'Centre Point' Thailand announces bold strategic repositioning

From being Thailand’s leading serviced apartment operator, “Centre Point” is looking to attract more visitors as it repositions itself as a comprehensive group of hotels.

According to Suwanna Buddhaprasart, Senior Executive Vice President, Quality House Public Company Limited, majority of their recurring satisfied customers in the past 20 years have been those who want to stay in Thailand for at least a month or longer.
“However, circumstances have changed and there are now a lot more travelers who stay here for shorter than one month, and to serve this ever-increasing number of short-stay visitors, Centre Point has recently completed its hotel business registration, positioning it to serve both short- and long-stay customers with the same high standard that Centre Point is famous for,” Buddhaprasart adds. “This business repositioning has made Centre Point the first and only serviced apartment provider to become a hotel operator. We are also aiming high to become one of the top ten biggest hotels in Thailand.” 

In order to achivev this, “Centre Point” has established the Service Quality Development (SQD) unit, which is tasked with providing appropriate training programs to ensure that each and every Centre Point Hotel lives up to the high international standard people have come to expect.

Currently, there are a total of seven Centre Point Hotels – two Grande Centre Point Hotels and five Centre Point Hotels. Two Grande Centre Point Hotels (Ratchadamri and Terminal21) are positioned for luxury while another five Centre Point Hotels (Ploenchit, Chidlom, Silom, Pratunam, and Sukhumvit10) are 3-4 star hotels. All Centre Point locations are conveniently situated along Skytrain routes, making access so easy to venues throughout the city.

Centre Point today has a combined capacity of 2,215 hotel rooms ready to serve Thai and international guests.

Buddhaprasart further noted that after their repositioning, the proportion between long-stay and short-stay guests is expected to be 30 : 70. The majority of guests come from Asia, Japan and Australia, as well as, the United States, the United Kingdom and the Middle East.
“There are also many Thai customers who regularly come to us for either accommodation or for our members-only fitness centres,” Buddhaprasart said. “Now that the U.S. economy has shown signs of recovery, we are welcoming more and more guests from the United States. There is also an increase of visitors from Europe, and once the ASEAN Economic Community is in full swing, we expect to see a significant increase in ASEAN travelers to Thailand who will undoubtedly contribute to even greater numbers of guests at all Centre Point locations.”
This year, the marketing budget for Centre Point has increased from the normal rate of 2-3% to 4-5% of its total revenue, to support the most aggressive marketing campaign ever for Centre Point.

For 2013, Centre Point targets total sales of 1,900 Million Baht, combining sales in all of the seven locations, a significant 15% increase from the previous year.

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