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Manchester Adds European Touch at the Top

Last spring, while serving champagne and caviar during an afternoon soiree in the headquarters villa at the Grand Del Mar hotel, Tom Voss abruptly excused himself to interview an applicant for a chef’s position.

“If you’re early, you’re on time,” he said, citing his ethos of being in the hotel business, while glancing at his watch. “If you’re on time, you’re late.”

The fact that the applicant showed up early impressed him.

Voss, who had just been recruited from his job as manager of the 1,625-room Manchester Grand Hyatt on Downtown’s waterfront to become the managing director at the North County property, also owned by Manchester Grand Resorts, was working ahead of schedule.

Having worked at 16 hotels in 14 cities in five countries, he has had seven different job descriptions, including the most recent addition to the list , president of Manchester Grand Resorts.

Although the chef’s job he’d advertised back in 2005 wouldn’t be filled for a year, Voss, whose background includes a food and beverage emphasis, considers the resort’s culinary division key to achieving the five-star status it seeks.


Impressive Resume

The son of hotel owners in Hamburg, Germany, Voss, 48, earned a Bachelor of Science degree in hotel administration from the University of Kiel in Germany and completed graduate studies in hotel administration at Cornell University in New York.

Before joining Manchester Grand Resorts, he had a 17-year tenure with Hyatt Hotels. He first came to San Diego in 1992 as the food and beverage director for the Hyatt Regency, as it was known before a second 750-room tower was opened in 2003 and it became the 1,625-room Manchester Grand Hyatt. Prior to that, he had a seven-year stint with Starwood Hotels that took him to upscale properties in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

As a Hyatt employee, Voss was transferred from the then Hyatt Regency in 1998 to become general manager of the Hyatt Regency Greenville in South Carolina. He later held the same post at the Grand Hyatt Atlanta in that city’s Buckhead community. In 2004, he returned to San Diego as resident manager of the Manchester Grand Hyatt, and in April 2005 went to work for the growing Manchester Grand Resorts.

According to Doug Manchester, the founder and head of Manchester Grand Resorts and the Manchester Financial Group, Voss’ affable manner and his ability to earn the trust and respect of people who work under him were just as important as his sterling resume when he recruited him from Hyatt Hotels.

“He treats everyone with respect, from guests to staff members of all ranks. Obviously, he’s very detail oriented, because that’s the business he’s in, and he wants to make everything work,” Manchester said. “But Tom loves life and I love life and that’s why I love the guy.”

The Grand Del Mar’s clubhouse and restaurant, which are part of the 261-room luxury resort that includes 39 vacation villas on the company’s 400-acre Grand Golf Club in North County are under construction. A mid-2007 opening is planned.

Manchester said other hotel projects are in the planning stages, but he declined to give details.


A Motivator

In addition to overseeing operations at the company’s four properties , the Grand Del Mar, the Manchester Grand Hyatt, the 1,362-room Marriott Hotel & Marina and the 77-room Whitetail Club & Resort on Payette Lake in McCall, Idaho , Voss will be responsible for the construction and sales of the Grand Del Mar’s villas, said Dick Gibbons, the vice chairman of Manchester Financial Group.

“Tom will oversee not only the resort’s operations, but also the marketing of 4,800-square-foot villas that are just coming to fruition now,” Gibbons said. “The reason he was hired is he has proven leadership. He has built a strong support team for sales of the villas.

“He motivates people and has been able to bring together a phenomenal staff because people want to work for him.”

As one who multi-tasks, Voss says he always has his cell phone on.

“I’m always engaged,” Voss admits. As a husband and father of two children, it doesn’t interfere with his family life, he says. Nor has moving from place to place to ascend the ladder in the lodging industry.

“When you grow up in the hotel business, you’re always on, you’re always engaged, and to this day, that hasn’t changed. People can call me direct; I’m available to everyone by cell phone and I prefer to know about things that need to be handled as they happen.

“It actually saves time and improves operations rather than dealing with them later. And if the phone rings during dinner, it’s not that much of an intrusion.”

As to the frequent moves, Voss said they have actually been “very positive” for his children.

“That’s the reason they’re so outgoing and are very comfortable with people they don’t know. They’ve lived in hotels when they were smaller and been around hotel employees and it’s been an advantage to them,” Voss said.


He’s Done It All

By starting as a dishwasher, waiter, bellman, wine stocker and “guy who made sure the Dumpster was picked up on time” while working at his parents’ resort, Voss said he learned the value of those jobs and respect for the people who hold them. After graduating from college, he moved to Switzerland to accept his first hotel managerial position.

His European background has been invaluable, he says, because it stressed service as much as watching the bottom line.

Now, American hotels, which tended to focus first on profits, are concentrating equally on service, he added.

“They’re paying more attention to service because they realize that if the service is great, guests will always come back,” Voss said. “In Europe we were taught that if the service and food were bad, it affected a guest’s entire experience badly and that, in turn, hurt the bottom line.”

The Manchester Financial Group, founded in 1970 by Manchester, owns the Manchester Grand Resorts and the Grand Del Mar, which is slated for completion in mid-2007. The company also invests in technology, communications and health and human services companies, and has designed, developed and managed commercial properties throughout the West.

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