The Berkeley Hotel Pratunam is a huge property. Their halls are massive. Rooms are equally spacious, more so when considering their price points. Their standard room starts from 35 square meters. The hotel is a 5-star one and they have a 4.3 ranking on Google – from over 5,400 reviews! And on Agoda… wait for it… 48,827 reviews! This yields them an overall 8.2/10. Now, those are great numbers, plaudits to their positioning and the teams running the show.
Like all other hotels, the pandemic has put a halt to these numbers and to all scheduled promotions. Revenue came to a complete stop. For the team managing Berkeley, refocusing on their forte is pivotal. After all, the hotel is in the top three ranking for Bangkok hotels with the largest meeting spaces. The biggest hall here accommodates 3,000 people seamlessly. With the easing of restrictions, the revenue team is putting great focus on the local MICE market.
The government departments and agencies meetings will be a key area to restart and get things going after almost 3 months of slumber. Of course, once intra province travel is allowed, this will further stimulate travel for meetings and networking. A corporate reunion of sorts – and Berkeley is readying all teams to embrace this momentum. As like most hotels, the cleaning and preparation for the new normal is ongoing – and Berkeley has received their certifications from the Ministry of Public Health and Amazing Thailand Safety & Health Administration (SHA) on their Cleanliness and Safety Protocols.
The hotel kept everyone on board during this trying period, with no redundancies, stated Ms. Bhakchuda (Sandy) Phonjarit. She leads the Business Development team and revenue is her keyword and her chief responsibility.
With the hotel completely shut, the culinary team put on their chef hats and initiated food sales in front of the hotel. The packet lunch and dinner sold well for workers in the vicinity. Other team members also chipped in and assisted in delivery.
Parking spaces were also ramped up and rented out – a good short term buoyancy and also a fitting long term strategy, in view of the prime downtown location of the hotel. Large weddings from regions afar is also in the books for this hotel.
“Going forward, we hope to welcome our diners back for our seafood buffet, which is a local favourite”, enthused Sandy. Creative PR will be essential, as we all enter this new normal realm.
Sandy is also looking forward to the travel bubbles initiative, and will craft promotional packages in sync. At the end of the day, revenue is key of course, but our people are most important. All our revenue-driven campaigns are crafted with them in mind, she added.