Daniel Arbenz had the privilege of travelling extensively in his young age with his parents and being exposed to great hotels and restaurants influenced his passion and desire to embark on a hospitality career which began 40 years ago in Switzerland with a traditional culinary apprenticeship in the kitchen and restaurants.

He graduated 1987 from the Swiss Hotel Management School Lucerne and worked his way up through hotel departments at Zurich’s legendary Baur au Lac Hotel, Dolder Grand Hotel as well as the well-known Giardino Mountain Resort/Chesa Guardalej in Champfer-St. Moritz.

In 1989 he ventured to Hong Kong to open his first hotel as Executive Assistant Manager. From there Daniel’s career kicked off dominantly in Asia Pacific and North Asia. At the Bali Padma Resort he became General Manager for the first time. In 1997 he joined IHG to open the Holiday Inn Semarang in Indonesia.

For 27 years he travelled with IHG to assignments in Jakarta, Sydney, Melbourne, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Macau and Hong Kong. Besides his own hotel IHG entrusted him with various cluster, area and regional responsibilities. He also gained corporate experience by serving two years as Head of Operations East China. During the COVID lock-down he decided that it was time to leave China. He took a long break to go back to Switzerland where IHG soon needed him on an interim basis at the legendary InterContinental Geneva.

Since mid-2022 Daniel has been based at the InterContinental Muscat as Area General Manager Oman and with this he added Middle East as the fourth “continent” in which he has worked and lived during his hotel career.

Daniel said, “Running the InterContinental Muscat is a special task as the hotel was the first 5-star hotel in Oman when it opened 46 years ago. As the “old dame of Muscat” it has been the place where history was made, dignitaries and celebrities met and where half of the Omani business and social community got married.”

As Area General Manager, Daniel overviews the Crowne Plaza Muscat OCEC, Crowne Plaza Duqm and Crowne Plaza Resort Salalah, all three being owned by the same investment company as InterContinental.

Daniel joined Chaine in 2005 as a Maître Hôtelier with the Bailliage of Beijing in China, subsequently being promoted to Officier Maître Hôtelier.

Reflecting on his Chaîne career, Daniel said, “I have now been a member for around 18 years. I remember the great dinners in Beijing when more and more luxury hotels opened in the lead up to the Olympics 2008. It was the same in the Bailliages of Shanghai and Shenzhen where culinary standards were at an extremely high level.”

He continued, “Since 2022 and my move to Muscat I am a member of the Bailliage of Sultanate of Oman. For me the Chaîne is a platform where chefs, service teams and sommeliers can shine. I look forward to each dinner. I started my hospitality career in the kitchen and today I still very much love cooking. One of my sayings is ‘once a Chef always a Chef’. Proof of this is that, for a Bailliage of Shenzhen event in 2019, I even joined in my hotel’s kitchen brigade in preparing the dinner for the members and their guests!”

InterContinental Muscat, an IHG Hotel
Al Kharjiya Street
Al Shati St, Area 114
Muscat

Phone: +968 24 680000
Web: ihg.com/intercontinental/hotels/gb/en/muscat/mscha/hoteldetail