Pablo Carrington (San Sebastián, 53 years old) is the founder of the Marugal luxury hotels consultant, who manages 14 establishments in Portugal, France, Switzerland and Spain, where he advises accommodations such as Akelarre (San Sebastián), Urso (Madrid) or Cap Rocat (Mallorca). As a Californian father and Basque mother, he has a degree in Economics from Boston College University and discovered his passion for hoteliers by chance. He is a lover of literature and the countryside and feeds on vegetables, fruits and meats that cultivates and produces in his Mallorcan estate. Question. How is it defined? Lover of the field and literature and passionate of the hotel, which I accidentally discovered. How was it? R. I graduated in the Boston College, I went to work at a bank. I went to work with Citibank, a job that was very interesting in Paris, but after two years, I looked at my bosses and said: 'But I don't want to be you'. Then I tried strategic consulting, also a few magnificent years at Roland Berger. But again, that's not what I wanted. I took a sabbatical year and a wonderful coach, at the time when nobody used Coach, he took out of me that he would be happy in the hotel. And I launched without having the slightest suspicion that it could be for me. And, in fact, when my company turned 20 years ago, Speech dedicated it to it. Because if there is a mapal and if today there is my hospitality career, it is thanks to her. I could have gone bad. Exactly, yes. But it was a very interesting exercise. It gives much importance to details in your work. In your personal life too? For example, is it a good host? R. I love receiving guests, but I don't know how to cook. I give a lot of importance to the light, to the table, to the garden. I live in the countryside, for me to be careful, that it does not seem like an American urbanization, that the orange trees are pruned, that the plants are cared for and watered … I prefer to have less and well than more half.p. He has lived in Paris 16 years. Between French and Spanish cuisine, which one does it stay? Wine or champagne? R. Spanish food, without a doubt, because I think there is a variety in Spanish cuisine, in addition to the healthy issue, which is difficult to find in other kitchens. And French cuisine is wonderful, but I stay with the Spanish. And I keep the French champagne. Any special dish? R. There is a Mallorcan dish that fascinates me that they are beans with chard, it is a stew. I love spoon dishes. In fact, if there is something in my garden they are beans. Then they freeze and endure the whole year. Do you take care of yourself from the garden? R. I take care, yes, although not just me. At home everything we eat of vegetables is homemade. I think a lot in eating seasonal, with which in winter we take tomato, but in tomato sauce, as formerly, not fresh tomatoes, because there is no fresh tomato in winter. Does it do it for eating healthy? Is vegan? R. I am not vegan, but it gives you enormous satisfaction to think that you are self -sufficient. Vacune meat is ours, turkey meat is ours, pork is ours, lamb's … we also have animals. Everything but fishing because I do not even be good for lack of patience or I have time. For me the garden has the pleasure of the earth, of nature, which is very therapeutic, but then there is a huge pleasure in feeling independent, in knowing that the world could freeze a couple of days that you would survive. Is this your way of dismissing? R. Yes, the field in general, either walking, helping a little in the garden and in the garden, or exercising. It is my way of dismissing and also literature. What sport practices? R. I'm going to run two days a week and make functional training another two days. That is my discipline, probably my only discipline. I try to travel from Tuesday to Thursday. I had a small health scare a couple of years ago and in the end that is the most fundamental, take care of you a minimum, without becoming one end. Do you travel every week? R. Yes. All.p. Isn't it exhausting? R. Thank God I have no hotels in India or in Mozambique, which is a span to Madrid, it is a palm to Malaga, to Paris, to Geneva, that is, it is relatively easy. What was your last trip for pleasure? R. I believe that Marrakech, but well, was a weekend, I don't know if I go very often. Why? R. Because I have good friends there and in the end Marrakech's success is the ease of disconnection at an hour of flight. That is, I can go to Bilbao and have a good time, to be able to go to Ciudad Real and have a great time, but Marrakech is at the same distance from Palma practically and you enter another world and you are in another context. For me it is a very easy destination to disconnect, although it is being asept at forced marches, as unfortunately passes when tourism goes in mass. Is there anything that I hate of your work? The meetings, for example? R. I hate airports, but we have not found in a more civilized way of still traveling. It is what there is, my job is to be there, I need to see. Regarding the meetings, the advantage of being a boss is that it is you who marks the times. But there is nothing else, really. It is a job that you have to dedicate a lot, because it is a live job 24 hours a day and those who are passionate about the hotel we do not know of Saturdays or Sundays, we don't care. Don't you have an hour of closing? R. Well, I have a way of disconnecting and I refuse to have the email on my mobile. And I ask for it in the office, I say: 'Please take away the email from the mobile'. If you need, if there is an urgency, they will take you. And if you need to see the emails, take the computer and look at it. But see that circuit that goes up 25, 29, 47 … no, no, you have to disconnect. I believe a lot in the disconnection of work. What happens is that since my work gives me a lot of pleasure, I don't hard for me to wake up in the morning on a Sunday and after having breakfast looking quietly if there is any mail. But because I am passionate about what I do. Do you have social networks? R. I have Instagram because it is a way to follow many trends and new things in hotels and see how other people are promoted, how they communicate. I think you can use it to tell your life or you can use it to see things. That is, in my case it is for work. An ideal plan? R. An ideal plan is a weekend in the mountain in Austria at any time of the year. Why in Austria? R. Because I find that they have maintained a very authentic field, they have maintained their identity in a very natural way, it is not a strong nationalism, but a pride of traditions. It is a field that gives me a lot of peace of mind. I want a farm in Austria, but that smells like Vaca, please.p. What person admires? P. In literature to Stefan Zweig, for me incredible. It is probably the most important Europeanist of the twentieth century with an incredible prolific work that goes from biographies of María Antonieta and María Estuardo to a book called the world of yesterday, memories of a European. And I have a huge affinity with him because I really like classical music and opera and every time a concert begins: 'We are in the cradle thought'. We have a trend in Europe to believe that this is simply a theme park to go to see Venice and the Eiffel Tower, we are a continent with a lot of strength and a lot of career, but we do not believe it. Do you write in your spare time? R. I like writing and I have ever written some article in the newspaper. I have pending to write a book, but … p. About what? R. Observations from my hotel perspective, things that I think are done well and things that I think are done wrong. Another that is done especially bad? R. No, but there is one for example that seems ridiculous. Many times the client is treated as if it were a fool because there is such an obsession to create the sense of place, something that we have been doing 20 years. But that sense of place has today been taken to ridiculous extremes, almost insulting for the client. The other day in a hotel in California the receptionists called Coastal Advisors, that is, coastal counselors. Do you think the client is going to believe that they are treating him better or that they will give better information to invent similar bullshit? There is a lot of superfluous in the hotel. What is a luxury for you? R. For me is the space, clearly, having more space. And for me an essential luxury factor is the option of silence. That is, if I want noise, I can opt for him, but think that you can not depend on an external noise, that you can have your own music, that you can be silent. To me the option of silence seems like a luxury. If right now I had to go to the center of Madrid to live … r. I love Madrid, but hey, to be big, please, and that the windows are well isolated. Is it happy? R. Yes, fortunately. Fortunately very happy. But knowing that you have to work it. I have health very much because I had a scare a couple of years ago. Was it very serious? R. It was thyroid cancer. That in itself it is because it is the easiest of all, but in the end you do not stop believing in invincible until they tell you a word that sounds fatal, that makes you cry. Was scary? R. Yes. Well, I am a staunch positive with which, even at that time, they remind me in my family that when I told it it was like, he hears, by the way, that they operate tomorrow. And maybe I have answered you quickly to happiness because I think, in the end, it depends on oneself and knowing how to take the good side of life, because in the end everything is half full or half empty and you choose how you want to see it. Then there are situations that are tremendously unhappy, but hey … p. What is the best advice they have given in your life? R. He works as if you don't need money, love as if they had never hurt and dance as if no one was looking. A friend of mine told me many years ago, I don't know where she got it, but I have applied it in my relationships. That is, if you are going to be with someone, be thoroughly. Think that he is the person of your life and if it is not later, then you will digest it. The same work and then the notion of dancing without worrying that someone is looking, the notion of being free, of doing a little what you want. And that is the one that costs me the most, but there I continue. Dance. I love to dance, but I have not yet managed to stop importing 100% of what the other may think. That is, I still have to work that topic.
