Hayleys Leisure expands room capacity
Hayleys Leisure is planning on a number of key investments and a prospective expansion of the existing Kingsbury Hotel added to opening its first overseas hotel in the Maldives in 2018, a senior official at the company said on Monday. The Kingsbury hotel as well would be eyeing further expansion of its current 229 room by an additional 160 rooms, Hayleys Leisure Managing Director Lalin Samarawickrama said in an interview with the Business Times.
Lalin Samarawickrama
“We have an intention of developing this property,” he said with more rooms within the next year and a half. The hotel, he asserted was recognised better after refurbishment costing Rs.2.6 billion and has flown in international chefs to serve guests in addition to fusion cooking to suit the local palette.
The hotel was capable of eating into its Rs.500 million losses and converting to a profitable Rs.32 million in the first year and a further Rs.300 million in the second year, the MD explained. As a result the hotel has bagged awards from the Luxury Travel Guide UK as The Hotel of the Year 2015 and the Restaurant of the Year 2015 for the Harbour Court International Cuisine Restaurant. These were awarded on the basis of innovation, entrepreneurial success, service excellence, use of technology, sustainable development, marketing and branding and employee satisfaction. In addition, the leisure arm of Hayleys would be making an investment into managing the Plantinum apartments property at Kolllupitiya near Durdans Hospital comprising 66 apartments with 140 room out of which 40 apartments would be managed by Kingsbury and the rest sold outright to owners.
Explaining the method of running the property, Mr. Samarawickrama pointed out that they would provide a guaranteed return to the owners as Kingsbury would assist in renting it out if necessary as well. In this regard an investment of Rs.2.5 billion has been made in the 66 apartments since currently there was a growing demand for this type of accommodation in the city by locals and tourists from the Middle East, India and Europe. The property is scheduled to be fully operational by October 15.
The Maldives 5-star hotel at an investment of US$65 million has a capacity of 150 rooms comprising 75 water villas and 75 beach villas and would be accessible within 30 minutes from the international airport, Mr. Samarawickrama said. He noted that construction on the 18 hectare land would commence in January with its opening scheduled for 2018.
The reason for entering this island nation was because the hotel would attract the high end market and ensure the Return on Investments (RoI) was much faster and since Hayleys Leisure could then use this to market its other properties in Sri Lanka as well, it was pointed out.
Hayleys Leisure is also looking at topping its profits into the Rs.1 billion range and with its current room capacity of 700 set to increase to 1000, Mr. Samarawickrama said. He noted that the Hayelys Leisure currently contributes Rs.570 million to the sector and believes this could be further increased to approximately Rs.750 million this year.
As part of its development plans the sector would be investing in six plantation bungalows with the first being Langdale in Nuwara Eliya for which the company had invested Rs.100 million and was now looking at the next property Oliphant Plantations. Langdale with about n30 rooms had brought in a turnover of approximately Rs.70 million and profit of Rs.30 million, Mr. Samarawickrama said.
He explained these would be clustered and given the kind of experience that would tap into the high end market from the UK, Europe and the Middle Eastern.Moreover, another 5-star property is expected to be developed in Nuwara Eliya for which the company would invest Rs.2.5 billion commencing work early next year.
The MD said the property would be part of the company’s accelerated programme as this was eyed previously and would now be worked on scheduled for completion within 18-24 months.