TravelDailyNews: What is your policy to strengthen your company worldwide?

Alan D Featherby: Our policy to strengthen our company is to build an enviable reputation for delivering strong returns in the hotels that we operate. Therefore our development activities are built around owner satisfaction. With every hotel we operate we take the time to understand owners needs...such as...why did they build or purchase this hotel?...was it for returns?...short or long term?...was it a trophy asset?...or does it have connection with other owner assets/activities? Once we have this information we then tailor our management plans to meeting these objectives. If we feel at any time that we cannot meet an owners objectives we will tell them so and if necessary reject the opportunity.

We also have a strong transparency approach to business with hotel owners so at any point of time they never feel “left out” on the information flow and understanding the hotel business.

With eleven hotels we are able to focus on owner relationships. Building this relationship is a key platform for our group. We always place this ahead of the piece of paper upon which management contracts are recorded.

We are firmly committed to becoming a major regional hotel operator throughout Asia and Australasia. We have our eyes firmly set on another twenty hotels entering our chain in the next 5 years.

TDN: What are the main obstacles – benefits in expanding your brand?

A.D.F: The main obstacles potentially for us are our own performance. As mentioned above we place importance on delivering results to owners. To date we have been very successful in doing this. So if we continue to deliver we should not have any major obstacles.
The benefits in expanding our chain further are the increasing potency of marketing programs that are built around our hotel base such as loyalty programs, club programs and data base marketing. Also brand awareness is driven by presence of hotels in destinations. So that for the Rendezvous brand for example to be prominent in Bangkok we would need to have a hotel presence in that market with strong visible signage.

TDN: Which destinations have more dynamic potentials?

A.D.F: For hotels...we believe the whole region does. Of course some areas are at different stages of the hotel cycle although most are in a growth in demand cycle. We are particularly interested in further expansion in China. Also Cities such as Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Sydney, Auckland, Ho Chi Min, Hanoi and Hong Kong

TDN: How did your company expand the previous decade and where are you going to invest in the next decade?

A.D.F: Our group is only eight years old. In that time we have taking on the management of eleven hotels. We will invest only in those areas which are strategically important to us. In others we will seek management opportunities. Our previous expansion was built on performance in existing hotels, a transparent approach to management and involvement by the senior executives with owning companies.