Pan Pacific Sonargaon to be hotel of choice again : GM

Dhaka : Pan Pacific Sonargaon Dhaka is now the easiest accessible hotel in the capital from Dhaka Airport directly. The recently launched Elevated Expressway in the capital has made the trip between the airport and the hotel less than 25 minutes. The development will pave the way for Pan Pacific Sonargaon Dhaka to be the hotel of choice again.

Robin J Edwards, General Manager, Pan Pacific Sonargaon Dhaka said this while talking to The Bangladesh Monitor at his office recently. 

Since, there are expectations to welcome more guests including airline crews following the development, Pan Pacific Sonargaon is refurbishing certain areas of the hotel by 2024.

The General Manager mentioned, the hotel's ballroom will be modernised as well as the six meeting rooms on the second floor.

However, with the refurbishments, Pan Pacific Sonargaon aims to stand out as a more modern hotel while staying true to the traditional Bengali culture, he expressed.

"Also, we are looking at the possibility of launching a new midscale Bengali restaurant that will feature mouthwatering cuisine from different regions of the country," informed Edwards.

Pan Pacific Sonargaon is best known for its exquisite food in the capital, claimed the General Manager, adding, "F&B generates over 60 per cent of the hotel's revenue, thanks to its famous iftar takeaways, two grand function halls, six meeting rooms and its strategic location which makes it a hotel of choice."

Furthermore, the hotel has already completed refurbishing works at its Health Club as well as the swimming pool and its surrounding areas.

Also, as part of its efforts to adapt to the post-pandemic trends, the hotel has taken out single use amenities and has replaced them with pump dispensers to be more environment and guest friendly.

"After the pandemic, we are having to look more at customer needs and less at company wants," stressed the GM. 

However, Robin J Edwards, General Manager of Pan Pacific Sonargaon Dhaka, sighed the business has not returned to pre-pandemic levels and it will not before 2024/25.

The hotel has also launched a Brand Ambassador programme recently which ensures individual services to respective guests in an attempt to promote the  hotel's loyalty programme GHA and bring more repeat customers.

In the coming days, more and more chain star hotels will be emerging in the capital, paving the way for more rooms in the market.

This, in turn, will increase competition and one of the two following things might happen, according to Edwards: "People who stay at four-star hotels would move up if the prices of the five-star hotels come down.”

“On the other hand, people might move to four-star hotels with similar service standards like the current five-stars while the latter becomes luxury properties for high-end stays."