A lasting impact on Waikiki
| • | Chart (opens in a new window): Hilton’s changes under Peter Schall |
By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Staff Writer
Had it not been for a summer job at a small hotel in his hometown, Hilton Hawai'i executive Peter Schall might have spent his life as an automotive engineer in Germany.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
That was Schall's plan when he graduated from high school in Freudenstadt, Germany. But because engineering school didn't begin until the fall, he took a summer job at a hotel, running errands for guests. The owner saw something promising in Schall and encouraged him to go into the business.
Under the leadership of Peter Schall, the Hilton Hawaiian Village has won praise from the Hawaiian community for incorporating Hawaiian elements, including artwork in the Kalia Tower lobby.
"At the time it was not something that I had really focused on, but I enjoyed taking care of customers ... and I did make good tips," Schall said.
The summer experience led to a 48-year career in the hotel industry for Schall, including nearly two decades as head of the Hilton Hawaiian Village, Hilton's largest hotel and the biggest resort on O'ahu with 2,860 rooms.
In July, the 62-year-old Schall will retire as one of a handful of leaders who have had a lasting impact on Waikiki and tourism in Hawai'i.
Under his leadership, the Hilton Hawaiian Village underwent a $100 million renovation in the 1980s that incorporated many Hawaiian elements, winning praise from the Hawaiian community. He also oversaw the addition of the 453-room, $95 million Kalia Tower in 2001, the first major resort development in Waikiki in more than a decade.
"It was certainly one of the first catalysts that we saw in terms of new investment coming back in" to Waikiki, said Joseph Toy, president of hotel consultancy Hospitality Advisors.
"Peter's a remarkable hotel executive," added Toy. "It really takes someone very skilled to be able to direct a large-scale operation such as the Hilton Hawaiian Village so successfully. It really has been an anchor and a very unique resort within Waikiki."
During Schall's tenure, Hilton renovated and converted its Lagoon Towers apartments into time-shares.
An approachable boss
Schall also oversees the 1,240-room Hilton Waikoloa Village on the Big Island and the 313-room Doubletree Alana Hotel- Waikiki. Hilton spends more than $20 million a year upgrading its three Hawai'i properties.
In 2002, Hilton closed its year-old Kalia Tower to address mold problems. After an expensive repair project, the tower reopened the following year. Hilton Hawaiian Village
Employees say Schall is a perfectionist with a quiet, proper but approachable demeanor. He greets workers when he passes and sends Christmas cards to his managers with handwritten notes signed by him and his wife, Charlotte.
A challenge for Schall
"We see him around a lot," said valet Clyde Lani. "He's pretty cool. He's not humorous, but then again not stern or stuck-up."
Schall got the hotel involved in the Aloha Festivals and would join the staff early in the morning during the prayer before the annual parade. Sales manager Susan Wong remembers seeing Schall at about 1 a.m. in his dressy aloha shirt and slacks, helping employees put flowers on the float.
Wong, who has worked for the Hilton Hawaiian Village for 17 years, said Schall is quiet and humble and "like a dad."
"When you do get a scolding, you feel really bad; it's like letting down your dad," she said, adding that he can be very stern but never yells.
"He'll scold us but after he scolds, that's it — you learn from that and he doesn't bring it up. We just move on right after that.
"So that's really nice. ... You just want to do better."
Wong remembers going to a ballroom at 6 a.m. to set up for an event to find Schall already there.
"He saw that the podium was dusty and said, 'Call housekeeping and have them clean it off.' "
Schall, who speaks with a heavy German accent and favors aloha shirts over suits, calls his job fun and says it doesn't feel like work. But it's clear he's very serious about what he does. He smiles easily and is charming, but rarely lets his hair down.
Former Gov. Ben Cayetano, who appointed Schall to the Hawai'i Tourism Authority in 1999 and considers him a friend, said that although Schall has been over for dinner, "I've never seen him completely relaxed; he was always cordial but proper."
Above all, Schall is about service.
Schall found out through Hilton Hawaiian Village general manager Noel Trainor how much the former governor and his wife, Vicky Cayetano, liked the Irish soda bread that the Hilton serves. From that time on, whenever the Cayetanos attended a function at the Hilton, Schall would give them a loaf of the bread. This gesture continued even after Ben Cayetano left office.
"Vicky and I hold Peter in high regard," Cayetano said. "He was a great GM and a very honest and nice person."
Schall didn't want to come to the Islands when asked by Hilton in 1986 to take the job.
"I couldn't see myself living on an island," he said. But he agreed, expecting that after a few years he could go elsewhere. The longer he was here, "the more I fell in love with the Islands, and then my hopes started to turn into 'I hope they don't move me somewhere else.' "
Still, his tenure at Hilton in Hawai'i wasn't without its challenges.
After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks devastated the tourism industry, then-Gov. Cayetano called on Schall, First Hawaiian Bank Chairman Walter Dods and Tony Vericella, then-chief executive of the Hawai'i Visitors & Convention Bureau, to develop emergency measures for the faltering visitor industry. Part of their plan called for Cayetano, Schall, Dods and others to make a public-relations trip to Japan.
"When we went up to Japan, we were making calls from the prime minister to the presidents of the major airlines and then we had to make calls out in small little towns and cities, and his attitude was wherever you need me, send me," said Dods.
"He went out to the furthest, most remote places. We had these little presentations in Kyoto and Osaka and smaller cities, and wherever we asked him to go he would go.
"He never ever complained, never cared where he sat.
"He can be tough when he needs to be tough, but he's so caring and he cares so much about Hawai'i that he just did incredible things. He was able to tie up long-term contracts to get visitors back to Hawai'i.
"I would say that he was one of the two or three most important people in Hawai'i's economic recovery after Sept. 11."
Shut down by mold
As Schall was working to counter the drop in tourism, he was hit with another major challenge. In July 2002, Hilton closed its year-old Kalia Tower when it discovered mold in the building. It cost $55 million to repair the tower, including replacing furniture and room decorations, as well as lost revenue. That was more than half of the $95 million the tower cost to build.
1942: Born in Freudenstadt, Germany. 1957: Wanted to be an auto engineer but became interested in hotels when offered a three-year apprenticeship with a hotel in his hometown. 1960: Graduated from the School for Hotel and Restaurant Administration Bad Ueberkingen. 1963: Worked as a busboy and waiter for Hotel Corp. of America in Houston. 1964: Worked as a waiter in Long Island, N.Y. 1965: Worked in food and beverage positions at the Hilton Washington & Towers. 1980: Resident manager of the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago. 1982: General manager of the Hilton Seattle Airport. 1984: General manager of the Hilton Pasadena in California. 1986: General manager of the Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort & Spa. 1986-88: Oversees $100 million master-planned renovations at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. 1994: Promoted to managing director of Hilton Hawaiian Village. 1996: The Hilton's Tapa Bar and main lobby are renovated. 1999: Hilton Dome is torn down. Kalia Tower construction begins. 2001: Hilton's 264-unit Lagoon Tower is converted to time-share use. The $95 million, 453-room Kalia Tower opens. Bishop Museum collection opens in Kalia Tower. Hilton ends management of Turtle Bay resort. 2002: Kalia Tower is shut down after mold is discovered. Repairs cost an estimated $55 million. 2003: Kalia Tower reopens. About 72 rooms in the tower are converted into time-shares. 2005: Schall retires in July after 40 years with Hilton. Family Married to Charlotte. Daughter, Michelle, is the director of learning and development for the Kahala Mandarin Oriental Hawaii. Son-in-law, Simon Rusconi, is hotel manager for the Sheraton Moana Surfrider.
The tower reopened the following year although legal disputes concerning the mold damage are still ongoing.
Peter Schall
"When you close a whole tower, that is painful," Schall said. "It's a public-relations nightmare. But again I think because we were very forthright with it, we were up and up in our communication, I think that helped us a lot to overcome the challenge."
Schall credits his hotel team and Hilton's corporate offices for helping him through the ordeal.
"If you didn't have that kind of support, you probably couldn't make it," he said. "A lot of people say, 'You're in the forefront,' but, believe me, I get a lot of coaching, I get a lot of support, and I can call someone and say, 'Help me out here,' and you get all the help you ever would need."
And "the great thing about it is I get all the credit for it," he said with a laugh.
Schall has always been an advocate for improvements in Waikiki. Hotel, street and beach renovations combined with a full schedule of festivals and events have breathed new life into the state's oldest tourist destination in recent years.
Outrigger Enterprises president and CEO David Carey, who has worked with Schall on Waikiki improvements, said Schall "is always out there and always saying ... we need to do this."
Carey said: "It's been very helpful having an individual who has been in Waikiki for a long time actively working on those issues. One of the challenges sometimes of hotel companies is that people come for a couple of years and then they're gone. ... Well, he was here for a long time and he had time to engage in and develop credibility in the community."
Carey said Schall is likely the most knowledgeable person in Hawai'i about the meetings and convention business.
"Peter has personal relationships with all of the top meeting planners," Carey said.
"He puts in the time to get to know them."
Schall said Hawai'i is a tough sell for meeting planners because of its distance and image as a leisure destination.
"Basically you need to be in the face of the customer every day," Schall said. "You need to knock on doors every day because competition for that market is incredible, not only within the domestic market but also internationally. Companies, they'll take the business to Europe or Asia or to Bali — they have a lot of choices. Australia is a good destination. So we really have competition."
Sharon Nakama, who organizes the annual conference for the Pacific Telecommunications Council held at the Hilton, said Schall gets very involved, even though Hilton has a conventions director and a manager to oversee operations. He visits the conference site every day and checks to make sure everything is running smoothly, she said.
"He would come and look for us and make sure that everything is OK and ask how is the staff doing and if we had any problems, let him know," she said. "I felt that we had a lot of individualized attention from him. ... I have just found Peter to be a very honest man to work with. If he says something can be done, they will do it."
Schall also speaks passionately about his hotels' "relentless effort" to listen to the customer and is quite proud of the Hilton Hawaiian Village's new self-service, hotel check-in kiosks at Honolulu International Airport. It's the first of its kind in the nation.
Visitor expectations
Visitors have different expectations than they had two decades ago, and much of it is related to technology, he said. Consumers today are increasingly mixing business with pleasure and vice versa, with those attending a meeting here adding leisure time and visitors here on vacation wanting to stay connected to the office.
One of the strengths of the industry is the current renovation and redevelopment efforts in Waikiki and the Neighbor Islands, he said.
"There's a focus on enhancing the product, improving the product, implementing the technology, and at the same time create an ambience that the local community would want," he said. "I think there's more and more of a realization that if the community likes it, the visitor will like it, too."
With Hawai'i's low unemployment, the visitor industry faces challenges in staffing and needs to work more with various educational institutions and make the local community aware of career opportunities in Hawai'i's hospitality industry, he said.
"Years ago, people had the tendency to move off the island to find a good job. But I think we have a time where people can move back to the Islands to find meaningful employment, and I think that would be a tremendous achievement for Hawai'i as a community to accomplish that."
As for the Hilton, its plans include building a new time-share project at the site of the former Waikikian Hotel and Tahitian Lanai restaurant and restoring the Hilton lagoon.
Schall will be succeeded by 32-year Hilton veteran Gerhard "Gary" Seibert, who was area vice president of Hilton's Midwest region and general manager of the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago since 2000.
For Schall, it's time to focus on his personal life.
"I always felt that I really don't want to work until I'm 65," said Schall. "While I still feel good and while I'm still young enough, I'd like to travel a little bit and do things that I never had the chance to do (like) spend more time with my family. By the end of this year I'm already going to be 63 and I want to enjoy life a little bit. Even though I enjoyed it while I was working.
"I've been very fortunate. When I stop working, I'll always tell people that I worked for a great company and it provided me great career opportunities and, in return, I hope that I did my best."
Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 535-2470.
