More than 60 years ago, Andrew Rohrbach’s grandfather worked at The Verandah restaurant at Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok.
After graduating from AIHM, Andrew launched his hospitality management career walking the same paths his grandfather had, literally walking in his footsteps.
“I now stand where my grandfather once stood over 60 years ago,” Andrew said. “He worked at The Verandah restaurant, an iconic outlet that still exists today.”
That connection is profoundly meaningful for Andrew.
“To be in the same place, walking the same paths, and contributing to the same hotel is something I deeply value. For me, Mandarin Oriental is more than a workplace. It is a connection across generations, a story that continues.”
Andrew’s own route through Mandarin Oriental has been distinctly international, including not only the historic property in Bangkok but other acclaimed hotels in the iconic brand’s global portfolio as well.
After graduating from AIHM, he joined Mandarin Oriental’s Rising Fan Leader in Training Programme. Over the next 18 months, he would move through different areas of hotel operations, work closely with managers and department directors, take on operational projects, transfer from Bangkok to Geneva and begin leading a team himself.
Today, with the programme complete, he is working Switzerland in his first official role with the brand as a supervisor at Mandarin Oriental Savoy, Zurich.
An 18-month Journey into Hotel Leadership
Andrew describes the Rising Fan Leader in Training Programme as “an 18-month leadership journey across different departments,” including areas such as Rooms Division, Food and Beverage, and Spa, depending on the property.
Participants explore different sections within a department and learn “how each area works individually and how they come together as one team.” They also take responsibility for projects assigned by department directors and work alongside managers on ways to enhance operations and the guest experience.
The trainee programme combines operational experience with formal learning. Andrew’s time as a Rising Fan included internal leadership training by Mandarin Oriental as well as online certificate courses through Cornell University on topics such as leadership, management and hospitality.
Andrew explained that the Mandarin Oriental trainees learn together in a small-cohort environment, and upon completing the traineeship may move into early leadership roles, depending on their performance during the programme and the availability of job positions.
In other words, it is a first job with a deliberate career trajectory built into it.
Learning the Hotel from the Inside Out
Every day of the traineeship was different. In many ways, it’s a crash course in hotel management for the industry’s most promising future managers. Instead of spending years progressing through roles and departments, you spend an intensive year and a half quickly gaining insights and cross-departmental perspectives.
In the Front Office Department, Andrew worked as a Front Desk Agent, handling check-ins and check-outs, arranging limousine services and conducting in-room check-ins.
At Concierge, he shifted into highly personalised guest service: booking Michelin-starred restaurants, arranging transportation and flight tickets, and recommending nightlife experiences.
At the Guest Service Centre, he handled calls and requests ranging from hotel information to dining and spa bookings, making sure each request was routed quickly and accurately to the right team.
Then came Housekeeping, where he gained experience across Laundry, Butlers, Room Attendants, supervisory roles and management.
That particular rotation exposed him to much of the work a guest never sees.
Working different shifts across the departments helped Andrew see something larger than the individual tasks. He talked about how the traineeship revealed the bigger picture: “This hands-on exposure played a crucial role in strengthening my understanding of each department’s function and how they work together as one system.”
That systems view became one of the biggest lessons of the traineeship.
One Hotel, Many Moving Parts
Andrew explained that the Rooms Division “operates as an interconnected system, much like a human body.”
“Each department depends on the others to function effectively,” he said.
Front Office needs Housekeeping to prepare rooms. Housekeeping depends on clear communication. Concierge builds on the work of both by helping shape the guest’s wider experience.
“If one part is missing or not functioning well, the entire experience is affected,” he said.
A shared, underlying purpose connects work that can look very different on the surface.
In the Front Office
Warmth may mean a genuine welcome. In Housekeeping, it could be a birthday or honeymoon detail prepared in the room. At Concierge or the Guest Service Centre, it may take the form of highly personalised assistance.
“Although the actions may differ,” said Andrew, “the intention remains the same: to make every guest feel valued and cared for.”
Andrew also came to understand that the distinction between front-of-house and back-of-house can be misleading when judging impact.
“Even if some roles are not always visible to guests, their impact is still felt,” he said. “A clean, well-prepared room or a special in-room detail can create just as much emotional connection as a face-to-face interaction.”
That insight would eventually change the direction of his career. The traineeship was also doing something else at the same time: moving him closer to management.
“I wasn’t just observing”
Early-career exposure to senior leadership can mean little if it consists only of watching from the sidelines.
Andrew’s experience, on the contrary, was very hands-on.
At Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok, he was assigned a special project directly by the Director of Rooms. The project required him to work across Spa and Kids Club, Front Office, Purchasing and Public Relations.
“Most importantly, I wasn’t just observing. I was actively involved,” he said. “I engaged with department directors and managers, asked questions, and learned how they approach decision-making, problem-solving, and cross-department collaboration.”
The experience pushed him to think beyond the immediate responsibilities of his own role and to further develop his understanding of leadership.
For Andrew, leadership in a hotel was increasingly less about commanding a single department and more about alignment: bringing different teams together, communicating clearly and ensuring that everyone is working toward the same guest experience.
That lesson became even clearer when his traineeship moved from Bangkok to Switzerland.
From Bangkok to Geneva
For the final six months of the programme, Andrew transferred to Mandarin Oriental, Geneva.
There, he completed the programme as a Housekeeping Supervisor, or Gouvernant d’étages.
His responsibilities included leading and coordinating Chambermaids and Porters during operations, inspecting arrival and stay-over rooms, checking public areas and corridors, supporting senior housekeeping management and resolving guest service issues.
Most significantly, he was now responsible for leading people during live hotel operations. He was in charge of a team.
“The role involved far more than just giving instructions. It was about coordinating and leading the team in real time and ensuring everyone was aligned under operational pressure.”
The team was diverse in culture, language and age. Andrew had to learn to adjust his communication to different people and situations.
Over time, his idea of leadership solidified.
“Effective leadership is not about doing everything yourself, but about being clear, calm, and structured so the team can perform at their best.”
For a recent graduate, that represents a major shift in responsibility: from learning how a hotel operates to helping other people perform successfully within it.
The Training Before the Traineeship
Andrew entered Mandarin Oriental’s programme with the benefit of substantial practical experience gained during his time at AIHM.
He highlighted his AIHM internship at the Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok at Chao Phraya River and how it gave him his first significant exposure to Front Office. There he began learning how Front Office, Concierge, Guest Relations and the Porter team operate together within the larger Rooms Division.
His academic work also gave him an early version of the kind of management problem-solving he would later encounter professionally.
During AIHM
Integrated Hospitality Project in Semester 6, Andrew served as Project Manager for a consulting assignment involving the Food and Beverage Department at Anantara Siam Bangkok Hotel.
His team worked on a real hotel business challenge: conducting research, analysing its findings, developing practical solutions and presenting its recommendations directly to the General Manager.
Andrew sees a direct connection between that experience and his work today.
“The lessons from this course still apply to my career journey today,” he said. He emphasised how AIHM helped him develop a “structured, collaborative, and solution-oriented approach.”
While earning his degree, he was already being asked to solve problems with a team and present ideas to working hotel leaders. In his traineeship, those habits became part of his day-to-day professional life.
A Career Accelerator
After completing the traineeship, Andrew moved to Mandarin Oriental Savoy, Zurich as a full-time Housekeeping Supervisor.
He already has clear ambitions for what comes next: progressing to Assistant Housekeeping Manager and then Executive Housekeeping Manager within Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group.
Mandarin Oriental’s Rising Fan and similar management traineeships are career accelerators. His first stage after university has taken him from learning across hotel departments in Bangkok, to supervising operations and leading a diverse team in Geneva, to a permanent leadership position in Zurich.
Andrew is clear that the experience opened possibilities he had not previously imagined.
“If I had not joined this programme, I would not have been aware of the opportunities I now have, not only in my career, but also in my personal growth.”
It has given him the chance, he said, “to travel, explore different cultures, meet inspiring leaders, and grow within the hospitality industry at the same time.”
A Story that Continues
Like AIHM, Mandarin Oriental has played an essential role in Andrew’s story.
Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok is a place where he learned about luxury hotel operations, worked with senior leaders and took some of the first major steps in his career.
It is also the place where, as mentioned, his grandfather worked more than six decades earlier.
Andrew once described the hotel in a single phrase: “a second home.”
He had just presented the 149-year history of the property to an audience of 60 service leaders during a special event when he was asked by one of the audience members how he felt about the hotel personally. His answer returned to his grandfather, The Verandah and the strange experience of finding his own professional life intersecting with a family story that began long before he was born.
“In that moment,” Andrew recalled, “I realised that for me, Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok is far more than just a hotel. It is part of my story.”
That story now stretches from Bangkok to Geneva to Zurich. And Andrew is still in the early pages.
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