Interview with Soraya and Sebastien Chabroud (IMHI 2010), who met at IMHI, graduated together, started a family together and are now both the owners of the Halt Hotel in Montpellier.

AAIMHI: What do you both remember from your time at IMHI?

Sebastien : The most important memory from my time at IMHI is of course meeting Soraya ! 

As for the more academic memories, I could not imagine when starting the programme, the incredible intensity of the work and the full array of emotions that I would encounter. I definitively enjoyed the constant access to knowledge. We do learn in this program as much as we are willing to.

I do remember as well the amazing people we meet during IMHI. After graduating, I worked with Jean-Marc Quilfen (IMHI 1996) and I was able to shadow him as an entrepreneur in low-cost hospitality investments. This helped me immensely to start our own business.  

Soraya :  Sebastien and I both graduated from the one-year-track at IMHI, but funny enough, I actually started as a two-year-track student. Meeting Sebastien just before our integration weekend made me switch to the one-year-track, which allowed us to study together and of course, graduate together. Love was already in the air! 

What I remember most of the time at IMHI was the huge amount of group works! Basically, you ended one group work and started already a new one…You are confronted with an incredible amount of workload.

As many, I will always remember Peter O’Connor’s words on our first day: Here you will not « work hard, play hard », you will « work harder & play harder », you will work together, you will eat together, you will party together, you will study together, you will sleep together, you will cry together, you will laugh together… An in our case, he was right all the way! 

If I look back, 13 years after our graduation, to what IMHI has brought me, I must mention without hesitation the beautiful friendships and the memories that will last a lifetime. 

Of course, the expertise in hospitality business that is today more than ever necessary, the complete toolbox that helped us to understand and enter all fields in hospitality management. 

And at IMHI I found my partner in life and work, for better & for worse! 

Graduating from IMHI has also given me the strengths and confidence to become a hotel owner and to be able to face all the challenges, risks and emotions that arise when building up your business.  

Our job is as well a very hands-on operational job and I remember our dear Professor in Finance, Mr Beals who once told us: « do not neglect the gardener when you visit a hotel ». He was so right about that! It happened many times that a salesman asks to see the hotel manager, and our team member replies that he’s outside mowing the lawn! 

We must admit that these past years have been really challenging for all of us. Financially recovering from the Covid period is one of our biggest challenges, but we are nevertheless confident for the future. 

Despite all the difficulties, we believe this has been a beautiful opportunity for the hospitality industry to evolve and to acknowledge all the amazing individuals that are part of it. In my opinion, it is essential for our industry to keep its attractivity and it is the key to success for programs like IMHI and its alumni to build on the next generations of hoteliers.

AAIMHI : After graduating, you have started together this entrepreneurial challenge, can you tell us more about it?

Sebastien : We strongly felt the need to build a place where human relationships are the heart of the business. 

With Soraya we invested in renovating the Halt Hotel, a 2* hotel in Montpellier. We took out the impersonal breakfast room to create a place that was inspired by the Starbucks spirit, inviting people to gather and meet. We mainly recruited our team for their positive attitude, even if they had no experience in hospitality. We tried as much as possible to build a respectful relationship with them, a business where employees are treated the same way as our customers. 

It was important for us from the beginning to build a team that works around three pillars:

Quality – as much in operations as in personal relationships. Our objective is that our customers become repeat guests, that when they are in Montpellier they will always return to the HALT HOTEL. 

Quantity – « At the end of the day, it’s all about cash », we heard this statement so many times at IMHI! keeping a close eye on our budget, also means making sure the work gets done in a timely and professional manner by all; parties involved. 

Behaviour - we encourage our employees to use their personality and creativity. We ensure that their work-life balance is respected and that the HALT hotel does not negatively impact their private life, such as not calling them on their free time or changing their work schedule last minute.   

AAIMHI : Have you encountered challenges during this pandemic?

Soraya : We strongly believe that the hotel business is an experience for human made by humans. Our industry has lost its experts during the covid period as they moved into different sectors, and we need now to focus on the next generation. 

Things like compensating scheduling constraints with additional salary is mandatory, but most of all we need to redefine the role of managers. 

Managers are not supposed to be the super-employee who is keeping the department in place. We believe that managers have a very human oriented role and should be trained to keep the motivation of their team members up. This is how our businesses will always ensure the positiveness and happiness in the experience. 

AAIMHI: We wish all the Best with HALT Hotel & thank you for sharing your story!