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

Ronald Jegge: With a network of more than 500 hotels in 265 destinations we have a global presence on all continents. We are looking at filling the missing patches in our portfolio which are India, Russia and some parts of Africa as well as South America where we would like to have a stronger coverage. Our policy is based on customer satisfaction. Our customers are the hotels on one side who are constantly looking at receiving more business and revenue from more distribution channels and Sales and marketing initiatives and on the other side our customers - the growing number of travellers who are looking for independent hotels offering a unique and different travel experience.

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

R.J.: One obstacle has been our name carried for 34 years – SRS Hotels (Steigenberger Reservation Service) which was not reflective of what we are – namely a global brand, a chain of independent hotels versus a reservation service. We have cleared this obstacle last year with the creation and launching of our new brand WORLDHOTELS, which mirrors who we are and what we do and is easily recognizable both for travel trade and also for end-consumers.

TDN: Which destinations have more dynamic potentials?

R.J.: Those destinations offering a mix of business and leisure in an environment of openness, peace and security and with a great return of value for money. Singapore in Asia would be such a destination, Dubai in the Middle East, Prague or Budapest in Europe, Toronto or Montreal in the American continent.

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

R.J.: Our expansion has been two-folds we have piled up our resources both in hiring more of the right people and in investing into technologies and this will be continued in the future. Two latest examples, we have last year opened an office in Shanghai and we have launched our first multi-lingual website with a Japanese language www.worldhotels.com

TDN: How did the terrorist attacks impact your company and in what level?

R.J.: 9/11 brought a lot of hardship for our American hotels and especially for our NYC member hotels. It is amazing though to see how fast the recovery and the rebound took place. Initiated during a meeting with then mayor Rudy Giuliani – the strong holding together among all the hotels in NYC and not dropping their rates when no demand helped them to save from years of climbing back up their average rate. Now NYC is back on top with highest ARR and occupancies.

TDN: How does the competition with the other hotel chains affect your policy?

R.J.: We are constantly looking at creating new revenue streams for our hotels and enhancing the value of the membership. Our latest initiatives have been in the areas of quality performance review and training of hotel staff with a range of new study programmes launched in 2006.