CROWNE Plaza Changi Airport, part of InterContinental Hotels Group, has added a new 10-storey extension to the property.
The hotel, the only one located outside the transit area of Changi Airport, now has a 563-key inventory, an increase of over 75 per cent from its original 320 rooms. All 243 rooms at the new Jewel Wing are Business Rooms in King (28m2) or Twin (38m2) configuration.
Rooms cater well for business travellers, with amenities such as an ergonomic work station, complimentary Wi-Fi, wireless printing of documents, and a Handy smartphone for free unlimited local and international calls to 11 countries.
Corporates and meeting groups account for most of Crowne Plaza Changi Airport’s guests, but its general manager Sunshine Wong points out that the hotel does receive customers from a broad spectrum.
“The positioning is for the business traveller and MICE. This is not to say that we don’t have other segments such as leisure,” Wong told TTG Asia e-Daily, when asked if the new wing alters its market mix in any way.
“Leisure groups, wholesale, even government for example are the different segmentation we have at the moment. Each of the segments we have right now are just going to be expanded because of the additional guestrooms.”
Seasonality plays a key part in this, added Wong, illustrating that during Australia’s winter season happening now, the hotel receives many more leisure guests transiting at Changi Airport from Down Under to Europe.
“Market segmentations do change and we just have to adjust as we go along. Certain seasons, such as the end of the year, we experience more leisure traffic and less business travellers, and we change our marketing plan accordingly,” he added.
But the property’s core clientele remains, and Wong hopes to continue reaching out to one essential group, the MNCs.
He said: “There is definitely one segment of the MICE business that we’re looking for, which is all the multinationals based in Singapore. We also believe that this hotel can be positioned as a hub, meaning regional MNCs can have their meeting here for two, three days and off they go. That’s what we’re targeting and we’ve been quite successful in going after that segment.”
Jewel Wing welcomed its first guests on August 1. The new wing is named as such as it will overlook the Jewel Changi Airport retail complex once the building is completed in 2019.
The property expansion is also coming ahead of the airport’s Terminal 4 opening slated for 2017. Crowne Plaza Changi Airport first opened in 2008.
