General manager Eric Hallin (left) said, “My goal is to improve my distribution by supporting my partners and growing my own channel of business. We like working with tour operators who market us. The problem is there are a lot of tour operators who don’t work as tour operators and sell our rates to third party websites. This is not fair to those tour operators who spend a lot of money printing and distributing brochures on our behalf.”

He said the hotel was “quietly contacting” those errant tour operators to stop them from supplying rates to third party websites. “We need to protect our partners,” he said.

He said that it was much harder for an independent hotel to enforce such a ruling. “The major chains have done the right thing by cleaning up this practice. We’ve got to find a sustainable way for both parties to work together and not cannibalise each other’s business.”

He said the old practice of giving special rates to markets such as India and the Middle East also had to stop. “In today’s distribution world, you cannot do this anymore – all the rates go straight to the Internet.”

Rembrandt also switched from Pegasus Solutions’ Private Label to Warwick Hotels recently. “Warwick is a hotel owner as well as marketing company; we felt that they understood the hotel owners’ interests.

“This gives us the best of both worlds – we can work like a chain but still remain independent.”

Asked if it was easier to be an independent hotel in today’s distribution environment, Hallin said, “Yes and no. That’s why we are with Warwick – you still need the strength of the brand but at the same time, being independent means you can be much quicker in your decision making. The buck stops here and I can decide almost anything, with support from the owner.

“If you work with a chain, you are responsible to owners and headquarters and you have to balance between the two.”

Meanwhile, even though business is tough in Bangkok – and that’s probably an understatement – Hallin has been using the down time to train staff and upgrade the hotel.

Last year, through the political troubles, the hotel kept all staff and stepped up training. It also spent 300 million baht on upgrading the hotel’s facilities.

This year, it expects to spend 80 million baht painting the exterior of the 17-year-old hotel and it will invest between 40 and 50 million baht in energy saving measures which will involve changing boilers, chillers and lighting.

“We will save 20-25% in energy costs with these new measures which means we will get payback within four years,” said Hallin.

Acknowledging that “it is difficult to market Bangkok in the short term”, Hallin said, “You’ve got to keep your eye on the long term and have faith in the country, and market.”

Keeping an eye on the long term means working hard to position Rembrandt as “one of the best four star hotels in town that offers value for money and where you don’t feel ripped off”, said Hallin.

“Even though 30% of our guests are corporate customers, many people are spending their own money so we are sensitive to that.”

While it’s only rooms on the executive floor that have free Internet access, Hallin said that every room has five minutes free Internet access in the business centre. “Our charges are also reasonable – 280 baht for 24 hours’ access.”

“In the future, we will include free Internet access in our rates but we have a current arrangement with a provider that makes this difficult right now.”

Featured image credit (Gavel and handcuffs): Ockra/iStock