-eyeing four-star rating

Ongoing rehabilitation at the Princess International Hotel at Providence will see the establishment achieving at least a four-star rating and it is moving ahead with US$2M casino plans, its Operations Director Oguz Tayanc has said.

Oguz Tayanc

During an interview with this newspaper last week, Tayanc said the establishment currently has a 2½ to 3-star rating. He explained that currently efforts are being made to improve all the rooms in the hotel, which includes refurnishing them.

The suitability of accommodation at the hotel came into question recently when Guyana was not granted the full complement of matches it had bid to host as part of next year’s ICC Twenty20 World Cup. Inadequate accommodation was identified as one of the main reasons for this. Tournament Director of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Ernest Hillaire had told this newspaper that only the Pegasus Hotel had met the ICC’s requirements for accommodation.

Tayanc said concerns had been raised about the quality of the rooms at the hotel by the officials but emphasised that when the current rehabilitation is completed this should no longer be an issue. He also stated that resources will be poured into the training of the staff as the management wants to make the establishment more tourism-oriented. He said that by next year when the country hosts the World Cup, the hotel will be at an acceptable standard.

According to Tayanc, management hopes to invest more in the hotel, but stated that the exact sum that it will expend is still to be decided. However, the Operations Director disclosed that one of the projects will be for the establishment of an entertainment centre which will include cinemas and fast food outlets at a parking lot next to the hotel.

Casino

One of the major features of the hotel will be the casino, which will cost around US$2 million. According to the Operations Director, when in operation it will create 150 direct jobs for Guyanese. He explained that during the initial stages, foreigners will be in “key positions” as it relates to the running of this establishment but stated that as time progresses they will “transfer everything to local personnel”.

He emphasised that the management will run the casino within the confines of the law. According to him, the law states that only hotel guests and foreigners will have access to the casino and he emphasised that the hotel’s management will exercise strict control over this. When asked what measures would be taken to ensure that this happens, he said that they will monitor every single person entering the casino.

Questioned about measures that will be put in place to prevent money laundering, the Operations Director said that as an international company with about 12-14 hotels and 30 casinos internationally Princess had a good track record in this regard. He pointed out that the company did not have “any grey spots” in their past. He said that with this in mind the management “will cooperate with the local authorities to prevent money laundering facilities”.

Meanwhile, Tayanc acknowledged that having a hotel in Guyana will have its challenges since the country was “different” from the other Caribbean territories.

He said Princess had hotels in St Maarten, Belize and Suriname and intended to use this presence in these territories to encourage customers to come to Guyana. He said that tourism packages–including special tours into the interior–will be used to attract visitors. Tayanc stated that the hotel’s management is working closely with the Ministry of Tourism to make this a reality.  He further stated that based on experience, if tourists are offered a good service, they will return.

When asked if plans were on course to expand the hotel, Tayanc said that once the establishment makes money it will re-invest in Guyana. He explained that it was not the company’s policy only to make money but it also believed in giving back.

He pointed out that in Belize, the company started with one hotel and has now expanded to the point where it has two hotels and four casinos in that country. He opined that the Princess hotel will have a positive effect on the country.

Buddy’s International Hotel was purchased by Turkish hotel group ‘Princess’ last year at the price of US$15 million, Tayanc said. The hotel had been developed in time for the 2007 World Cup Cricket at a total cost of US$12 million by local businessman Omprakash ‘Buddy’ Shivraj.

The establishment was originally built with funding that included several mortgages from the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) and the $165.7 million advance on the sale of rooms to the Government of Guyana. The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport subsequently paid over to the Ministry of Finance the sum of US$598,000 – approximately $119.6 million – of the $165.7 million that the government had advanced to the hotel. The remainder of the sum of $46.1 million was said to have been recovered through room nights at the hotel.