Shinagawa Beach Hotel – One of the Best Hotels in Sri Lanka

With the pressurized life style it becomes unavoidable to travel somewhere remote to get some good rest and happiness. Though I run my own business with no enough time for entertainment, time to time I try my level best to travel to explore new places in Sri Lanka.

Hence I have decided to add something about my trips in my blog in addition to the usual marketing, entrepreneurship and management related blog posts. I have named this interesting column as “My Travel Diary”.

Officially this will be the first post about my latest trip to down-south. People who are planning to go on Trips in Sri Lanka generally choose down-south as their preferred destination. The place I visited is a  hotel in Balapitiya located in the frequent down-south route passing Ahungalla.

It was a memorable trip of mine and my wife’s with plenty of heartwarming experiences. This property is called Shinagawa Beach Resort that belongs to Asia Leisure PLC. Already I have visited this hotel during January 2014 for a spend the day with some of my friends.  But this time I was there on a full board basis. If I want to express my stay at Shinagawa in one word I would say “Amazing”.

My Deluxe room was splendidly spacious with a comfy king sized bed with an attached ultramodern washroom. The usual star class hotel facilities such as LED TV, complimentary WiFi, private balcony, pool, restaurant, minibar, room service etc. were there. But the unusual thing about the hotel is the peace of mind it gives to the guests. This property is an ocean front hotel that gives a breathtaking panoramic view of Indian Ocean.

I would like to list down few things that gave me some great experience at Shinagawa:

1. I have been to several hotels, but not seen a courtesy levels of staff this high. Starting from the front office staff to room cleaners I didn’t expect a higher level of empathy level. I had a chance to chat with the front Office Manager, Executive Chef, Stewards etc. and they were so passionate about what they do.
2. Not like other hotels, at Shinagawa you experience healthy set menu. As the hotel is mainly visited by European guests, they organise set menus (most of the time a seven course meal) than buffets. I was discussing with the Executive Chef Mahesh, who was going here and there to receive some appreciations from the local and foreign guests. He said that himself and the Food and Beverage Manager decide the daily menu based on the type of guests accommodated. A simple one word that expresses about the food served would be “Awesome”. It is 100% guaranteed that you will have a very delicious menu that is completely different from the conventional buffet lunch or dinner or breakfast.

Chief Executive Chef – Mahesh

Plate of Fruits, Home-made Jams, Kekiri Fresh Juice – Part of Breakfast Menu

Freshly Baked Buns and Breads

Fresh Mixed Fruit Juice

 

A Part of Lunch

Yummy Orange Mousse

3. The surrounding of the hotel is also enjoyable, we were spending more time in the beach as well as in the naturally made pool with the beach that in the room.

4. Sea view of the hotel is simply amazing. The balconies of the hotel are facing the sea. All the times staying in the balcony while the soft sea breeze embraces you give a refreshing feeling.

A Golden Evening at Shinagawa

4. A naturally made pool along the sea gives an enjoyment for better sea bathing even though the sea is rough.

5. Collecting corals is one of the best entertainers that I enjoyed there.

If you feel you need more information about this hotel please do call me on 94 71 303 2422 🙂

 

 

A COMPACT MARKETING SOLUTION FOR HOTELS IN SRI LANKA

“Sri Lanka is going to be one of the best destinations for tourism and leisure throughout the world this year, being ranked as the number one destination in the world to travel in 2013 by Lonely Planet and endorsed as one of top six destinations for world travellers in 2012 by the National Geographic Traveller magazine”, says Ragulan, founder of Epitom Consulting.

Epitom Consulting, a Marketing consultancy firm which is fast becoming an epitome of professionalism in the Sri Lankan consultancy knowledge world by serving its clients with the best. Ragulan explains that his business is dedicated to offering unparalleled Marketing consultancy and knowledge related services through an exceptional professional approach which ensures that the clients are successful, competitive and become leaders within their markets.

“On December 31st 2012, Sri Lanka welcomed her one millionth tourist while comfortably surpassing the targeted tourists arrival to the country of 950,000 for the year of 2012. However, unfortunately most of the hotels are not up to the standard from the tourists’ point of view and also not marketed adequately to attract more tourists into the country”, points out Ragulan.

As a result Epitom has decided to render its fullest support to hoteliers to uplift the marketability of their hotels. This particular service is named as Epitom’s Compact Hotel Solution which will be offered at an affordable budget that helps the small medium hotels to obtain the maximum benefit from the package.

“With the aim of offering the perfect job, the first step is a basic audit about the hotel that will be prepared free of charge. Epitom will do research about the hotel including its website, social media profiles and through TripAdvisor which is a global travel website that contains numerous travel related information, reviews, guides and options that play a vital role in travel related decisions making” stated Ragulan, explaining the strategy adopted by his firm.

“While going through the Trip Advisor reviews which are posted by guests who have visited Sri Lanka, we found many positive as well as negative reviews about the Sri Lankan hotels where most of them are not managed properly by the management” Ragulan mentioned.

“It is becoming very important to manage all the online as well as offline channels to attract more guests by which the hotels can be taken to the next level. Consequently, after all our research we decided to join hands with the hotels and provide customized services such as the Internet Marketing, Online vs. Offline marketing consulting (Branding, Customer Relationship Management, Loyalty Marketing), and web development. For more information mail us hotels@epitom.org / call 071 303 2422.