Five major hotels to be re-branded

PHUKET: Three Phuket hotels will be renamed under the Central Group’s re-branding of its hotel and resort business, while another two will be taken over by the Marriott chain of hotels.

Central Karon Village, Central Karon Beach Resort and Central Kata Resort will be renamed Centara Villas, Centara Karon Resort and Centara Kata Resort, respectively.

Centara, the Central Group’s new hotel brand, comes from the words “Central”, their 60-year-old brand name in Thailand, and “tara”, a Thai word for water or river.

Suthikiat Chirathivat, chairman of the executive board of Central Plaza Hotel Plc, said he believes the name “Centara”, which marks a separation of the group’s hotel and resort business from its retail and food business unit, was more relevant to Thailand than “Central”.

Three different sub-brands have been created to re-brand the 11 hotels under Centara: five-star properties will include the word “Grand” in their titles, village properties will be renamed Centara Villas and spas will be renamed Spa Cenvaree.

The move comes as the Central Group prepares to expand both locally and internationally, starting with a new 505-room hotel, the Centara World Hotel, slated to open March 2008 in Bangkok.

The Marriott hotel chain will take over the 399-room Grand Tropicana Hotel Phuket, in Patong, and rename it the Courtyard by Marriott Phuket at Patong Beach. The company will also pick up the 256-room Surin Beach Resort, which will be re-branded as the Courtyard by Marriott Phuket at Surin Beach.

The Marriott management comes through a deal struck between Marriott, which also owns the JW Marriott on Phuket’s northern end, and Destination Properties.

Both hotels will undergo significant renovations during the process. They are both expected to be finished by early 2008.