SK Hotels’ Scott Walton talks new hotels and destinations coming up in Thailand, innovation and technology
The put up SK Hotels’ Scott Walton talks new hotels and destinations coming up in Thailand, innovation and technology appeared first on TD (Journey Day by day Media) Travel Daily Media.
SK Accommodations is continuous its enlargement in Thailand, with a handful of latest properties developing within the capital Bangkok and new locations throughout the nation set to broaden its present portfolio. Managing director Scott Walton talks with TDM concerning the development, and the way innovation and know-how are taking part in key roles.
Journey Day by day Media (TDM): Are you able to give us a top level view of the present SK Accommodations property portfolio, and considering your development plans, new properties within the pipeline?
Scott Walton: SK Accommodations was established as a three way partnership between Siamese Asset, a publicly listed property developer primarily based in Bangkok, and Kew Inexperienced Accommodations 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 assets, and business help. These capabilities had been embedded regionally in a manner that stood aside from the extra inflexible company buildings usually seen in Thailand.
This go to sparked the formation of SK Accommodations in Bangkok, with a transparent mission to deliver the identical sort 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 Accommodations 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 Residing Bangkok Sukhumvit 39, and Cassia by Banyan Group in Rama 9. Every 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 sturdy efficiency, whereas others shortly discovered their footing, delivering constructive outcomes all through 2023 and into 2024.
Wanting 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, 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 the moment in superior discussions on properties in main leisure locations reminiscent of 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’ve constructed throughout business, finance, HR, and IT now permits us to develop the portfolio with power and agility.
With this strong basis in place, SK Accommodations 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 position in your operations, specifically in terms of bettering property efficiency. Are you able to increase on this?
Scott Walton: Innovation has change into a defining pillar of our operations. The fast rise of AI post-COVID, alongside evolving visitor expectations and a extra complicated working atmosphere, has pushed us to rethink how we work. Because of 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 Residing – a course of that usually entails weeks of costing, sourcing, and coordination – we used AI instruments to streamline procurement information, automate value comparisons, and pace up documentation. This allowed our cooks to focus totally on culinary creativity and innovation, bettering the visitor expertise moderately than being slowed down in admin.
Our innovation can also be deeply supported by Siamese Know-how, an inner division of Siamese Asset centered on enhancing visitor expertise by way of environmental design and building know-how. 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, 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 be 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 count on from SK Accommodations 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 substances can be found, what the group craves, and the place we will break from the anticipated. We take inspiration from world developments whereas at all times 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, substances, and working fashions to stay forward of evolving client expectations. Whether or not it’s by way of centralized manufacturing kitchens that enhance consistency and effectivity, or by embracing the “Instagrammable” development 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 necessary as innovation. One of many earliest classes I realized 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 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 trendy vacationers place higher emphasis on steadiness, mindfulness, and self-care. At SK Accommodations, 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 Magnificence Heart, Sense Cera Spa, and Yumoto, bringing a various vary of wellness experiences to our motels. These partnerships permit us to tailor every providing to the distinctive character of the vacation spot, whereas nonetheless reflecting world 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 remedies 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 way of restorative practices or to utterly disconnect from the stresses of on a regular basis life. We acknowledge that wellness right now means various things to totally different folks, and we goal to fulfill 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, useful 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 way of partnerships with coworking platforms reminiscent of Reef Rocks, an app that connects distant staff with welcoming areas, we’ve reworked our lobbies and lounges into vibrant, linked 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 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 loosen up, 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 folks stay, work, and join each on the street and near house.
TDM: Inform us concerning the Thailand centre of studying, monetary companies, recruitment, income, digital spine and operations help that SK Accommodations has established?
Scott Walton: Once we launched SK Accommodations within the aftermath of COVID, we had been met with the identical challenges dealing with the worldwide hospitality trade. 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 folks and the methods that help them.
The institution of a decentralized Centre for Studying marked a turning level. Somewhat than chase the identical restricted pool of expertise, we selected to put money into people who could 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 change 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 the moment 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 primarily based on potential moderately than simply prior expertise. We’re searching for mindset and perspective people who find themselves hungry to develop inside a fast-paced, agile atmosphere.
Alongside expertise growth, we’ve constructed a monetary companies platform that goes past the usual GOP focus typical of lodge administration firms. Our finance group operates with a transparent mandate: to prioritize investor returns and long-term worth. That is achieved by way of sturdy inner 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 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 supplied with instruments reminiscent of IDeaS and Avalon, giving them dynamic pricing and forecasting capabilities tailor-made to their particular markets. These instruments are additional enhanced by the legacy information and methods introduced in from Kew Inexperienced Accommodations, whose affect has helped form our business path and strategy to demand optimization. Supported by a centralized business group underneath 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 and marketing operate has additionally change into an important development engine. By way of a mixture of structured digital technique and untapped artistic expertise – a few of whom we jokingly name “diamonds within the tough” – our advertising and marketing division has developed sturdy, narrative-led campaigns for every property. These usually are not generic lodge adverts, however model tales that resonate with their goal audiences, crafted by way of the good 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 methods throughout all properties, guaranteeing not solely performance however scalability as we develop. Each lodge underneath SK Accommodations is supplied with standardized {hardware} and software program from PMS and back-office methods to firewalls and IPTV options guaranteeing operational effectivity and information safety. The IT group 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 inner platforms.
These departments – Studying, Finance, Income, Digital, and IT – usually are not working in silos. They’re built-in and aligned to help SK Accommodations’ mission: to function effectively, innovate responsibly, and empower our folks to create distinctive visitor experiences. It’s a construction that places folks 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 development of SK Accommodations’ main proprietor Siamese Asset’s portfolio?
Scott Walton: Know-how sits on the core of SK Accommodations’ development 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 good constructing applied sciences, AI, and sustainable building methods. Likewise with Kew Inexperienced’s ever evolving distribution, analytics and visitor satisfaction initiatives – a mixture that’s uncommon within the trade.
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 helpful in the course of the annual burn-off season, when air high quality in Bangkok and surrounding areas can deteriorate considerably. Company are in a position to monitor each indoor and outside air high quality in actual time by way of a devoted app, whereas every room additionally incorporates a stay show of present air high quality readings. This stage of transparency and environmental management has not solely reassured visitors, however has additionally change into 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 Accommodations sooner or later?
We’re coming into an thrilling new part of development. Along with increasing our city footprint, we’re exploring alternatives in additional distant locations throughout Thailand. In some instances, these properties could require sturdy model partnerships; in others, the vacation spot itself is perhaps the draw, permitting us to launch distinctive, unbiased lodge ideas.
We’re additionally persevering with to develop strategic partnerships just like the one we’ve with Siamese Asset. These alliances permit us to leverage our shared infrastructure – centralized finance, HR, IT, and business experience – decreasing prices and bettering efficiency on the property stage. In contrast to extra inflexible company buildings, our management works contained in the motels, for the motels. This ends in sooner decision-making, stronger group help, and in the end, 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 folks to create distinctive visitor experiences. We emphasize transparency, sustainable development, 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 sort of sensible intelligence and calm management we worth throughout our groups. It came about in the course of the rapid aftermath of the March 28, 2025 Myanmar earthquake, a day of widespread disruption, uncertainty, and logistical chaos throughout Bangkok.
Amid the aftermath, considered one of our engineering group members observed uncommon foot site 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 group dealt with it discreetly and decisively. Entry controls had been instantly bolstered, 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 state of affairs is the usage of situational consciousness, frequent sense, and initiative, within the chaos of a real-world disaster. These are precisely the qualities we nurture at SK Accommodations: a tradition the place group members are empowered to behave, to assume past checklists, and to guard each our visitors and our model popularity within 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 Accommodations, the longer term isn’t nearly enlargement it’s about evolving well, sustainably, and with function.
The put up SK Hotels’ Scott Walton talks new hotels and destinations coming up in Thailand, innovation and technology appeared first on Travel Daily Media.