Craig S. Smith, APAC president and managing director, Marriott International (left); Kwek Leng Beng, executive chairman, City Developments Limited
THE handing over of operations of self-managed hotel The South Beach Singapore to international hotel chain Marriott International was finally confirmed yesterday, after months of speculation, at a signing ceremony held at the iconic property designed by Philippe Starck.
This agreement sees Marriott convert the 634-room hotel into the JW Marriott Hotel Singapore South Beach, marking the JW brand’s debut in the citystate.
The hotel remains open during this refurbishment period and a relaunch is slated for November.
Marriott also announced it was bringing the Edition brand to Singapore. It will be an eight-storey, 190-room boutique luxury development located in the Orchard district called The Singapore Edition. A 2019 opening date was given.
When asked what benefit an external operator such as Marriott brings for hotel developers, compared to being self-managed, chairman of City Developments Limited (CDL) Kwek Leng Beng cited the pending merger between Marriott International and Starwood Hotels & Resorts, greater operational transparency and revenue optimisation as factors considered.
Referring to projects between CDL and Marriott in Hong Kong, Kwek said: “We have good experiences with Marriott in Hong Kong. They are very professional. (Plus they) have a good base of over 1.1 million rooms (worldwide) in 5,000 over hotels.”
As for Marriott, its Asia-Pacific president and managing director Craig Smith, said: “When you look at a partnership, you look at what each party can bring to the table and how you differ. We saw (Kwek) as someone who knows the hotel business, been very successful, and he has a very diversified business. He knows the hotel business in many parts of the world, not just in Asia, so we see him as a great partner.
“About what we can do for CDL, Marriott is one of the strongest hotel operators in the world and we have a pending merger with Starwood, which will make us the largest hotel operator in the world. Today we do US$10 billion in direct sales through our website, ranking it in the top 10 retail websites in the world, and that’s impressive.
“Obviously, there’s a lot of people booking through our systems and getting in our loyalty programme, which is also about to become the biggest hotel loyalty programme in the world.”
But a lingering question remains as to whether the JW brand is a good fit for the current design of South Beach. When asked what the renovation works over the next few months will entail, Smith said little would be done to the rooms while the spa would be renovated and the lobby expanded. Three new restaurants, including one helmed by renowned chef Akira Back, is also in the works, expanding total F&B offerings there to nine.
Speaking about future business plans, Kwek added: “My balance sheet is not highly leveraged, it is very lowly-geared. I got firepower and I am very confident about what is going on. If any (developer) can offer me something cheap (to buy over)…I’ll get Marriott to operate it.”
