Since 2012, Launce Roberts has been Hamanasi’s General Manager. Recently, he was awarded the Luxury Lifestyle Top 100 Hotel General Managers in the World. Launce has helped grow Hamanasi from 20 rooms to 30, increase staff from 90 to 195 strong and improve efficiencies along the way. Moreover, Hamanasi has emerged as a leading regenerative resort setting the example for a better way to travel.
We sat down with Launce to discuss his story, his successes in 2023 and his vision for 2024.
Congratulations on being awarded by Luxury Lifestyle a Top 100 Hotel General Managers in the World! How do you feel about this honor?
I am very grateful and elated beyond comprehension. It’s unexpected and shows that hard work eventually pays off. You can dream big and go for it: it really is encouraging! When I started off my career I didn’t have aspirations to work in a hotel. However, as I developed within the industry, I pushed myself to do better and do more. I started having some really good successes early on in my career and knew that I could stick it out and make it work. Growing up in Cape Town you are kind of born into Hospitality – it becomes second nature.
Who has been your role model or support along the way?
Launce with his wife, Kirsty who is a constant support.
I had a very good friend and mentor early on in my career in marketing, Clyde Finlayson. He taught me a lot about business and how to relate to owners and managers in corporate environments. He was a great motivator and understood the difference between mediocre and great and what effort one needs to put in to go from average to great. Success is not always visible on the surface, but with consistency you can begin to wow people.
A role model would be my first General Manager Bernie Esterhuyse, who trained me on the fundamental parts of being a General Manager in the Okavango Delta, Botswana — a very challenging environment.
And to my wife, Kirsty, who has always been by my side during my career. She came from the restaurant and tourism sector and helped me to create perspective and deeper understanding of the service industry.
You have been with Hamanasi for over 10 years. What have been the most significant changes during this time?
Launce during the addition of the Great House restaurant.
Evolving from a primarily customer service environment to a more holistic and inclusive environment. We are engaging with employees more by implementing programs to ensure our staff are able to do their jobs well, whether it be backup systems, staff wellness programs or different elements of health and safety. Anyone in the industry knows it’s long, hard hours, and to recognise that in your employees is definitely helpful in terms of keeping them motivated, in tune and focused on what they need to be doing. Recognising employees for the hard work they do.
Other significant changes include resort expansion, growing from 20 to 30 rooms, and building a new restaurant, as well as developing and executing a detailed strategic plan.
What challenges have you experienced?
Working remotely is vastly different to hotels in big cities where you can literally subcontract out almost every portion of your business. So being in a remote location, our biggest challenges are growing with a finite environment and having to build and create our own resources to fulfill the functions that we want to as a company and creating a synchronicity within all of our systems. And, of course, there is always the occasional hurricane, storm and flood!
I think in recent years the single biggest challenge would have been the pandemic and that was, without a doubt, a very scary time for the entire industry. Part of Indonesia in Asia didn’t open or reopen for at least two years, and that’s going to have devastating effects, both economically and on the industry as a whole. Having to navigate through the pandemic, and single-handedly lead a team of people through it was a huge challenge, but we pulled it off and came back stronger than ever.
What have been your greatest successes?
I experienced success early in my career when I was headhunted and promoted to national event coordinator for Red Bull South Africa, being a part of a small team of five people that ran the company back in the 90’s where I was introduced to the marketing maestro Dietrich Mateschitz, as well as athletes John Alesi and Felix Bomgardner. I was able to help a fairly small company become quite a big strategic partner for Red Bull internationally.
I eventually moved away from the hustle and bustle of the big city and mastered the art of running safari camps in remote wildlife areas of the Okavango Delta, where you need to be completely self-sufficient, as you’re cut off from the rest of the world. I think a testament to that or an indication of that was that in our first year running a camp in the Okavango, we won the Service Excellence award while I had a broken leg and spent 6 months on crutches!
Another big success has been developing Hamanasi to its fullest potential, tripling revenue, adding rooms, building a new restaurant. Then I would say when times got tough and we were faced with the pandemic, we were able to bounce back to feature in Trip Advisors Top 25 hotels in the world two years running. Additionally, we have received awards from Travel + Leisure and Condé Nast Traveler magazine. I think those are pretty big achievements.
Looking back at 2023, what were the highlights?
Hamanasi’s Green Team with a local youth club landscaping the church grounds.
Post-pandemic 2023 was a rebuilding phase, where we took stock of all of our achievements, where we came from and how resilient our team is. I think it was really just a good period in terms of smoothing over the kinks and refining our services, nothing out of the ordinary, but the simple satisfaction that we continue improving. This is evident in the high amount of repeat guests we have coming back. We also landscaped the church grounds in the village and started the first phase of a two-year project adding solar. That took a lot of planning and implementation.
What are your goals for 2024?
Implementing phase one of the solar project after a tropical depression.
Goals for 2024 include expanding on our sustainability programs, becoming carbon neutral by completing our solar project, and engaging more with the community to make meaningful improvements. We plan to continue on the trajectory of developing and growing the resort to its maximum potential. Additionally, we are aiming for full integration of human resource programs and employee engagement, i.e., getting down to the core of what makes the heart beat of a business like this and the people that make it.
There is a lot of buzz lately about a new kind of travel – a better way to travel. Can you speak about that?
Yes, the new way of traveling and the new way of doing business in the travel industry is now more focused on assimilating, integrating, rebuilding and giving back, whether it be giving back on the conservation level or giving back on a community level. It means that businesses should not only take from the surrounding villages or communities, but we should be giving back and allowing communities and ecosystems to regenerate.
I believe that people are a lot more conscious about where they travel to, what they eat and do. Whether it’s contributing to the environment or contributing to the community, customers are making more conscious choices. It is a natural development of the industry itself, so these are all good signs. I think more and more operators and businesses are going to be paying attention to these elements of their businesses to make them better and more sustainable into the future.
How is Hamanasi a regenerative resort?
A Hamanasi deluxe treehouse built on reforested land.
From the outset and even before regeneration became a buzzword the owners Dave and Dana Krauskopf had made a decision that really defines what environmental regeneration is. Instead of clear cutting their property and building high volume accommodation units they decided to retain the littoral forest and carefully carve out space for single standing treehouse units in the jungle. Portions of the property were purposefully set aside as a reserve. They took steps to eliminate single use plastics and believe in having happy, proud and trained staff. That is the foundation of a regenerative resort.
We continue on this journey. Last year we began a two-year solar implementation project that will give us the ability to be 100% off grid. Furthermore, we not only have protected our coastal forest, we have expanded it by planting 1000s of trees and shrubs. Reforestation has allowed for the rewilding of the property. We’ve seen a huge increase in birds and animals on property. We continue to seek more ways that we and our customers can give back to communities, while creating a holistic and supportive environment for our team.
When guests come to stay at Hamanasi, what can they expect? How is it a different or better experience?
Hamanasi repeat guest, Dave, learning about chocolate making while celebrating Indigenous People’s Day.
We offer personalized experiences like no one else. Hamanasi guests can expect genuinely friendly, helpful staff at every turn and to be addressed by name, all while having the creature comforts of beautiful, luxurious accommodations and facilities immersed in the jungle, teeming with natural wildlife, that is also just steps away from the Caribbean Sea where the largest living barrier reef is just a short boat ride away. Adventure right on your doorstep – what more could you want? Add to that fine dining that caters to most dietary needs and a regenerative ethos that seamlessly involves the facilities, employees and guests – the Hamanasi experience is like no other.
Running a resort is a big job. What do you like to do in your free time?
Launce enjoying a day fishing.
I enjoy adventure, especially travel, art and music. I’m a keen photographer, and I like to get outdoors. So living in Belize I am lucky that I get to combine my enjoyment of being outdoors with photography. I love to travel and visit new places and learn about the history of the place. I enjoy reading autobiographies, as can learn from the real life experiences of people who have been there and done that.
Give me a kite on a secluded beach and I’ll paint the sky for hours on end!
If you could make one positive change for Hamanasi or Belize, what would it be?
To create an environmental and social development policy for Belize.
Congratulations again, Launce — a Top 100 Hotel Manager in the World!