THE
BANYAN TREE SMOTHERS YOU IN COMFORT
by
What makes the Banyan Tree resorts
unique is that they are their own owner, operator and developer. But when
the Banyan Tree Bangkok opened in 1996, it was the group's first city
hotel and management felt it did not yet have enough experience to run
such a property. So it co-branded the hotel with the Westin Group and
signed a management contract with them to run the hotel for five years.
Then at the beginning of last year, the Banyan Tree assumed managerial
responsibilities of the property.
"All 216 of our rooms are
suites with the smallest starting at 50 square meters," says General
Manager Bernold Schroeder in describing his hotel. "We bring a lot
of resort elements to our city hotels. For example, in the bathroom, nothing's
packed, there are no packed soaps, no packed shampoos, there are ceramic
containers that are refilled on a daily basis. We only have king-size
beds because the Banyan Tree brand is known for having very romantic couple
oriented products.
"During our evening turndown
service we light an aromatherapy burner with essential oils and an incense
stick in all our rooms, as well as in the lobby and the restaurants, so
our guests will always find a pleasurable smell in the hotel." Ellen
Ettersberger probably put it best writing in Under the Banyan Tree,
"Fragrant aromas emanating from candles scented with soothing essential
oils permeate the air." And every day the aroma of the oil burner
and incense sticks is changed. One day the essential oil may be cedarwood,
the next day, citronella. One day, the incense might be rose, the next
day, coconut."
Schroeder continues, "Similar
to a resort, we also have a 'Daily Activity Calendar' where we forecast
the weather and suggest 3-hour activities our guests can do in Bangkok
like visiting the Grand Palace. We also suggest a dining option at one
of our F&B outlets and a recreation option like playing golf or taking
a spa treatment."
Talk about adventure dining:
Vertigo is the city's most exciting dining experience - just pray for
clear skies. Located outside, on the top of the hotel (it used to be a
helipad) and open from 6.30-10.30 p.m. every night it is 'so worth going,'
but you really must reserve because it is booked solid almost every night.
The Champagne Bar overlooks Vertigo and the combination is the highest
al fresco grill and bar in the world. The bar opens earlier and closes
later (5pm-1am) and is just an unbelievable spot to oversee the concrete
chaos that is Bangkok. As it advertises it's "a perfect place for
an intimate evening, festive party or evening with friends." And
you really can't impress a loved one more than by taking them out for
dinner at Vertigo. Sensual, romantic it will probably soon be one of the
most popular spots in town to pop the question.
The hotel has seven other F&
B outlets including Bai Yun, its award winning Chinese restaurant, located
on the 60th floor, and Saffron, its superb Thai restaurant (formerly the
bar Compass Rose) on the 59th. Both eateries also provide exquisite views
of the Bangkok skyline, albeit from indoors.
The hotel actually has two spas;
the general spa located on the 21st floor, which non-hotel guests can
frequent and the Banyan Tree Club Spa, running from the 51st to 54th floor,
which only Banyan Tree Club guests can use. The Banyan Tree is known the
world over for its spa treatment but what makes it so different from its
competitors? "We have 32 spa treatment rooms located on five floors,
and most have breathtaking floor to ceiling views of Bangkok," says
Schroeder. "Everyone says they have a spa these days, but there are
substantial quality differences. I just visited a very nice large hotel
in the Middle East, which claimed to have a spa. But it only had four
treatment rooms, with no daylight, no shower, a single bed, and it was
located in the corner of the corner of the corner of the hotel.
"But every one of our treatments
is staffed by a spa therapist; we don't have clinical spas where someone
puts you in a piece of equipment like a hydrobath for fifty minutes, charges
you sixty dollars and says that was your spa experience. All of our therapists
are trained at the Banyan Tree Spa Academy in Phuket, which is certified
as an official learning institution by the Thai Ministry of Education.
Many spas only hire part-time therapists so you get a different one every
day, ours work here all the time.
"Our spas work like restaurants,
we have corporate spa trainers who work like corporate executive chefs
and continually come up with new spa treatments. We also discourage locker
rooms, so all of our spa treatment rooms have their own shower facilities.
We sell sessions, so you go into a treatment room directly, have your
shower, sit down get a foot bath, have your massage, then you get some
herbal tea and vegetables, have another shower, rest for a while and leave.
You don't feel rushed, and since the treatment room is private you tend
to feel more relaxed. Spas don't have any star classification, so it's
hard to discern one from another; one hotel may offer a Swedish massage
and call itself a spa."
What else sets the Banyan Tree
apart? "Our Chairman, Ho Kwon Ping, or K.P. Ho as he is known, is
the inventor of the Banyan Tree product. He invented the pool villa, our
core product, and now we are the largest operator of private pool villas
in the world where each guest has a villa and their own private swimming
pool. His idea was to not build a hotel with a spa but a hotel around
a spa. So if you visit the Banyan Tree in Phuket you will see the spa
is in the center of the hotel. It dominants your whole experience. He
also came up the idea of making our hotel an all suite hotel."
Schroeder sees the Banyan Tree
as a boutique hotel, which is something new to Asia: a hotel that offers
exceptionally good service couple with beautiful suites, a superb spa
and innovative food and beverage.
It's always the little things
that set the real good hotels apart from their competitors. And the Banyan
Tree takes care of the little things. Example, if you are stressed and
have had a hard day what better way to relax than to read and soak in
a warm bubbly bath while the incense and aromatherapy oils burn slowly
filling the air with fragrant senses.
Or how many times have you stayed
in a nice hotel only to find the Jacuzzi lukewarm and the jets of water
more like trickles? Not so here, the open air Jacuzzi on the 51st floor
percolates with forceful jets of water pumping out you at 40 degrees Celsius.
And how many times have you checked
into and executive suite only to find you can only have breakfast from
7-10am and then an evening cocktail from 5-7pm? Not very convenient, is
it? At the Banyan Tree Club Lounge, you can get a drink and a snack around
the clock, as well being able to browse through a wide range of magazines
and you are even given a complimentary ten-minute neck and shoulder massage
upon check- in.
But the litmus test for any good
hotel is how a guest feels at checkout time. If he or she can't wait to
leave, obviously, there experience hasn't been a pleasurable one, but
if the guest is lingering and trying to come up with a reason for staying
another night, the hotel has done a good job. And that's the way it is
with the Banyan Tree; you will be desperately trying to come up with reasons
to prolong your stay.
K.P. Ho once said, "We want
to elicit an emotional response from our guests by creating a sense of
intimacy that they will always treasure." Well, the Banyan Tree has
succeeded.
So why not spoil yourself and someone you love by taking the Banyan Tree
experience?
GM's BIO
The hotel's GM, Bernold Schroeder,
was born just outside of Dusseldorf, and spent three years in a traditional
hotel apprenticeship program in Baden Baden, Germany, where he learned
all facets of the hotel business. The Far East had always fascinated him,
so in 1987 he took a job with the Holiday Inn in Hong Kong, and quickly
became the hotel's Assistant Food & Beverage Manager. Then, four years
later he moved to New York City to work as the Food and Beverage Manager
at the 1400 room Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City, which at that time
was owned by Donald Trump. He spent four years there but the lure of Asia
was too strong and in 1995 he returned to Singapore to work at the Club
Corporation Asia where he spent two years learning how to run and manage
resorts.
In 1997, he joined the Banyan
Tree as the GM for their resort in the Maldives and as the Area Manager
for the Indian Ocean (the Banyan Tree has two hotels in the Maldives and
one in the Seychelles). Then in 1999 he became Vice-President of Development
for the Group. In July of 2001, he accepted the post as GM of the Banyan
Tree to handle the turnover from the Westin, who had been managing the
hotel.
His desire to be a hotelier stems
from his first trip to the US in 1984 where as a 16-year-old exchange
student he stayed with a host family in Santa Cruz. They took him to many
country resorts, which they did not have in Europe at the time. These
were huge hotels with 27-hole golf courses, numerous tennis courts and
restaurants and big ballrooms. Bernold recalls, "I thought that if
I became a GM it would be like running my own little town, I would meet
interesting people in a nice environment, and the job would be a nice
good mix of administration and hands on people oriented management. So
when I returned to Germany from the USA I told my parents I wanted to
be a hotelier and they thought I was crazy."
Contact Info
Tel: (66) 02-679-1200
Fax: (66) 02-679-1198
Websites: www.banyontree.com;
www.angsana.com
E-mail: info@banyantree.com
FINIS
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