Aitken Spence plans rebranding hotels
Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings is looking to restructure its hotel brands in a bid to better elevate its properties, officials say. “We now have Heritance, Aitken Spence Hotels and Adaraan. We may go for two or three tiered branding and we are trying to overhaul our brands and make them more uniform,” a top official told the Business Times.
He added that plans are being drawn to construct a 20-room heritage property in the Galle Fort by the company on an 80-perch land which houses the original Shipping Head Office of Aitken Spence which was called Clark Spence Company.
The property will be tentatively called Clan House, he said, adding that since this is located in the UNESCO World Heritage Site at Galle Fort, the developers will have to abide by stringent architectural regulations for buildings within the Fort. The official added that this will be a Rs. 600 million hotel. The company also has medium term plans to develop 100 acres of land in the Eastern coastal area.
“In its South Asian sector Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings which has received regulatory approval to expand buildable area on the Maldivian archipelago is currently on the lookout to explore opportunities to increase its room inventory. We acquired an island recently and a 160 room resort is on the drawing board,” the official added. He said this US$ 50 million project will break ground within the next six months, adding to the increased leasehold property portfolio with four hotels (600 rooms) in this high end tourism destination.
The managed hotel portfolio was expanded in 3QFY15 where the 50- room Japab Akbar Hotel in Oman was added to Aitken Spence’s management. This year, the company began revisiting its strategy of managing properties in India where it scaled down to two properties, although acquiring a 143-room brand new 5-star hotel in Chennai, South India. “We acquired this at an investment of $22 million and we will start operations in May.”