Luis Riu: “Today I’d like to introduce Pepe Moreno, my go-to guy when I have a new project”

11 April, 2024 Share

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I’d like to dedicate today’s post to Pepe Moreno, Board Member and Executive Director of Sales and Marketing at RIU. He has been one of my most trusted colleagues since we opened our first hotel in the Canary Islands back in 1985, when we joined forces in a shared project that wasn’t just about work, but also about life. Young, lively and ambitious, we were both ready and raring to take on the world, and we thought that it was full of opportunities just waiting to be seized.

Luis Riu, CEO of RIU Hotels & Resorts, and Pepe Moreno, Board Member and Executive Director of Sales and Marketing at RIU’s headquarters in Playa de Palma.

What brought us so close back then? Our similar character and the training we both received from my father, who passed on the values that guide us in our work to this day. And what makes us so close nowadays? An amazing level of trust. Pepe is highly efficient in his work, is very pragmatic and has a global vision of the business that guides me in many decisions. He’s the first person I call when I have a new business idea and I can always turn to him for those hard-to-answer questions.

Pepe Moreno, Board Member and Director of Sales and Marketing at RIU Hotels & Resorts.

His first steps at the reception desk of the hotel Riu Concordia in the 1970’s

This has happened on several occasions and when I call him with a dilemma, he usually responds, “Haven’t you got an easier question for me?” But you don’t turn to your “go-to guy” when there’s an obvious answer. What I like most about him is that he’s always thinking about the impact that decisions have on hotel operations. Alongside his global vision, it’s what makes his opinion so valuable. He started working on the reception desk at the hotel Riu Concordia in 1976 while he was still studying. “My first boss there was Pedro Cánovas, a tourism romantic. He had strong values. I learned a lot from him, not just about work but also about life”, Pepe explains.

He often tells a story from those early years that will sound like something from prehistoric times to young people today. “It’s about what happened with phone calls. If a guest received a call and wasn’t in their room, Pedro wrote down their room number on a little blackboard that he had on reception and we had to take this board and a whistle and go and look for the guest. During the day we’d go and look by the swimming pool, and at night we’d look in the restaurant or bar. The guests really liked this service, but I found it so embarrassing because everyone looked at you when you were walking around with the little sign and the whistle. I did this on three occasions, and the third time I asked Mr Cánovas not to send me anymore. As he was very fond of me, he didn’t make me do it again”, Pepe remembers with affection.

Pepe and I didn’t actually work together in those early years, but we all knew each other at RIU. We worked really hard, but we also had our fair share of fun. All the young people used to meet up to go out and there was a great atmosphere. In fact, I’ve always thought that 21 June is the best day of the year for several reasons. First of all because it’s my santo, a Spanish tradition where you celebrate the day of the saint that shares your first name. It is also the longest day of the year and was the last day of school before the summer break, which meant the summer season was about to start, something that I always enjoyed that much more than studying.

Pepe Moreno, head of reception at the Playa de Palma hotel at 23 years of age

Pepe showed that he was really talented right from the very beginning, and at the tender age of 23 he was appointed head of reception at a hotel in Playa de Palma. He met my grandfather, Don Juan, but he never got the chance to work with him. However, he did work closely with my father, Don Luis. In fact, he was the one who hired him after a brief interview in his office at the hotel Obelisco. Pepe’s brothers, who were already working at a RIU hotel, set up the interview for him and just a few minutes were enough for Don Luis to see a very young Pepe’s potential.

“I really admired Don Luis”, explains Pepe, “he was truly ahead of his time and had a great business vision and very strong values. Even today, when I am faced with a problem, I often ask myself, what would Don Luis do in this situation? One example of this business vision is the loyalty programmes for travel agents and later for customers that were pioneering when they were launched. Today they are still going strong, have the same name and are operating with great success”, recalls Pepe.

Member of the team that managed the opening of the Riu Palmeras in Gran Canaria

In 1985, my father entrusted me with overseeing the completion and subsequently managing the Riu Palmeras, our first hotel outside Mallorca. I had just finished a year in the office together with my sister Carmen, and another year as a sales representative at Iberotel’s Atalaya Park hotel, which was in San Pedro de Alcántara, Marbella. That experience served me well because it was a big hotel with many meeting rooms, and I was able to learn a lot about hotel and event sales. I remember when we received a quote request from a group travelling with Stevie Wonder. I saw it and told myself I had to win the contract, so I gave it special attention. I got two things out of this: firstly, I got to meet Stevie Wonder, who was at the height of his success at the time, and secondly, I learnt how to manage and close contracts for group bookings.

Luis Riu’s team at the inauguration of the first RIU Hotels & Resorts hotel in the Canary Islands, with Pepe Moreno (right).

I asked Pepe to be part of the Riu Palmeras opening team as head of reception and he arrived six months before the opening. These were tourism’s boom years in the Canary Islands. Demand was so high that we even struggled to find accommodation for our colleagues and suppliers. From the moment that the Riu Palmeras opened, it was full every day. It was such a resounding success that we immediately decided to open a second hotel and continue growing in more of the Canary Islands. I have often wondered why more Mallorcan chains didn’t venture over in those years. At the time, we had to decide whether to continue growing in Mallorca on the island’s northern beaches or take our chances in the Canary Islands. We decided to go for year-round operation and take the leap, with all the advantages and challenges that this entailed.

From head of reception to head of RIU’s General Sales team

And how did Pepe go from working on reception to leading the sales team? At first, it was almost by chance. At that time, I was the Director of Operations and Sales. I would hold meetings with tour operators in my office, which was next to reception. We talked about prices, quotas and seasons. I wrote everything down by hand and then took it to Pepe so he could type up the contracts. Then I started inviting him to meetings so I didn’t have to explain what we had agreed. When he left, he drew up the contracts on his own. And almost without realising it, I stopped going to these meetings because Pepe proved that he was more than capable not just of attending these meetings and drawing up the contracts, but also of negotiating. So, just one year after arriving in the Canary Islands when the Riu Papayas and Riu Ventura Maxorata projects were already underway in Fuerteventura, Pepe Moreno was appointed Director of Sales in the Canary Islands.

Pepe Moreno, a current Board Member who is also in charge of Sales and Marketing at RIU Hotels & Resorts, has been with the company for almost 50 years.

A professional career fostered by the trust of Luis Riu Bertrán

This meant that he not only worked hand in hand with me, but also with my father. “Don Luis liked the marketing area and construction work, but sales was his favourite. And he had an amazing instinct. He used to say: ‘not yet, but this or that will happen’. And boy, did it happen”, recalls Pepe, talking about my father’s ability to predict events. Both my father and I liked Pepe’s style very much. Pepe had the people skills to run this area, but combined with his pragmatism, work ethic and background in hotels, he had the whole package and this made him stand out from the rest of the sales force at the time. So much so that just three years later in 1988, my father appointed him General Director of Sales at RIU.

Pepe Moreno, member of the RIU Board of Directors since 1997

While I was preparing my trip to Punta Cana when we were going to venture outside of Spain for the first time, Pepe came to talk to me. “I wanted to go to the Caribbean with Luis and I told him so. If the next adventure was in the Dominican Republic, I didn’t want to miss out”, says Pepe. But my father had other plans for him. He told him that he wouldn’t be going to the Caribbean, but rather that he would continue to run the sales area at RIU and should get ready to return to the headquarters in Palma in 1993. Pepe’s evolution in the company was amazing. In 1997 at the age of just 36, Pepe Moreno was appointed to the position of executive director upon the recommendation of my father and I.

The RIU Hotels & Resorts Board of Directors at the chain’s 25th anniversary celebration in Mexico, with Carmen and Luis Riu and Pepe Moreno, Director of Sales and Marketing (left).

Members of the Board of Directors of RIU Hotels & Resorts, with Carmen and Luis Riu in the center, at the chain’s headquarters in Playa de Palma.

It was a strategic move that put sales at the heart of the company’s strategic decisions for the first time. At RIU, the sales department is the main generator of the company’s revenue. Just as the administration, purchasing or IT systems areas were centralised, reaching occupancy rates and price targets is entirely the responsibility of the sales area, so this move in the Board made perfect sense.

Pepe has always been able to adapt to new ways of selling. In the early years, we basically worked with tour operators and we all knew each other. When we opened a new hotel or destination, we just had to repeat the model. However, when we opened a significant number of hotels in the Caribbean, we also started to open up to new markets and, consequently, new operators. What’s more, the growth of new technologies and online sales changed everything. In fact, this commitment to diversifying the company’s markets and, above all, sales channels is one of the keys to Pepe’s success. Today, tour operators still play a very important role in destinations such as Cape Verde, but online sales are the absolute leader in certain holiday destinations and RIU Plaza destinations.

Pepe Moreno, Director of Sales and Marketing at RIU Hotels & Resorts, at the presentation of the Riu Plaza Panama hotel, the first of the Riu Plaza line of hotels.

Director of the Sales and Marketing area, a responsibility that includes directing a team of more than 700 people

Pepe is currently head of the sales and marketing area, which employs more than 700 people. He has surrounded himself with professionals who truly understand our company. In his own words, “I always try to surround myself with people who share the company’s values. Sharing these values means defending them, making them your own. This company has many virtues and, of course, many flaws, but any changes or improvements must be applied from a business perspective, with patience and a global vision. I always look for two things above all else in my team: firstly they must be humble, and secondly they must be good people. Currently, my direct team has been here for over 18 years on average. That’s amazing and not something you see every day.”

Continuous innovation with ideas such as the Riu Party or the Elite Club Service

But I can assure you that it’s true. We have a great team that includes people of all ages who are eager to make suggestions and evolve. But I am comfortable in the knowledge that if these suggestions have passed Pepe’s filter, he has already done the cost-benefit analysis and assessed the impact it would have on operations. One of the things my father used to say is that we should never lose sight of the fact that hotels are for our customers. It’s only human to defend what you like, but we have to try things out in the company because we may not be RIU’s typical customer.

Luis Riu, CEO of RIU Hotels & Resorts, and Pepe Moreno, Director of Sales and Marketing.

“Hotel operations are the heart and soul of this company. They do a quiet and excellent job, and thanks to this we have a very high repeat guest rate. They make my job easier, so I’m always going to try to make sure that the decisions we make don’t make things any more difficult for them.” This is what Pepe says, but in reality sometimes we do make their work more complicated. However, new products are generally successful and we all see that they are worth the effort in the end. For example, the RIU Party events or Elite Club are two new services that have recently been introduced with great success.

Instinct and creativity, key factors in the development of the RIU chain’s business

I’ve been trying to think if Pepe had any faults that I could mention to make this article sound more credible, but I’m stumped. I can’t think of any. He says that I can be very insistent and sharp. And it’s true, my father used to say, that he worried about a problem until he saw that somebody else was worrying about it. Then he could leave it to someone else and look for the next issue.

“Rather than flaws, I see many strengths in Luis. He is energetic, creative, practical and decisive. What’s more, he can create a very pleasant working environment. He also has a sixth sense and an impressive instinct when it comes to the hotel business, as well as a lot of self-discipline.” That’s what he’s got to say about me, and he also thinks it’s hard to keep up with me.

Luis Riu, CEO of RIU Hotels & Resorts, and Pepe Moreno, a trusted advisor, Board Member and Director of Sales and Marketing, at RIU headquarters.

The other day we were reminiscing about the time when we had bought our first plot of land in Los Cabos and went to visit it together. I asked him what kind of product he would create there and, looking at the range of hotels on offer and type of customer in the destination, he recommended a small RIU Palace hotel with a maximum of 200 rooms. Two weeks after we got back to Palma, I went into his office one day and said, “Here are the plans for your boutique hotel.” It was the Riu Santa Fe, with more than 800 rooms. Pepe adds, “This is a perfect example of his great instinct, and it shows why he’s the great businessman and I’m his sidekick. He was confident that this product — that did not exist at that time in this market, which is also the segment we know and work with in other destinations — would be a success.” And that’s exactly what happened.

Pepe Moreno, the best judge for determining the viability of projects

Pepe is the first person I call when I visit a new destination, even before my sister Carmen. I want to see what he thinks. “Before making any purchasing decisions, we analyse many variables, we consult our business partners, we check out the competition and complementary services, but above all, we rely on our experience and our instinct. In a few days, we are able to decide whether a project is viable or not” says Pepe. We know each other so well that he can tell whether I am convinced or have doubts just by the way I explain it to him. And the same thing happens to me. Depending on how he answers me, I know if he likes the idea or not. We rule out a lot of things, many more than we approve.

When I present a project to Carmen, I explain what it is, where it is, how we would carry it out, how much it will cost, and so forth. I finish by telling her that I’ve already discussed it with Pepe, and Carmen is also reassured when she hears that it’s got his backing.

Pepe Moreno is one of the trusted advisors of Luis Riu, CEO of RIU Hotels & Resorts.

50 years full of challenges and as a member of the RIU family

And in meetings to deal with construction projects or refurbishments, calling Pepe is the ‘ace up our sleeve’. Sometimes, somebody wants to call him before I think it’s necessary and I say “OK, but he will say this”. We call him, and sure enough, that’s exactly what happens. After working side by side for so many years, we know each other almost as well as we know our wives. He has been with the company for almost 50 years, 40 of them as my closest colleague. He has taken on every challenge he’s come up against with courage, and he’s been able to overcome them all. He says that reaching the goals each year is challenging in itself, but if he had to single out one particularly difficult moment in his career, it is definitely the pandemic.

“It’s been said many times before, but it was so hard. We went to such great efforts, particularly, and once again, the sales department. When the restrictions let up slightly and allowed us to open a hotel, we did so. Our aim was to reopen our doors and get our workers back. We were the only ones open in many destinations, but we often had to close again after just a few weeks or months. This created a lot of work and stress for the teams. It required a huge amount of effort. And my team also worked very hard, keeping up to date with everything, the authorities, operators and airlines, as well as opening and closing sales. They had to divert, cancel and rebook, in addition to looking for new ways to reach customers and partners in this new scenario”, Pepe recalls of those strenuous months in 2020 and 2021.

Pepe says that retirement is out of the question for the moment as he’s still in good health. “I haven’t even discussed it with my wife. As long as I feel well, I’ll still be here”, says Pepe. That reassures me for now. It is a privilege to have such a close and trusted colleague. I hope that he continues to bring all his talent and experience to RIU for a long time before passing on the baton.

Fdo. Luis Riu