner's rep and contractors to identify defects.
• Established product procurement strategies to achieve best product pricing and qualify based on Legoland Hotels Brand Guidelines and owner's procurement policies.
• Develop Kids activities that are interesting, engaging and most importantly fun in order to keep the kids entertained after the closure hours of the theme park.

Achievements:

• Successfully opened the hotel in less than 3 months
• Achieved the highest Average Room Rate in Malaysia in 2014.

Property Info:

• A 500 rooms 4-Star Hotel located within KLCC
• Owned by Petronas KLCC Properties.

Responsibilities:

• Transferred back from Impiana Phuket to take the leadership role for this hotel 6 months after the opening of the hotel.
• The immediate task was to improve the overall business performance of the hotel. After the opening, the hotel was under performing with an average occupancy of 30% for the first 6 months in operation.
• Drove year-over-year business growth leveraging on strategic vision and long term planning.
• Developed effective business plans and market segmentation strategies in order to maximise revenue opportunities.
• Identified trends in customer marketplaces to develop valuable solutions.
• Implemented operational strategies and effectively built customer and employee loyalty.
• Maximized operational excellence mentoring personnel on management principles, industry practices and company procedures.
• Assessed reports to evaluate performance, develop targeted improvements and implement changes.

Achievements:

• YoY Average Occupancy growth from 50% to 92%.
• YoY Average Room Rate growth from RM180 to RM300.
• Won the Best 4 Star Hotel in Malaysia for year 2000 and 2011 (awarded by Tourism Malaysia).
• Youngest Hotel General Manager in Malaysia at the age of 34.

Property info:

• A 70 rooms boutique hotel in Phuket, Thailand
• Wholly owned and managed by Impiana Hotels & Resorts
• This property was totally destroyed during the 2004 tsunami and reopened for business in 2006.
• This resort was rebuilt into a 4 star boutique hotel (previously was a 3 star resort property).

Responsibilities:

• To establish a new set of Minimum Service Standards and Standard Operating Procedures based on Impaina Hotels & Resorts Branding guidelines.
• Develop branding and marketing strategies in order to alleviate brand image from a 3 star resort to a 4 star boutique resort.
• To formulate business plan and market segmentation and pricing strategies in order to maximise revenue potential.
• To establish wholesale strategies and to identify wholesale partners for high/peak season and low season.
• To explore the potential of OTA and to develop OTA business strategies.

Achievements:

• Achieved an average occupancy of 90% in 2006 (1st year in operation after tsunami).
• Achieved an average room rate of THB10,000 in 2006 compared to ARR of THB3500 prior to tsunami.
• Awarded Hotelier of the Year in 2006 by Phuket.com for being the first hotel in Phuket to pro-actively work with OTA.