Onyx hospitality becoming global, plans to overtake Indonesian hotel in 2016

One of the largest Thai hotel management firms, Onyx Hospitality Group plans to raise its presence amongst global players, with plans to operate 15 hotels domestically and overseas over the upcoming three years - Six Amari, four OZO, three Shama and two in The Mosaic Collection (TMC).

The firm also plans to increase its property portfolio total from 37 to 81 by 2018.

This year, they are prepared to overtake operation of Amari Dhaka in Bangladesh and OZO Pattaya of Thailand. Next year, Amari Residences Jomtien of Pattaya, Amari Dali of China, Amari Johor Bahru of Malaysia, OZO Kandy and OZO Galle of Sri Lanka, OZO Penang of Malaysia, Shama Beijing and Shama Chengdu of China, Pattaya Bay Resort, plus Nova Residence Pattaya will be operated. 

Onyx will continue to overtake more hotels during 2016, namely Amari Pecatu Bali in Indonesia and Amari Huidong and Shama Pazhou Guangzhou, China.

Onyx Group are currently operating 37 hotels, totalling of 5,990 rooms in Thailand, plus four other countries – China including Hong Kong, Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates, Qatar. Onyx owns some of these properties, as well as manages some owned by others.

To enhance its international expansion over coming years, the group intends to establish more representative offices in countries including Australia, Britain, China and Germany. Offices have already been established in mainland China, Hong Kong, India, Singapore and the UAE.

Other core businesses, Maai Spa and Breeze Spa, are also underway to establish along with this expansion.

Furthermore, the Onyx senior vice president South East Asia, ML Suravut Thongthaem, said the group were undergoing major renovations at its own hotels.

Amari Phuket is set for renovation with additional rooms by the end of 2016. Amari Samui will also be closed for a year for major renovation. Refurbishment of Amari Orchid, Pattaya is to be completed next year, as renovation work at Amari Watergate, Bangkok has just completed. The group also renovated Amari Don Mueang Airport.

Onyx have been in the hotel business for 50 years, therefore they are confident towards accessing overseas markets alongside other global hospitality players. Their strengths include being well established with long experience, particularly in the hotel sector and having made it through issues in the past.

The group continues to move upon its human resources, providing training for 6,000 people. This is in preparation for future growth. Onyx are also committed to avoiding staff lay-offs even during crisis periods and offering yearly bonuses on a performance basis. 

The group has also invested much towards improving its internal purchasing system, reservation system and internal management, also hiring professionals at managerial levels.

For the rest of the year, it is expected of the business to rebound to near normalcy during the third and fourth quarters. New bookings for beach destination hotels including Krabi, Phucket and Samui are returning significantly, as Bangkok hotels take a longer time to recover. Although, the overall occupancy rate of hotels in the capital are expected to increase from current 50% to 60% this quarter. 

Onyx Group's revenue and average occupancy rate slipped by 8% during the first half of this year, in comparison to the same period last year. Occupancy at Bangkok, Koh Chang, Pattaya and Samui hotels slipped between 2 to 20%. However, Thai hotels in Phuket, Krabi and Hua Hin saw occupancy grow by 12-20% during the same period.

The group are revising its marketing strategies by focusing on segments such as wholesale, conferences, as well as the domestic market.