Continental to be refurbished at a cost of Rs. 300 m

by Surekha GALAGODA

Ceylon Continental Hotel will invest Rs. 300 millon to refurbish the hotel and enhance its IT system said its chairman Nahil Wijesuriya.

Nahil Wijesuriya

He said that in one years time the hotels IT system will be on par with any other hotel in the world. The marketing will also be IT driven which includes web based selling as well.

Wijesuriya said that the hotel has 250 rooms and according to todays standard the rooms are small therefore" we are in the process of making 125 suites by combining two rooms which will be oriented towards the business travellers". The hotel is also planning to redevelop the area and increase car parking facilities to accommodate another 300 vehicles. He said that at present the hotel has 220 parking slots. He said that banqueting facilities in any hotel contributes to 60 per cent of the income and if the local business picks up faster then we will be in a better position as there are 20 mln locals.

They are vibrant and are upward mobile. Once the negatives are gone we will imerge, said a confident Wijesuriya together with his director Prasanna Jayawardena who has joined him. The hotel has the largest number of banqueting spaces. At present the Sapphire ballroom can accommodate 500 guests and it will be developed to accommodate another 500 guests.

" We are also planning to open the Italian restaurant by March to cater to Italian food lovers, said Wijesuriya.

The uniforms of the staff have been totally revamped and the promotion and salary increments are based on performance.

In addition Wijesuriya has taken steps to display the salaries of everybody in the notice board. Other than Renuka City Hotel we are the only hotel that declared a interim dividend of 12 per cent. He said that the previous owner has done tremendous amount of work to give a new lease of life to the hotel.

Wijesuriya was confident that Ceylon Continental Hotel will be the market leader in the future.