Putting on the Ritz - Ritz-Carleton in Singapore garners award - Brief Article

Business Asia, Sept, 2000 by Cameron Cooper

THE RITZ-CARLTON MILLENIA has notched back-to-back wins in the Best Business Hotels in Asia Awards -- underlining its emerging status as one of the finest hotels in the world.

Business travellers across the region have thrown their support behind the Singapore hotel, voting it the best overall hotel in the Asia-Pacific region and the best hotel in Singapore.

The Millenia, which opened in 1996, also won both titles last year, beating out some of the finest hotels in the world.

This year's awards night -- the third since its inception in 1998 -- was held in Singapore on September 4.

The Millenia's general manager Nicholas Clayton said the new honours "confirm that we are continuing to move in the right direction (and) that the customers are giving us a good sign". He said being recognised among so many great hotels would be a morale boost for staff at the hotel.

More than 80 hotels competed as finalists in this year's awards across 14 country sectors. Winners were also named for the Best New Hotel, won by The Westin in Sydney, Best Hotel Conference Facilities in Asia, won by The Peninsula Bangkok, and Best Airport Hotel in Asia, won by the Pan Pacific Hotel Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Thousands of votes were received for the awards from Business Asia readers and Bloomberg Television viewers.

Clayton attributed this year's success to getting the "fine touches" right, such as great service, providing spectacular views and quality of workmanship.

"Where some hotels might have two out of the three components, I think our physical hotel rooms have three out of three of the most important components for people: size, a great place to get ready and wonderful bedding, and a spectacular view."

He said it was crucial to employ staff who "are genuinely excited to serve".

"We want to facilitate business travel. We don't want to make it a burden," he said.

Clayton said time was critical for guests and "we try never to rob our guests of their precious time".

Choosing staff, he said, was a search for the "rare individual" -- "someone who can meet 200 customers and on the 201st one feel pumped up and feel even more into it than they were the first time". Clayton said business travellers were becoming increasingly demanding, particularly in regard to well-appointed business centres and first-class communication facilities.

"We'll get to the point very soon where that will be the standard price of entry. Your hotel will need to have high-speed internet access, will need to have good telecommunication equipment in general. That will be the expectation of a luxury traveller."

Other significant achievements in this year's awards were The Peninsula Bangkok's dual wins as best Thai hotel and provider of the Best Hotel Conference Facilities in Asia. The latter was a new category this year.

The Ritz-Carlton chain of hotels fared well overall. Apart from the Millenia's wins, the hotel group took out country category wins in China, Malaysia and South Korea.

Asia's rebounding economies have led to an increase in business travel and rising hotel occupancy rates across the region, particularly in traditional business-driven economies such as Singapore and Hong Kong.

Clayton said the recovery started to be felt at Singaporean hotels late last year but was "hesitant" because of Y2K computer bug fears.

Now, however, people are doing an "extraordinary amount of business travel". "The increase in business travel is nothing shy of dramatic, for Singapore, for Hong Kong and other capital cities," he said.

Bloomberg Television continues to be an important backer of the awards. James Ross, Bloomberg Television's media distribution manager (Asia Pacific), believes the awards complement his company's commitment to business in the Asia-Pacific region.

Ross said viewers had been "very involved" in the voting this year.

"It's certainly created a lot of interest in the hotel industry," he said, noting that a lot more of the leading hotels in this year's competition were feeding Bloomberg Television services to their guests. Bloomberg Television now appears in 12 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, with Korea and Thailand having been added in the past year. Ross said expansion plans were held for China and India.

Bloomberg delivers comprehensive business, financial and world news reports 24 hours a day to more than six million homes and many hotels in the region.

THE AWARDS

THE BEST Business Hotels in Asia Awards have been initiated and jointly developed by Business Asia and leading financial news network Bloomberg Television.

Now in their third year, the awards were established to recognise excellence in the hotel industry and encourage better standards in the crucial business travel sector.

The judging panel for the 2000 Awards met in Sydney in February and selected a shortlist of 85 hotels from 14 countries.

The judges were: Ken Cowley, a News Corporation director; Peter Charlton, publisher of Business Asia; Bloomberg Television's James Ross; Robert Stiles, managing director Asia-Pacific of Sonnenblick-Goldman; and Cameron Cooper, editor of Business Asia.