Star player goes from cleaner to the executive suite

Rikesh Rajakulasingham began at the bottom as a hotel cleaner and now he’s general manager of hotels at The Star Entertainment Group’s soon-to-opened Queen’s Wharf project.

Rikesh Rajakulasingham started his career in the hotel business as a cleaner.

The trained aerospace engineer is now general manager of hotels at The Star Entertainment Group’s soon-to-opened $3.8bn Queen’s Wharf project, where he is busy “road testing” mattresses and pillows for hundreds of new luxury rooms.

The project, which takes up 10 per cent of Brisbane’s CBD, has had a rocky road to completion with lengthy construction delays, legal battles and a continuing bruising casino inquiry into Star Group.

But Mr Rajakulasingham said it was full speed ahead for an August opening, with the Star sign going up this week on top of one of the resort’s hotel towers.

“Like so many others, I fell into hospitality,” said Mr Rajakulasingham.

“It was a means to kill time and pay the rent. But the longer I stayed the more I found I was addicted to the buzz and energy. You realise it’s your passion. The years pass by and you’re swept along and before you know it, two decades have gone by and you’ve accidentally carved out a career.

“My story is not unique and there are thousands of others with similar stories in hospitality. I’m still trying to figure out honestly what I want to be when I grow up.”

Educated in Singapore, Mr Rajakulasingham graduated with honours in aerospace engineering from the University of New South Wales before working with Texas Instruments in Malaysia.

His first hospitality job was in housekeeping at the Sheraton Darling Harbour in 2002.

For the past three years, Mr Rajakulasingham has been director of hotels at the Treasury Brisbane.

Prior to that he was hotels boss at The Star Sydney, where he was instrumental in taking that property’s The Darling to a five-star rating.

Over the past six months, he has been busy recruiting 350 frontline staff for Queen’s Wharf across a variety of roles including front office, concierge, housekeeping, porters, uniform rooms, laundry, cleaning and carpark operation.

Rikesh Rajakulasingham attending to Caitlin Westra Van Holthe at The Star Brisbane.

His understated humour was on display when he addressed the Property Council last week with an exhaustive presentation on what Queen’s Wharf will be offering. “I’ve personally picked the pillows and road tested all the bedding,” he said. “Not the actual bedding the guests will sleep on – they will be getting new stuff.”

The Star has now launched a broader recruitment drive as it looked for a 1000 more staff in addition to the 1400 team members who would move across from the existing Treasury Brisbane operation. “This number will really continue to grow as we move through the staged opening and open new venues and spaces,” he said. “We’re hoping to have the rooms handed over at the end of May so that we can commence the quite complex ‘bumping in” process and get ready to welcome our first guests. The mattresses for example will be bumped into every room over a period of three days in the first week of June.”

Star is adding 370 rooms in Brisbane, essentially doubling it inventory. “We see this hotel being really popular amongst leisure guests,” he said. “Building a five-star hotel from the ground up is a rare, once in a lifetime career opportunity. With the help of our design team we are doing everything from scratch – ordering soap dishes and clothes hangers to choosing bedding, sheets, bathrobes, towels, hotel cutlery and crockery. We’re even road-testing pillows to ensure they are neither too firm or too soft and making sure they are allergy free. We’ve commissioned a local supplier for tailor-made bedding toppers and duvets.”

Star Entertainment chief executive Robbie Cooke said Mr Rajakulasingham was the ideal choice to open the hotels. “He is passionate about the industry and living proof of how to build a long-term career,” Mr Cooke said.