S3 EP 1: A Conversation with Simon Kim of Gracious Hospitality

Where did the name Gracious Hospitality come from?

So when I think about what I love about hospitality the most is sense of graciousness.

And I think...

I love that word so much.

I do too.

You know? Graciousness.

And, you know, I think it, uh, I named my son, his name is, uh, Unu.

Uh, un in Chinese character means gracious.

Uh, gracious universe.

Uh, anyways, universe in Chinese character is same thing as family, so gracious family is gracious universe.

Anyways, um, uh, gracious is, um, um, my favorite word.

And believe it or not, uh, when I was forming my company, I was like, "Gracious Hospitality cannot be available," right? 'Cause, uh-

Right.

[laughs]

... that's the, I mean, in my humble opinion, the most amazing hospitality is gracious hospitality, right? That, that sense of, um, you know, there's, it's not quite generous, right? It's not just generous.

In, in order for you to be gracious, you need to have certain feeling of, um, intent, your intent to please.

Uh, it's a pretty complex word, you know? That graciousness, right?

Yeah.

Because it embodies a little bit of generosity, a little bit of a hospital- like, all of it, it encompasses in a, such a unique way, and it embodies all the things that I love about what we do, uh, as a service hospitality provider.

Uh, and, and I work with this amazing, um, design agency, branding agency called Pentagram.

So if you look at actually, um, my logo, Gracious Hospitality Management, uh, it actually has my Korean character in it, Kim.

Oh, cool.

You know, Simon Kim.

Yeah.

Kim.