Seong-ho Kim, Byeong-ju Jeong, and Byeong-jin Jo stood in the hotel lobby, quietly taking in Ilhyeon Hotel.
After gazing at the hotel for a while like that, Byeong-jin Jo spoke first.
“So what’s the plan now?”
“Manager Jeong. How many people got cleared out from all this?”
Instead of answering Byeong-jin Jo directly, Seong-ho Kim turned the question to Byeong-ju Jeong.
“Five executives including President Jae-su Jeong went to the police on charges of feeding information to DS Furniture, along with three union officials and eight room-attendant staff on charges of colluding with them. Fifty employees quit on their own, and we’ve got about 100 more staff lined up for us to clear out.”
“That’s a lot of holes opening up everywhere.”
“A lot. Right now we’ve even got reservations staff standing in at the front desk.”
At Byeong-ju Jeong’s words, Seong-ho Kim and Byeong-jin Jo turned their eyes toward the front desk.
A female employee in hotel uniform was attending to an arriving guest, but something about it looked distinctly awkward.
“Staff who used to only handle phone calls or bookings through corporate accounts and travel agencies — when would they ever have dealt with guests face to face? So we’re getting complaints that it feels awkward and uncomfortable, but what can we do. We need to plug the holes right now, so we’re stuffing in whatever’s roughly the right shape from what’s in our pocket.”
Byeong-ju Jeong spoke with a bitter expression.
Seong-ho Kim nodded and headed toward the main entrance.
Where the doorman should have stood, and where the valet staff should have been, both spots sat empty.
Seong-ho Kim turned and headed toward the elevators instead.
The three of them pressed the button, waited for the elevator to come down, and stepped inside once the doors opened.
Looking at the empty elevator, Byeong-jin Jo said with some regret,
“No one’s been here since the first day we came… still empty. Director Kim, where are we headed?”
“Let’s try the 23rd floor first.”
“23rd floor?”
Byeong-jin Jo, looking puzzled at the mention of the 23rd floor, pressed the button.
As the elevator moved, Byeong-ju Jeong asked Seong-ho Kim,
“Isn’t the 23rd floor… sitting empty right now?”
“That’s right, it’s empty. That’s exactly why I want to go take a look.”
“That’s exactly why you want to go?”
Byeong-ju Jeong turned to look at Byeong-jin Jo, as if to ask whether he knew anything, but Byeong-jin Jo was just as clueless.
The 23rd floor, once they arrived, was the hotel’s highest level, offering a magnificent view overlooking the whole of Seoul.
But ever since the contracts with the restaurants that had operated there were terminated, the floor had sat completely empty.
Looking around the empty space, Seong-ho Kim said to Byeong-ju Jeong and Byeong-jin Jo,
“I’m planning to put a French restaurant over there, and a coffee shop on one side of the lobby here.”
“You’re going to select new vendors to run businesses here?”
“No.”
Seong-ho Kim shook his head at Byeong-jin Jo’s question.
“We’re planning restaurants that we run ourselves, under our own brand, managed by us directly.”
“We’re opening a restaurant under our own brand?”
Byeong-ju Jeong and Byeong-jin Jo wore startled expressions.
Seong-ho Kim turned to face them and laid out his plan.
“To make sure we operate and manage everything ourselves as a principle, I’m planning to bring everything doing business here under direct company operation.”
“Even the chef?”
Seong-ho Kim turned to Byeong-jin Jo, who’d asked, and answered,
“Not just the chef — even the waitstaff serving tables will all become Ilhyeon Hotel employees.”
“But… we came here to restructure. Is that really all right?”
The basics of restructuring were finding and stopping wasteful spending within a company.
In that sense, cutting staff could be considered one part of a restructuring job.
Which was why, even though there had been backlash when Seong-ho Kim cut staff at Ilhyeon Hotel, no one had questioned the decision itself.
But this decision was different.
“Us running everything directly? Is there really a need to go that far?”
Byeong-ju Jeong, sensing something was off, asked Seong-ho Kim too.
“Up until now, hotels have existed purely for people coming to stay overnight.”
“Right. That’s the whole reason hotels exist.”
Byeong-ju Jeong turned to look at Byeong-jin Jo, who nodded, sharing the same thought.
Seeing both men looking puzzled, Seong-ho Kim continued explaining.
“How many people in Korea actually use hotels? If 10 people come up from Busan to Seoul on business, how many of them would actually stay at our hotel? One out of ten? I’d say even one is generous.”
“That’s… probably true?”
Byeong-jin Jo nodded, thinking he agreed with Seong-ho Kim’s point.
Whatever the future might hold, in the present era almost no one stayed at a hotel in Seoul, which wasn’t even a tourist destination.
“So the first thing we need to do is let people know our hotel isn’t just a place to sleep.”
“Is there something else you can do at a hotel besides stay overnight?”
“Not just lodging — a place where you can eat, drink, and enjoy yourself. A place where you come in the evening for a good meal, and share a drink against this beautiful view. Ilhyeon Hotel is going to transform into a place that can offer that kind of pleasure.”
Byeong-ju Jeong’s eyes went wide at Seong-ho Kim’s plan.
“Is that why you said we’d manage it ourselves directly?”
“Yes. I’m planning to establish a new food and beverage division and manage the restaurants ourselves directly.”
Seong-ho Kim turned his gaze toward the window overlooking all of Seoul.
He remembered clearly what had once been here, in his past life.
All he had to do was pull it out and bring it here exactly as it was.
Which was why Seong-ho Kim believed that raising Ilhyeon Hotel’s revenue — something everyone else considered difficult — wouldn’t be all that hard for him.
“Gather the general manager and all the floor managers. I’ll lay out the whole plan for everyone now.”
Byeong-ju Jeong and Byeong-jin Jo nodded and quietly watched Seong-ho Kim’s back as he looked out the window.
‘This restaurant thing might not be the whole story.’
Both of them got the sense the restaurant plan wasn’t everything.
Otherwise, there’d be no reason to gather every single manager.
And this suspicion of theirs proved correct at the meeting where the staff were gathered.
Because Seong-ho Kim announced a number of other plans on top of the direct restaurant operation.
The general manager shook his head with a troubled expression.
“Director, that… won’t work.”
“Won’t work? Or you think it won’t work?”
Seong-ho Kim asked the question to pin down the general manager’s negative response more precisely.
The general manager glanced at the floor managers seated alongside him and said,
“Turnover isn’t unusual in the hotel industry, given its nature, but… I don’t think anyone would transfer to our hotel right now.”
“Why not?”
“That’s…”
When the general manager hesitated and couldn’t answer, Seong-ho Kim gestured for him to speak freely.
At Seong-ho Kim’s gesture, the general manager hesitated, then forced the words out.
“It’s because our hotel’s situation right now isn’t good.”
“Why? Because rumors are going around that we might shut down any day?”
At Seong-ho Kim’s smiling question, the general manager looked slightly startled.
“…You knew?”
“Rumors, once they start circulating, tend to reach everyone eventually. It’s probably reached the chairman’s ears too.”
“The chairman…”
The general manager’s face went pale at the thought that even Chairman Tak-hyeon Lee might know.
And the same was true for the other managers.
Of everyone present, only Seong-ho Kim and the restructuring trio remained composed.
The reason the general manager’s face had gone pale wasn’t fear that his own wrongdoing might come to light — it was worry that Tak-hyeon Lee might genuinely fly into a rage and actually shut Ilhyeon Hotel down.
Understanding the general manager’s worry and thinking exactly this, Seong-ho Kim spoke first.
“It’s true that the chairman is angry and has doubts about whether Ilhyeon Hotel can continue.”
At Seong-ho Kim’s words, the general manager’s expression grew even more tense at the thought that his worry might become reality.
Seong-ho Kim continued speaking to him.
“But that’s not happening right now.”
Seong-ho Kim clearly explained the current situation to the general manager and the other managers.
“He said he’ll decide based on the results over the next year. So don’t worry about the company failing right this moment — just follow my instructions well enough to produce good results over that year. If you follow through, I’ll make sure you can take pride in working at the best hotel in Korea one year from now.”
At the promise not only to keep Ilhyeon Hotel from failing, but to make it the best hotel in Korea within a year, everyone in the room looked at Seong-ho Kim with stunned expressions.
Seong-ho Kim repeated to them what he’d said a moment ago.
“So we’ll be recruiting new hires along with experienced hires at the same time. We’ll offer industry-best compensation, and going forward, we’ll guarantee the best treatment in the hotel industry, period.”
This time, the general manager didn’t repeat that no one would come.
Now that he’d heard Chairman Tak-hyeon Lee would decide based on a year’s results, he was in a position where he had no choice but to make it work, one way or another.
“And General Manager, please make sure to emphasize that there are additional incentives beyond base pay.”
“Additional incentives?”
The general manager asked, curious.
Seong-ho Kim told the general manager about one of the methods that had helped Ilhyeon Hotel rise to the top of the industry in his past life.
“For doormen, we’re planning to have them memorize guests’ license plate numbers, with a bonus for every 100 memorized.”
“You mean you’ll pay extra every time they memorize a license plate?”
“That’s right. Though they can’t just memorize any plates at random — I’ll personally administer a test, and for those who pass, I plan to give a bonus of 500,000 won for every 100 plates memorized. Memorize 1,000 plates, and that’s a bonus of 5 million won.”
The general manager’s expression showed his surprise at Seong-ho Kim’s words.
Memorizing 1,000 license plates was difficult, but not impossible.
He knew that even Ilhyeon Hotel’s doormen, notorious for slacking off, already had roughly 300 to 400 plates memorized.
But the incentives Seong-ho Kim described didn’t end there.
“When guests return their room keys, we’ll ask about their room condition, and every time we hear they were satisfied, we’ll pay the housekeeper responsible an incentive of 50,000 won.”
“Even for housekeepers?”
“Not just housekeepers. We plan to implement incentive policies tailored to every position, along with performance-based pay to match.”
At Seong-ho Kim’s words, the general manager and managers seated there swallowed dryly.
Incentives were essentially an unexpected windfall to them.
And Seong-ho Kim added words that lit a fire under that anticipation.
“From now on, Ilhyeon Hotel will be a company where you get paid according to what you put in. Be kind to guests, and you’ll earn according to that kindness. Keep the room you’re responsible for as spotless as if it were your own, and you’ll be rewarded for that effort. A hotel guests can never forget once they’ve stayed — that’s going to be our motto here at Ilhyeon Hotel.”
“A hotel guests can never forget…”
The general manager repeated Seong-ho Kim’s words and felt his chest grow warm.
Ambitions he’d nearly forgotten after so long in the hotel industry were stirring back to life.
He felt the drive returning to actually make this Korea’s true flagship hotel, rather than relying on the Ilhyeon name to coast along with a five-star label.
Watching the fired-up general manager and floor managers, Seong-ho Kim felt certain the gaping holes in Ilhyeon Hotel would soon be filled.
The general manager and floor managers, now full of drive, would lead the charge in training the new hires themselves.
With those holes now on their way to being filled, Seong-ho Kim began laying out his next plans to build a new Ilhyeon Hotel on top of the repairs.
(End of Chapter 44)