The publish SK Hotels’ Scott Walton talks new hotels and destinations coming up in Thailand, innovation and technology appeared first on TD (Journey Every day Media) Travel Daily Media.
SK Lodges is continuous its growth in Thailand, with a handful of latest properties arising within the capital Bangkok and new locations throughout the nation set to broaden its current portfolio. Managing director Scott Walton talks with TDM in regards to the progress, and the way innovation and know-how are taking part in key roles.
Journey Every day Media (TDM): Are you able to give us an overview of the present SK Lodges property portfolio, and taking into consideration your progress plans, new properties within the pipeline?
Scott Walton: SK Lodges was established as a three way partnership between Siamese Asset, a publicly listed property developer based mostly in Bangkok, and Kew Inexperienced Lodges within 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 Inexperienced had structured its operations – not solely by way of lodge administration, but additionally in areas like finance, human sources, and industrial help. These capabilities had been embedded regionally in a manner that stood aside from the extra inflexible company constructions usually seen in Thailand.
This go to sparked the formation of SK Lodges in Bangkok, with a transparent mission to convey the identical type 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 Lodges has opened six properties throughout Bangkok, together with the Wyndham Queen Conference Centre, Wyndham Backyard Sukhumvit 42, Ramada Plaza by Wyndham Sukhumvit 48, Ramada by Wyndham Sukhumvit 87, TRIBE Dwelling Bangkok Sukhumvit 39, and Cassia by Banyan Group in Rama 9. Every of those properties entered the market post-COVID and have responded effectively to the resurgence in worldwide and home journey. Some properties hit the bottom working with exceptionally robust efficiency, whereas others shortly discovered their footing, delivering constructive outcomes all through 2023 and into 2024.
Trying forward, our pipeline consists of 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, after which a Hilton Backyard Inn, additionally within 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’re at present in superior discussions on properties in main leisure locations resembling Hua Hin, Pattaya and Phuket, with promising leads rising in Koh Samui and Chiang Mai. The timing is true: our Bangkok-based properties have stabilized, and the centralized help infrastructure that we have now constructed throughout industrial, finance, HR, and IT now permits us to develop the portfolio with power and agility.
With this strong basis in place, SK Lodges is poised to proceed its growth throughout Thailand, bringing effectivity, innovation, and efficiency excellence to every new vacation spot.
TDM: We perceive innovation performs a key position in your operations, specifically in terms of enhancing property efficiency. Are you able to broaden on this?
Scott Walton: Innovation has turn out to be a defining pillar of our operations. The speedy rise of AI post-COVID, alongside evolving visitor expectations and a extra advanced working setting, has pushed us to rethink how we work. Because of the forward-thinking nature of our three way partnership companions, we’ve embraced these modifications head-on, however with warning and intent.
At SK we don’t implement AI to switch human roles, we use it to amplify efficiency. For instance, when revising our menus at TRIBE Dwelling – a course of that usually includes weeks of costing, sourcing, and coordination – we used AI instruments to streamline procurement information, automate value comparisons, and velocity up documentation. This allowed our cooks to focus totally on culinary creativity and innovation, enhancing the visitor expertise quite than being slowed down in admin.
Our innovation can also be deeply supported by Siamese Know-how, an inside division of Siamese Asset targeted on enhancing visitor expertise by means of environmental design and development know-how. They’ve pioneered developments in air high quality management, acoustic insulation between rooms and corridors, and energy-saving strategies all of which contribute to extra sustainable, snug 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 scale back working prices but additionally make sure that we are able to 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 count on from SK Lodges properties in these areas?
Scott Walton: Meals and beverage are on the coronary heart of each property we open. Our technique begins by contemplating the native market and what components can be found, what the group craves, and the place we are able to break from the anticipated. We take inspiration from international developments whereas all the time remaining regionally 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, components, and working fashions to stay forward of evolving client expectations. Whether or not it’s by means of centralized manufacturing kitchens that enhance consistency and effectivity, or by embracing the “Instagrammable” pattern to attraction to the visual-first buyer, our strategy is grounded in a ardour for reinvention.
I’m a agency believer that consistency, nonetheless, is simply as essential as innovation. One of many 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, guaranteeing that strong-performing gadgets or providers are refined and delivered flawlessly, whereas underperforming ideas are reimagined.
Wellness is a key element of our growth technique and continues to develop in significance as trendy vacationers place higher emphasis on stability, mindfulness, and self-care. At SK Lodges, 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 cloth of every property.
To ship on this imaginative and prescient, our properties have partnered with Pravinia Wellness and Magnificence Middle, Sense Cera Spa, and Yumoto, bringing a various vary of wellness experiences to our motels. These partnerships enable us to tailor every providing to the distinctive character of the vacation spot, whereas nonetheless reflecting international developments in holistic wellbeing. For native residents, our wellness centres present an city sanctuary, a spot to unwind and rejuvenate near house. For worldwide vacationers, they provide a welcome second of calm amid a busy itinerary, with therapies starting from conventional therapies to trendy spa rituals and health options.
Every house is designed with intention, permitting visitors to both reconnect with themselves by means of restorative practices or to utterly disconnect from the stresses of on a regular basis life. We acknowledge that wellness at this time means various things to totally different individuals, and we purpose to satisfy these wants in methods which can 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 of their journey routines. Our motels are being thoughtfully tailored to help this hybrid way of life, with communal areas reimagined as trendy, productive environments that help work with out sacrificing consolation or hospitality.
By partnerships with coworking platforms resembling Reef Rocks, an app that connects distant staff with welcoming areas, we’ve reworked our lobbies and lounges into vibrant, related work hubs. These areas are outfitted 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 additionally permits us to activate areas which can be historically underutilized throughout sure components of the day. By creating environments the place visitors and locals alike can work, meet, and calm down, we’re constructing motels that stay related in a world the place work now not matches a nine-to-five mannequin. Extra 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 house.
TDM: Inform us in regards to the Thailand centre of studying, monetary providers, recruitment, income, digital spine and operations help that SK Lodges has established?
Scott Walton: After we launched SK Lodges within 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 totally. To rebuild, we knew we needed to take a contemporary strategy, not simply to recruitment however to the long-term growth of our individuals and the techniques that help them.
The institution of a decentralized Centre for Studying marked a turning level. Quite than chase the identical restricted pool of expertise, we selected to put money into people who might not have beforehand thought of hospitality. Faculty leavers, current 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 out to be 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 quite 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 providers platform that goes past the usual GOP focus typical of lodge administration firms. Our finance staff operates with a transparent mandate: to prioritize investor returns and long-term worth. That is achieved by means of robust inside controls, audit-centric reporting, and streamlined processes designed for transparency and accountability. Our finance management, beneath Ms. Rapeepan Banyen (Khun Jay), has embedded a tradition of fiscal self-discipline whereas enabling operational flexibility. It’s this stability that provides our traders confidence and our lodge groups readability.
Within the space of income technique, we’ve taken a hybrid strategy. Every of our motels is provided with instruments resembling 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 techniques introduced in from Kew Inexperienced Lodges, whose affect has helped form our industrial course and strategy to demand optimization. Supported by a centralized industrial staff beneath Mrs. Tassanee Mangkala-apinun (Khun Pait), this hybrid mannequin permits every lodge to reply regionally whereas being backed by broader market intelligence and strategic oversight.
Our digital and advertising perform has additionally turn out to be an important progress engine. By a mixture of structured digital technique and untapped artistic expertise – a few of whom we jokingly name “diamonds within the tough” – our advertising division has developed robust, narrative-led campaigns for every property. These are usually not generic lodge adverts, however model tales that resonate with their goal audiences, crafted by means of 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 techniques throughout all properties, guaranteeing not solely performance however scalability as we develop. Each lodge beneath SK Lodges is provided with standardized {hardware} and software program from PMS and back-office techniques to firewalls and IPTV options guaranteeing operational effectivity and information safety. The IT staff additionally performs a proactive position in property help, rolling out centralized updates, troubleshooting points remotely, and sustaining the cyber integrity of each guest-facing and inside platforms.
These departments – Studying, Finance, Income, Digital, and IT – are usually not working in silos. They’re built-in and aligned to help SK Lodges’ 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, guaranteeing that as we develop, we accomplish that sustainably and with confidence.
TDM: Clarify to us the position that know-how is taking within the ongoing progress of SK Lodges’ main proprietor Siamese Asset’s portfolio?
Scott Walton: Know-how sits on the core of SK Lodges’ progress and is deeply built-in into each Kew Inexperienced 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 strategies. Likewise with Kew Inexperienced’s ever evolving distribution, analytics and visitor satisfaction initiatives – a mixture that’s uncommon within the business.
One standout instance of our dedication to know-how 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 technique has confirmed particularly invaluable through the annual burn-off season, when air high quality in Bangkok and surrounding areas can deteriorate considerably. Company are capable of monitor each indoor and out of doors air high quality in actual time by means of a devoted app, whereas every room additionally encompasses 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 out to be a compelling differentiator for our model companions and ESG-focused traders. It speaks to our dedication to visitor consolation, operational innovation, and sustainability in equal measure.
TDM: What thrilling issues can we count on from SK Lodges sooner or later?
We’re coming into an thrilling new section of progress. Along with increasing our city footprint, we’re exploring alternatives in additional distant locations throughout Thailand. In some instances, these properties might require robust model partnerships; in others, the vacation spot itself could be the draw, permitting us to launch distinctive, impartial lodge ideas.
We’re additionally persevering with to develop strategic partnerships much like the one we have now with Siamese Asset. These alliances enable us to leverage our shared infrastructure – centralized finance, HR, IT, and industrial experience – decreasing prices and enhancing efficiency on the property degree. Not like extra inflexible company constructions, our management works contained in the motels, for the motels. This ends in sooner decision-making, stronger staff help, and finally, higher visitor experiences.
On the coronary heart of our philosophy is a straightforward however highly effective mission: to function motels with a relentless give attention to 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 consider in frequent sense. It’s a price that always 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 current instance that highlights the type of sensible intelligence and calm management we worth throughout our groups. It befell through the speedy aftermath of the March 28, 2025 Myanmar earthquake, a day of widespread disruption, uncertainty, and logistical chaos throughout Bangkok.
Amid the aftermath, one in all our engineering staff members observed uncommon foot visitors close to a little-used emergency exit that led right into a service hall, an space usually quiet and safe. Regardless of 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 house to maneuver items with out supervision or correct clearance.
Whereas it may have been straightforward to miss or deprioritize given the broader disaster at hand, the staff dealt with it discreetly and decisively. Entry 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 on this situation is using situational consciousness, frequent sense, and initiative, within the chaos of a real-world disaster. These are precisely the qualities we nurture at SK Lodges: a tradition the place staff members are empowered to behave, to assume past checklists, and to guard each our visitors and our model fame within the moments that matter most.
As we develop, this core perception in sensible intelligence and human connection will proceed to information each choice we make. At SK Lodges, the longer term isn’t nearly growth it’s about evolving neatly, sustainably, and with function.
The publish 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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