Cem
Partokyan

01

Let's go back to the beginning. How did you get into hospitality? Was this a career you always saw for yourself, or did the path bring you here?

It wasn't really a path I set out on thinking, "I'm going to be a hotelier." In high school, when I wasn't particularly strong academically, my mother's take on it still surprises me to this day. She pointed me toward a vocational high school and said, "As a child you used to shout from the garden and invite people in for coffee, and all your friends always ended up gathering at our place — you should be in hospitality."

During the mandatory internship period of vocational school, I walked through the doors of Four Seasons. Adapting to that at sixteen or seventeen, coming from a completely different life, wasn't easy — but I never walked back out of that door.

Looking back, I see it as one of the rare industries where you can combine connecting with people, being part of an experience and making it better, discovering different cultures, and traveling, all at once. Over time I realized hospitality wasn't so much a job I did as a world I belonged to.

02

You built a career that stretched from Four Seasons Turkey to a global role. Looking back, what do you think set you apart and opened those doors?

It definitely wouldn't be right to put it down to just one thing. Being willing, not shying away from voicing your ideas and from growing, working with the right leaders, always looking ahead and shaping the next step of whatever role you're in accordingly... Collecting as many people as you can along the way and staying in touch with all of them is only a small part of what I could mention.

But it's worth adding this too: you should never be afraid to step outside your comfort zone. In hospitality, sometimes the biggest opportunities show up not exactly when you feel ready, but at a point that's going to stretch you.

03

Was moving to London and onto the global side a step you'd specifically set out to reach, or an opportunity that came your way? How did that transition happen?

As someone who especially loves being inside hotel buildings and working very closely with the operations departments, it wouldn't be accurate to say a global role was something I'd been aiming for from the start. But being in a global environment, and selling not just two hotels but 137, was always something I found genuinely exciting.

Being able to look through a much wider lens, growing by seeing up close the direction the brand was heading, becoming, at a certain point, one of the architects behind the big brand events, and being able to manage more than one market — that was a hugely important step in my career.

When the opportunity came, I think I read it correctly, and I think I was read correctly in turn. I got the good news at the end of a four-stage, pretty demanding interview process.

04

For someone working in Turkey who wants to move into a global role, is there something that isn't very visible from the outside but that you think mattered in your own journey?

One of the most important things I can point to here is trying to understand not just the market you're in, but the rest of the world too, and investing in yourself accordingly.

Once you move into a global role, being good at your job is definitely not enough on its own. You need to work with different cultures, adapt easily to different ways of working and different environments, and develop yourself by first accepting that your own point of view isn't universal.

I might be coming back to the same point, but "enthusiasm" will be the key to pretty much everything I've mentioned here.

05

After moving into a global role, what changed the most in how you see hotels and the world of hospitality?

I used to evaluate a hotel through the dynamics of the market it was in, the supply-and-demand balance, that city's travel trends, its own internal operations and the guest experience. Once I moved into a global role, I started to see the workings of 137 hotels and resorts across 47 countries.

Learning the world's travel trends, seasonal shifts, the cultures of the hotel sales contacts I worked with, the details of every destination, and the competing hotels in those cities gave me a far broader perspective on hospitality.

On top of that, I also get to work in the same global office alongside many departments that aren't inside the hotels themselves but that show just how complex an organism running a hotel company really is, and to learn how they operate. That was one of the things that changed my view of hospitality by 180 degrees.

06

Today's luxury hotels are more beautiful, more ambitious, and maybe more similar to each other than ever. What do you think really separates a genuinely good hotel from a merely expensive one?

As you can imagine, I've been inside a lot of luxury hotels, and the people around me always ask for "the bests." There are of course plenty of hotels where huge amounts of money have clearly been spent, run by wonderful brands, in incredible locations — their success is undeniable.

But I want to repeat the answer I always give: looking back today, every experience that has stayed with me is directly tied to how that hotel made me feel.

I think real luxury has more to do with intuition than with display. Meeting a guest's need before they've stated it, making them feel special and at ease, being in the right place at the right moment, and doing all of that sincerely enough that it feels natural.

Good hospitality is, in part, the sum of the details you never notice.

07

After leaving a hotel, we often remember how it made us feel more than the details of the room. What are the small details a guest might not consciously notice, but that completely change the experience?

You've actually already answered question six in question seven. 😊

The strongest details live in the parts nobody notices. Someone reading your name off your suitcase tag as you're about to check in and greeting you by name; the receptionist changing the room block and getting a room ready for you even though you've arrived before check-in time; the room temperature being exactly how you like it; housekeeping leaving a cleaning cloth on the table where you left your sunglasses; someone noticing which side of the bed you sleep on and placing your slippers on that side; or the wardrobe rack being pulled out so you don't have to bend down to reach your suitcase...

Plenty of details that seem simple and invisible are actually the main elements designing your experience behind the scenes.

08

Four Seasons keeps the same standard of service across very different destinations around the world, while still managing to make every hotel feel like it belongs to its place. How do you think that balance is achieved?

I can give you a two-word answer, but I'll explain it afterward — you already know by now that I like to tell the whole story: "People and Culture."

That's actually the name of our recruitment and people-management department too. The interesting thing worth dwelling on here is that Four Seasons does this across different destinations by respecting everything that culture calls for, and reflecting that back to guests.

People and Culture's approach stays essentially the same at its core, but how that gets expressed has to change by destination. The experience you have in Hawaii, for instance, shouldn't be the same as the one you have in Istanbul.

The critical point is that the sincerity in "Aloha" and the sincerity in "Merhaba" are the same.

In short — the behavior, the brand culture and the standard stay fixed, while the story is allowed to change.

09

There's now a serious segment of travelers who pick the hotel first and plan the trip around it, before the destination. What do you think turns a hotel into a reason to travel on its own?

I think hotels have stopped being buildings known simply for their luxury and their ability to offer a place to stay. People are chasing a story, an atmosphere, a way a table is set, or an experience that feels like their own.

Sometimes it's a chef telling the story behind the dish they cooked, sometimes a bar that's stepped outside the ordinary and become everyone's meeting point, sometimes the building's own place in history, sometimes the different cultural touches a hotel brand brings, sometimes a very famous afternoon tea, and sometimes health and wellness — one of today's most important subjects...

All of these can make a hotel more memorable than the destination itself.

10

We talk a lot about how the idea of "luxury" has changed. Having seen so many different markets around the world, what do you think today's luxury traveler is really looking for?

First, it's worth talking about how luxury has evolved over time. Luxury used to be directly tied to what we could own; now it's directly tied to what we feel.

Compared to the past, guests want a meaningful experience in return for the time and money they spend. Having a story worth sharing about where they stayed and the service they experienced, personalization, privacy and authenticity are only a part of that.

Rather than generic luxury rooms, furniture, plates and glassware offered the same way to everyone, they read a service experience designed around their own taste as what luxury actually means.

11

Technology, data and AI are taking up more and more space in hospitality. Where do you think technology genuinely improves the guest experience — and past what point does hospitality absolutely have to stay human?

The importance of technology, data and AI, and the speed at which they're advancing, is undeniable. A lot of what I've mentioned in this conversation is itself based on data.

Put simply, it isn't possible to track which markets demand is coming from period by period without technology. Where technology and AI are strongest is in letting us use time — which I mentioned in the previous question, and which is one of today's most valuable things — more wisely.

Following the same example: being able to act quickly on sales, track how trends and demand are forming, and not miss out on revenue we could have captured at the right moment — all of that is directly tied to technology.

Further down the road we'll reach a point where this accelerates a lot more, and we'll be living with an assistant in our pocket — maybe we already are.

But there's an important point in the last part of your question: hospitality is centered on empathy and human relationships. An algorithm can help you brilliantly based on your expectations, but it can't look a customer or a guest in the eye and make them feel truly understood.

So I'd read this power not as a force that will replace the industry, but one that will support it and take it up a level. At least, that's how I see it. 😊

12

After working inside hotels for this long, can you still walk into one purely as a guest, or the moment you step through the door do you start inspecting everything without meaning to?

Yes — that question, the nightmare of my holidays. 😊

There have definitely been plenty of times I've caught myself inspecting everything and quietly comparing, at the exact points where the service wasn't given sincerely.

On top of that — and he knows who he is — my friend Cem Kozikoğlu often catches me at weddings, hands clasped together, chatting away with people, and immediately says, "Welcome, sir." That's the effect of being in hotels...

So, no — the days when I could travel purely as a guest, or go to hotels purely as a guest, are long behind me.