Debra Li

SITUATED in the heart of bustling downtown Luohu, Crowne Plaza Hotel & Suites Landmark Shenzhen is loved by people of all ages. Convincing proof is the hotel’s high customer satisfaction rating recorded at TripAdvisor, a leading tourism Web site used by millions daily.

Thanks to its spacious rooms, reasonable prices and personalized services, Landmark is in fact the most recommended Shenzhen hotel by users of TripAdvisor.

For fashion fans, King Glory Plaza is steps away, which has an underground connection to the Guo Mao Metro Station. Another hip mall, The MIXc, is two blocks away, where people can catch the latest movies, chat at Starbucks and skate on real ice.

The size of the suites at Landmark are impressive. The smallest is 64 square meters, vast compared to the average of 35 square meters for rooms in nearby hotels. Guests are also taken with the helpful staff who are always there but never overbearing, speaking a proficient level of English that may surprise native speakers.

In the words of general manager Dominique Berhouet, personalized service is the major attraction of his hotel.

“We’ve got a little more than 300 rooms and more than enough efficient staffers who are there to spoil the guests,” Berhouet said.

“We’ve got longtime guests who return again and again. Some of our team know them not only by their names but also details like what they like for breakfast, what kind of room services they need or even the names of their pets back home.”

Few executives are confident that their firms will perform better in 2009 than in 2008, but Berhouet is.

“We rebranded Landmark with Crowne Plaza on Dec. 18 last year. The IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) brings new concepts as well as global sales teams that we can rely on.”

Other attractions of the hotel lie in its restaurants, wine and cigar lounge and a transparent-roof meeting place ready to be converted into an elegant banquet hall.

A chef from Hong Kong in charge of the Chinese restaurant serves up memorable dim sum, and Marco Maggio from Italy brings authentic Italian seafood and pastas to the tables of sophisticated diners.

Proud of his team and caring about them, Berhouet is more than business-minded. Many pay lip service to the concept of corporate social responsibility, but this man plays by the book and lives the philosophy.

Serving as chairman of a fundraising committee, he organized a golf tournament that raised 750,000 yuan (US$109,000) this year to fund Project Hope schools.

“I was at a foundation-laying ceremony at a rural primary school in Sichuan Friday,” he said. “The children were so happy and thankful that they asked for my autograph as if I were a movie star. They were so lovely.”

Part of the money he helped raise will be used to rebuild a primary school in Leizhou, Guangdong Province, and a chunk of it will be pooled with IHG funds to build a beautiful school complete with science labs and gyms in Sichuan.

Co-chairing his charity committee in 2009, Berhouet plans to stage an F3 car-racing event in Zhuhai to raise more money for needy children in China.