A CENTURY-OLD ship will make its permanent home on Bintan island, Indonesia and take on its new role as a luxury heritage hotel that caters to both leisure travel and corporate events markets.
The Doulos Phos, built just two years after the Titanic in 1914, will be land-berthed off Bandar Bentan Telani Ferry Terminal come 3Q2015 and converted into a five-star hotel offering some 100 cabins with an average size of 25m2. Larger suites, some with balconies, will be offered, as will a Master Marina Suite which will be converted from the captain’s cabin.
A small number of cabins which once served as spartan accommodation for travelling missionaries when the ship was SS Roma, a pilgrim vessel in the late 1940s, will be marketed as Experience Cabins.
Other onboard facilities include a maritime museum, a 180-seat all-day-dining restaurant, three meeting rooms with capacity for 30 to 50 pax each, a boardroom and a library. They will be joined by infrastructure on land, including a banquet hall for 300 to 400 guests, a piano lounge and a semi-fine dining restaurant at the stern of the ship, an al fresco restaurant that will serve South-east Asian cuisine, as well as a spa, Jacuzzi and swimming pool.
Speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily in an interview, Eric Saw, chief executive of BizNaz Resources International, the company that takes stewardship of Doulos Phos, revealed that the entire cost of the project – comprising conservation and refurbishment of the vessel, land reclamation and construction of facilities on land – will amount to S$25 million (US$19.7 million).
“It will be a five-star boutique hotel, and we are now exploring a few marketing representatives specialising in luxury hotels to market and sell Doulos Phos,” said Saw.
“We expect a fair bit of guests to be Singaporeans, and we intend to target international visitors to Singapore who are willing to extend two or three days in Bintan, particularly the Australian and Chinese markets which we’ve been told are strong for Bintan,” he added.
Saw plans to “work with as many hotels in Bintan as possible” and to build a “reciprocal relationship”. He explained: “We will not be able to accommodate a 400-pax group that holds its event in our banquet hall, so we will need the support of other hotels on the island. Similarly, guests of other hotels are welcome to dine at our restaurants and visit our maritime museum.”
