Lal Askar: Managing Director, Worldwide Kids

Early Path & Foundations

What first drew you into hospitality and guest experience as a career?

Honestly, it began quite organically. I grew up in England, born in Libya, and spent many childhood summers in France, so an appreciation for different cultures and ways of living was baked into me from an early age.

My first real encounter with hospitality came through managing a pub in London. What struck me immediately was how much I enjoyed both sides of the operation, front and back of house. And I quickly realised something that has stayed with me ever since: front of house simply cannot function if back of house isn’t structured and organised. But beyond the mechanics of it, what gave me a genuine thrill was the people; happy customers, a motivated team, the energy of a room that’s working well. That feeling became something I wanted to keep chasing.

Looking back, were there any early moments or influences that shaped your leadership style?

A few, really. The pub years taught me a lot about managing people across different roles and temperaments under pressure, you learn quickly that no two people need to be led in exactly the same way.

But the person who perhaps shaped me most was a mentor called Mike Aubrey, who instilled in me an absolute commitment to attention to detail. In luxury hospitality, the difference between a good experience and an exceptional one often lives in the smallest things (non-critical essentials).

The difference between a 4- and 5-star service are the things most people might overlook. Mike made sure I never did. That discipline has been foundational to everything I’ve built since.

You’ve built your career from operations through to managing director -what did those formative years teach you about the industry?

They taught me that hospitality is, at its core, a people business – in every direction.

The relationship you have with your team directly shapes the experience your guests receive. Working across luxury ski resorts and summer destinations throughout Europe with Powder Byrne, I was constantly surrounded by high-net-worth families with very high expectations, and colleagues and suppliers from all walks of life. That breadth was an extraordinary education.

You learn that operational excellence isn’t just about processes – it’s about the culture you create around those processes, and the people you trust to bring them to life.

Career Journey

You’ve spent over a decade growing within Worldwide Kids. What kept you committed to the company and its mission?

Travel, without question, and the people that come with it. Every new destination, every new property, every new team brings a different energy, a different culture, a different way of seeing the world.

I’ve been fortunate to build relationships with people from so many different backgrounds – colleagues, clients, suppliers – and those connections have continued to enrich both my professional and personal life.

The mission of WK also genuinely matters to me, particularly since becoming a parent myself. The work we do has real impact on real families, and that sense of purpose keeps you anchored even through the more demanding periods.

How has your perspective shifted as you moved from operations roles into senior leadership?

In operations, you are very much in the detail – solving immediate problems, managing the day-to-day rhythm of a destination. As you move into senior leadership, the lens widens considerably. You start thinking more about systems, about culture, about how to build teams and structures that can deliver excellence consistently without you being in the room.

The operational background never leaves you. If anything, it becomes more valuable, because you understand exactly what it takes on the ground. But leadership requires you to zoom out, to think longer term, and to invest deeply in the people around you.

What have been the biggest lessons from managing complex, people-driven environments across different countries?

Flexibility and cultural intelligence, above all else.

What motivates a team in one country, or communicates respect in one culture, can be entirely different elsewhere. You have to be genuinely curious about people – their backgrounds, their values, how they like to be managed – and adapt accordingly. Alongside that, I’ve learned that standards themselves must be non-negotiable, even when the context changes.

The culture around delivering those standards might shift, but the expectation of excellence doesn’t. Finding that balance, between adaptability and consistency, is one of the defining skills of international hospitality leadership.

The Role of Children’s Experiences in Luxury Hospitality

Worldwide Kids sits at a fascinating intersection between hospitality, education and family travel. How do you define the role of children’s experiences in modern luxury?

I would define it as foundational, not supplementary. The days of childcare being a box-ticking exercise – somewhere to park the children while the adults enjoy themselves – are long gone or certainly should be. What we’re talking about now is an experience that is as thoughtfully curated, as professionally delivered, and as personally meaningful as anything else on a luxury property.

Children deserve to be treated with the same care and attention as their parents in a professional safe and fun environment.

When that happens, the whole family experience is elevated.

And crucially, it gives parents something truly precious; the peace of mind to actually relax and enjoy their holiday.

How have expectations from families changed over the past decade?

Dramatically. Families today are far more discerning. Parents want to know that their children are not just safe but genuinely engaged; learning, exploring, forming connections, and creating memories they’ll carry with them.

There’s also a much greater awareness of child development and wellbeing, which means parents are evaluating childcare provision with a far more critical eye.

They’re asking: are the staff trained? Are the facilities designed with children in mind? Is the programming age-appropriate and stimulating?

The bar has risen considerably, and the properties that understand this are the ones that families return to again and again.

What do the best hotels understand about engaging younger guests and where do some still get it wrong?

The best hotels understand that children are guests in their own right, not an afterthought.

They invest in specialist staff, purpose-designed spaces, and programmes that connect children to the destination, its culture, its landscape, its stories.

Where hotels still get it wrong, in my experience, is in treating the children’s offering as a cost centre rather than a differentiator. Underpaying staff, underinvesting in facilities, failing to align the children’s programme with the broader guest experience – these are all missed opportunities.

And families notice. Children notice, too.

Leadership & Operations

Your background is deeply operational. How does that shape how you lead today?

It means I never lose sight of what actually happens on the ground. I’ve cleaned the vans, been a kids’ club assistant, managed a team through a medical emergency at a remote resort, so when I’m making decisions at a senior level, I always ask myself: what does this mean for the person delivering it?

That empathy for the operational reality keeps you grounded and, I think, makes you a more credible and trusted leader.

My teams know I understand their world, because I’ve lived it.

What’s the biggest challenge in delivering consistent service quality across global destinations?

People and context. You can create the finest operational manual in the world, but if it isn’t brought to life by people who genuinely care, and who are empowered and supported to deliver it, it’s just paper.

Every destination is different: different culture, different team dynamic, different guest profile.

The challenge is creating a framework that is robust enough to maintain standards, but flexible enough to allow for that local authenticity and individual character. Consistency doesn’t mean uniformity. It means delivering the same feeling of excellence, through different hands, in different places.

How do you build, train, and motivate teams that are responsible for such personal guest experiences?

I start from a simple principle: treat people as you would wish to be treated yourself. That means being genuinely interested in them as individuals; understanding their strengths, their ambitions, what energises them.

When you utilise people’s strengths and passions rather than simply slotting them into roles, morale rises naturally.

Beyond that, I believe training must be continuous and contextual, not a one-off induction, but an ongoing investment in professional development.

And there must always be room for joy.

I’m a firm believer that we’re here to enjoy ourselves, at the right time and in the right place, and that should be reflected in the cultures we build.

Innovation & Industry Evolution

How is the concept of family travel evolving within luxury hospitality?

Families are travelling with greater intentionality. They want experiences that mean something, that connect them to a place, to each other, and to a broader sense of the world.

The transactional holiday – arrive, lie by the pool, depart – no longer satisfies the modern luxury traveller, and especially not the modern luxury family.

They want immersion, learning, discovery and inclusivity. And they want their children to be part of that journey, not separated from it.

The properties that are thriving are those that have designed their entire family offering around this aspiration.

What trends are you seeing in how hotels are investing in child-focused programming and facilities?

There’s a growing recognition that children’s facilities need to be genuinely world-class and inclusive: architecturally considered, age-segmented, and purpose-built rather than retrofitted.

Increasingly, we’re seeing hotels commission specialist childcare consultancies like Worldwide Kids from the earliest stages of development, which is exactly where that conversation should begin.

On the programming side, there’s a clear shift towards cultural immersion; connecting children to the destination’s ecology, traditions, and stories and a conscious move away from screen-based entertainment.

These are very welcome developments.

How do you balance creativity and structure when developing new concepts for resorts?

Structure is what makes creativity sustainable.

Without it, the most brilliant concept will fail in execution. My approach is always to establish a clear operational framework first; health and safety, staffing ratios, training standards and then build the creative experience within that framework.

That way, the innovation has roots. The teams delivering it feel confident and supported, and the guests receive something that is both imaginative and consistently excellent.

Creativity without structure is just an idea; structure without creativity is just a manual.

Impact & Responsibility

Children’s programming today is about more than entertainment; it can influence learning, wellbeing, and confidence. How seriously do you take that responsibility?

Enormously seriously. This is something I feel very personally, as a parent. When a child is in our care, they are trusting us, and their parents are trusting us, with something irreplaceable.

The experiences children have at a formative age shape how they see the world, how they relate to others, how confident they feel in new environments. That is a profound responsibility. It’s why we place such emphasis on staff training, on safeguarding, on age-appropriate programming, and on genuine human connection.

We are not just providing entertainment. We are, in a small but meaningful way, participating in a child’s development.

What role do you think hospitality brands should play in supporting child development and family connection?

A much more active and considered one than many currently do.

Hospitality brands have a unique platform; they welcome families at their most open, most present, most receptive moments. A holiday is often where a family truly reconnects, away from the noise of everyday life.

Brands that understand this and design their offering around it, rather than just around adult luxury, can create something genuinely transformative. That might mean facilitating shared experiences between parents and children, supporting learning through cultural immersion, or simply creating spaces where families feel completely at ease.

The opportunity is enormous.

Personal Insights

What part of your role gives you the greatest sense of purpose?

Seeing the impact of our work on families. When a parent tells you their child didn’t want to leave the kids’ club, that they spent the whole flight home talking about what they’d made, or learned, or who they’d met, that is everything. And equally, knowing that parent was able to sit on a terrace and have a quiet dinner with their partner, without worry, because they trusted the people caring for their child. That combination: joy for the child, peace of mind for the parent is what we’re in business to create. Knowing that we do it well, across so many different destinations and cultures, gives me a very genuine sense of pride.

What has been one of the most defining moments in your career so far?

Meeting my future wife while working in a ski resort. It sounds perhaps surprising as a career-defining moment but stay with me. It was a reminder; a vivid and deeply personal one, that the path I had chosen wasn’t just a professional adventure. It was a life. I was out there working hard, building something, delivering excellence for other families’ holidays, and in the midst of all that, my own life changed forever.

That moment crystallised something important for me: that I had chosen a path that kept me invigorated, challenged, inspired and driven, and that those qualities don’t stop at the edge of the workplace.

The people you meet in this industry, in all their richness and variety, are the great gift of the career.

What keeps you inspired after so many years in the industry?

The people, without question.

Every new destination, every new team, every new family brings something unexpected; a perspective I hadn’t considered, a solution I hadn’t imagined, a story I’ll carry with me.

I’ve been fortunate to work with extraordinary individuals from all over the world, and I continue to learn from them.

There’s also something about the nature of this work: its immediacy, its humanity, that never becomes routine. You are always, in some sense, in the business of moments. Moments that matter to people.

That doesn’t age.

Looking Ahead

Where do you see Worldwide Kids evolving over the next 5–10 years?

The past 25 years have been largely about education: helping hotels and resorts understand why professional, specialist childcare matters, and what it really means to deliver it well. That conversation has shifted significantly.

The industry understands now, far more than it did, that childcare is not a babysitting service. It is about engaging children, educating them, forming meaningful relationships, and creating memories that last a lifetime.

Over the next decade, I see us deepening that work: helping properties create truly integrated family experiences, where the children’s programme is fully aligned with every other department: food and beverage, spa, entertainment, rooms. And culturally, I see us moving further towards immersive, destination-led experiences that connect children to where they are; its traditions, its stories, its natural world, and moving decisively away from screen time.

How do you think the role of family-focused hospitality will change in the future?

I think it will become central rather than peripheral to the luxury proposition.

The family travel market continues to grow, and the families within it are increasingly sophisticated. They are choosing destinations based on what their children will experience, not just what they themselves will enjoy.

In many ways, children are already the decision-makers – they choose the destination, even if the parents hold the credit card.

Hotels that recognise this and build their offering accordingly will have a significant competitive advantage. Those that don’t will find it increasingly difficult to hold on to repeat family business.

What opportunities do you see that the industry isn’t yet fully embracing?

The genuine integration of the children’s experience into the broader property narrative.

Most luxury hotels still operate the children’s programme as a separate entity – a good one, perhaps, but siloed.

The opportunity lies in weaving the children’s world into the fabric of the whole destination: connecting it to the culinary story, to the wellness philosophy, to the cultural programming, a truly holistic approach.

A child who learns to make pasta with the head chef, or who goes on a guided nature walk with the resort’s ecologist, is having a luxury experience and so is their parent, watching that happen.

That depth of integration is still relatively rare, and it’s where I think the real frontier of family hospitality lies.

Quickfire

• Early riser or night owl?
  Naturally a night owl but my children have turned me into a reluctant early riser.
• A place that always makes you feel at home?
  Ile de Noirmoutier, France.
• One small detail in hospitality that people underestimate.
  The power of a smile.
• Coffee or tea?
  Coffee.
• A destination you return to again and again?
  Greece.
• One word your team might use to describe you?
  Open-minded.
• Best way to switch off after a busy day?
  Cook and enjoy a delicious meal with a bottle of red wine.
• A childhood memory that still makes you smile?
  Swimming independently for the first time in Noirmoutier, France.
• What still excites you about the work you do?
  Opportunity to travel to new places to meet new people and experience new cultures.

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