Millenia scores top hotel double - Ritz-Carlton Millenia Singapore Hotel; best hotel award

Business Asia, Oct 31, 1999

The Ritz-Carlton Millenia Singapore secured top honours at the Best Business Hotels in Asia Awards this month -- winning its country category and overall nomination as best hotel.

At a gala dinner in Thailand on October 25, general manager of the Ritz-Carlton Millenia Nicholas Clayton was the big winner on the night.

The awards add to a string of honours the hotel has received in recent years and has given a fillip to the hotel's goal of becoming one of the world's great hotels.

Hotel industry leaders and prominent politicians attended the awards night, including Thailand's Minister for Tourism Pavena Hongsakula, who presented the awards.

The dinner was held at The Oriental, Bangkok, which last year was named Best Business Hotel in the inaugural awards ceremony. The hotel was this year's country category winner for Thailand.

The awards, which started last year, are the brainchild of Business Asia, while this year's major sponsor was Bloomberg Television.

Thousands of Business Asia readers and Bloomberg TV viewers lodged votes to determine the hotel winners.

A new category was added to this year's awards for the best new hotel in the Asia-Pacific region -- a title won by The Peninsula, Thailand.

Clayton, of the Ritz-Carlton Millenia, has said his hotel's mission is to be recognised as being among the world's best hotels -- "to be alongside those top five or six that keep popping out over the years".

He said the awards were validation for the hotel's staff that it was "on the right track" with its customer service.

The win capped a good night for the Ritz-Carlton chain of hotels, which also picked up country wins in Malaysia, Australia and China.

First opened in January 1996, the 32-storey Ritz-Carlton Millenia is set within a seven-acre garden oasis in the middle of the Marina Centre, Singapore's new downtown hub.

The hotel, which has quickly become a landmark for Singaporeans, is within walking distance of the new Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre and the Singapore Arts Centre.

James Ross, Bloomberg Television's media distribution manager (Asia-Pacific), said his company was pleased to be associated with the awards, which were a just reward for industry excellence.

He said the winning hotels were renowned for the quality of their properties and "known as leaders".

Bloomberg Television delivers comprehensive business, financial and world news reports 24 hours a day in a multi-screen format to more than six million homes and numerous hotels in 10 Asia-Pacific countries.

The network provides two services in Asia: a 24-hour Japanese service and an Asia-Pacific English-language service for countries such as Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia.

This year's hotel nominees were judged on criteria such as special business services, business club and lounge facilities, conference and convention facilities, and guest reward and incentive programs.

The awards went on-line for the first time this year, enabling readers and viewers to cast their votes on the Internet.

Despite Asia's economic crisis, the region continues to boast some of the finest hotels in the world. Given the continuing importance of business travel to the region, world-class hotels in the region have maintained elite standards of service.