By Savithri Rodrigo
With extended curfew in force, Karen Whyte was disappointed when she couldn’t visit her favourite hotel anymore but her craving for Chinese food was soon satisfied with just four clicks on her smartphone. Associate Director NEXT Outsourcing Wilhelm Elias was so enamoured with “The best biryani in town!” that he introduced it to his neighbours who are all now firm biryani aficionados. When three tiered platters arrived at her home with all the elegance of high tea, Thanuja Madawala couldn’t believe her eyes. “The freshness, flavour and attention to detail was unbelievable.”
As spending time with family in these times became the new norm, CEO of Stretchline Timothy Speldewinde and Head of Premium Category and Channels of Lion Brewery Jeremy David both realized that five star cuisine at home was a welcome option. “It introduced a whole new dimension of eating at home enjoying five star flavours,” they said.
Laundry too had five star treatment. “My laundry was picked up and dropped off on time, clean fresh and precisely pressed,” said Mimi Weerasinghe.
This was all thanks to the Kingsbury Indulgence app which the Kingsbury launched just days into the curfew as the country shut down. A first for the hospitality industry in Sri Lanka, the trailblazing app was an astute response by the hotel which got into business as usual mode to meet the challenges of bleak times head on.
The Kingsbury Indulgence app offers an expansive spread of over 200 menu items from its restaurant menu, snacks and mocktails, options for Grab & Go or doorstep delivery, party packages, high teas delivered and set up in homes and even pick-up and delivery of laundry.
There was value addition to the process –the addition of biryani during Ramadan to the app’s offerings for example, adding immunity boosters into the product range, ensuring that one customer’s garlic allergy was taken note of and constant follow up to ensure absolute customer satisfaction. Despite going digital, that continuous human intervention, “is what keeps The Kingsbury way ahead of its game,” stated a customer.
In just 28 days, the Kingsbury Indulgence app had over 21,000 visitors, 32% returning customers, while delivering over 3,200 orders of nearly 13,000 items. It continues to carve a niche with more users joining the legion of happy customers.
I still remember the day of August 1947 floods, as it was the last school day at Kingswood College Kandy and the height the water soured. Water rose to the height of the Cross of the Chrurch at Getambe and the water was so high that it engulfed the Getambe Rajaponawarma Temple leaving only a few leaves of the Bo-tree visible.
The Colombo Additional Magistrate has ordered the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to investigate and submit a report over a complaint about the alleged illegal assets gained by model Piumi Hansamali.
Heritage properties are major tourist attractions world over. Sri Lanka is no exception in this matter. From Colombo, Galle, most of the mountain cities including Nuwara Eliya, Bandarawela, Hatton and Kandy and in the North, hundreds of heritage properties are spread across.
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