CHRISTOPHER Issa walked into a room decorated with scenes of Jamaican life in Kingston’s S Hotel with a toolbox in hand. His hurried steps suggest some urgency as he made time to do this interview amidst what seems a busy schedule.

“These are the tools that we use to create the culture that determines where the business goes,” Issa said as he set out cards, a pair of gloves, a small bottle of honey, a nipper and a rubber head hammer amongst other items.

The culture he is talking about is the service level that has helped to propel his S Hotel to being amongst the best hotels in the New Kingston business district. “Some guests,” he said with a smile, “compare us to the Waldorf-Astoria” — the luxury hotel and resort brand of Hilton Worldwide.

But it almost never was, until Issa, with a burning desire to see Kingston as a destination with its vibrant culture instead of being stained by crime, decided to walk away from practising law and entered the hotel business with the purchase of the Spanish Court Shopping Centre in New Kingston for about US$12 million in 2008. He then set about transforming it into the 107-room boutique city hotel with architect Oscar Garcia. All about the hotel are scenes from Jamaican life.

“I’ve always had an interest in the city hotel business versus the resort hotel business because of the role a city hotel can play in the life of a city,” Issa said of his decision to target Kingston for his hotel ambitions rather than any of the resort towns of Ocho Rios, Montego Bay or Negril.

“People coming and going, involved in conferences, events and so on, that was the appeal to me,” he continued.

Issa said back in 2008 when he decided to enter the hotel business, the nearby Courtleigh Hotel and Suites was the place to stay in Kingston “and when it was full, people would complain that they didn’t feel like they had other options” despite their being other hotels in the area.

“So, I said, ‘OK, there seems to be a demand for something.’ At the time there had been no new hotel in Kingston for like 40 years.”

“The other thing is Kingston was also coming along because more restaurants were opening, people started to dine out, and a lot of parties and other events were happening in Kingston and I realised there was a special vibe building in the city.”

He said he used that renaissance to launch Kingston 360, a compilation of things visitors to the city for business can do in an around Kingston. Issa said apart from promoting the city as a destination, he also started sponsoring events with the name Kingston in it “because people do not visit countries, they visit cities.”

As to why he choose to enter the hotel business, Issa was clear.

“I guess the hotel business maybe runs in my blood. My family had been in it for generations at resorts such as Couples, my granduncle and grandfather were involved in that business.” He is talking about Abraham Issa, his granduncle who has been hailed as “The Father of Jamaican Tourism” and was the first president of the Jamaica Tourist Board, guiding the rise and boom in Jamaican tourism of the late 1950s.

But taking over the Spanish Court Shopping Centre and transforming it into a hotel came with its own set of challenges.

“The first thing I would say is the name. We were doing a boutique style hotel, with more pizazz, let’s say, and I didn’t quite like the name Spanish Court. So I asked my friends what name they think I should call the hotel and I say ‘what about the name, ‘The Kingstonian,’ you know, or something with a little edginess to it. And they would say, ‘no man, call it Spanish Court,’ and I would say, ‘why’ and they would say ‘well, we don’t have to ask where it is. So I said, ‘Ok well, I guess we will go there.”

What Issa had going for him was location though he said some people thought he was crazy to want to operate a hotel outside of the centre of New Kingston where the other hotels are located.

Still, the name challenge lingered on though it was accepted. But the graphics artist designing the logo for the Spanish Court Hotel would create a special ‘S’ as the symbol, and little did they know at the time that the logo would become a name, the S Hotel.

“People from the early days of the Spanish Court used to refer to it as the S because the S was on the building. And when we actually were going to do the Montego Bay hotel and call it Spanish Court Montego Bay, the travel agents at the trade show that we first went to said no we don’t think you should call it Spanish Court Montego Bay because people are going to think that you are another Spanish hotel and there are too many Spanish hotels in Jamaica. The travelling public are looking for something different.”

That Spanish Court Montego Bay hotel was eventually named S Hotel. It was the former Breezes Hotel in Montego Bay that was owned by the NCB Pension Fund and bought by Issa in 2012. His Spanish Court Hotel in Kingston was rebranded S Hotel a few weeks ago to bring the two properties in alignment.

“One of our proudest moments was when the New York Times ran a story in its travel section shortly after we opened and it was entitled, ‘Kingston: Trading beach chairs for bar stools’ and it featured a picture of our sky pool overlooking the mountains of Kingston with all the lights. The other one was in 2016 when Expedia VIP named us the top hotel in the Caribbean. It was the only year they gave out the award to a single entity.

Now as Issa looks back at 15 years operating the S Hotel, he said he is proud of being part of the revival of Kingston’s travel scene as was ahead of newer properties that have come along in the last decade such as Courtyard by Marriot, AC Hotel Kingston, R Hotel and ROK.

“The new rooms have made it little bit more challenging, but we were all doing quite well up to when COVID struck. What has happened since COVID is that there is the Airbnb market which has developed and then there has been a cut back in business travel.”

But he said the S Hotel is still enjoying good occupancy levels though he bemoan higher operating costs that he said he is not able to pass on rates as he would like because the business travel is just not there that much anymore.

Still, each year, with events like the Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championship, Carnival and other events and conferences keep bookings up throughout the year.

“Our hotels feature furniture or building materials done by local companies. I am proud to say we are the first hotel that JFP did for their furniture back in 2008. They made all our furniture, we didn’t import any and I am happy to see that they are listed on the stock exchange and they have done many other hotels since.”

Now with two hotels, what does the future hold for Issa?

“We have been approached by different interests to look at hotel projects outside of Jamaica. We are not sure which road that will go down because each require a lot of work. But we are very hesitant and selective in where we want to expand,” he said as he added that there is nothing on the horizon to announce now. What he has announced, however, is that he will have the grand opening of his S Supermarket that was opened two years ago. It is right next door to S Hotel in Kingston and the grand opening will happen on July 27.

And what about the toolbox Issa started with and its contents? Each manager has one, and for Issa, it’s a reminder that everything in the hotel business is a work in progress.

“The gloves represent work-life balance, work smarter not harder. The nipper is to remind us to nip our problems in the bud now, not tomorrow. As for the honey, it is to remind us always to try the sweeter approach first, and when all else fails, we have to bring the hammer,” he said.

And the cards? They are divided into three parts. “One set is about the mission. We want people who have a mission, not an intermission. A next set has the three E’s, and remind us to follow up everybody, everyday about everything. Then there are the four F’s for father, friend, fair but firm, and one H, which asks our team members to use their H’imagination.”

Among quotes on the cards is that the favourite food of everyone should be humble pie but the one which stood out the most was “nothing fails like success” which means that success can make you complacent, leading to a lack of effort and ultimately, failure.

For Issa, the words are captured in the hotel’s promise of a perfect stay guaranteed every time or your stay is free.