How Sylvia Wong Went From Lawyer And Investment Exec To Award-Winning Hotelier In The Midst Of A Global Pandemic

“Here is entirely varied from what I’ve performed for many of my lifestyles,” Sylvia Wong says, looking out on a sprawling, green enviornment appropriate 100 miles outside of Original york, in beachy Amagansett. Although it seems 2d nature to her—as she greets guests, readies every room, lays out a day-to-day providing of afternoon cookies, and maps out landscaping additions—proudly owning and working a resort was as soon as by no device exactly in the playing cards for Wong.

Educated as a licensed expert at Original York University, she began her occupation at a rules firm in the metropolis working on mergers and acquisitions earlier than becoming a member of IBM. All the device in which via her 15 years on the abilities behemoth, Wong was as soon as posted in Singapore and Shanghai for extended lessons of time and indirectly oversaw all rising markets, a job that required shut to-constant stir between Latin The United States, Africa, Asia, and Jap Europe. “I spent most of my lifestyles touring, and I dealt with all forms of considerations, from enormous contracts with customers to litigation to even having employees get arrested, so I if truth be told noticed all of it,” she recalls.

When she left IBM and returned to Original York about a years previously, Wong began working as partner in a non-public investment firm that deals with rather about a staunch property, and she was as soon as reminded of an aspiration that had arisen potential support as a outcomes of her frequent travels. “I’ve constantly, constantly, constantly cherished touring, even when I was as soon as a heart-broken rules pupil; it was as soon as appropriate my thing, and I constantly loved going to new areas,” she says. “So, I constantly belief that maybe in some unspecified time in the future I’d open my fetch resort, nonetheless relish with most of those dreams, I figured I’d by no device surely stop it.”

But in 2019, she determined to plan the dream a actuality. “I wasn’t if truth be told definite of the positioning, nonetheless I knew I needed one thing shut ample to Original York so as that I could surely bustle the commerce,” she explains. “So, I was as soon as looking out for a spot and didn’t and didn’t if truth be told relish any particular criteria past that.” Then, she noticed an inventory in the paper in some unspecified time in the future for an inn in Amagansett with a prosperous history and rather about a lush land and determined to grasp the Hamptons Jitney obtainable the following Saturday to gaze if for herself.

“I didn’t know what to quiz, nonetheless when I noticed the property and the farmland, I noticed how aesthetic the place was as soon as,” Wong remembers. The place had been bustle as an inn for several decades and had all of the eccentricities of a mom-and-pop operation, nonetheless it completely exuded charm and history all over. “When I first walked in, I noticed a minute signal on the neighbor’s home announcing that it’s the oldest home in Amagansett, and it grew to become out that this was as soon as the quandary home of 1 in all the first four families that settled in Amagansett in the 1600s,” she notes of the inn, where one two-bed room cottage is over 250-years susceptible. “So, I belief it was as soon as moderately frigid, and then when I noticed the farmland, I appropriate knew that this was as soon because it.”

Wong equipped the inn and saved the susceptible house owners on for six months to coach her the ropes of working a resort while the property underwent gut renovations to make definite it could maybe actually maybe be up and working in early 2020, earlier than the summer season season. Then, the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

With motels deemed significant businesses in Original York, Wong knew it could maybe actually maybe still open and was as soon as certain to enact renovations on time desk, all while making a opinion to aid guests and her employees protected. “We opened on June 1, 2020, nonetheless didn’t relish a single reservation,” she says. “No person was as soon as if truth be told touring on the time, and we didn’t know exactly when we would surely open because issues saved getting pushed support.” But as guests began to trickle in over the first weekend, it grew to turn out to make certain that The Roundtree was as soon as every little thing Wong wanted it to be.

“I bear in mind the first week, I was as soon as going to get my espresso in the morning when one in all my employees participants urged me that a guest desired to fulfill me,” she recalls. “And I clearly assumed they wished to whinge about one thing, relish there was as soon as no sizzling water or worse.” But definite ample, when Wong went to stagger meet the guest, who was as soon as staying in a three-bed room cottage along with his family while their nearby home was as soon as under construction, he desired to welcome her to the region and categorical how impressed he was as soon as with the resort and every little thing she’d performed. “Correct to gaze that heat and that astonishing side of humanity was as soon as so astonishing,” she says. “And I cherished that staying at The Roundtree wasn’t appropriate a transaction because my vision for it was as soon as constantly to plan it feel extra relish a home than a resort.”

With 5 cottages, some with two and three bedrooms, and a total of 10 extra rooms and suites, the resort can accommodate up to 40 guests and is a high destination for teams and families—at the side of pets. And despite its high scheme on Amagansett’s Main Side twin carriageway, The Roundtree is surprisingly quiet. “I needed guests to feel relish this was as soon as their fetch backyard,” she explains as she looks onto the wide lawn. “Even when we’re entirely booked, I needed it to feel relish right here’s all appropriate theirs.”

And indeed, that’s exactly how guests appear to feel while visiting the property. You’ll procure children and dogs working around in the grass while their dad and mom grasp Zoom calls from a chaise lounge and neighboring couples grasp relieve of the resort’s complimentary bikes or fragment a bottle of wine by the fire.

Even though The Roundtree has no legit kitchen, it serves a continental breakfast to guests every morning, that could be ordered to their rooms or in the garden, and has partnered with local restaurants to procure and plate takeout orders. It also stocks every room and cottage with complementary drinks and snacks, as successfully as to the espresso and tea on hand around the clock in the predominant resort, afternoon chocolate-chip cookies, and evening s’mores. “I’m naturally very nurturing and relish to grasp care of of us, so I constantly are attempting to plan definite every guest has every little thing they need,” Wong says. But as many of her considerate touches counsel, she and her employees are likely to fulfill their guests’ needs earlier than their guests are even attentive to their needs.

No longer even two years after opening, The Roundtree has seen endured success and high occupancy charges and has obtained impressive accolades, at the side of the Run Leisure World’s Finest Award. But Wong says the appropriate indication of all that the resort has achieved is the sense of loyalty its guests feel to the property. “So many of us that attain right here as soon as stop up coming support, whether it’s every 12 months or every weekend,” she says. “And in rather about a ways, our guests become relish family, and the resort becomes their 2d home, which is precisely what I needed when I opened The Roundtree.”