The Director of the reception at The 101 has rejuvenated the old idea that attention is synonymous of a long face and protocol. His smile and hospitality are the best weapons at the time of making a guest return to 101 Park House.

On a daily basis, a diligent and pretty woman takes pains to take care of each guest behind the reception of the 101 through her smile and amiability. Her unforgettable and kind demeanor makes the guest return to this small and successful hotel in Bogota.

Johanna Navarro, a sensible and charming person as well as industrial designer is Director of Reception. She is convinced that she does not go to work at the hotel but rather to be with her American, Spanish, Japanese, Argentine, Brasilian, and German friends, to speak to them, to steal from them a smile, including to listen to them in moments when they miss their family.

“When I came to work in the hotel, they told me that this was a family and this is what I have found to be true. A group of friendly, responsible people ready to greet and cheer the tourist with amiability and service”

And if is there is someone that knows how to give the client a smile, it is Johanna, an extroverted and with a mindset for fun.

Ever since she was seven years old she has created crazy ideas as well as those that surprise our guests. A difficult task that with time becomes a routine of confidence and catapults like a diffusion of dreams.

And it is when a room needs time to be personalized for an executive that she does not see her family. No worries that she needs to find photos on the internet of their wife or husband, children or pets, or in another instance she needs to buy colorful balloons, serpentines or birthday cakes to entertain the guest,

As well, if she has to make a show, a party, a walk to make the guest feel good, Johanna does not delay. She is one of the organizers of the Wednesday cocktail where each of the guests come down to the terrace to enjoy some food, a glass of wine and an event that stays in their memory. It may be a night of the “crazy cow”.

There are many moments that wake the sensibilities, one of these is to know that we are family” Here they permit us to dream and this in time allows us to open our heart to the client”, she says.

And it is that long ago that Johanna changed her career from industrial design to hospitality because of the potential to make a recipe of diversion and to give attention. She, like her fellow work colleagues do not feel like a boss but rather a leader, surrounded by people with a capacity to empower and change he life of whichever guest visits.

When Johanna Navarro appeared for her interview to work at 101, she thought that she would not get the job because she was an Industrial Designer. The surprise was that the hotel did not need expert hoteliers but rather people who have a specialty of making of dreams and smiles.

A native of Bogotá with a strong character, she is responsible for selling the image of 101 Park House both inside and outside of Colombia.

The strength of her name is proportional to her character. Although she is strong, she is able to awake much sympathy with a laconic answer accompanied by a warm look.

Her colleagues have already accustomed themselves to the culture of the hotel. She has done the same, but although she has the knowledge of the importance of a smile in the 101 Park House, she thinks that the communicative strategies go a different way: through marketing.

To Martha, there are two characteristics that define it perfectly: the clear word and acting in time. Both go hand in hand because with her language, she gives meaning to the promotional work of the hotel. She feels its parameters and through her diligence over the last three years has become the Director of Marketing of 101 Park House, a place that is know for living moments at 101 percent.

Ever since she arrived at the hotel, she has advanced its advertising campaign and public relations through mass media while moving away from the traditional and less innovative techniques of promotion typically used by hotels. “With Gina, the design coordinator of the hotel, we have focused in making things different, in shaping the hotels image through every graphic piece that we create, in each corner of the hotel” clarifies De Francisco.

Turbulent waters do not concern this native of Bogota and a graduate of Industrial Design, Martha will continue firm in her intention to make the 101 Park Hotel, already known worldwide for its hospitality and great service, more visible.

And not in vain, this year, the hotel proudly boasts its five stars and commentaries from those who live, feel and enjoy the world of hotels.

Martha feels happy because in spite of working in the hotel, she is not deprived of being herself, of speaking clearly when she needs to and to dress as she likes, in black.

That of protocol would not seem to go with Martha, but at the important moments, nobody better than this dark-skinned one with brown hair to be brilliant in her formality in accordance to pomp and ceremony.

This same woman that plans everything in minutes, that goes from side to side with the loud click of her heels, that with her look embraces the world of marketing for a hotelier, public relations and good service that crumble (before the call of its son??/expression???) the same person whose amiability sees every side of the situation is the same voice that can strongly say that in Colombia there is only one hotel that can speak of is proximity to the stars, 101 Park House.

Receptive, elegant and humorous is Maria Josefina Lengua, the woman who for more than a decade has been considered, not only a “live memory” of 101 Park House, but rather the “lady of the transactions”

She, who practically opened the doors of the hotel in 1996 recalls, as if it were yesterday, the entire evolution of 101 Park House, latent memories of conversations of more than four hours to instill employees with the philosophy of the good service they must provide. This was the bread of the day.

“I began my career as a Sales Executive and these were conversations were amoung the Management though the Porter, passing through the Bellman, the waitresses and the receptionist. They were all speaking of good service and how the difference was in that they must personalize it to the guest. We learned this when we learned to add…repeating” she relates.

“During those years there was a very big transformation in the hotel’s physical infer-structure, in the rooms, terraces, basement, offices and the employee areas. We have been and still are a hotel dedicated to service, not only personalized, but attentive and amiable and this has characterized us through the years. It is our best menu of presentation”, she says

“For me, 101 is my house, I saw it born and even when I arrived when it was still unfinished, I have seen it evolve, grow and arrive to the point at which it is today”, she says

As well as she has seen a transformation of the hotel, the hotel has also witnessed one of her because she happened to start as Executive of Sales, then progressed to be the Manager and now she is considered “the lady of business”

For this Boyacá native with a ‘birth and heart” of Bogota, the 13 years that he has spent working with 101 Park House has given him the authority to say without previous feelings that not only is it the good service that he speaks of but the job well done, the love and the passion with which he works where there is no minimum detail lost.

And it is worth nothing that in the 13 years of his employment with 101 Park House that Jairo Sanabria has concentrated his attention an focus in the area of Event Headquarters.

Here we handle everything from a business contest to a marriage to a baptism or first communion and everything in between and we must consider every last detail says Sanabria, who adds that the base of his philosophy is to surpass the expectations of the client.

In order to arrive at that point Sanabraia has had to gain experience in restaurant management, bybeing a maitre’d himself before he could become head of events. “That position is the presentation menu/letter (?) of the hotel” says this specialist of the food, drinks, bars and restaurants of the Seine.

“Definitely, what gives me the most satisfaction from this work is when after the event, they congratulate my team and we make a satisfied client” he indicates

Also, Sanabra adds, we make the meeting to the taste of the client. We do not impose the protocol, give rules of what they must do, but rather empower them to be owner of the event to say what he wants and how he wants it and then we do it accordingly. For us, the word “no” does not exist, he states.

It is noteworthy to mention that there are business events held every week at the 101 and that this month there gave been in average, four marriages.

Jorge Lozano, a 42 year old native of Barranquilla, has travelled the world to collect the flavors and techniques of the kitchen of which he shares today with the guests of 101 Park House. His secret: the love for what he does.

His style is reserved yet equal to the magic of his recipies. On the other hand, his hands speak. They create poetry for the taste buds like a kaleidoscope of flavors in each saucer that he prepares in the one year that he has been at the 101 Park House.

Passing through Europe, New York and Atlanta, where he spent a big part of his life, in the measurment, of his irresistible implulse for travel and food, for working in a Night Club, and in restaurants and his culinary studies. At the time he wanted to obtain an MBA in business, but he had more of a love for the art of cooking and the delight of the table.

He returned to Colombia at the request of some of his friends, who after 12 years of his absence, missed not him, but his seasoning. Upon arriving, he reunited with some associates and opened a restaurant in the T Zone. “It did not give us results” So he chose to follow with a restaurant in the Candlemas. “The business there continues, but I now share my time with the hotel.”

In the kitchen of 101 Park House, his refuge, of which he takes control with a single glance, Jorge assures that the more simple a plate is, the more precise one needs to be with the details. Perhaps therefore,, for this reason, his precision jeopardizes him from creating beyond the simple presentation of a main dish or a dessert.

“When cooking, one must have a lot of gentleness” says Jorge while he explains that although in the 101, international food is served, the strength of the kitchen is with the typical Colombian plates like Ajiaco, La Bandeja Paisa, el mondongo and other soups. The reason: many foreign clients want to try different things. And more: several local guests return to the restaurant over the years, enamored with a good table, feeling like it is their house and eating well in a warm and simple atmosphere.

Jorge uses his cupboard of spices and balsamic oils as a painter uses his towel to draw up flavor layers. “My specialty is Mediterranean food, the balsamic ones, olives, the paella. When I prepare it for my friends, they say that it is well worth the while to wait for what is necessary to make the dish ready to eat”

To observe him before his preparation leaves the kitchen for a public eager for his creations, is like witnessing the subject of a food writer commenting on whichever world-class restaurant. There are many hands involved, 15 cooks and 10 others make part of the team, each one with a little and precise assigned task that contribute to the final preparation that will explode in the palates of each companion at the table.

In may cases, instead of painting plates with delicate reductions and positioning micro greens on top of protein towers, Jorge smoothes his (ESCUDILLAS) with balsamic oils and places the whole upon the whole to the color and one or another popular delicacy that is always remembered and asked for by his consistently satisfied guests.

As a faithful person from the coast, he admits jokingly that when he arrives at his house, the most amazing dish to eat is the indescribable “rice with fried egg” He is well distinguished with glory among some chefs of Japan and Australia, when every weekend, they would request that delicious paella from him that only he knows how to prepare with Colombian flavor. Single, studious and in love with a good table is Jorge Lozano.

A man for whom has very surely found his true calling and passion through the colorful known enclosure as the kitchen.

Jorge Lozano is convinced that the “taste” of 101 is more the group of people who form their team. With them he shares the love of the kitchen and the delight for good service.

Edgar German Sarmiento Lara, a hotel administrator, is the captain of Service of 101. In addition to the Bar or Room Services, this 48year old native of Bogota gives all of his attention to the guest and to each and every one of their necessities.

Just by watching the guest’s eye, Edgar knows if that person is happy or sad. Better yet, he does it with a smile and an amiable manner. This native of Bogota with brown skin and hair is pleasant and able to make the day of his visitors.

Even though Edgar is not a fortune teller, a psychologist or something similar, nor does he have magical formulas to read people’s minds but yet, for more than eight years, he has dedicated himself to know each one of the guests like the back of his hand, to take care of them better than his own house and to call them each by name, even though years may pass between each encounter.

Edgar’s profession is Hotel Administrator, but it would seem well that he had a specialty, a Masters Degree, in the treatment of the guests that arrive each day to the hotel.

He assures that his secret is the knowledge that each tourist has his/her own way of thinking, of being and his/her own tastes and that the unique thing he thinks is in the repayment to the investment is the service.

“Our guests look for comfort and tranquility and this does not translate itself into the sea or the beach. What they want here in Bogota, in the North Highway, is what we give them: a smile, a hand, a welcome, a how are you, how did it go, a drink they like, in a glass they like with a bit of alcohol o the quantity of sugar that makes them happy” says Edgar, very convincingly.

And he adds this Captain of Service of the 101, “here we do not dedicate ourselves to create fantasies for the guest, here we make a reality when we treat them like a friend, like a relative, when we offer to them the lunch that for months they have not been enjoying, the dessert that his wife sometimes prepares for him or the drink that he usually shares with his children.”

Edgar, when asked what is the worst experience he has ever lived in his job, he immediately answers that it no other than when he dos not see his clients returning temporarily o definitively.

If one asked him to describe the best gift that he has ever been given, no doubt he would admit it is a “thank you”. The best one of his answers is “si” of which he gives when he describes the significance for 101 Park House to him “It is my oxygen, my food my life”

Nowadays, besides storing in his incredible memory, names, data, telephone numbers, appointments, phrases, descriptions, Edgar wants to study Marketing and Sales to amplify his role in the restaurant, of which he had arrived after he demonstrated to the directors of the hotel, his care of the guest and most of all, his warm human quality.

Edgar German Sarmiento, the maitre of 101 Park House, says that he has to position two families, his own and the one of the hotel, with which it shares wonderful and very human experiences.

An uncomplicated, friendly and untiring worker from whom curious strategies flow each day, Pablo Nieto Loaiza, General Manager of 101 Park House surprises the guest every day and who assures that in his hotel, the word yes reins,

One of the characteristics of a good hotel hotel manager is to be the “Ambassador” of hospitality and this is indeed what characterizes Pablo Nieto Loaiza, a native 40 year old of Bogota whose gentle smile and simple style disguise his serious responsibility of being the manger of such a prestigious hotel, where according to him, everything becomes, not to the 100 percent but to the 101%

This lawyer and administrator of companies of the Javeriana and the Cesa, holds a degree in International tourism and hotel management from the University of Valencia (Spain), with several international specializations in public management. Besides being somewhat hyperactive in that he tries to be in three places at once. He is very clear in his mind that the tremendous success of the business over the past four years did not occur just as a result of the personalized service that the guest receives or because of the hotel’s “yes” culture, clearly as a “no” is not accepted at 101 as an answer to the client, but the success is very much owed to the great quality of life that the employees enjoy.

The hotels employees have time to spend with his/her respective family, time to spend with their significant other or spouse and autonomy in their work. As a result they are happy and this shines through the genuine smiles and good service that they give to our guests, he states.

What we try to do is motivate people in a positive way and since there are many ways to do things, we allow them to choose what is best for them as long as it does not involve using the word ‘no’ with the guest. What we have instilled in their minds is the philosophy that as difficult as it may seem, everything is possible at 101 Park House. We must make them capable of satisfying the needs and likes of the guests, he says.

For Pablo, the administrative goal of the hotel is based upon Customer Experience Management. This philosophy means nothing more than that the client always has something positive to say of his stay in the hotel. “This is the success of 101 Park House” he assures.

“When one takes a trip, the first thing that he is asked upon his return is “how did it go?” If one immediately answers “good”, then the hotel could gave him good service and what counts is the overall experience that one had in the hotel and that we did everything well. This is when we accomplish our job” he relates.

For this reason and to obtain that mutual understanding with the guest, the administration has developed several strategies and mechanisms to communicate with the clients such as The Managers Cocktail, which occurs during every Wednesday evening. During this event, all of the employees together invent a crazy theme such as arriving in costume dressed as Rockers or Gauchos to make a special night. That is also the night that Pablo lets go of his multiple roles in the hotel with management committees, executive lunches and meetings to listen to the needs of the guests and to attend to them.

In 101 Park House, The General Manager is accessible to everyone and Pablo does not place himself upon a pedestal, acting as just a figurehead for the hotel. His office has open doors and his administration is not characterized as a pyramidal hierarchy but rather one of mutual decisions among its associates.

“I practice to not make decisions alone and that allows me to make decisions with the group. Our people accept feedback and constructive criticism. This is a very flat organization where we have only one level of management, the executives and then their basic collaborators. It is very simple but allows for a lot of independence for each person to make decisions.”

And it is precisely this scheme that brings to memory the ‘construction of the illegal wall’ I was the only person who was not in agreement with it, but finally, the majority decided in its favor and we did it. From then on, it was called “the illegal wall” he relates because he had said that they should not do it and yet it exists.

Today, four years after assuming the position of Manager of 101 Park House, and after having spent the same amount of time in other hotel chains such as Melia, Pablo has seen every type of guest pass through a hotel from the eccentrics, wealthy, obsessive, beloved, amiable, unpleasant, serious but he still has his conviction that “the easy guests can stay in any hotel but we take care of the difficult ones” he states.

Equally, Nieto doe not know just when the hotel became one of the best hotels of Bogota. “It was decided by the people” he explains. However, he clarifies that the strategies that he has implemented have played a part in the hotel gaining that recognition as well since the public continue to say that 101 is the best hotel not only the best in the city but on a national and international level as well. “That allows us to enter into a competition with the great international chains that have recently entered our country”.

For that reason, he adds that in 101 Park House the guest is made to feel like it is his house and that he wants to return to have another positive experience.

This phrase is not a cliché in that it is clarifies our mission. It is real. We are the only hotel in Bogota that receives pets. Often our Ex-pat Executives that transfer to Bogota from another country must settle first with their families in a hotel while they secure a house and during this time they seek calm an familiar surroundings. Our hotel offers them that option.

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