The Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel was revamped, improving the layout and guest-flow through its public spaces, and uplifting guest experience with added contemporary and vibrant artwork.
Grand Copthorne
Waterfront Hotel
Scores
A Hat-Trick
At Asia Pacific
Hotel Awards
A bold move to sink in over $17 million to revamp the lobby, public spaces and its meeting halls at Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel despite the uncertain business and economic uncertainties at the time, had led the hotel to clinch not one, but three wins at the Asia Pacific Hotel Awards.
Grand Copthorne Waterfront (GCW) was named ‘Best Convention Hotel, Singapore’ and ‘Best Luxury Hotel, Singapore’, and also earned the International Five-Star Hotel title at the awards event in Bangkok.
The awards event last week specifically referred to the transformation of its meetings and conference facilities. The major revamp, completed in late 2016, started seeing results last year as its meeting rooms and facilities expanded and were enhanced.
Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel General Manager Mr Cheong Hai Poh (sixth from left) and the hotel team with the three awards won.
The awards reflects the hotel owner’s foresight to invest in upgrading and redesign works when the business environment was tough.
Annual RevPAR (revenue per available room) and ARR (average room rate) for Singapore hotels had been on the decline since 2015 as the industry was hit by an oversupply of hotel rooms. This tough period was combined with slow global growth and weak economic outlook. Yet during this crunch time, Millennium & Copthorne Hotels Chairman Mr Kwek Leng Beng made a bold move to invest in revamping the ‘hardware’ of the hotel.
The hotel’s makeover included a redesign of its food and beverage outlets such as Food Capital (pictured left) and Grissini Italian restaurant (pictured right) with vibrant and contemporary artwork.
The hotel’s expensive makeover also saw a redesign of its lobby and food and beverage outlets. The refurbishment improved the hotel’s layout and guest-flow through its public spaces, while the added contemporary and vibrant artwork uplifted the guest experience.
Grand Copthorne Waterfront is one of the largest conference hotels in Singapore. It now boasts 33 versatile meeting rooms, or over 3,800 square metres (over 41,000 square feet) of meeting space across four levels. The largest, the Grand Ballroom, can seat 600 guests in banquet style.
The upgrading investment has paid off as business outlook improved; the the hotel has seen an increase in conference sales since the revamp.
GCW is one of Singapore’s largest conference hotels. The hotel’s Grand Ballroom can seat 600 guests in banquet style.
The Asia Pacific Hotel Awards are organised by International Property Media, and are an offshoot of the established International Property Awards. The Hotel Awards are judged by an independent panel of 80 industry experts; it rewards excellence in the global hospitality industry across 17 categories and six regions.
“Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel is delighted to have achieved these three prestigious awards. It is heartening to receive this recognition and see our team’s dedication to bringing ‘Bespoke Service; Inspired Experience’ to life for both our guests and colleagues,” said General Manager Mr Cheong Hai Poh.
Director of Human Resources Ms Linda Ong with the Digital Learning Transformation Award the hotel received at the NTUC May Day Awards.
NTUC May Day Awards
May seems a good month for the hotel. NTUC also commended GCW’s efforts in implementing breakthrough initiatives to transform employee’s learning experience at its May Day Awards. GCW was given the Digital Learning Transformation Award for its contribution to the ULeap (Learning Enabled Through Active Participation) mobile application, an initiative by NTUC’s Employment and Employability Institute (e2i). The application allows users to learn and exchange know-how through bite-sized modules and crowdsourced discussions anytime and anywhere.
