An interview with Mr. Weay Cheng,
General Manager of MAHA Club and Residences, Chaoyang Park, Beijing
Joined Four Seasons Singapore in 1995 followed by Regent Singapore, also worked on the opening for Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo Maranouchi, Four Seasons Resort Exuma at Emerald Bay, Four Seasons Resort Langkawi, Four Seasons Resort Maldives, Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou at West Lake and Four Seasons Hotel Tianjin, Mr. Weay Cheng is a full experienced hotelier in the hospitality industry, born in Malaysia, Multilingual in English, Bahasa Malaysia and Indonesia, Mandarin and Cantonese. In his free time, he enjoys drinking green tea and is a sports enthusiast, with a focus on maintaining a healthy lifestyle. SpaChina interviewed Weay.
Could you please provide an overview of MAHA’s wellness concept and how it is integrated into the club and residence experience?
MAHA is a state of being, whereas wellness is the state of living a healthy lifestyle, from where we were, optimizing a holistic approach to well-being. Meanwhile, with bespoke facilities, MAHA creates a dedicated venue for health, nutrition, mindfulness and well-being that perfect harmony within the originality extremely high-grade residential experiences. MAHA is exemplified by extraordinary residences set in breathtaking corners of the world and it allows residents to enjoy all the wellness offerings from unique health experience, innovative wellness, sustainable exploration of body, spirit and mind balance, to bespoke services that make MAHA a truly out of the ordinary lifestyle.
What specific amenities or services does MAHA offer to promote wellness among its residents and club members? How does MAHA create a unique and standout experience for its guests?
MAHA Spa, designed with four treatment rooms that use top-notch Gharieni physiotherapy equipment and MANSARD products. The spa offers personalized health care plans that blend Western expertise with traditional Chinese medicine. It also has a unique private Himalayan salt wellness space with heated recliners by Fabio Alemanno design, SOMADOME capsule healing space and technological health rest area. Residents and club members can enjoy a vitality massage pool, yoga studio, fully equipped fitness center with an oxygen system, and Astral pool Swim spa. MAHA’s exceptional personalized services and diverse living experiences, such as bespoke wellness, food and beverage, entertainment, catering events and an exclusive rooftop garden, set it apart from other luxury residences and clubs in Beijing.
We organized regular residential events at least once a month and co-organize/co-branding with luxury brands from all over the world. For example, recently we jointly organized a sports workshop with Dior and Technogym, as well as a golf experience with our International Golf pro instructor to have an in-depth personalized experience based on resident’s capacity and interest. MAHA seeks to find the best team of professionals from all over the world to create wellness activities suitable for the home experience for our residents.
Could you share some examples of the wellness programs or activities that MAHA organizes for its residents and club members?
We have curated a selection of wellness programs that focus on promoting overall health and well-being. One of these programs included a seminar where we invited a renowned sports and human science doctor from Beijing University. During the seminar, he shared insights on leading a healthy lifestyle and provided a comprehensive range of physical and mental health information. At the end of the program, residents who participated in the event had the opportunity to receive a one-on-one assessment based on the doctor’s professional guidance.
In addition, we also offer yoga meditation classes and facial uplift work shop. These programs are designed to cater to the unique needs and preferences of our residents, ensuring that they can achieve optimal health and well-being in a personalized and holistic manner.
On how to ensure that the health services provided meet the different interests and preferences of guests: the majority of MAHA’s residents are well-to-do families, with children and the elderly. We found that these customers’ interests and preferences are actually the same, they like to eat home-cooked food, enjoy sports and child-related activities. They pay special attention to the selection of ingredients, as well as the brand, origin and function of the product, and the services need to be more convenient for them. The key word is ‘conveniences’ with good healthy lifestyle. Therefore, we are selective in choosing our products, as simple as the oil we used by our culinary team, the origin of the dishes cooked by our chefs, country of the skin care products made from to the benefits of learning for children activities. Therefore, while seeking for high-quality health care services, we will create trust and convenient spaces for our residents, so that they can depend on our one-stop services.
MAHA emphasizes a holistic approach to wellness. Could you elaborate on the different dimensions of wellness that MAHA focuses on and how they are incorporated into the club and residence?
I have to say that we are committed to create a trusted luxury serviced apartments that are different from other hospitality industry. In the hotel industry, every day, the customers will be different, the age group is also unpredictable, so it is a challenge for hotels to accurately provide the services required by their customers. However, our groups of people are fixed or we know them better. Hence, we can easily obtain different dimensions of customer needs, such as the children or the elderly needs. We can ask the information of our residents and do a data analysis based on their age group, background and preferences, in order for us to customize our services and products that suit them well.
MAHA Garden’s prime location makes it the “Air Purifier of the city” and it provides a secluded space for MAHA Club & Residences. MAHA Spa offers wellness experiences in harmony with the natural world. Residents can start their day with refreshing activities such as jogging and yoga. Our service extends to home, with spa treatments available on-demand and without time or space constraints. The residents can enjoy a variety of wellness facilities and dining experiences. Healthy meals can be delivered or prepared by our chefs at their home too.
What role does technology play in enhancing the wellness experience at MAHA?
We are very fortunate that our spa is designed with a great scientific healing spaces for our residents. We used Gharieni’s high-end treatment equipment, a very exclusive Himalayan salt room with the Italian Fabio Alemanno design infra-red heated lounge chair, the Somadome meditation chamber and jacuzzi with hydro exercise therapy. We will not stop but continue to look for the latest high-tech products that can be integrated into MAHA Residences so to bring a different and yet wonderful wellness experience to our residents.
MAHA offers an innovative online personal coaching platform, enabling residents to stay connected with their wellness advisor. Each resident can access “My Wellness”, an interactive measurement app through Technogym, which allows them to track, measure, monitor and interact with their progress. By providing regular attendance and participation, this platform fosters a sense of belonging and enhances the overall wellness experience. It allows the residents access a personalized health coaching wellness hub through their computer or smart-phone app, to manage their treatment schedules and training sessions. This ensures that residents stay connected to the program, even when they are traveling or away from their apartment for an extended period.
How does MAHA foster a sense of community and social connection among its residents and club members within the framework of its wellness concept?
At MAHA, every resident can enjoy the personal butler service, which is also one of the big features of MAHA. Our butler is available 24 hours a day. Our residents can always let us know what they need. We had a video clip on a scenario where the parents were not at home. The parents feel comfortable to leave their children with us, and we will help them to watch, design and provide a healthy educational course for the children. Hence, our butler training is a great bridge between MAHA and the residents. In addition, we also have a program that provide monthly updates on our featured services and experiences to make sure our residents get the first hand information and stay connected with us.
In what ways does MAHA continuously evolve its wellness offerings and stay up-to-date with the latest trends and advancements in the wellness industry?
MAHA has always stay connected with many expertise from different countries and regions. Not only for spa related, but also for food and beverage. It was a pity that due to the pandemic, many of our spa masters from other countries cannot fly over to provide their unique expertise services or treatments for our residents. However, I believe that with many country borders having opened up, we will be able to invite and collaborate with more international expertise/masters to MAHA, which will bring a different experience to our residents.
MAHA just started less than 2 years ago in Beijing and it is a brand-new club and residences services in the market. We are still humbly improving our services while we actively worked on establishing network with excellent organizations, such as SpaChina and continue to evolve by learning more and improving our knowledge in the field of wellness, and strive to keep the pace with the trends and advances in the wellness industry.
