Travel

Hilton bags coveted awards

Hilton Colombo was recently singled out from over 500 hotels across the world to be awarded two of the most prestigious and coveted Hilton Brand Awards, the Asia Pacific Regional Hilton Brand Award Hotel of 2007 and the World-wide Hilton Brand Award Hotel of 2007.

Hilton Colombo was the best hotel in Asia in the Balanced Scorecard category. The Balanced Scorecard measures a hotel's performance in team member satisfaction, team member training, guest service feedback and Hilton International's Hilton Hhonors loyalty members' feedback.

Not only did the Hilton Colombo achieve the most improved guest satisfaction scores for Asia in 2007 but also was the most improved hotel in the Asia Pacific region.

The region covers 51 hotels from Sri Lanka to New Zealand to Japan. The hotel also had the most improved Hilton honors satisfaction scores for the Asia region.

Hilton Hhonors is Hilton International's award winning loyalty scheme and it is very satisfying that the frequent users of Hilton hotels worldwide nominated the Hilton Colombo as the most improved hotel in Asia.

It is also noteworthy that the hotel's combined guest satisfaction and Hilton Hhonors feedback was the highest in Asia Pacific.

Each year, the Hilton Brand recognises its top International hotels and selects outstanding hotels based on their achievement in delivering the Hilton Brand Experience and improving guest satisfaction through the company's four Brand Building Blocks.

The winners and runners up exemplify Hilton's vision for success by providing consistent, personalised, inspired and hassle free guest experience.

Senior Vice President Brand Management, Hilton Hotels and Resorts, Jeff Diskin, in a letter to William Costley, General Manager of the Hilton Colombo, wrote "I am happy to inform you that you and your team at the Hilton Colombo have not only been awarded the Regional Hilton Brand Award for Asia Pacific, but also are the overall winner for the International Estate. General Manager, William Costley, commented: "On behalf of the team, it is truly an honour to accept these accolades.

It is always more satisfying receiving team awards as it recognises the tremendous efforts made by all of us in delivering International Hospitality standards in a very challenging local environment that makes it even more difficult than say hotels in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur or Sydney.

SriLankan Holidays goes plush

SriLankan Holidays has gone platinum to woo discerning travellers to pamper their senses in some of the most luxurious hotel properties across their world.

The Platinum holiday packages, the new premium range of holidays, will partner international five star and other luxury hotel chains in all the popular destinations.

The offers will be coupled with a host of other premium services including flying business class on SriLankan Airlines and exclusive offers for the premium customers of other service providers.

The Platinum range of holidays caters to the increasing demand from more affluent local travellers for exclusive holiday options. SriLankan Holidays' General Manager, Amith Sumanapala said, "Holidays are all about pampering yourself and Platinum packages offers just that without the hassle to out elite clientele including top executives who are willing to pay a premium for a complete product that takes care of all their needs."

"We have already put together a comprehensive list of five star and luxury hotels. We will continue to add other premium service to the range, to give our elite clientele a wider range of options they can choose to add on to their holiday package."

Some of the hotel we have listed for Platinum holiday packages include J W Marriot, Hyatt, Hilton, Shangri La, Raffles and the Taj properties.

"We are also partnering other institutions offering premium service, to offer their clientele, exclusive offers and service," Sumanapala added.

First among the partnerships is a deal with global banking giant HSBC, offering its Gold and Platinum credit card holders and its Premier customers, a 15 percent price reduction on all Platinum holiday packages and the option to earn and redeem rewards points with SriLankan Holidays.

SriLankan Holidays revolutionised Sri Lanka's outbound leisure travel market with its 'all inclusive' pricing strategy, breaking tradition to give travellers the comfort of knowing that what they see quoted is what they finally pay for.

The leisure marketing arm of national carrier SriLankan Airlines also broke new ground in introducing very attractive packages for inbound tourism in partnership with local hotel and tour operators.

New PR Manager

Aitken Spence Hotels has appointed Renusha Gomis as its new Public Relations and Promotions Manager. Renusha will be responsible for the leading resort operator's public relations matters and promotions activities as well as managing the Diamond Club, the company's newly launched loyalty programme.

Renusha served as the Manager, Visiting Journalists Programme for Batey Public Relations and Marketing - a subsidiary of Singapore based Batey Advertising; a member of the WPP Group of Companies. WPP is the world's largest communications services group and is listed on the NASDAQ and in London.

Previously Gomis worked at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina, a 1044-room convention hotel which houses 90,000 square feet of meeting space. In her 4-year tenure at the hotel she worked in various capacities, lastly holding the post of Sales and Marketing Manager.

Renusha holds a bachelors degree in Business, majoring in Tourism and Hospitality from La Trobe University, Melbourne.