Memoirs of a vision

A YOUNG Henry Sy Sr. looks at the Taal Volcano from his favorite spot at Taal Vista Lodge

Cynthia Ramos, 57, looks at her office desk at the second floor of Taal Vista Hotel. Neatly stacked on one end are ledgers and files, a wealth of financial data accumulated in the last 35 years. On her way to the office, she passes the main lobby where she glimpses at the natural beauty of Taal Volcano and can’t help but feel grateful for the view and what she has accomplished at this point in her life. While she has moved a couple of offices since joining Taal Vista Lodge in 1978, Ramos finally finds herself at the place where she wants to be.

A LOOK at the exterior of Taal Vista Hotel today with its famed Tudor roof

Ramos is one of the hotel’s longest-serving employees and a classic example of one who rose from the ranks. She started as an accounting clerk in 1978 at Resort Hotels Corporation, which operated, at that time, Taal Vista Lodge, Pines Hotel in Baguio and Hotel Mindanao in Cagayan de Oro.  A year and a half later, she was promoted and transferred to the Taal Vista Lodge in Tagaytay as general cashier. Since then, she saw the hotel close, re-open, and switch hands a few times.

It was in 1988 that she saw Shoemart Inc. of Henry Sy, Sr. acquire the hotel and later assigned Southern Breeze Realty Development Corporation to manage the hotel’s operations.  Sy was a regular visitor of Taal Vista Lodge in the ’50s where he often chose one spot on the hotel grounds from which to gaze out and dream.

WALID Wafik, Taal Vista Hotel area general manager

“My former boss, Mr. Noel Benitez, the managing director of Southern Breeze once showed me this picture of Mr. Sy gazing at the lake. Mr. Benitez recalled what Mr. Sy said, that someday this place (Taal Vista Hotel) would be his. And it did happen. That is the power of Mr. Sy’s vision,” Ramos says.

In 1999, the hotel was partially shut to the public as it began a gradual process of renovation and modernization.

From 2002 to 2007, Ramos recalls how the main Tudor House of Taal Vista was collapsed and rebuilt, perhaps symbolizing the more positive changes that were happening to this historic structure. In 2008, the hotel reopened to the public with its renowned Tudor-style roof intact.

“The transition is the most memorable part because you can see the gradual changes in the hotel,” she says. “The new owner (SM) really invested in it. The ambience became more elegant. Office systems in the administration office became more organized, professional, and thorough, which translated into better hotel services.”

CYNTHIA Ramos

She also remembered how  Sy would meet with them at one of his favorite spots in the hotel, particularly the gazebo overlooking the Taal Volcano.

“He would say to us,  mahalin namin ang  Taal Vista (you must love Taal Vista) because he (Mr. Sy) loves it very much,” she says.

True enough, with these words, Ramos made the successful transition at work, eventually becoming the hotel’s financial controller today. Amidst the many changes that occurred in the hotel’s early history, Ramos decided to stay.

“Like Tatang, my outlook at work is simple. As long as I love my work and my bosses treat me well, I’m happy.  Ang lawak ng  vision ng SM (SM’s vision is vast). I told myself,  lalaki pa ito (it will become bigger) because every year there is a new mall being built. SM also told us before that they will help us and it happened. SM continued to support me. And some members of my family have found work in the SM Group.  I also enjoy what I’m doing, and that, to me, is key to my success here. I got to meet all sorts of people,” Ramos says.

As Taal Vista Hotel enters its 75th year or diamond year this October 2014, Ramos, along with a handful of pioneering employees will be recognized for the dedicated service they have rendered throughout the years. Employees like Ramos have made the history of the hotel more meaningful says Walid Wafik, Taal Vista Hotel’s area general manager who knows that it’s a combination        of dedicated people and quality service that spells the success of the hospitality business.

In fact, the Egypt-born hotelier says he quickly understood what the old hotel means to a great number of Filipinos. “Many of the people that I’ve talked to have been to that ridge one way or another,” he says. “I’m running something that really means a lot to people.”

To kick off the hotel’s anniversary celebrations, Taal Vista Hotel conducted a Tree Lighting ceremony last December with cancer patients under the care of Make-A-Wish Foundation and children of Chosen Children’s Village. For the anniversary celebration this year, Wafik says visitors will be taken back to the ’30s, the era that gave birth to Taal Vista Hotel, when it was first commissioned by the Manila Hotel Company in 1939.

The culmination of the festivities will be the 75-day countdown to Oct. 11, where bulk of the events will be unveiled.  “I want the maximum number of people to come and see it, especially for people who came here 30 or 40 years ago to see that the hotel is still standing,” Wafik says. Wafik was handpicked by SM Hotels and Conventions Corporation president Elizabeth Sy, bringing with him over two decades of hospitality management experience from city and resort hotels in three continents.

Wafik’s vision, stretch beyond the hotel’s 75th year, foremost of which is to secure for Taal Vista a five-star rating from the current first class hotel rating.

Recently, Taal Vista Hotel was rated by travel website TripAdvisor as the No. 1 hotel in Tagaytay. “I would love to see Tagaytay City become the center of tourism in this part of the region as envisioned by Mr. Henry Sy which would mean, more visitors for our hotel,” he says. “That is when we’ll get our five-star elite business.”

Today,  Taal  Vista  Hotel   remains  a  landmark  deeply  entrenched  in  the history and heritage  of  Tagaytay City. And as the hotel is now efficiently run by a healthy mix of veterans and young blood under the meticulous tutelage of SM, Taal Vista will continue to evolve, exceed guests expectations and weave numerous memorable travel experiences for many years to come.