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| Tuesday, 13 May 2003 |
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Over Rs. 25,000 service charge for Pegasus Hotel staff By Shirajiv Sirimane Sri Lanka's first five star hotel Pegasus Reef Wattala has paid over Rs. 25,000 each for its employees as service charge during the last three months. The hotel which commenced operations in 1971 with over 100 rooms and four air conditioned suites has now focused its attention on the Sri Lanka clientele. According to Rukshan Fernando, Consultant of the hotel it was mainly the local market which enabled them to gain more profits during the last three months. He said that each of the 54 staff members were richly awarded with over Rs. 25,000 each and during April the staff also received another attractive service charge package. "We have not completed finalising the accounts for last month as yet." He said that it was the Pegasus Management which introduced the concept of service charge to the Sri Lanka Tourist industry nearly three decades ago and the management had been always richly rewarding their staff with the service charge. Fernando said that while almost all the other Star class hotels in the country paid their service charge from the profits generated mainly from tourists, Pegasus achieved this by catering to 80% or more to the local market. "This is something unique and I think it the location of the hotel, personalised service and our attractive weekend package for locals which has contributed to this." He said that Pegasus is also patronised for business meetings and there is a steady clientele for the hotel from the Katunayake Investment Promotion Zone. Fernando said that the management has signed a contract with the popular band Wildfire to play every Saturday night of each month and this too is attracting many locals. He said that the Hotel recently upgraded 50 rooms at a cost of Rs. 25 million. "This was done to meet the additional demand of local and foreign clients." He said that the refurbishment drive included TV, air conditioning, consoles for temperature controls and room decor. The hotel was initially built to attract the Colombo airport traffic and many of the airline crews such as British Airways stayed in the hotel. It was one-time managed by LTU, Carson's, and for a brief period by John Keells management. Today the hotel is once again managed by the Carson's Group which owns the property. |
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