Ep 140.1: The No-Nonsense 'Lucky' Hotelier?! | Loh Lik Peng (Founder, Unlisted Collection)

Want to know how a lawyer became a successful hotelier with 40
hotels & 9 Michelin-starred restaurants in Singapore, London,
Ireland, Shanghai & Sydney?!


Look no further than today’s STIMY guest: Loh Lik
Peng, the founder of Unlisted Collection.


Lik Peng grew up expecting to be a doctor, like his
parents. 


But ended up practising as a commercial litigator for 3 years.


During that time, the world was hit with the Asian Financial
Crisis and a rundown property called Hotel 1929 came onto the
Singapore property market.


Hotel 1929 was located in Singapore’s red light district and Lik
Peng saw potential in it, so he took a year off from law to
develop the hotel with the full intention of going back to being
a lawyer thereafter. 


But life didn’t turn out that way.


He ended up opening his first restaurant at Hotel 1929, then
another hotel and restaurant, and another and…


In fact, he bought so many properties in the area that his friend
once remarked that the street should be renamed “Peng Road”!


Lik Peng has now become one of Singapore’s most established
hoteliers (he struggled with imposter syndrome for a long time
when people called him a hotelier!) despite starting out by
taking projects “by the seat of his pants”. 


And his Michelin-starred restaurants include:


️: Burnt Ends, Marguerite, Nouri


️️: Cloudstreet, Da Terre


️️️: Zen


So do you want to know how he did it?


Let’s go!





P/S: This is Part 1 out of 2 of Lik Peng’s
episode (Part 2 is coming out this Weds).





Highlights: 


2:32 Dad as the Chief Glutton

3:24 Boarding school were the best years of the life

4:42 Being a lousy doctor

5:32 Learning important lessons from the Asian Financial
Crisis

7:14 Hotel 1929

8:24 The “Peng” Road?!

9:15 Worried about being in the red light district?

10:41 Family thought he was insane?!

11:30 Turning the corner

12:43 Being hit with SARS

13:55 What crisis management looks like in a hotel

14:52 Expanding to London

17:54 Romanticism overruled my logic…

20:57 The secret to getting things done

22:35 Managing risks

24:11 When Lik Peng thought he could call himself a
“hotelier”

25:43 The magic behind what he does (while being pragmatic?!)

26:48 What properties interest him now

30:24 Any regrets investing in Old Clare, Sydney?

34:41 Navigating unsexy regulations & red tape

35:46 Surprising things about the Australian hospitality
market?

36:45 Dr Stanley Quek

40:37 Family friend to business partner?






Special thanks to Limpeh Studios (Hepmil Media) for the studio!





Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/140 


YouTube: https://youtu.be/w22CAJupO48 


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