Hotels ramp up banquet hall promotions for corporate clients
As more Bruneians are opting for more affordable venues to hold weddings, hotels in the country are actively reaching out to corporate clients in hopes to market their banquet halls as venues for corporate events.
Hoteliers interviewed by The Brunei Times said that there has been a decline in the frequency of wedding events at the hotels which has affected their overall sales as they have yet to meet their target occupancy rate for rooms.
“We have to go out and meet our clients from both the private and government sectors to let them know of our latest promotions and that we’ve renovated the halls to make them more suitable for formal events,” said marketing manager of Parkview Hotel, Sabrina PHA.
She said that although their halls are currently fully booked for corporate events and weddings, her team feels the need to actively promote the venue to more clients as they have noticed a decline in the frequency of people making bookings for weddings.
Despite the ongoing promotions that they are having for the banquet halls, Sabrina said that they have not managed to reach their desired target due to people not being aware of their services as well as more locals preferring to hold their wedding at cheaper venues including school multi-purpose halls.
“People need to take into account that they also have to pay for catering services and there is no guarantee that the caterer has enough people on hand to serve guests at the wedding while all of this can be taken care of by Parkview Hotel.”
She added that they are also aiming to reach their targeted occupancy rate of 75 per cent by 2016 through participating in exhibitions and advertising through social media to create more exposure.
“Even before rebranding, most of the hotel’s sales come from bookings for events, but now we want to promote the rooms as well. We believe that we can reach this target through the improved customer service that we offer,” she said.
Darren Tan, manager of Ba’diah Hotel Brunei, said that while the Hari Raya Aidil Fitri season proved to be a busy month for them as their banquet halls were fully booked for their open house functions, the hotel must now get in touch with their clients to inform them of current rates and persuade them to hold any corporate events at their banquet halls.
