Mövenpick Hotel Saigon ready to set new standards (Vietnam)
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Mövenpick Hotel Saigon ready to set new standards (Vietnam)
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Category: Asia Pacific - Vietnam - Industry economy
vRenovation / Addition
This is a press release selected by our editorial committee and published online for free on 2010-07-09
Massive effort will transform property, physically and otherwise
Progress continues apace on the $15 million renovation of the Mövenpick Hotel Saigon and it is due to open as planned on August 1st. When it does, it will be a “new” facility in all but the strictest sense.
“The overarching goal is to create a new benchmark in hospitality in Vietnam,” said Knuth Kiefer, general manager of Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts, Vietnam. “Yes, the difference in the hotel’s appearance will be striking, but the transformation goes way beyond esthetics. Our enhanced devotion to service will be just as dramatic”.
Completely closed since March 8th, the Mövenpick continues to use the time to add key personnel and for extensive staff education, with core training in hospitality essentials.
“We don’t just want to rely on our great new guest rooms and facilities, the real difference is in providing unrivaled, personalized service that will set us apart from others”, Kiefer said. “We have been very careful and selective in our hiring of new employees to complete the current team. The right attitude and personality towards customer service was the single most important, really the only real qualification we were looking for.”
“I’m happy with our progress in attracting a great team and training them accordingly. The closure of the hotel was pivotal in the process, which will of course continue after we open on August 1st.”
“We have been very successful with this approach already in our sister property the Mövenpick Hotel Hanoi, which opened approximately 18 months ago. The hotel has been very well received in the market and we are aiming to mirror this success in Saigon in order to have two equally well established hotels in Vietnam”.
Alterations to the hotel’s physical facilities include:
Guestrooms: The 278 guestrooms will be the antithesis of the stereotypical urban hotel room: spacious, light-filled, efficient, and more comfortably chic than stately. A room that combines modern features and technical conveniences with ultimate comfort.
Restaurants: All of the hotel’s five restaurants will get new menus, as well as new interiors. Some, like IKI, the Japanese restaurant that will open as a vibrant, affordable, and trendy eatery, will be unlike anything else in for Ho Chi Minh City.
Similarly popular and innovative will be The Lotus Court, the Chinese restaurant. With a new menu and creative new chef, it will feature immense variety in offerings from China’s regional cuisines.
In addition, the hotel will have a brand new rear entrance framed by a massive Cay Da Tree (Banyan tree) that also gave name to the new Cay Da Café, the hotel’s brand new bakery and Deli Shop.
Kiefer is especially proud of the new bar on the 3rd floor that flanks the hotel’s swimming pool and spa.
“The place is called: ‘Slate- The Bar’ and will be our new approach to the common hotel bar concept seen in most other places. Not only will it be a semi open-air facility, it will combine the stylish atmosphere of a Martini Bar, but with the more casual flavours of charcoal grilled steaks and imaginative burgers. A place that simply combines all the favourites in a relaxed, yet chic ambience.”
“The process of evaluating what we need to do in rebranding our Saigon hotel has been a revelation,” says Kiefer. “And we realized that to achieve our goal – individual service of an order unprecedented even in the five-star stratum of Vietnamese hotels and resorts – requires much more than just a physical makeover. The renovation has provided a vehicle for this metamorphosis that otherwise wouldn’t have existed.”
Once renovations are completed, Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts will operate two equally trendy and upscale hotels in Vietnam that will surely be appreciated by business and leisure travelers alike.
“The scale of both hotels is crucial to the service concept we’re able to incorporate,” he said. “Everything else in the new hotel flows from listening to what our guests have been telling us.”
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