Local Personalities

Rafael Hirsch

by Dr. Iain Corness

Do the French really say “Oo La La!” at any opportune moment? I rang Rafael Hirsch, the resident manager of the Nova Lodge Hotel to ask him to be this week’s local personality and the reply was “Oo La La”! From that alone, I knew he was French, even overlooking the accent!
Rafael does come from France, near the German border, which goes a long way towards explaining his Germanic surname, though Rafael himself is second generation French. His parents were both hairdressers, and it would be difficult to think of a career further removed from hotel management. In fact, that comparison was one reason that sent him towards the hospitality industry. When he finished school, his father said, “Do you want to cut hair, or to travel?” Since the only way the young Rafael could see to travel was through hotel management, the die was cast. He became a student; not in France, but in Switzerland. He had already started thinking of his future. “If you want to progress quickly, you have to have a Swiss Hotel Management diploma.” That took up the next two and a half years.
However, during this time he also became more aware of Thailand, and not for the usual reasons young men become attracted to this country. Rafael was a Muay Thai fighter, and he visited Thailand to prove himself to the Muay Thai exponents in Europe, there being some obvious cachet to be able to say you had fought in the country of origin of the sport. As proof, he showed me the scars on his elbow and scalp! After a few of these visits he decided that he wanted to come back to Thailand and work here, citing the mentality of the Thai people, the food, the welcoming nature – and the Muay Thai.
After receiving his diploma, he did indeed come to Thailand looking for work, but there was nothing being offered to the new graduate. Staying in Asia, he found a position in Bali where he was then centered for the next eight months. During that time he learned Indonesian, to add to his native French and his German and English. As an aside, he did admit that French people have an unfortunate concept that French is the ‘lingua franca’ of the world, which it is not!
However, after the balmy climes of Bali he was to receive his call-up papers for the French military service and he returned to France. This first month was “one month of hell” according to Rafael, where he was taught everything about weapons training, but after that, for the next nine months he was made a Mess Officer where he ran a small hotel for visiting top brass.
Having completed his national service responsibilities he began to look to see where he could make some better wages, the French military not being the most generous of employers. He wanted to travel (the reason why he was not a hairdresser like his father) and so he moved to Switzerland again. This was not because he wanted to play an alphorn, but rather because wages in Switzerland were three times those in France. For the next 14 months he worked as a night shift manager in a hotel. “I never saw the daylight for all that time, but it was the way to make some money.” He then secured work as a front office manager, but since his visa only allowed him to stay in Switzerland for 18 months, it was time to move on again. “I decided to pick up my bag and move to Thailand.”
He arrived with his packed bag and high hopes of securing work, only to be met with, “You are too young. You are not well enough experienced.” After six months, it was apparent that there was nothing for him in Bangkok, yet again.
But by now he knew some people in the industry and he was offered a position in Phuket as an F&B coordinator. He worked there for eight months, returning to Bangkok to look for the elusive positions there. Still no luck, but he did make contact with the French ACCOR group and was offered an executive assistant manager’s position on Koh Samui. This did give him some valuable networking opportunities, and in the three years he was there, he worked under three different general managers. However, no matter how blissful life may be for the holidaymaker on a tropical island, for a worker it was different. “It was hell,” said Rafael. Difficult and expensive to leave the island, no supermarkets and a feeling of being hemmed in, eventually drove him out of the tropical paradise.
He joined the Novotel in Rayong, working for the next 18 months under Dominic Barth (himself a ‘local personality’ subject some years ago when he was working in Pattaya).
The next step in his life was momentous. Rony Fineman, the director of the Nova Group, advertised for a resident manager for the Nova Lodge. He needed an enthusiastic young man with experience, able to speak English and German. It almost described Rafael to a ‘T’ and they met up in Bangkok. “We had a good feeling together,” said Rafael. “It was being in the right place at the right time. With Rony, he gave me a chance. This has been the best chance in my life so far.”
Rafael sees the growth in Pattaya mirrored by the growth of the Nova Group, and will be happy to grow himself, as the group expands.
Rafael Hirsch comes across as a young man very much at ease with himself and content with his niche in life here in Pattaya. In many ways he has probably fallen on his feet, or as he said, “Being in the right place at the right time.” The Nova Group looks like being the right place for many years to come. And the Muay Thai? Unfortunately, there’s not enough time, and now he is a spectator.