Reflections over 350 weeks of continuous content
As we’re into the middle of the first month of 2025, the 350th week of continuous content from Hospitality Sri Lanka rolls around. You’ll be reading this on or after the middle of January. Over those 350 weeks, we’ve maintained a steady output of four articles per week. Simple math tells us that our website is now home to 1,400 articles – this one, plus 1,399 others. We directly reach over 10,000 hospitality industry professionals locally and globally. Plus, we’re read by a further 15,000 individuals; locally and globally - from diverse industries and backgrounds.
Because, let’s face it, hospitality isn’t just another industry. It’s a lifestyle. The basic tenets of great hospitality, if applied in one’s daily life, can enormously enrich it. Wearing a smile and bearing a warm greeting upon those you meet. Fastidiously returning any unanswered calls or messages in a timely manner. Providing assistance and support to those who need it. Offering the very best product and service that you can offer, for the most competitive rate. Simply put, going above and beyond, the extra mile, the cherry on top of the cake, the piece da resistance, you get the gist…
And that’s why Hospitality Sri Lanka exists. HSL, as we internally refer to it, is the brainchild of my father Shafeek Wahab, a 40+ year veteran of the trade in Sri Lanka and overseas. He’s worked for and contributed towards the success of more hotels than I have fingers and toes, combined. My childhood years are filled with memories of him smartly attired in a dapper suit, and yes, I more or less grew up in hotels when my father had to work weekends or Duty Manager stints. I stayed in their suites, watching Tom and Jerry on Cartoon Network while munching on potato chips and strawberry milkshakes. I splashed in the pool with nary a care in the world. The time I have spent running up and down the corridors and pool terrace of a hotel as a child is not insignificant. Little thought was given, at the time, as to the travails of my father’s job that allowed me to enjoy these carefree perks. He would leave the house for work at around 6am and return close to midnight during busy times of the year. Subsequently, my mother learned to drive so that she could take me to school and back. Then, every evening, we’d go and pick my father up from work. Sometimes, we’d spend some time in his office as he finished his work for the day. That’s why as a toddler, I started walking in his office at Cinnamon Lakeside, when it was then named Ramada Renaissance. My first experience with a computer was of trying to spell words on the keyboard of the DOS terminal that was installed in his office when the hotel entered computerization of their systems.
This is the side of the industry that outsiders do not see – the long hours of work, the unwavering commitment towards excellence, the struggle to balance work and life, and of course, being able to maintain one’s composure no matter what may happen. All this is what motivated my dad to start HSL. Aided by my multi-talented and ever-persevering mother Mehroon Wahab, herself a professional pianist, businesswoman and cosmetologist, the two of them have grown HSL into what it is today, a highly respected and well-read industry information portal. HSL started as a quarterly issue print magazine, with the first issue rolling hot off the presses in time for July 2016. By 2018, we decided to transition into a digital platform, where we remain to this day.
As for my role with HSL, I write articles, handle social media, look into technical matters, and perform some marketing functions. My experience in hospitality is rather limited, in comparison to my father. My areas of expertise are more along the lines of content creation, automotive writing, vehicle test driving, and marketing. In terms of educational qualifications, I am more or less a marketing and management professional. And that’s why, even as an insider, so to speak, I gain an enormous amount of knowledge by reading the articles that we carry. Every editorial by my father teaches me something. Occasionally, my mother will start typing away and I’ll learn something. Then, I gain knowledge about accounting and finance from David Lund’s articles. Doug Kennedy is another contributor whose articles I never fail to read. So it goes to show that there’s always something to learn in hospitality. I’ll keep learning – and I hope that you will do the same!
Wish you all the very best for 2025.As for the HSL team, we’re eager to continue marching. 400 weeks? 500 weeks? Bring It on!
Ashraaq Wahab - Director of Sales & Marketing and Technical Hospitality Sri Lanka, Automotive Journalist, Marketer, Photographer and Writer, who enjoys penning his thoughts, insights and ideas on a variety of topics.
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