(13/02/24) Take a quick drive around Vientiane, the capital
city of Laos, and you will see more than a few construction sites
where new hotels, apartment blocks and office buildings are taking
shape.
Whilst different international brands are
scheduled to open this year, one of the most well established
hotels in the city has just celebrated its 7th anniversary,
and by the time the Crowne Plaza Vientiane turns 8 will no longer
be the only IHG hotel in the city as it will become a dual-branded
property later this year when the Holiday Inn & Suites Vientiane
opens.
Room at the Crowne Plaza Vientiane. Picture by Steven Howard of TravelNewsAsia.com
To learn more about the new hotel, when it will
open, what it will
mean to the existing Crowne Plaza and how the two hotels will
differ, Steven Howard of Travel News Asia sat down with Murali
Viswanathan, Cluster General Manager, during the
ASEAN Tourism Forum 2024 in January.
In this interview, filmed at the exhibition on 26
January, Murali shares insights into the Holiday Inn & Suites
brand, how the room types will differ, why it has a presidential
suite and what it will be like, what F&B outlets the property will
have and whether guests of one hotel will be able to use
the facilities of the other.
We also discuss what meeting and event spaces the
new hotel will have, how the Crowne Plaza has recovered from the
challenges brought on by the global pandemic, which markets the
hotel attracts now and which they plan to target in the future,
and how his team attracts and retains the right quality of staff
and what it means to work for IHG as a company.
All that and much more in the HD video and audio
podcast of the interview below.
Crowne Plaza Vientiane and Holiday Inn & Suites Vientiane, Laos – Interview with Murali Viswanathan, Cluster General Manager
PODCAST
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