SK Hotels’ Scott Walton talks new hotels and destinations coming up in Thailand, innovation and technology

The submit SK Hotels’ Scott Walton talks new hotels and destinations coming up in Thailand, innovation and technology appeared first on TD (Travel Daily Media) Travel Daily Media.

SK Hotels is constant its enlargement in Thailand, with a handful of new properties coming up in the capital Bangkok and new destinations throughout the nation set to broaden its current portfolio. Managing director Scott Walton talks with TDM in regards to the progress, and how innovation and technology are enjoying key roles.

Travel Daily Media (TDM): Can you give us a top level view of the present SK Hotels property portfolio, and bearing in mind your progress plans, new properties in the pipeline?

Scott Walton: SK Hotels was established as a three way partnership between Siamese Asset, a publicly listed property developer based mostly in Bangkok, and Kew Green Hotels in the UK, a hospitality group with a portfolio of 44 owned and 16 managed properties throughout the UK and Europe. The partnership was born from a strategic imaginative and prescient: leaders from Siamese Asset visited the UK and had been struck by how effectively Kew Green had structured its operations – not solely in phrases of lodge administration, but in addition in areas like finance, human sources, and business help. These features had been embedded regionally in a approach that stood other than the extra inflexible company constructions usually seen in Thailand.

This go to sparked the formation of SK Hotels in Bangkok, with a transparent mission to carry the identical form of streamlined, performance-driven working mannequin to the Siamese Asset lodge portfolio. In doing so, we’ve created a nimble, centralized help construction that has already confirmed efficient throughout a number of newly launched properties.

Since rising from the pandemic, SK Hotels has opened six properties throughout Bangkok, together with the Wyndham Queen Convention Centre, Wyndham Garden Sukhumvit 42, Ramada Plaza by Wyndham Sukhumvit 48, Ramada by Wyndham Sukhumvit 87, TRIBE Living Bangkok Sukhumvit 39, and Cassia by Banyan Group in Rama 9. Each of those properties entered the market post-COVID and have responded nicely to the resurgence in worldwide and home journey. Some properties hit the bottom operating with exceptionally robust efficiency, whereas others shortly discovered their footing, delivering constructive outcomes all through 2023 and into 2024.

Looking forward, our pipeline contains a number of high-profile openings. The Crowne Plaza Bangkok Rama 9 is scheduled to open quickly, adopted by Cassia by Banyan Group in Ram Intra, and then a Hilton Garden Inn, additionally in the Ram Intra district. These upcoming launches mirror our ongoing confidence in Bangkok’s potential, however we’re additionally increasing our imaginative and prescient past the capital.

We are at present in superior discussions on properties in main leisure destinations akin to Hua Hin, Pattaya and Phuket, with promising leads rising in Koh Samui and Chiang Mai. The timing is correct: our Bangkok-based properties have stabilized, and the centralized help infrastructure that we now have constructed throughout business, finance, HR, and IT now permits us to develop the portfolio with energy and agility.

With this stable basis in place, SK Hotels is poised to proceed its enlargement throughout Thailand, bringing effectivity, innovation, and efficiency excellence to every new vacation spot.

TDM: We perceive innovation performs a key function in your operations, in specific in terms of enhancing property efficiency. Can you develop on this?

Scott Walton: Innovation has turn into a defining pillar of our operations. The speedy rise of AI post-COVID, alongside evolving visitor expectations and a extra complicated working setting, has pushed us to rethink how we work. Thanks to the forward-thinking nature of our three way partnership companions, we’ve embraced these adjustments head-on, however with warning and intent.

At SK we don’t implement AI to interchange human roles, we use it to amplify efficiency. For instance, when revising our menus at TRIBE Living – a course of that usually entails weeks of costing, sourcing, and coordination – we used AI instruments to streamline procurement information, automate price comparisons, and pace up documentation. This allowed our cooks to focus absolutely on culinary creativity and innovation, enhancing the visitor expertise slightly than being slowed down in admin.

Our innovation can also be deeply supported by Siamese Technology, an inside division of Siamese Asset targeted on enhancing visitor expertise by environmental design and development technology. They’ve pioneered developments in air high quality management, acoustic insulation between rooms and corridors, and energy-saving methods all of which contribute to extra sustainable, comfy visitor environments. This partnership has helped a number of of the properties developed by Siamese Asset and managed by SK to earn EDGE certification, a globally acknowledged ESG customary originating from Singapore.

These improvements not solely cut back working prices but in addition make sure that we will meet or exceed model and sustainability requirements with confidence and consistency.

TDM: With meals & beverage and wellness additionally being cornerstones of your growth technique, what can visitors anticipate from SK Hotels properties in these areas?

Scott Walton: Food and beverage are on the coronary heart of each property we open. Our technique begins by contemplating the native market and what substances can be found, what the group craves, and the place we will break from the anticipated. We take inspiration from world tendencies whereas all the time remaining domestically related.

This imaginative and prescient is championed by Siamese Asset’s possession, who persistently encourage us to problem the norm. We experiment with new ideas, substances, and working fashions to stay forward of evolving client expectations. Whether it’s by centralized manufacturing kitchens that enhance consistency and effectivity, or by embracing the “Instagrammable” pattern to enchantment to the visual-first buyer, our strategy is grounded in a ardour for reinvention.

I’m a agency believer that consistency, nevertheless, is simply as essential as innovation. One of the earliest classes I discovered in hospitality, working in Auckland’s restaurant scene, was that if one thing works, make it constant. If it doesn’t, change shortly. We apply this precept at each property, making certain that strong-performing gadgets or companies are refined and delivered flawlessly, whereas underperforming ideas are reimagined.

Wellness is a key part of our growth technique and continues to develop in significance as fashionable vacationers place better emphasis on steadiness, mindfulness, and self-care. At SK Hotels, we strategy wellness as an integral a part of the visitor expertise and as one thing that ought to really feel purposeful, accessible, and woven into the very material of every property.

To ship on this imaginative and prescient, our properties have partnered with Pravinia Wellness and Beauty Center, Sense Cera Spa, and Yumoto, bringing a various vary of wellness experiences to our hotels. These partnerships enable us to tailor every providing to the distinctive character of the vacation spot, whereas nonetheless reflecting world tendencies in holistic wellbeing. For native residents, our wellness centres present an city sanctuary, a spot to unwind and rejuvenate near residence. For worldwide vacationers, they provide a welcome second of calm amid a busy itinerary, with therapies starting from conventional therapies to fashionable spa rituals and health options.

Each area is designed with intention, permitting visitors to both reconnect with themselves by restorative practices or to fully disconnect from the stresses of on a regular basis life. We acknowledge that wellness at present means various things to totally different individuals, and we intention to satisfy these wants in methods which might be considerate, regionally related, and persistently uplifting.

Alongside wellness, we’re additionally responding to a rising demand for versatile, practical workspaces as extra visitors search to mix enterprise and leisure in their journey routines. Our hotels are being thoughtfully tailored to help this hybrid way of life, with communal areas reimagined as fashionable, productive environments that help work with out sacrificing consolation or hospitality.

Through partnerships with coworking platforms akin to Reef Rocks, an app that connects distant employees with welcoming areas, we’ve reworked our lobbies and lounges into vibrant, related work hubs. These areas are geared up with dependable high-speed web, ergonomic furnishings, accessible charging factors, and ambient design that encourages visitors to remain so long as they want.

This evolution not solely enhances the visitor expertise but in addition permits us to activate areas which might be historically underutilized throughout sure elements of the day. By creating environments the place visitors and locals alike can work, meet, and chill out, we’re constructing hotels that stay related in a world the place work now not matches a nine-to-five mannequin. More than simply locations to remain, our properties have gotten dynamic, multifunctional areas that help how individuals reside, work, and join each on the street and near residence.

TDM: Tell us in regards to the Thailand centre of studying, monetary companies, recruitment, income, digital spine and operations help that SK Hotels has established?

Scott Walton: When we launched SK Hotels in the aftermath of COVID, we had been met with the identical challenges dealing with the worldwide hospitality business. Chief amongst these was a dramatic lack of expertise. Many expert professionals had left the sector altogether, some beginning small companies, others returning to their hometowns or pursuing new industries completely. To rebuild, we knew we needed to take a recent strategy, not simply to recruitment however to the long-term growth of our individuals and the programs that help them.

The institution of a decentralized Centre for Learning marked a turning level. Rather than chase the identical restricted pool of expertise, we selected to take a position in people who could not have beforehand thought-about hospitality. School leavers, latest graduates, and profession switchers had been introduced into the enterprise and given the construction, mentoring, and help wanted to succeed. In simply three years, many of those people have turn into integral to our operations and are already progressing into management roles.

In parallel, our strategy to recruitment has continued to evolve. With conventional channels yielding diminishing returns, we’re at present constructing an intuitive, user-friendly careers platform inside our web site. This new system will make it simpler for candidates to discover alternatives, perceive our tradition, and apply based mostly on potential slightly than simply prior expertise. We’re in search of mindset and angle people who find themselves hungry to develop inside a fast-paced, agile setting.

Alongside expertise growth, we’ve constructed a monetary companies platform that goes past the usual GOP focus typical of lodge administration corporations. Our finance crew operates with a transparent mandate: to prioritize investor returns and long-term worth. This is achieved by robust inside controls, audit-centric reporting, and streamlined processes designed for transparency and accountability. Our finance management, underneath Ms. Rapeepan Banyen (Khun Jay), has embedded a tradition of fiscal self-discipline whereas enabling operational flexibility. It’s this steadiness that offers our buyers confidence and our lodge groups readability.

In the world of income technique, we’ve taken a hybrid strategy. Each of our hotels is provided with instruments akin to IDeaS and Avalon, giving them dynamic pricing and forecasting capabilities tailor-made to their particular markets. These instruments are additional enhanced by the legacy data and programs introduced in from Kew Green Hotels, whose affect has helped form our business path and strategy to demand optimization. Supported by a centralized business crew underneath Mrs. Tassanee Mangkala-apinun (Khun Pait), this hybrid mannequin permits every lodge to reply domestically whereas being backed by broader market intelligence and strategic oversight.

Our digital and advertising operate has additionally turn into a significant progress engine. Through a mixture of structured digital technique and untapped artistic expertise – a few of whom we jokingly name “diamonds in the rough” – our advertising division has developed robust, narrative-led campaigns for every property. These usually are not generic lodge advertisements, however model tales that resonate with their goal audiences, crafted by the sensible use of AI, viewers analytics, and localized storytelling. The work has helped our properties stand out in a crowded digital market and has pushed measurable will increase in consciousness, conversion, and direct bookings.

Lastly, our IT infrastructure has been a foundational pillar from day one. The IT division has applied sturdy programs throughout all properties, making certain not solely performance however scalability as we develop. Every lodge underneath SK Hotels is provided with standardized {hardware} and software program from PMS and back-office programs to firewalls and IPTV options making certain operational effectivity and information safety. The IT crew additionally performs a proactive function in property help, rolling out centralized updates, troubleshooting points remotely, and sustaining the cyber integrity of each guest-facing and inside platforms.

These departments – Learning, Finance, Revenue, Digital, and IT – usually are not working in silos. They are built-in and aligned to help SK Hotels’ mission: to function effectively, innovate responsibly, and empower our individuals to create distinctive visitor experiences. It’s a construction that places individuals first, however does so on a spine of course of and precision, making certain that as we develop, we achieve this sustainably and with confidence.

TDM: Explain to us the function that technology is taking in the continuing progress of SK Hotels’ main proprietor Siamese Asset’s portfolio?

Scott Walton: Technology sits on the core of SK Hotels’ progress and is deeply built-in into each Kew Green and Siamese Asset’s broader technique. From the outset, I used to be impressed by the entrepreneurial spirit of Siamese Asset’s management, particularly their early embrace of sensible constructing applied sciences, AI, and sustainable development methods. Likewise with Kew Green’s ever evolving distribution, analytics and visitor satisfaction initiatives – a mixture that’s uncommon in the business.

One standout instance of our dedication to technology and wellbeing is the deployment of Siamese Air of Life, a proprietary air filtration system now put in in all visitor rooms throughout our new properties. This system has confirmed particularly helpful throughout the annual burn-off season, when air high quality in Bangkok and surrounding areas can deteriorate considerably. Guests are capable of monitor each indoor and outside air high quality in actual time by a devoted app, whereas every room additionally includes a reside show of present air high quality readings. This degree of transparency and environmental management has not solely reassured visitors, however has additionally turn into a compelling differentiator for our model companions and ESG-focused buyers. It speaks to our dedication to visitor consolation, operational innovation, and sustainability in equal measure.

TDM: What thrilling issues can we anticipate from SK Hotels in the longer term?

We’re coming into an thrilling new part of progress. In addition to increasing our city footprint, we’re exploring alternatives in extra distant destinations throughout Thailand. In some circumstances, these properties could require robust model partnerships; in others, the vacation spot itself could be the draw, permitting us to launch distinctive, unbiased lodge ideas.

We are additionally persevering with to develop strategic partnerships just like the one we now have with Siamese Asset. These alliances enable us to leverage our shared infrastructure – centralized finance, HR, IT, and business experience – lowering prices and enhancing efficiency on the property degree. Unlike extra inflexible company constructions, our management works contained in the hotels, for the hotels. This outcomes in sooner decision-making, stronger crew help, and in the end, higher visitor experiences.

At the center of our philosophy is a straightforward however highly effective mission: to function hotels with a relentless deal with effectivity and excellence, empowering our individuals to create distinctive visitor experiences. We emphasize transparency, sustainable progress, and partnerships grounded in operational brilliance.

Above all, we imagine in widespread sense. It’s a worth that usually will get misplaced in over-complicated enterprise processes however one which persistently solves issues, enhances experiences, and strengthens relationships with visitors, stakeholders, and our groups alike.

I’d prefer to share a latest instance that highlights the form of sensible intelligence and calm management we worth throughout our groups. It befell throughout the fast aftermath of the March 28, 2025 Myanmar earthquake, a day of widespread disruption, uncertainty, and logistical chaos throughout Bangkok.

Amid the aftermath, one among our engineering crew members seen uncommon foot visitors close to a little-used emergency exit that led right into a service hall, an space usually quiet and safe. Despite the calls for of the day and the overwhelming distractions dealing with each division, they selected to behave on intuition. They flagged the priority to administration, reviewed the CCTV footage, and found that an unauthorized third-party vendor had been utilizing the area to maneuver items with out supervision or correct clearance.

While it may have been simple to miss or deprioritize given the broader disaster at hand, the crew dealt with it discreetly and decisively. Access controls had been instantly strengthened, distributors had been re-briefed, and the breach was resolved with out disruption to visitors or compromise to the property.

What stands out in this state of affairs is using situational consciousness, widespread sense, and initiative, in the chaos of a real-world disaster. These are precisely the qualities we nurture at SK Hotels: a tradition the place crew members are empowered to behave, to suppose past checklists, and to guard each our visitors and our model repute in the moments that matter most.

As we develop, this core perception in sensible intelligence and human connection will proceed to information each determination we make. At SK Hotels, the longer term isn’t nearly enlargement it’s about evolving neatly, sustainably, and with objective.

The submit SK Hotels’ Scott Walton talks new hotels and destinations coming up in Thailand, innovation and technology appeared first on Travel Daily Media.

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