Intercontinental hotel back after 20 years
View(s):InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), whose owners have changed hands many times since the 1970s, is returning to Sri Lanka and set to manage the 307-keys Pearl Grand Tower Hotel at Bambalapitiya.
Sudeep Jain, IHG’s vice president, development, South-west Asia, said in a media release, that: “This move is in line with our strategy to grow IHG’s footprint across South-West Asia, and expand the presence of the InterContinental brand in key cities and resort destinations in the region.” Slated to open in 2019, InterContinental Colombo will have 47 suites across 42 storeys.
Intercontinental first opened in Colombo at the present Kingsbury hotel in 1973 and Chandra Mohotti, currently Senior Vice President, Galle Face Hotels Management Group, recalls how he was in the first batch of managers who went on to be GMs in other hotels.
The Intercontinental Colombo transferred hands in around 1996.
“I joined as Asst. Front Office Manager and was sent for training to Australia,” he said adding that the late Gamini Fernando (later Hilton Colombo General Manager) and Lal Leanage, among others, were among the first recruits. The Intercontinental was Sri Lanka’s first international brand with Charles Guffroy as the General Manager. Mr. Guffroy was once famous actress Marlene Dietrich’s manager. The hotel chain was then owned as a subsidiary by now defunct Pan Am Airways which opened hotels across Asia (along with Colombo).
Second in command at the Intercontinental Colombo then was Stefan Bokaemper who went on to become President of the Intercontinental New York. “Charles was the first to introduce the service charge concept in Sri Lanka which is widely practiced today and more than the monthly wage.” Mr. Mohotti recalled.