StayWell Hospitality Group Expands Hotel Portfolio In India

Sydney based StayWell Hospitality Group has announced to launch two properties in the National Capital Region (NCR) of India recently.

A 60 room hotel located in West Gurgaon will be the second Leisure Inn property to open in India. Due to be launched in January 2014 Leisure Inn West Gurgaon facilities will include an all day dining café, garden bar and grill, banquet and conference facilities, executive meeting rooms, gymnasium and roof top swimming pool.

The second property will be located in Sector 114 of Gurgaon. Leisure Inn VSR Apartments Sector 114 will be a 120 room serviced apartment property that is expected to open in mid 2015. The property will cater primarily to corporate travellers both for short and long term stays. Facilities will include an all day dining café, business centre, banquet and conferencing facilities, exclusive club block with swimming pool, gymnasium and recreational facilities.

Simon Wan, CEO and Managing Director, StayWell Hospitality Group, said, “StayWell has increased its growth momentum in India and we have several more property opportunities in the pipeline. The announcement brings the total number of signed Indian properties to eight.”

Rohit Vig, Managing Director, India, StayWell Hospitality Group, adds “ Our emphasis is on location, offering accessibility to attend to business or as an ideal base for leisure activities backed by well appointed rooms and service to ensure quality guest experience.”

Source: http://www.hospitalitybizindia.com

HT Editor

Burgers Fuel Wolfe’s Success

Brooke Wolfe had to go to burger school to get his burger wings.

A man with a commerce degree, experience in marketing and design, well connected in Taranaki – and here he was in Auckland, manning a till and grilling patties.

But it was part of the BurgerFuel company drill. He describes the three-month experience as one of his steepest learning curves. By the end of it he was co-managing the Ponsonby store, one of the flagship eateries in the international burger chain.

All the while his store in central New Plymouth, on Eliot St, was being built.

He returned, opened the doors on January 16, 2006 and “that’s when the fun began. The first three weeks were just insane. The sales we did were mindblowing; it was just the pace, the number

of people I had to have to keep my head above water.”

After the intensity of opening, he “crashed” and probably wondered what he’d got himself into.

He was in his early thirties and he’d never worked in hospitality.

Raised in New Plymouth, schooled at New Plymouth Boys’ High, he is the son of Raewyn and Neil Wolfe. His father is a former district councillor and Taranaki rugby identity, his mother an accomplished gardener; his siblings Katie, Sally and Todd are – respectively – an actress, artist and physiotherapist.

He jokes that he wanted to carve a niche for himself in those early days, although this might not have been the niche he dreamed of as a lad.

“I never thought I would be down the bottom of the Boys’ High hill flipping burgers.”

He was working in Auckland in the mid-2000s as an account manager, having completed his BComm at Otago University. That followed stints overseas as a backpacker.

As an account manager he was the go-to guy, the link between client and designers. The campaigns he worked on included the rebranding of Kiwibank, of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, DB, Waste Management and the New Zealand Rugby Football Union.

“That entailed quite long hours and usually late nights . . . our company would shout us dinner.”

Based in Parnell, they alternated between BurgerFuel and Indian takeout.

It was a pressured, interesting time in his life but he hankered for home. “I didn’t know what I would do but I just wanted to come back.”

Around the same time he met future wife-to-be Lucie. The couple returned to New Plymouth, he did some marketing work, but says in the back of his mind was BurgerFuel.

There was no outlet here, he’d liked the food from his time in Auckland, admired the strong brand and saw a potential partnership.

He’d already been in contact with the boss in Auckland at least six months earlier to enquire about a franchise. In 2005 he called back and said he’d found a site. “Righto”, said the boss, “we’ll send someone down”.

“The next day this guy turns up, checks out the site, says, ‘yes we like it’ but there’s a problem, we’re not sure about you.”

Two other locals had already put up their hands, Brooke Wolfe says. It was off to Auckland for interviews and psychometric testing “to check out that I wasn’t an axe murderer”. He got the nod and was back in Auckland, learning from the bottom up about food, systems, accounts and managing staff.

After the crazy opening of the New Plymouth store in January 2006, things settled down. Wolfe got over his initial exhaustion and says it was a matter of building the store’s customer base and reputation.

“We opened the year the global credit crunch started. We’ve been trading for nearly eights years in a world economy full of doom and gloom. New Plymouth was insulated for three or four years, then our economy caught up.” Still, things kept ticking along.

He has a staff of 12, four of them fulltimers, and remains manager as well as the franchisee. All his accounts – everything from payroll to GST returns – is done in his home office at the back of his garage. For the first time this year he’s thinking about employing a store manager but doubts he’ll step away. “I’ll still come in and jump on the grill.”

He’s still in the burger-making game eight years on because he’s passionate about the food and likes yarning to customers.

Locals and peers obviously rate the formula. The region’s annual hospitality Halamoana awards were held last weekend and BurgerFuel took out best takeout title. It’s dominated the category ever since it opened, which is also how long the awards have been running.

Says Wolfe, who’s involved with the organising committee: “It’s always nice to be acknowledged for hard work, especially by your peers in the local hospitality scene. It’s been a busy year for us with the refurbishment of the front of house and a new point of sale system, which my staff have embraced.”

Nonetheless running the burger joint is a commitment. He and Lucie now have two children, one school-aged, one preschooler, and for much of their lives Dad has been absent between 5pm to 7pm.

“I have a very understanding wife; she knows about the bigger picture. I get to spend a lot of time with my kids during the day when I’m not working, it’s just that I’m not there between 5 to 7pm – those two ‘witching’ hours when I’m most needed.”

Sometimes he’s on call because he doesn’t live far from Eliot St, but putting in an appearance is important.

He enjoys customer interaction, gets a buzz from making people smile, especially those who arrive with gloom painted on their face. “If you’re not happy you shouldn’t be in this business.”

Other challenges come in the form of managing staff. Many of his are generation-Yers, intent on challenging the system. “Sometimes they need a lot more convincing that this is why we do things this way. Once they get that, they’re good workers.

“It keeps me young-ish. I have gone a bit greyer.”

Following a new uniform launch this year staff are dressed by hip labels Huffer, Illicit and Puma. “So you have this nearly-40-year-old trying to rock around in these new threads. I think I keep up.”

The BurgerFuel brand is an edgy, sometimes- in-your face one: Marketing slogans are regularly updated and include lines like “Death before Bad Burgers”. Its social media presence is strong. The chief executive is the founder of Red Bull Australasia Josef Roberts.

The first store opened in 1995; now it has stores in Australia and 18 in the Middle East. For the first time the South Island will get a BurgerFuel, with a restaurant due to open in Christchurch.

In the financial year ended March 31 the group posted a net profit of more than $1 million, up 55 per cent on the previous year.

This eye-catching brand must have appealed to the marketing-savvy Wolfe?

“In the past eight years the brand has grown and that brings strong brand awareness.”

He thinks one of his strongest marketing tools is his blue jeep, emblazoned with BurgerFuel’s logo and colours.

He frequently drives around town, doing the school run with the kids or heading to and from work. Often people wave to him, and then he’ll see them in the restaurant later that day.

But there’s substance behind the gloss. Wolfe says the burgers are like the old-fashioned fare that older New Plymouth folk remember from late-night caravans such as the White Lady. The menu has varied little over the years.

Meat is cooked on a chargrill so any fat drips away, salads are made daily, the chicken is cut fresh and sauce recipes are jealously guarded.

They’re generous burgers, says Wolfe, as he builds one in his kitchen. No skimping on ingredients; strong taste and good nutrition are emphasised. “The whole package is the flavour.”

Pricing is higher than other products but he argues that his burgers are a meal in themselves. You don’t need to add other stuff – chips and oversized drinks – to feel satisfied.

He cooks quickly and expertly, slapping a patty on the grill, lifting it off, adding cheese and bacon, before carefully adding salad with a balanced touch. Topping it off is a decent squeeze of pre- prepared guacamole.

Making a burger isn’t rocket science and there are few secrets to making a good homemade version, he says.

“People making them at home do tend to go over the top – put too much on so that it falls apart.”

His advice? Make a patty with some herbs and spices, add salad, a slice of cheese, some nice relish and slap on a roof of grilled or toasted bun.

Wolfe says the last almost eight years have been a “rollercoaster, a journey”, but he remains energetic and committed. He’s carved his niche.

“Generally Todd or I get asked. ‘Which one are you? The physio or the burger boy?”‘ He’s the burger boy and proud of it.

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz

HT Editor

Reports Find Music Is Growth Driver For UK’s Hospitality And Tourism Industries

The Wish You Were Here report by VisitBritain and UK Music has found that 6.5 million music-loving tourists attended a festival or gig last year, generating spend of £2.2 billion in the process. While the majority of money spent by music tourists (£1.3bn), who make up 41 per cent of the average live music audience, goes on tickets, transport and accommodation, additional spending along the way generates an extra £914m for the economy. Music tourists from overseas also spend higher than the average tourist spend of £600, with those attending music festivals spending an average of £910 while those attending concerts spend £602. StrategyIn addition to calling for an overarching strategy to encourage more music fans from overseas, VisitBritain and UK Music believe that many towns and cities could take advantage of interest in music by promoting their musical heritage within their own marketing campaigns, much like Liverpool does with its connection with The Beatles.  VisitBritain chief executive Sandie Dawe said: “This report confirms that the UK’s music scene has significant international appeal and that music tourists spend lots of money and travel across the whole of Britain. This will act as a catalyst for us all to ramp up our activity and forge better relationships with festival organisers, promoters, venues and producers to raise awareness of our amazing music scene across the world.”

Culture Minister Ed Vaizey said when combined, the music and tourism industries were ‘powerful drivers for growth’“Music is without question an essential element of Britain’s tourism appeal, and it is this ability of the UK’s music industry to attract tourists from near and far to our shores that is celebrated in this report,” he said.Purchasing decisionsWhile music is a powerful draw for tourists, it can also influence purchasing decisions, according to research by music licensing company PPL.A survey of 300 people in Scotland found that 60 per cent would spend more time in restaurants, bars, clubs and shops that played music while all of those who go out more than twice a week said they were prepared to pay more and stay longer at a venue if it played music.&Those surveyed who were under 44 were most likely to be influenced by music with the under 24s influenced most heavily.Laura Ferguson, business relationship executive, PPL said: “Venue owners cannot afford to ignore the fact that the public want to hear music when they are out. “Our research found that music is often a key consideration for Scots when planning a night out, so businesses should be thinking about how to turn the consumers’ love for music into a boost for their bottom line.”

Source: http://www.bighospitality.co.uk

HT Editor

Zimbabwe: Boost for Hospitality Industry

VFM Leonardo Hosts Webinar on Social Media for Hotel Marketers

VFM Leonardo, technology and online media company for the global hospitality industry, announced an agreement with ACTIVE Network, Inc. (NYSE: ACTV), to offer online virtual tours in ACTIVE StarCite™, the industry leading online Strategic Meetings Management (SMM) technology platform. The agreement enables meeting and event planners to better explore hotels and venues by viewing videos and 360-degree tours of Global Distribution Service (GDS)-listed hotels in the StarCite supplier marketplace.

Source: http://www.hotelnewsresource.com

HT Editor

Compass Hospitality Switches to Pegasus Solutions

Bangkok-based Compass Hospitality has switched 28 hotels to Pegasus Solutions for global distribution through the Pegasus Connect+ UI chain code. The chain has properties in key Asian gateway cities, and will leverage traditional and online distribution through Pegasus Connect+ to increase its international presence and bookings.

“We’re experiencing rapid growth that will require consistent international exposure for all of our hotels,” said Mr. Tejinder Sidhu, vice president, sales and marketing for Compass Hospitality. “After carefully reviewing the options in our market, Pegasus was the obvious choice to help us draw travelers from around the world.”

Compass Hospitality is one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing hospitality management companies with a portfolio of 3- to 5-star hotels, resorts, executive serviced apartments and spas in Thailand and Malaysia. The bustling urban properties are situated in prime city center locations with close proximity to leading shopping malls, restaurants, and entertainment outlets. Compass’ resort and boutique properties are renowned for Asian hospitality amidst pristine beaches and lush mountain backdrops.

“Companies like Compass Hospitality that offer such diverse accommodation options and guest experiences benefit greatly from distribution through Pegasus Solutions,” said Rachel Grier, senior vice president of sales, Asia and the Middle East for Pegasus Solutions. “As the largest processor of electronic hotel transactions, Pegasus will affordably connect Compass Hospitality’s properties to the four GDSs and more than 1000 online channels. This sustained and reliable exposure will translate to bookings from leisure and corporate travelers alike across the Compass Hospitality portfolio.”

Source: http://www.traveldailynews.com

HT Editor

Tamkeen Signs Training Deal With Kempinski Hotel

Bahrain’s labour fund Tamkeen has signed a deal with the Kempinski hotel under its Career Progression Programme.

The programme is offered by Tamkeen to enhance the skills of Bahrainis and make them the employees of choice in the private sector.

The agreement will equip Bahraini employees with specialised skills through training to meet the growing demands of the kingdom’s hospitality and tourism sector.

The employees belong to different backgrounds and have job responsibilities, which include concierge, sales and marketing, catering, housekeeping, as well as finance and administration.

Tamkeen’s acting human capital development VP Amal Al Kooheji said: “The hospitality and tourism sector in Bahrain is the fastest growing sector in Bahrain. Therefore it is absolutely critical that sufficient and capable local talent is available to cope with this growth.

“The signing of this agreement with the Kempinski hotel under the Career Progression Programme will not only enhance the productivity and efficiency of the local Kempinski talent, but will also play a role in enhancing the sector as a whole.”

This training is designed based on detailed studies conducted by a dedicated Tamkeen team in cooperation with the beneficiary enterprises to identify skill gaps among their Bahraini employees.

Puneet Singh, general manager, Kempinski Grand & Ixir Hotel in Bahrain, said: “At Kempinski, we are committed to attracting, supporting and developing our Bahraini talent in the workforce. We employ a number of gifted Bahrainis and are keen to help them in their career progression in the hospitality field, be on the operative side or administrative.”

Source: http://www.tradearabia.com

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Thousands Apply For Training Program For Jobs At Marriott Marquis

More than 2,000 people have applied to a job training program that aims to prepare 600 workers for positions at the Washington Marriott Marquis hotel that is to open in the District in 2014.

Goodwill of Greater Washington, which is overseeing the training program, has held 14 events in September and October to help would-be participants fill out applications and to have them take reading and math assessments.

The applicants come from a variety of backgrounds: Some were recently laid off; others are already employed but looking for a second job to help make ends meet. Faith Tennent, a project director with Goodwill, said she has seen homeless people come in to apply, as well as ex-offenders looking for their first job in years.

Many also have already worked in the hospitality industry or have other relevant work experience.

“The candidates we’re getting are fabulous,” Tennent said.

The most recent session, held on Friday at the University of the District of Columbia’s facility on Livingston Road SE was the best-attended event so far.

“The thing about recruitment and marketing, it takes a couple of weeks for word to really penetrate in the community,” said Colleen Palletta, Goodwill’s vice president of workforce development.

Lisa Everett is one District resident who came to the Oct. 18 session at UDC’s Shadd facility.

While she currently has a job working as a guard, “I think Marriott has more [job] security,” Everett said. “I wanted something stable.”

Everett hopes to land a front desk position because she said she likes the idea of being “the smiling face” that greets guests when they arrive.

Brendan Hurley, Goodwill’s chief marketing officer, said that one of the biggest barriers to entry has been that many people are not coming to the events with two valid forms of identification. (The program stipulates that participants must be District residents, so this is an important step in verifying that.)

Tennent said it has also been challenging to drive home the message that people need to apply for training now, because the Marriott Marquis’s scheduled May opening feels far away.

Two application sessions are remaining, with the final one scheduled for Oct. 25. Applicants can also fill out the paperwork online. Goodwill said that it may add additional sessions.

“That’s not necessarily because we’re concerned that we’re not going to hit our goal, but more because we want to make sure we’re effectively touching every ward in the District,” Hurley said.

Goodwill will then conduct in-depth interviews with applicants, the last step before it makes its final selections. Some people will be considered direct referrals, meaning Goodwill believes they don’t need additional training to be a good candidate for a position at the Marriott Marquis. Others will be admitted to a program for partial training, which means they already have some of the skills they need, but must brush up on others. A third group will receive full training for jobs at Marriott.

The program is set to get underway in December. There will be both daytime and evening sessions, and classes will be held at various locations across the city.

To those who are not accepted, Goodwill will provide a list of other organizations in the District that offer training or employment assistance .

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com

HT Editor

Marriott Tries To Find Its Footing Since Taking Over Gaylord National

The Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center could be a town unto itself.

With 2,000 hotel rooms, five restaurants and 89 meeting rooms, the sprawling 41-acre property is a more self-sufficient destination than a run-of-the-mill hotel.

In the five years since it opened, the Gaylord National has found its footing, catapulting National Harbor — a town of 3,800 — into a major conference hub, outranking cities like Minneapolis and Charlotte.

But at the same time, government budget cuts, high attrition rates and slumping demand for group bookings have kept profits at bay. The transition to Marriott management, which began a year ago, has also been bumpy.

Marriott International, the Bethesda-based hotel giant, took over management responsibilities for four Gaylord hotels last October. The $210 million, 35-year deal with the owner of the complexes, Ryman Hospitality Properties, has been a large undertaking for Marriott, which has spent the past year merging its sales team and back-end systems with Gaylord’s and tweaking its strategy along the way.

“The transition has been taking a little bit longer than both Ryman and Marriott had anticipated,” said Michael Stengel, senior vice president of the Gaylord brand for Marriott. “But neither of us could have predicted the kind of things that have happened in the government this year and how that would affect business.”

The Gaylord National has been particularly hard hit by large cancellations.

Revenue per available room, a key measure for hotels, fell 1.74 percent to $140.73 in the first six months of this year, while occupancy rates slipped 5.3 percentage points to 65.8 percent in the same period. A planned water outage in Prince George’s County this summer further exasperated matters when the Gaylord National had to shutter operations for a day and a half, resulting in an estimated $1.5 million in lost revenue.

“We are disappointed with the results at the Gaylord hotels in the second quarter,” Arne Sorenson, president and chief executive of Marriott, said after the company’s recent earnings release.

The original idea behind the Marriott deal had been to help Gaylord lure more tourists to its properties by tapping into a pool of 44 million Marriott Rewards members. Ryman, which is based in Nashville, continues to own all four Gaylord properties.

“Gaylord on its own, it was a small number of hotels that was great at filling their rooms with large groups,” said David Loeb, a hotel analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co. “But they couldn’t fill rooms with leisure guests or weekend guests. That’s where Marriott came in.”

That effort has so far been successful, with individual bookings up 21.9 percent across all four Gaylord hotels in the second quarter.

But group bookings — the Gaylord’s bread-and-butter and the business that brings in the most profit — have been on the decline as widespread government budget cuts batter the hotel industry.

At Gaylord National, government-related cancellations surged in 2013. One of the biggest hits, Ryman executives said, came when a group cancelled 6,000 room nights in one swoop. In the first quarter alone, occupancy rates fell 9.1 percentage points to 55.6 percent — more than half of that because of sequestration-related cancellations.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com

HT Editor

World-class Hotel Opens In Aurora

A world-class hotel that offers as backdrop a fascinating view of the Pacific Ocean has started operations on a three-hectare site at Barangay Subang in this town, a premier surfing destination in Southern Luzon.

Annabella Wisniewski, President of Raintree Company, owner of Costa Pacifica Raintree, said the 76-room hotel offers world-class facilities to weekend surfers, special interest groups, local and foreign tourists.

“This type of hotel is appropriate because Filipinos are known for its hospitality. It’s a terrific industry because Filipinos are naturally hospitable,” she said.

Raintree has been building high-end hotels, restaurants, food courts and food parks in the different parts of the country. The Costa Pacifica was designed by prominent architect Ed Calma.

The resort hotel has well-appointed suites, and its facilities include the Beach House, the Cafe Rosa, the Dill Square herb garden, an outdoor pool and children’s activity room. It has 200-capacity Pavilion, which serves as venue for meetings, conferences, parties and weddings.

Wisneiewski said her company decided to build a world-class hotel in Baler to cas in on the booming tourism industry in Aurora, which is a few hours drive from Manila and the only beach area surrounded by land-locked provinces of Nueva Ecija and Nueva Vizcaya.

“Besides, we want to showcase the beauty of Baler as a premier tourist destination and tourism can generate a lot of revenues,” she said.

Michael Palispis, provincial tourism officer, said more than 200,000 tourists visited the province last year, a big jump form the 8,744 tourist arrivals recorded in 2005.

Rep. Bellaflor Angara-Castillo, a former governor of Aurora, said the province offers tourists pristine, white-sand beaches, waterfalls, virgin forests and various historical and cultural sites.

It is also considered a haven for eco-tourism adventures because of the different rock formations, hiking trails, and secluded coves, Angara-Castillo said.

Source: http://manilastandardtoday.com

HT Editor