With aircraft overhead and business travellers checking in from every corner of the world, London Heathrow Marriott Hotel is more than a stopover—it’s a high-volume, high-impact operation that blends precision with purpose.
Leading it is Ron Vos, a forward-thinking General Manager whose career has evolved from fascination with the mechanics of hotel life to a passion for meaningful, systemic change.
For Ron, hospitality isn’t just about service—it’s about using a platform for good. Whether it’s reducing food waste, improving energy efficiency, or rethinking the guest journey, he’s focused on making every decision count. Under his leadership, the hotel has implemented initiatives like Meat-Free Mondays, zero-emissions transfers, and AI-powered kitchen systems, making it one of the most sustainably-minded properties in the Marriott portfolio.
We caught up with Ron to talk about reimagining airport hospitality, giving teams the freedom to lead, and why the most impactful changes often come from the inside out.
What inspired you to pursue a career in hotel management?
I’ve always been drawn to the energy of hotels. There’s something magnetic about how everything comes together behind the scenes—the logistics, the timing, the coordination. That complexity really appealed to me from the start.
But over time, what’s kept me in hospitality is the understanding that hotels can be a force for good. We serve hundreds of people every day. That gives us incredible potential to influence habits, reduce waste, and lead change. That’s why I came to Heathrow—it’s not just a place to sleep between flights. It’s a hotel with scale, with reach, and with the chance to make a difference.
How do you balance emerging trends and evolving guests’ preferences?
Today’s guests are more conscious than ever. They want flexibility, they value wellbeing, and they expect sustainability to be part of the package.
We’ve reimagined a lot of what we offer in response. For example, our Life in Balance menus prioritise plant-based dishes and whole-food snacks, designed to energise and nourish. Our Touchdown Package is built for modern, agile teams—it’s a short-format meeting concept served on airline-style trays, as a playful nod to our location.
We’ve also gone paperless in many of our meeting rooms, using write-on walls and Marriott’s Red Coat App to streamline planning. Hybrid-ready tech is standard now, not optional. It’s all about creating experiences that are as thoughtful as they are practical.
Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently?
There’s always the temptation to wish you’d moved faster on certain ideas—especially when you see how well something works.
But meaningful change needs to happen at the right pace. You need buy-in from your teams. Take our Food Waste Lab, for example. It started as a chef-led initiative and became one of our most impactful programmes. We’ve upcycled tonnes of surplus ingredients and created a new way of thinking in the kitchen.
The success came from the ground up. That’s what I try to focus on now—creating space for good ideas and giving them the structure and support to grow.
What defines your management style?
Clear, consistent, and empowering.
I believe in setting direction and stepping back to let the team lead. You can’t micromanage a hotel like this—it’s too big, too complex. What you can do is build a culture where everyone understands the vision and feels equipped to deliver.
That’s especially true when it comes to sustainability. We’ve made it part of our everyday operation. From No Emissions Wednesdays to monthly updates in our Green Newsletter, the message is: this matters, and we all have a part to play.
What are your strategic goals and vision for the hotel?
Our goal is to be the go-to destination for conscious business travel and events at Heathrow. That means delivering everything our corporate guests expect—great service, flexible meeting space, fast connectivity—but doing it in a way that reduces environmental impact.
We’ve achieved Green Key certification, rolled out AI through Winnow to track and cut food waste, installed filtered water stations, and partnered with We Know London to provide zero-emissions EV transfers.
But the real work happens every day—in every department. Sustainability isn’t just an initiative. It’s part of how we sell, how we clean, how we cook, and how we think.
What advice would you give to someone starting out?
Figure out early on what matters to you—whether it’s sustainability, technology, people development—and let that guide your leadership journey.
Spend time in every part of the hotel. See how it all connects. Understand the mechanics and the magic. That experience will shape your decisions later.
And don’t wait for a management title to start making a difference. Leadership isn’t a job description. It’s a mindset. Start small, stay consistent, and stay curious.