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From waiter to GM: Inside the life of veteran hotelier

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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