Hotel and Resort Consulting Services and Management in Central America, Caribbean, Africa and Indian Ocean

Mark Turner has over 30 years’ experience in the international hotel industry, from 1991 to 2007 as a General Manager and in recent years as a Specialist Consultant in resort development and management.

As General Manager he successfully opened and operated high-end hotels and resorts for leading hotel chains as well as private independent owners in China, Cambodia, Thailand, Australia, Maldives, Malaysia, Malawi and Afghanistan.

Mark has especially excelled in managing exclusive boutique resorts, such as the Lizard Island Lodge on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, which was voted Second Best Small Resort in the world and Third Best Resort in Australia during his tenure, and the Kuda Huraa Reef Resort in Maldives, which was named by Conde Nast Traveler as one of the Top Ten Small Resorts in the World within 8 months of operation under his direction. He has also assisted owners of small eco resorts and operators of fully integrated leisure and residential resorts in repositioning and turning around under-achieving assets. Prior to expanding and specializing in hotel development, Mark led a portfolio of 8 hotels and resorts in Malawi, Africa, raising 4 properties to Le Meridien standards as Country General Manager.

In more recent years, Mark has specialized in all aspects of asset management and resort development projects, helping developers navigate from bare land to operation.

As a resort development and pre-opening consultant in Canada, Mark has created concepts, conducted market and feasibility studies, worked with architects and designers and put together comprehensive business plans for an upmarket boutique resort and a conference and golf resort in primary tourism destinations. In the same role in Panama, his concepts and market and feasibility reports won a provisional membership with the Leading Hotels of the World for an exclusive destination resort island with multiple hotels and a vacation rental and property management component.

For residential resorts with multi strata ownership structures, Mark has utilized his unique experience with Home Owners Associations, vacation rental and property management services to bring together an operational and administrative package for owners to implement.

To maximise cash flow from operations, Mark has assisted investors, owners and operators in revamping their business plans by reviewing and auditing operations with a critical but constructive eye. With in depth knowledge of all areas of operations, he created clear road maps for operations covering all areas, including capital expenditure and ROI analysis, customer relations and services, food and beverage management, team training and development, organizational development, renovations, market positioning or repositioning, strategic planning, standards and policies and procedures.

In training and human resource development, Mark has successfully set up hotel schools in China, Cambodia and Afghanistan during the pre-opening stage, and implemented Total Quality Management practices when re-launching a resort in Malaysia. His dedication to training and sustaining a culture of ‘continual improvement’ in the work place was instrumental to achieving the exceptionally high hotel services standards that he has come to be known for.

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Elaine Turner is a pioneering hotelier involved with some of the first luxury hotels and resorts in a pre-opening and opening capacity in China, Cambodia, The Maldives and Afghanistan, and in operational roles in Malaysia and Thailand.

In addition, she has more recently provided hotel consulting services in pre-opening and development projects in Canada, Costa Rica and Panama as the co-founder of her hotel and resort management and consulting company.

She has excelled with impeccable references in a wide portfolio of positions including Executive Assistant Manger, Corporate Training Manager, Marketing Communications Manager, Pre-opening Training Consultant and Marketing Services Consultant.

Her 26 years’ experience as a global hotelier is complemented by her linguistic skills in English, Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese and other Asian languages.

Her exceptional problem-solving skills and her ability to adapt and improvise under extremely challenging circumstances have gained her the recognition of a hardship post specialist.

In TRAINING AND EDUCATION, she planned and coordinated the whole hiring process for the 180-room Kabul Serena Hotel in Afghanistan, and led a team of department heads in implementing foundation and skill training programs for 450 recruits in the pre-opening stage. In Cambodia she set up a hotel training school for over 100 students and led department heads in delivering classroom and field training. In a corporate role for a hotel group in Malaysia, she managed training budgets and administered training and development policies with responsibilities ranging from needs assessment and outsourcing to coaching and training the trainers. As a pioneer expatriate in Shanghai in 1990, she led a 60-staff front office and guest services team in soft-opening a Crowne Plaza hotel while training them on-the-job. It was in these roles that she especially demonstrated above-average planning, interpersonal and organization skills.

In MARKETING AND PR, she was instrumental in propelling the Kuda Huraa Reef Resort onto the world stage, where she formulated marketing communications plans that incorporated international press visits, advertorials, print and internet advertising, marketing collateral, press releases, publicity and community outreach, tradeshow presentations and fashion shoots in top travel publications; the resort was named one of CondeNast Traveler’s top ten small resorts in the world preceding the handover to Four Seasons. Earlier in Thailand in a consulting role, she used the same skills set in achieving a seamless transition following a corporate takeover of a 400-room hotel, where she worked with photographers, writers and graphic design teams in completing the change of corporate identity. Early in her marketing services career with Hyatt, she worked with in-house graphic artists in writing and producing advertisements, brochures, posters, menus, banners, direct mails, etc. while concurrently managing the Hyatt Gold Passport loyalty program.

In the PROJECT DEVELOPMENT stage, she has used her acumen in researching, analysing, compiling and presenting information to contribute to the feasibility and market study process after establishing a hotel and resort management company in Canada, where she provided consulting services to hotel owners and developers in the Canadian Rockies region, most notably the master-planned Silver Tip Resort community development just outside Banff National Park.

In the PRE-OPENING MANAGEMENT stage her proficiency focuses on managing the FF&E procurement process, developing marketing collateral, prints and amenities, compiling the corporate identity manual, and operation manuals with policies and procedures for front office, housekeeping, guest services, personnel and training departments. In Costa Rica, she masterminded all aspects of marketing and rooms division groundwork, administer pre-opening expenses, worked with procurement specialists, established departmental policies and operation standards in line with those of Small Leading Hotels of The World. While being Training Consultant in Kabul, she volunteered her expertise in print and amenity production to guide the pre-opening team in implementing Serena Hotels’ corporate identity manual from A to Z.

In WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT, she fulfilled her vision of establishing a consolidated online marketing channel for lodging businesses in Costa Rica, having personally researched, compiled, designed and developed an interactive website that represents all categories of hotels and vacation rentals. She currently manages the website on a day-to-day basis with focuses on growth and sales.

Elaine is a Malaysian-born Canadian with resident status in Australia and the European Union. She graduated from the University of Alberta in 1984 with a bachelor degree in Commerce and Business Administration, followed by a Hotel Management diploma from the American Hotel and Lodging Association specializing in Rooms Division Management.

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