THE Grand Regency Hotel has become the first hotel in Doha to be conferred membership of the Leading Hotels of the World (LHW), and with this it joins 420 hotels in 80 countries that provide the highest quality of hospitality and services at international standards.
Hotel general manager Ayman Lutfi and LHW’s Claudia Roth, area vice-president for the Middle East, Africa & Europe, unveiled the presentation plaque at a ceremony attended by VIPs and representatives of various institutions in Qatar.
Grand Regency had to go through several stages to qualify for the nomination and has been subjected to many tests and ratings since December 2005, all of which required over 1500 rating points across the hotel’s various departments.
“Our high hospitality standards have guaranteed us a place in the world of luxury,” said Lotfy. “Being a member of the Leading Hotels of the World has generated large amounts of resources in both the marketing and human resources departments, through a wide network of information that includes a long list of luxurious hotels.”
Roth said LHW are “very keen on attracting hotels with superior amenities which have met our requirements and high standards. Ever since we established the Leading Hotels of the World, our target was to uplift the level of services in our operations to secure a place for group members amongst the leaders in this industry in terms of occupancy ratio and customers who will realise the importance of the name and brand of member hotels within our group. Being a member in our group guarantees high standards of hospitality that all members ensure to follow and provide for our large base of customers.”
She said all members of the Leading Hotels of the World enjoy the wide resources provided to them by the groups capabilities in the field of international marketing operations to promote members and create new renewable resources, and that membership also provides a competitive edge to the member hotel, granting them an internationally recognisable position for luxury and service excellence.
This reflects in increased business for the establishment according to 2004 statistics, which showed 35 per cent of the occupancy ratio of the group members comes from the privileged businessmen, chairman, chief executives, and VIPs who prefer the services of these hotels. Member hotels enjoy the service support and the promotions of more than 40,000 travel agencies, with steady business of more than 8,000 corporations and over 7,500 conference and forum organisers. The organisation has succeeded in reaching a sales and room occupancy ratio of more than 16,000 nights which ensured more than $14.2 million in revenue for the participating hotels.
Members of the LHW guarantee special privileges for family with 50 per cent discount on prices for children in connecting rooms and offer special gifts as well as free breakfast.
Member hotels of the group enjoy the support of 22 international sales and reservation offices around the world.