GOH to undergo major facelift

Indunil HEWAGE

Grand Oriental Hotel, one of the oldest hotels in Colombo adjoining the Colombo Harbour is expected to see a major facelift with strategic investments to be made in the coming months.

Speaking to Daily News Business, Grand Oriental Hotel Chairman Diyanath Rohan Jayasinghe said discussions are under way to add another 100 rooms to the hotel before the end of 2013. It is too early to quantify the total investment of the project or the main investor parties involved in the project since project suggestions are still under review.

According to Jayasinghe, the Bank of Ceylon would probably have a major share of investment for the proposed hotel development project as BOC owns 90% stake of Grand Oriental hotel.

The hotel has been neglected for a long period of time and what we want is to regain our past glory with making the hotel as a star class hotel in Sri Lanka. The hotel has also seen a significant growth rate in terms of occupancy level and revenues.

At present, the Grand Oriental Hotel boasts of 100 rooms, of which 76 are operational and 25 being upgraded.

Sources said that the investment is assumed to be over Rs one billion.

One of the leading hotel chains in Singapore, Raffles has also held discussions with the senior management of the GOH on the improvement of the hotel.