Le Royal Meridien Shanghai General Manager Akram Touma takes us around the hotel and to a host of meetings.

Hotel Residence

6:45a.m.

Wake up to the sound of a Verdi opera from the Bose alarm clock.

6:50

Coffee and fruits. Read the Shanghai Daily and check e-mails via Blackberry.

7:15

Stretches: 25 push-ups and 50 sit-ups followed by 10 minutes of meditation.

7:30

Shave and shower.

Hotel Grounds

8:00

Walk around the hotel, check with night manager, greet staff, chat with them about the morning business, guest comments and feedback.

Office

8:30

Review the daily revenue report, confirm expected forecast of the coming day's business, attend to 20-30 e-mails.

9:00

Morning briefing with department heads to discuss the upcoming day's special events, plan schedule for arriving guests who need to be welcomed.

9:30

Write welcome notes for regular and VIP guests. More e-mails.

10:00

Meeting to strategize with the director of marketing.

11:00

Various meetings, one department per week.

12:00 p.m.

Check signing and on-line approval of purchase orders; review accounts with finance director.

Ai Mei Mei Chinese Restaurant

12:30

Lunch with Grass-Roots Committee (the staff representative committee). Typical Cantonese lunch with jasmine tea.

Hotel Grounds

1:30

Walk around hotel, review operation, chat with guests and ask for their feedback about the hotel. Always looking for opportunities for that next piece of business.

Meeting Room

2:00

Credit meeting.

Lobby Lounge

2:30

Meeting with a North American travel agent at Le Salon. Cappuccino, no sugar.

Office

3:00

Return calls and go through various reports and e-mails.

5:00

Meeting with hotel manager John Roberts to discuss financial results and various operational priorities.

6:00

More paper work, signing sales contracts, approval of requests and clearing e-mails.

Lobby

6:30

Spend time welcoming and interacting with guests. Among today's VIP guests is a minister from Brazil accompanied by a 100 member delegation. My basic Portuguese comes in handy, as most did not speak English.

66th Floor

7:30

Martini cocktails at 789 Bar followed by dinner with the head of a major corporate account in Shanghai at Allure French restaurant. An elaborate dinner starting with traditional "opera" goose liver, followed by the chef's signature soup, emulsion of black truffle and white bean, and finished with sautéed black cod in a nut-brown butter with bone marrow, stewed shallots and red wine sauce. All complimented by a fine wine, 2002 Pouilly Fume Henri Bourgeois.

Hotel Grounds

9:00

Quick walk around the hotel, including back of house (for general inspection purposes).

Office

9:30

Final check of e-mails. By end of the day the total received e-mails hit 118, about 50 of them required action/reply to, others were informative (FYI).

Hotel Residence

10:30

Shower.

10:45

Relax with the Wall Street Journal and TV news (flipping between BBC and CNN).

11.30

Time to turn in. Read a chapter of "I am a Strange Loop" by Douglas Hofstadter.

11.45

Lights out.