Mike Pohio – The Rees Hotel

Māori hospitality
Māori values integrated in serving visitors

Kia ora, I’m Mike Pohio. I am a Director on the Rees Management Ltd. And Ngāi Tahu Holdings.

The hospitality industry is very demanding. But it is also, I have observed very rewarding.

What do Māori bring to hospitality?

You can say that we can provide a service. We can provide facilities. But do you know why we do that and how we do that are often the key differentiators.

How do values shape your business?

In Māori terms, Manakitanga for example, it is caring and looking after our people. Our people, meaning our customers as well as those who are around us.

Tikanga is another value that is often used particularly here at the Rees, where appropriate action is fundamental to how people would want to have a relationship.

As they come through the door they like to have that appropriate action. Being welcomed. Of being recognised. And treated as somebody that is genuinely a guest.

Then we can go on to Kaitiakitanga, which is stewardship of those surroundings. All of those things that are important to us.

Air, water, our whenua, and I think that is something that also shines through in the likes of the Rees.

Where those things are important to the individuals, they are important to the organisation. And they are expressed in a way that people feel it.

The final one is Whanaungatanga, where in the family scenes that connection, that people have within the team. But also as a guest I think they get a sense that they are part of a family.

It’s a joy I guess to be in an industry where those shines through and set New Zealand apart as they connect to the rest of the world.