Santani on profitable footing
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View of the Santani
Santani, a fully-fledged wellness resort in Sri Lanka located in the village of Werapitiya in the foothills of Knuckles Mountains, just 12 km off Teldeniya on the main Kandy – Mahiyangana road, has cashed in on profits in its first year of operations.
Santani has 20 rooms, a healthy fine dining restaurant, a destination spa in Sri Lanka and a special and unique focus on wellbeing and preventative healthcare, a media release issued by the resort stated.
Selected by both CondeNast Traveler and Travel + Leisure as one of the best new hotels of the world in 2017, the resort considers it a great accolade that they won. Also Santani went far beyond being selected as one of the best new hotels by being selected as one of The Best Spas/Spa Hotels of the world by Tatler (only eight hotels were chosen from the world) at the Tatler spa awards, which is the highest authority when it comes to spa and wellness travel, the release said.
Forbes magazine then selected Santani as one of the most unique hotels among only 25 properties chosen from around the world.
In addition to the above, Santani recently won the Geoffrey Bawa award for architectural excellence making it the only hotel to win the prestigious main award in the history of Bawa awards.
“I think the key to our success is that we did everything differently. It was not just doing things differently for the sake of being different but a well thought out strategic differentiation that we haven’t seen in Sri Lanka before,” the resort’s founder Vickum Nawagamuwage said.
“After the end of the war it was quite evident the local industry had not really thought about competition and they were still working on a 1970s mindset as a primarily beach destination and Thailand was just on par with Sri Lanka and no Maldives, Bali, Langkawi, etc. We cater to discerning guests who have already experienced material indulgences and are now seeking a higher level of luxury that is also high in social, environmental, and community impact,” he added.
In terms of the financial performance Santani has been making profits in its first year itself. Typically, it takes about three years for hotels to make profits given the sales cycles and as we all know, most of the recent Sri Lankan properties are not making profits even after six to eight years.
The resort has achieved over 40 per cent occupancy in the first year, operating profits or positive EBIT around 36 per cent of occupancy and net profits at around 38 per cent of occupancy.
Santani was constructed at about 45 per cent of the cost of a typical hotel that charges around US$500 a night thus giving superior investment returns. “It is really important any developer focuses on this ratio and let that drive everything they do,” Mr. Nawagamuwage said.