Classic hotel brand on its way back to Australia………….?

When Christina Chau of Parkroyal Hotels visited Sydney recently she told The Mole that Parkroyal is part of Southern Pacific Hotel Corporation which used to be in a JV with SPHC, then mergers and acquisitions happened, along came IHG which acquired the SPHC and the JV, but she said they did not go into bed with IGH and today they remain business partners, but for operations only at the Crowne Plaza Darling Harbour, the Crown Plaza Parramatta and a Perth hotel which is managed by Sheraton

I have kind of forgotten about Parkroyal and Christina said that the Parkroyal brand came back to them in 2002 and that they can use the name in Australia after 2010.

She added that Parkroyal owns thirteen hotels in the region, five they manage themselves and the rest managed by Accord IHG and Sheraton.

Christina said that the company is actively looking for hotel management contracts and acquisition and if it fits they will acquire and if not they will manage – she added, “China is on our list and so is Thailand”.

“In China we do not have any hotels but we will be there soon in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzaho and of course Hong Kong.”

“We need to pace ourselves in terms of management resources and we are also looking at India.”

“We have also identified Australia as an important source market for our group and we will employing a sales team to be in place by Jan 1 2008 in Sydney.”

“We believe that tourism and hotels are a vibrant business and when we rolled out our branding in October last year we decided that one brand was enough and even though we refurbished and spent fortune on our hotels during SARS, we were committed.”

“We took what we had already in our portfolio and exemplified it, because we had so much and needed to leverage off it offering an integrated lifestyle approach at each hotel, rather than offering travellers a formulae hotel outfit.”

“As a rule 60% of our business is corporate and our hotels are on the small side so we can afford to be personal and that is part of our appeal to corporates and leisure travellers.”

“We do not intend to reinvent Parkroyal because we have over 40 years of history to live up to, with the Parkroyal in Melbourne opening in 1962 and we have a have a reputation we need to keep to.”

“Each hotel has its own personality but we apply quality standards across the group recognising that the essence and culture of the locale has to come through.”

“We do have some big challenges ahead though and in particular the on line world because we have to remain at the leading edge and the challenge we believe is managing the various distribution channels and ensuring parity.”

“We also need to ensure that the different channels are rate positioned correctly and that the rates they have are for specific purposes and I do not see the onset of electronic players meaning the demise of wholesalers, I see it as consolidating and strengthening the travel process.”

“The hospitality world has awakened to the role that the electronic channels play and we are all now in a better position because of that.”

“I do think though that hoteliers are not as technologically advanced as other sectors of tourism and have treated it as just another channel but it is not, it is critical.”

“We are in partnership with a number of wholesalers and we believe in enjoying more than a business relationship and that we should have a great relationship that works.”  “We also believe that good contracts make good partnerships and we stipulate what the rates we give them are for so that there is no confusion!”

“Our owners look at this business as a sunrise business not a sunset business and I believe that the biggest challenge for us moving forward will be human resources as we have the capacity to expand overnight but human resources are holding us back. In the markets we are in, the labour markets are tight.

“My message to the Australia and New Zealand trade is to say thank you for your partnership because we would not be where we are without our partners.”

“The region has gone through a tough ten years and but we are back because you made it happen for us and we want set up shop here to grow our business together – it is always a cycle and we are on the up and up.”

Special report by The Mole