WITH the atmosphere inside Alan Ho's office becoming increasingly cordial, it seemed to be as good a time as any to raise the question almost every visitor to Macau has ever asked - how on earth did the Lisboa Hotel ever end up looking the way it did? Since the hotel opened in the 1960s, its drum tower with pseudo-Iberian crenellations have had generations of visitors to the Portuguese enclave wondering whether the building was a brave experiment gone terribly wrong or a clever marketing ploy.
Ho, whose uncle also happens to be Lisboa owner, Stanley, laughed. 'The architect who designed it is also a relative of mine. He told me that people always thought he had no taste because he had designed this gaudy, baroque hotel.
'But the architect added that what none of the critics realised was that the hotel was for gambling, and it had to be baroque to attract attention. And it has been very successful in that. It has a style of its own - whether you like it or not is beside the point.' If Ho sounds a little protective towards the Lisboa it is no surprise, since his 'Uncle Stanley' has entrusted him with many millions of patacas to extensively re-model the hotel's public areas and the 1,039 rooms. From next week renovation work will start on the 600 rooms that were in operation when the hotel opened. Another 460 were added when the new wing was completed in 1993.
Work has already been completed sprucing up the entrance, lobby and the shopping arcades that had turned a uniform shade of brown after absorbing more than two decades-worth of cigarette smoke. 'The ceiling had not been cleaned for decades and the marble floors had not been polished for 20 years. In hotel terms these are nitty-gritty things that make the difference between having three, four or five stars,' Ho said.
Born in Saigon, Ho went to the United States in 1964 to further his studies, which included spells at Stanford University and Harvard's law and business schools. His education and commercial experience in the US has left its mark, judging by the brutal frankness with which he assessed the contribution of his predecessor at the Lisboa.
'The Lisboa is the showpiece of Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau [STDM, the parent company of Stanley Ho's enterprises]. It is extremely profitable. There was no need to allow it to become dilapidated.