Betting chief Petter Nylander has a new appreciation of business travel hotels
after famously being arrested and thrown in an Amsterdam prison last year.
Nylander, 43, is the chief executive of Unibet and
was detained last October by Dutch authorities at Schiphol airport, under a
warrant that alleged his company had breached complicated French gambling
laws. He was later freed on bail by a court in Paris, with an official
spokesman for the European Commission claiming that he had been wrongly
arrested.
“I had 48 hours in a Schiphol prison, then seven days under house arrest in
Amsterdam, before taken to a Paris court,” said Nylander. “The prison was
probably the worst type of accommodation I’ve had as a businessman and made
me appreciate even the most average hotel because everything is relative.
“In prison, we had goulash soup and bread, and more bread, but you could have
brown or white. The room was eight square meters and the lights didn’t
really go off at night. I had a plastic mattress with paper on it, which was
really quite horrible. I don’t like to think what other inmates had done on
it. When I was released in Paris, I went with my wife to the Ritz and had a
lobster club sandwich and Krug champagne. You could say I experienced the
worst and best of business travel accommodation in a short period of time!”
Unibet has been at the forefront of the boom in online gambling, which is
estimated to be growing at 30 per cent per year. The company has 320
employees and around two million clients. Nylander travels extensively to
Europe and the US on business.
Do you always stay in hotels like the Ritz?
No, it was an exception. I’m Swedish and we keep work and play very separate.
But you guys are quite different. I’ll see businessmen having a gin and
tonic for lunch and I think why? I have one of those when I’m not working.
If I’m on holiday, I’ll stay in a really nice five star property, but on
business, I’ll go four star. I don’t have any real preferences, but I like
to stay in urban areas and see a bit of the real Europe. Airport hotels are
a killer; they’ve got no character and I’m not a pay-tv kind of guy. I don’t
use the hotel gyms because I’m usually working long hours and don’t have the
time or inclination.
How do you travel to Europe?
I normally go with British Airways because of
the frequency of flights and if you have a gold pass, you are allowed in the
lounge, even if you go economy. My tip is to stay loyal to an airline,
rather than shop around all the time, because they will reward you. Mind
you, BA try to kill you with those breakfasts; it’s all bacon, as if we are
in a 1950s soap opera. So I register for low-calorie food on the internet.
That’s another good tip because the low-calorie food is so much better and
not so mass produced. I live in Notting Hill, so I can get the Heathrow
Express from Paddington and it is an excellent service.
What about long-haul travel?
Again, I’ll stick with BA or a Star
Alliance carrier. I know everyone seems to talk about Virgin Atlantic,
but I’ve not tried them. We do go business class on the longer trips, which
is much more comfortable.
Do you enjoy flying?
