RENOVATIONS KEEP SHERATON HONG KONG ON TOP
DESPITE the
keen competition that exists in Hong Kong for the lucrative Frequent Independent Traveller, the Sheraton-Hong Kong Hotel maintained a high 85% occupancy rate for 1985.
“After two and a half years of renovations of all our facilities and expenditure of HK$130 million, the hotel has created a brand new image and has maintained its status as a premier hotel in Hong Kong," says general manager
Bernd Loeke.
The 12 year old hotel is owned by Consolidated Hotels, a Hutchison subsidiary company.
A fully equipped business centre which opened in 1984 positioned the hotel firmly in the business, rather than the group, travel market. The redesign of penthouse floors in keeping with the Sheraton chain's exclusive Sheraton Towers concept will enhance further this position by providing luxury accommodation and a greater degree of privacy for the top of the market traveller.
A Japanese restaurant which opened during 1985 was built largely from imported Japanese materials. Like the hotel's other food and beverage outlets, it has established its own following among Hong Kong residents who look for price, quality and easy accessibility.
"The hotel realises the importance of providing quality services to our guests and, to serve this end, we have built a new hotel training school which all our staff will attend. We hope the training school will cushion us from the effects of the inevitable drain of trained staff you get when a number of new hotels open one after the other in a city the size of Hong Kong," says Mr Loeke.
At the moment, 63% of the 922 room hotel's guests are business people, a figure other top Hong Kong hotels would like to match. According to Mr Loeke, the hotel has achieved these figures because guests are looking for value for money in a convenient location.
A good proportion of guests are loyal to the Sheraton chain because, as well as meeting these criteria, it offers 490 hotels worldwide and an online booking system that can produce details of any Sheraton hotel, including room availability and confirmed reservations, within a couple of seconds.
Mr Loeke's projections for the Hong Kong hotel industry are not bright. He foresees that new hotels opening in Hong Kong as well as over the border in Shenzhen, will lead to an oversupply that, in turn, will mean fierce competition from hotel managements both for guests and staff.
"Nevertheless, through rigorous staff training programmes designed to maintain the high standards required by Sheraton, the Sheraton-Hong Kong will be able to maintain high percentage occupancy rates for the next two years at least, and attract the kind of guests an upmarket hotel needs,” he says.
BERND LOEKE,
GENERAL MANAGER OF
THE SHERATON-HONG
KONG HOTEL.
"After two and a half
years of renovations,
the hotel has created
a brand new image and
has maintained its
status as a premier
hotel in Hong Kong."
27
HUTCHISON WHAMPOA LIMITED