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From waiter to GM: Inside the life of veteran hotelier

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ibis Styles General Manager Thomas Simonnet. (Courtesy)

The skies above Nairobi look menacing. However, the expected storm holds off as we sip some house coffee on a rooftop bar in Nairobi's Westlands on Wednesday morning. Do you get mesmerised by the way these baristas artistically weave a flower design in a cup of coffee? I do.

But Thomas Simonnet, the general manager at ibis Styles is not surprised. "They just do what they are accustomed to do," he says with his heavy French inflection.

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