A hotel with history that also manages to stay in touch with current fashions, The Kowloon Hotel continues to offer consistently good service.

With a 25-year history in Hong Kong's hospitality industry, The Kowloon Hotel does not look tired at all. Whether it is its exterior or interior appearance, the hotel still maintains a fresh and stylish look.

To celebrate its 25th anniversary, the hotel has completed a full-scale refinement project which lasted a year with an investment cost of HK$140 million. The renovation covered not only an overhaul of its electrical and mechanical devices, but also an entire redecoration of its hotel lobby, club lounge and all guest rooms, using more glass to add a sense of limpidity and spaciousness to the hotel.

Besides this, the hotel's business center was moved from the third floor to the ground floor, which is much more convenient for guests. The number of guestrooms has been increased to 737, and a brand new Coffee Corner is now located in the lobby, providing freshly brewed coffee and sandwiches.

Situated at the center of Tsim Sha Tsui, a bustling shopping district has existed for more than a century now, the hotel is surrounded by a couple of colossal shopping malls and scores of stores selling branded cosmetics, gold and watches, as well as restaurants and a wide selection of tourist attractions.

There is also a palpable flow of tourists in the district, generating favorable business for the hotel. According to Mr Victor Chan, General Manager of the hotel, the occupancy rate at The Kowloon Hotel remains steady at more than 90 percent. Despite the large number of guestrooms as well as a wealth of other competitive hotels in the area, the supply of accommodation frequently remains tight.

"Maximizing hotel occupancy is important; but the key is to make good control of the prices in peak and slack seasons," said Mr Chan, adding that the hotel has hired a revenue manager to take particular charge of market demand assessments as well as to decide on prices, with the purpose of maximizing yield.

The majority of its customers are free independent travelers (FIT) rather than group travelers, as the supply of FIT suffices to bring in huge revenue as well as extra consumption in the hotel's food and beverage outlets, according to Mr Chan.

While hoteliers at many hotels observe at least 40 percent of their guests hailing from the Chinese mainland, The Kowloon Hotel sees rather balanced guest sources, as the hotel has established a stable and regular customer base over the years. The majority of the hotel guests come from the Chinese mainland, Japan, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand.

The Harbour Plaza Hotels and Resorts, a hotel management group based in Hong Kong and which manages most of its hotels in the territory, has taken over the ownership and management of The Kowloon Hotel since 2005.

The group is a major player in Asia and it manages nine hotels in Hong Kong, one in Chongqing, and a resort in Bahamas.

With a conviction to provide understated luxury and value for money service for its customers, staff training is an ongoing feature - either by the corporate training team or external training companies - to ensure consistent quality of services.

"As Hong Kong's mature hotel industry has reached a high standard, our hotel has a role to play to maintain that standard," said Mr Chan.

Mr Chan, who has been working in the hospitality industry for more than 20 years, was honorably elected as one of the Executive Committee Members of the Hong Kong Hotels Association for a term of two years from 2010 to 2012.

The association found it necessary to educate even more hospitality talents for the city, due to the ever-increasing brain drain recently to Macao and the Chinese mainland, where the hotel business is starting to boom.

Therefore, scholarships are being offered through the funds of the association to support passionate practitioners in the industry to study programs at various hospitality institutes.

China Daily

(HK Edition 02/25/2011 page1)