MARTA Bernat is the daughter of Enric Bernat, founder of the Chupa Chups lollipop company in Barcelona, Spain, in 1958. After graduating with a marketing major, she joined the company and became its marketing head in 1998.
She is responsible for the company's foray into the lifestyle-fashion business. In 1999, it launched a children's wear collection. An adult collection made its debut earlier this year in Europe, and will be launched in Singapore early next year. It will feature clothes and accessories with the Chupa Chups logo.
Ms Bernat, who is in her 40s and a mother of four aged 20, 17, 15 and four, flies mostly across Europe and to Japan for work.
She usually visits Asia for holidays and to get her favourite massage from spas in Thailand and Bali.
Her favourite is the Angsana spa in Phuket's Dusit Laguna Resort.
She was in town recently to launch Chupa Chups' kidswear collection at VivoCity's Spanish concept shopping stretch, Spain2Dream.
Which are the best three hotels you've stayed in?
My first choice would be the North Island Hotel, built on one of the 115 islands in the Seychelles.
It's a stunning hotel featuring six-star service and facilities. It is one of the few hotels in the world where you can actually witness the amazing wonders of nature like turtles laying and burying their eggs in the sand. It costs about 900 euros (S$1,880) a night.
My second choice is the cosy Bora Bora Aman Resort in French Polynesia. The hotel sits on the edge of a turquoise lagoon with three beaches and a coral barrier reef offering a variety of colourful marine life. It is about 500 euros a night.
Then there's the Maricel in Spain's Mallorca Island. It was built in 1948 and is a cosy hotel with only 29 rooms over three floors served by a single elevator. I love it because it reminds me of 16th-century architecture and the sea view from the terrace is fabulous. It costs 350 euros.
What annoys you most about a hotel? Bad service? Rooms not up to standard? Screaming children?
Having had four kids of my own, I can handle screaming children. Obviously, when the hotel staff have poor manners or the hotel is too hot and not well-maintained, then I won't be very happy. But generally, I'm one of the most easygoing of customers.
You've said you love hotels with spa facilities and you love massages. Tell us more.
My children, travel schedule and career are worries I face. To relax, I hit the spas for a good full-body massage. The spas in Thailand and Bali are fantastic.
I would like to highlight the Angsana in Phuket and the Raffles Amrita Spa at Singapore's Raffles the Plaza which I went to. The service at both was very professional and the masseurs really knew how to work my body.
To me, that's what makes the Asian masseurs so much better than those we have in Europe.
You seem to prefer boutique hotels to big chains. Why so?
They usually have better service, are cosier and are more homely.
I'd love to design a Chupa Chups boutique hotel targeted at families and the young at heart. It'll be a wonderland with lollipops, rooms designed for kids, sofas and Chupa Chups bean bags - a place where children can play while the adults relieve nostalgic memories.
What was the funniest thing that happened to you in a hotel?
It didn't happen to me but to a friend accompanying me on a business trip to Paris.
I had a briefcase which contained some belongings that ended up in his room. There was an alarm clock inside I forgot about.
It went off at 4am and he thought it was a bomb. He didn't know what to do and couldn't open the briefcase. At his wits' end, he threw it out of the room into the hotel terrace.
Be honest now, do you ever cart home hotel freebies?
I don't usually take the giveaway toiletries unless I really need them.
I'm not a fan of travelling with a lot of unnecessary items. Besides, I prefer to use my personal favourite products, like L'Oreal's shampoo for dry hair.
