A growing trend for travellers to squeeze some work in even when on holiday is creating a need for business-focused hotels in leisure areas, according to the chief executive of SilverNeedle Hospitality Iqbal Jumabhoy.
While the company currently had three boutique properties in Asia signed to its leisure-skewed SilverNeedle Collection, it has yet to find a suitable opportunity for that subsidiary in Australia.
Instead, it is placing emphasis on growing its business traveller-centric brands locally. Just last week it announced an overhaul of its Country Comfort chain as it looks to drive it into Asia, with Chifley to follow down the line. Its first upscale Next property will also open in Brisbane in mid-May.
However, the company does have business hotels in leisure locations such as Noosa or the Gold Coast which are designed to cater to the leisure needs of business people.
“Our focus will still be that business traveller, so while the city might be full of professional hotels, we still need to provide for their leisure needs,” Jumabhoy told Travel Today.
“We no longer have that same sense of redundancy, we do far more jobs than we used to do – so even when taking a leisure break we need to cover business needs as well.”
Meanwhile, SilverNeedle is “actively seeking” an opportunity, either a newbuild or a conversion, in another Australian CBD for its growing Next portfolio.
“Everyone who has a hotel in Australia has to say I wish I had a flagship in Sydney or Melbourne, but with hotel deals it’s always difficult to say which will come next,” Jumabhoy said. “But we believe the Next brand remains a very interesting brand.”
Although he admitted an unclear outlook for the Australian accommodation sector as the moderation of commodity prices creates cause for concern as the simultaneous softening of the Australian dollar opens up opportunities, but overall SilverNeedle remains firmly committed to the local market.
“The impact of all those factors on the accommodation industry is a movie still playing, but it’s not making us hold back in Australia at all,” he said.
