KUWAIT: The Regency Hotel, Kuwait's topmost luxury five-star hotel, is developing fast in tandem with the emerging trends in the hospitality industry and changing customer needs, said Russell Loughland, Director of Sales & Marketing.
In conversation with Kuwait Times during an interview, he said The Regency has recorded significant growth in its revenues this year over the previous year, marking a major milestone in its history.
"In many ways, The Regency Hotel is a unique five-star property. It is identified as the first and only independently-owned Kuwaiti five-star hotel", he remarked.
"We are gifted because we are not part of a chain or brand. We are not restrained by corporate handcuffs. We are masters of our own destiny, on the ground and in the field in Kuwait. We don't have to get approval either from a corporate regional office or from a global head office," said Loughland.
"It means benefit to our customers, because we can react faster. We engage with our customers on a daily basis-upon checking, during their stay and upon departure-whether they are business guests or leisure travelers. The Regency has the benefit of being able to react faster, develop levels of excellence based on customer comments - not the next day or next week, but immediately," he pointed out.
Revitalization
"Last year, we embarked on a complete revitalization of all our standards, not just the standards of service, but the way we interact and engage with our customers. We revisited the existing customers who have been with us for many years. We also introduced new markets and gained significant increases in sales from other GCC states, both corporate and leisure businesses. We embraced families as the cornerstone of our leisure business, catering to them especially during weekends and holidays such as Eid Al-Adha celebrations.
"We looked at new areas of potential development and sub-segmentation such as online and social media networks," he said. According to Loughland, The Regency's contacts of engagement with guests and social media followers skyrocketed over the last eight months.
"We are quite proud of their responses and comments. The contribution made by these individuals, supporters and followers to our ability to develop new concepts has been incredible. We thank them for that as they are very much now an integral part of the development of The Regency as a leading five-star supplier of hospitality," he acknowledged.
"These people, with whom we engage with or talk to daily on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or Foursquare, are actually becoming our hospitality experts. They are like our consultants. At times, they even give us creative ideas, opinions and suggestions and can point very clearly the way forward from the consumer point of view, which is invaluable," he said.
Evolution
Giving an overview of the growth and development of the hotel, Loughland said, The Regency as a property has undergone huge change from the early 1990s. The history and tradition of the hotel is well-known, he said.
"Today, we are happy when we hold marriage ceremonies of a second generation here at the hotel. If the parents were married here in 1980s, now the children are married here in 2010s. This is quite an exciting concept. There is a huge representation and a lot of sentimentality and memories that are attached to the Regency. As a Kuwaiti hotel, it does hold very fond memories of an eventful past, something that we are very proud of and wish to cherish and continue for many years to come as a service-proven hotel," he added.
New programs
The Regency Hotel has introduced many new programs. The hotel has designed a program targeting the business traveler segment offering extraordinary value to stressed executives who travel frequently in an out of airports. The program offers the business traveler a seamless and tireless experience helping him to execute a most effective level of business, he informed.
Similarly, in recognition of the hard work of administrators and secretaries, The Regency has introduced a rewards program.
"Basically, the more people booked in terms of rooms, restaurants, conference room meetings or weekend stays, the host/cashier will receive points value based on the booking as loyalty reward. Redemption is also possible for travel abroad or stay in other hotels as we encourage people to travel more with these rewards and recognize the efforts of the bookers," he added.
The Regency also has a partnership privilege program for large corporate companies, he informed.
"The development of the concept of Regency has extended further. Currently, we are supplying catering to a number of hospitals in Kuwait for their staff and patients. We provide catering for four lounges in the Kuwait International Airport. There are also a number of new projects that are indirectly linked to Regency brand," he added.
The Regency Hotel has recorded a 35 percent higher revenue year-on-year this year over 2012 which is very good, he said. "So the bigger picture is The Regency is changing; it is developing, pretty fast," Loughland said.
Cuisines
The Regency has two restaurants. The Silk Road Restaurant, a large sun terrace restaurant overlooking the gardens and swimming pools, offers sumptuous international buffets - breakfast, lunch and dinner. It also provides a complete ala carte service to the guest," Loughland said.
"On the other hand, Balsamico is much more refined and sophisticated. It is an elegant fine dining Italian restaurant," he said.
Loughland however clarified that Balsamico is not designed to compete with other Italian restaurants in town."It is designed to create a new culinary experience for our guests and offers the real taste of Italy. To do that, we have to have Italian experts. So, we have an Italian Restaurant Manager Gianpiero Ciceri and Italian specialty head chef Carmine De Filippo.
"At Balsamico, we try to make authentic Italian food. For that, we use only Mediterranean ingredients. We import 90 percent of our products," said Head Chef De Filippo, while talking to Kuwait Times.
"This is a very special restaurant and different from other Italian restaurants in Kuwait in terms of food and service," he pointed out.
"For me, the guest is my king. We try to improve upon the suggestions and comments of the guests. Every region has its own taste and culinary diversity. So, I also try to adapt to the local flavor as much as possible without compromising on the authenticity of the Italian food," he mentioned.
Giving a clue to the success of De Filippo as chef, he said, "I attend to minute details, from preparation of the ingredients to cooking. If I'm not happy with the taste and quality, I will repeat the procedure to make the dish 100 percent perfect," he said.
"I know very well that we receive very important people here every day as our guests. So, I want to utilize this opportunity as a chef and prove my mettle," he said.
Talking about the menu, he said it does not represent one region of Italy alone. "It is a mixed bag. If some dishes are from northern Italy, some are from the central and southern parts of Italy. We try to serve a variety of dishes by rotating them frequently.
"Personally speaking, I'm a seafood specialist, coming from Napoli, Milano. But we also serve very good vegetarian and meat dishes here," De Filippo, who worked in the hotel industry for more than 10 years added.
© Kuwait Times 2013
