Hospitality finds new platform in hotel management companies
Sri Lanka’s hotel industry is expanding to an extent where some operations of a hotel are outsourced to management companies, an increasing new trend.
A number of hotel management companies have taken over operations of at least 5 per cent of properties and hotels in the country amounting to around 100.
A few of these companies like Elevate Hospitality, Hospitality Network, Ceylon Hospitality, Zenith Labs, TTS Hospitality and Off The Grid spoke with The Sunday Times Business on their rise and expansion. They are run by young group of persons that seek recognition from tourism authorities.
Hospitality Network Director Thanuja Weerasinghe said that they had seen a gap in the industry and took over offers to carry out sales and marketing operations in the various hotels.
Through their services hoteliers are able to easily access the network of travel agents and engage with a low cost provider of integrated solutions.
He noted that since SMEs are unable to obtain skilled persons employed at their establishments at high costs these hotel management companies are capable of providing a variety of operations in the general operations of the hotel based on their years of experience in the industry.
Their services will range from ayurveda and wellness to boutique hotel management services in the areas of Sales and Marketing, Business Development, Revenue Management, Marketing Communication, Sustainability roadmap and service design and also create a property concept as well.
“The industry gets richer by what we offer,” Zenith Labs Co-Founder Hansan Zain said adding that if they are able to bring in directly the required revenue management that these new hotels require then helps the tourism industry become more inviting.
Elevate Hospitality Director Yasas Nanayakkara said that they are able to work with both old and new established brands. In fact he pointed out that they were able to work with a year old brand that was not performing to expectations and one of their teams was able to help turn it around.
The knowledge gap required in running these hotels are found in these hotel management companies that already have the capability to run operations as well as train and hire staff.
Moreover, today these companies are looking at exporting their services as well as much as some Indian and UK hotel management companies are able to offer their services to Sri Lankan hotels.
In this regard, Mr. Nanayakkara said with the support of the Export Development Board (EDB) over 10 companies are capable of exporting their services to countries like the Maldives, Vietnam, Thailand and Seychelles.
“Without competing we are capable of collaborating our services and work together as a group,” he said adding that as a group they work with a range of property owners and since there are a diverse set of companies they are capable of catering to different partners as the need arises.
“We are the best for small property owners,” Mr. Zain elaborated adding that criteria changes according to each company. Mr. Nanayakkara said that their long term plan is to become hotel management companies in Sri Lanka providing 360-degree solutions from day-to-day operations, asset management to financial management services.
Some of the key challenges this grouping has is that they lack the opportunity to participate at travel fairs since there is no registration for their type of companies within the industry in Sri Lanka. This makes it difficult for them to work with the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority.
TTS Hospitality Co-Founder and Director Dilshan Sirisena pointed out that Sri Lanka has a big skilled staff shortage and this is met through their services.
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