Mr. Kevin Benning, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Studio City Macau, oversees a destination defined by world-class entertainment and hospitality, including  Epic Tower, a prestigious, all-suite hotel in Macau, China. Following Epic Tower’s recognition by Luxury Lifestyle Awards as Best Luxury All-Suite Hotel in Macau, China, Kevin joins Alexander Chetchikov, President of World Luxury Chamber of Commerce, for a conversation on leadership, consistency, guest expectations, and the standards shaping contemporary luxury hospitality.

Alexander Chetchikov: Kevin, congratulations to you and the team at Epic Tower at Studio City Macau on being named Best Luxury All-Suite Hotel in Macau, China, by Luxury Lifestyle Awards. From your leadership perspective, what does this recognition represent for the team and the standards you seek to maintain?

Kevin Benning: Thank you, Alexander. This recognition is a direct reflection of our team’s collective ownership of the guest experience. In luxury hospitality, awards are not won on a single good day; they are the result of executing thousands of minor details flawlessly every single day. For our leadership team, this accolade validates our operational philosophy, but it also resets the baseline. It reminds us that maintaining our status requires a steadfast commitment to continuous improvement, ensuring that our daily standards always align with the premium expectations of an Epic Tower stay.

AC: Epic Tower is centered on an all-suite hospitality concept. How does this format influence the way you think about space, privacy, service, and the overall guest experience?

KB: An all-suite configuration fundamentally changes the operational dynamics. Space becomes the foundation of the luxury experience, allowing us to design distinct zones for relaxation, work, and entertainment within a single environment. This layout provides guests with a natural sense of privacy, giving them the freedom to dictate the pace of their stay. At the same time, our guests enjoy seamless access to the wider resort’s diverse dining, entertainment, wellness, and leisure offerings, allowing us to perfectly cater to the leisure demands of different target audiences. From a service standpoint, an all-suite format demands a much more personalized, intuitive touch. Our goal is to move past standardized formality and connect with the guest’s actual mood, providing either effortless, low-profile execution or warm, high-touch hospitality as needed.

AC: In a destination such as Macau, guest expectations continue to evolve. What principles guide your approach to maintaining a distinctive luxury hospitality experience while responding to those changing expectations?

KB: Our approach centers on cultural agility. Macau is an incredibly competitive global hub where luxury preferences shift constantly. To stand out, we balance consistency with flexibility, ensuring our baseline service execution remains flawless while keeping our dining, lifestyle, and entertainment programming highly adaptable. We rely heavily on our front-line teams to tell us what guests actually want in the moment. This real-time insight allows us to evolve organically, ensuring we are setting the trend rather than merely reacting to it.

AC: Consistency is fundamental to luxury hospitality, particularly across multiple guest touchpoints. How do you establish a culture in which high standards are understood and sustained throughout the organization?

KB: Consistency isn’t something you can just mandate; it has to become an everyday habit. While it begins with clear expectations during initial training, the real work happens in our daily briefings. That is where our teams talk through actual floor scenarios and look at immediate guest feedback together. But the most critical factor is leadership visibility. As executives, we cannot manage from a back office. When our property leaders are out on the floor, actively supporting the team and showing they care, that standard sets the tone for every single guest interaction. That is how you build a culture where accountability takes care of itself.

AC: Technology is becoming increasingly integrated into the hotel experience. How do you approach the balance between technological convenience and the personal dimension of hospitality?

KB: We see technology as a tool to support our operations, not a replacement for human hospitality. Our approach is straightforward: let technology handle the logistics, and let our people handle the guest experience. Features like digital check-ins or automated room preferences are fantastic for saving time, but their real value is that they free up our staff. Instead of staring at a computer screen processing paperwork, our team can focus entirely on engaging with our guests and building actual relationships.

AC: Leadership in hospitality often requires balancing established standards with the need to evolve. How do you determine which elements of the guest experience should remain constant and where there is room for change?

KB: You can’t compromise on the basics. Privacy, respect, cleanliness, and accuracy are standard requirements that never change. But we don’t want the property to feel static. We keep the experience fresh by constantly rolling out creative seasonal dining, upgrading our room amenities, and refreshing our design touches. We look at it this way: whatever secures a guest’s comfort and peace of mind is permanent. Whatever drives the fun, the luxury, and the lifestyle is where we push boundaries.

AC: Looking ahead, which shifts in luxury hospitality do you believe will have the greatest influence on how hotels define and deliver meaningful guest experiences?

KB: The industry is moving away from flashy luxury toward meaningful experiences. Today’s high-net-worth travelers view time as their ultimate luxury, expecting hotels to be responsible operators. Sustainability is no longer a marketing gimmick; it is a non-negotiable part of the travel decision, and our job is to prove that world-class hospitality can go hand-in-hand with environmental protection.

We have turned this belief into reality at the Epic Tower, which provides a wide range of premium facilities to all our valuable guests while achieving low energy demand through high-performance building fabric and highly efficient services and systems. Through these dedicated sustainability efforts across construction design, development, and management, the hotel was recognized as the winner of the Regional Award for Asia at the BREEAM Awards in 2021.

Kevin Benning’s perspective places leadership, consistency, and adaptability at the center of modern luxury hospitality. The conversation also reflects the broader importance of maintaining clear service standards while responding thoughtfully to evolving guest expectations, making Epic Tower’s approach relevant to the continuing development of the luxury hotel sector.

Discover more about Studio City Macau: https://www.studiocity-macau.com/.