Surfeit of hotels means more challenges, for hoteliers, greater competition … Brandsville General Manager
Calls for training facility for hotel staff
Stabroek News
April 27, 2007
The expansion of the local hotel sector during the period leading to the Super Eight matches in the Cricket World Cup (CWC) 2007 Tournament has created a greatly increased demand for services associated with the successful management of those facilities now that the tournament is at an end, according to a manager of one of Georgetown's recently renovated hotels.
General Manager of Brandsville Apartments Joan Brandsford told Stabroek Business in an invited comment earlier this week that the challenge now facing hotel proprietors and managers was to create the conditions that would help them develop a clientele.
According to Brandsford the increased number of hotels in the city arising out of import duty concessions granted by government prior to CWC now meant that there was "much greater competition" in the industry. "Essentially, we have arrived at a position where standards will make a difference," Brandsford said.
She said that the notion that the establishment of new hotels and the renovation of existing ones prior to the matches had been undertaken specifically for the event did not apply to her facility. "While there was certainly an increase in the number of guests staying at Brandsville during the Circket World Cup period we ensured that we maintained relationships with our traditional guests," Brandsford said. She conceded, however, that with the advent of several new hotels in the city the entire industry had to be aware of the competition and of the need to develop strategies to respond to the new "hotel environment."
According to Brandsford the surfeit of hotels in the city was likely to give rise to an increase in local, regional and international marketing initiatives to attract guests. "From our vantage point we believe that there has been a considerable increase in business traffic both from the region and from outside the region. There is also the market provided by tourist travellers and those are the areas that hoteliers will be targeting with their marketing," she said.
Commenting on the difficulties associated with standards in the hotel sector Brandsford said the problems associated with a scarcity of trained hotel workers and managers were one of the challenges that the industry had to confront and overcome quickly. "In a sense the new environment of competition puts greater pressure on the industry to train staff in order to improve standards.
What is clearly needed at this point is the establishment of a facility that can provide high-quality training for staff in order that we can provide a hotel service that matches the growing expectations of guests," Brandsford said.