Page 29 - ELITE PLUS MAGAZINE Vol 3

‘Our core markets include leisure, corporate and MICE business’coming, I imagine that the river will become alive again.What are your marketing strategies in terms of F&B?We have three F&B outlets: the River Barge where we do breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets; Silver Waves on the 36th floor serving traditional Cantonese-style food; and poolside restaurants serving casual lunch in the afternoon. We look at our guests’ needs and develop products and services according to them. It’s something I have learned over the years about a specific style of management where if you look at your competition, you become more of a follower, because you’re actually following what others are doing. I believe in starting off with a blank piece of paper, and we develop it ourselves and most of the time we end up being the leader. A couple of years ago we introduced this “wow buffet” at our riverside café where each night we’d bring out a specialty item. We were the only buffet in Bangkok where one could do a complete taste test of all the various grades – top to bottom – of Wagyu beef on a particular night. Some nights we would have foie gras while on some nights we had live prawns from all corners of the earth where guests could do taste tests. No one else did that at the time, and now everybody is doing it. We always create new things to stay ahead.How eco-friendly is Chatrium Hotel Riverside Bangkok?We are extremely green! We have everything from internal, mechanical angles like a heat exchange pump which draws heat from some of the pump systems to power other areas. We have significantly reduced our electrical consumption. Over the years we converted all of our lighting to LED. We also have a big campaignmost hotels that put you in two rooms with an adjoining door.Who are mostly your guests?Our core markets include leisure, corporate and MICE business. When we first developed the property we relied on third parties such as the wholesale markets and online selling channels to create awareness along with other communications and marketing exercises that we did, including online. People are aware of us now, and we’re looking to convert those people into loyal guests. We are making sure that we meet all the guests’ expectations, tirelessly making sure that their experiences are strong enough that they would become repeat guests. A couple of years ago we had no loyalty.Do you have a lot of repeat guests now?Today I’m proud to say that over 25% of our business is repeat business. It’s the old-fashioned word of mouth, and of course customers’ reviews online, especially on sites likeTripAdvisor and Pantip. If you are doing the right thing and you are engaging with your guests like we are doing, you should have all positive comments, which is why we are currently at number 13 on Trip Advisor’s list, out of 755 hotels in Thailand. Attention to detail is what it’s all about.There have been quite a few new developments along the river. How will that affect you?We see that as a huge positive. Perhaps in the ’70s and ’80s the Chao Phraya River was the destination, but over the years with the development of Sukhumvit the interests have moved away from this area. In recent years, however, people have seen the value of the river hence the reason for all these wonderful developments. We were fortunate that Asiatique opened just a few minutes’ walk down the road from us. There will be a couple more hotels and offices being developed and further down the river you’ll have Icon Siam, which is a huge upscale shopping mall. With all these activitiesElite+ 27