MARRIOTT International has staged a coup by taking over the management of one of Singapore's landmark hotels, Dynasty Hotel. A relative newcomer to international hotel chains in Asia, Marriott has just been named to manage the hotel from July 1. The hotel will be marketed as a five-star property targeting the business traveller. Opened in 1982, the hotel is owned by Tang Choon Keng Realty. It will be closed from June 30 for a comprehensive refurbishment. The 30-storey, 378-room hotel will reopen early next year as the Singapore Marriott Hotel. The hotel is on Orchard Road, the heart of Singapore's prime shopping and entertainment district, where tourists gather for shopping and Singaporeans and foreigners alike converge for the nightlife. Tang Choon Keng Realty managing director Tang Wee Kit said: ''The Asia-Pacificregion has been widely acclaimed to be the growth area for now into the 21st century. ''For us, to be an effective part of this growth, we need a team of professionals to set standards of hospitality that rival the best in the region. ''We are extremely glad that we have Marriott to manage our flagship property.'' Marriott's vice-president of development Patrick McCudden said the hotel's owners wanted to improve its bottom line and therefore brought in an international company. He declined to state the length of the management contract. A relative newcomer to the Asian region, Mr McCudden said the group's first property was the Marriott Hotel in Hong Kong which opened in 1989. Subsequently, the hotel has acquired properties in Australia, in Sydney and on the Gold Coast, in Thailand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Malaysia. In spite of being a latecomer to the Asian scene, Mr McCudden was positive that its Singapore hotel would perform well as the brand awareness of the Marriott name was very high in the United States. He said that with the large number of US firms in Singapore and business travellers from America, he was confident the hotel would do well. Mr McCudden was not unduly concerned about the soft market of the past two years for Singapore's hotel industry, where room rates fell and occupancy performed sluggishly. ''Singapore has tremendous potential and I believe average room rates will rise,'' he said. ''The industry will be very good in the long term.'' He also believed the group's name was becoming better known in this part of the world with the increasing number of hotels being operated under the Marriott name in major Asian cities. ''We are adding more hotels every year and we have several others scheduled to open in the near future,'' he said. The group's parent, Marriott Corp, said the group was late in coming to this part of the world as it had been working on establishing a firm footing in the US. With the US market having matured, the group felt it was time to expand into the developing and vibrant markets of Asia. Marriott Corp's senior vice-president Ed Fuller has said the group's overall strategy was to be a global operator. He said that in any market the group moved into, Marriott had been able to command a premium rate because of its skills and marketing system. The group's aggressive development plan is to be a global operator.
