The publish SK Resorts’ Scott Walton talks new motels and locations developing in Thailand, innovation and know-how appeared first on TD (Journey Every day Media) Journey Every day Media.
SK Resorts is continuous its enlargement in Thailand, with a handful of recent 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 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 Resorts property portfolio, and taking into consideration your progress plans, new properties within the pipeline?
Scott Walton: SK Resorts was established as a three way partnership between Siamese Asset, a publicly listed property developer based mostly in Bangkok, and Kew Inexperienced Resorts 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 when it comes to lodge administration, but additionally in areas like finance, human assets, and industrial assist. These capabilities had been embedded regionally in a method that stood other than the extra inflexible company buildings sometimes seen in Thailand.
This go to sparked the formation of SK Resorts in Bangkok, with a transparent mission to convey the identical sort of streamlined, performance-driven working mannequin to the Siamese Asset lodge portfolio. In doing so, we’ve created a nimble, centralized assist construction that has already confirmed efficient throughout a number of newly launched properties.
Since rising from the pandemic, SK Resorts 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 effectively to the resurgence in worldwide and home journey. Some properties hit the bottom operating with exceptionally robust efficiency, whereas others rapidly 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 presently in superior discussions on properties in main leisure locations akin to 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 assist infrastructure that we’ve constructed throughout industrial, finance, HR, and IT now permits us to develop the portfolio with power and agility.
With this stable basis in place, SK Resorts 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 relation to enhancing property efficiency. Are you able to broaden on this?
Scott Walton: Innovation has grow to be a defining pillar of our operations. The speedy rise of AI post-COVID, alongside evolving visitor expectations and a extra complicated working atmosphere, has pushed us to rethink how we work. Due to 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 Residing – a course of that sometimes 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 slightly than being slowed down in admin.
Our innovation can be deeply supported by Siamese Expertise, an inside division of Siamese Asset targeted 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 strategies all of which contribute to extra sustainable, comfy 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 commonplace originating from Singapore.
These improvements not solely cut back working prices but additionally make 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 improvement technique, what can visitors count on from SK Resorts 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 will break from the anticipated. We take inspiration from international developments whereas all the time remaining domestically 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 shopper expectations. Whether or not it’s by way of centralized manufacturing kitchens that enhance consistency and effectivity, or by embracing the “Instagrammable” pattern to enchantment to the visual-first buyer, our method 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 discovered in hospitality, working in Auckland’s restaurant scene, was that if one thing works, make it constant. If it doesn’t, change rapidly. 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 improvement technique and continues to develop in significance as trendy vacationers place better emphasis on steadiness, mindfulness, and self-care. At SK Resorts, we method 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 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 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 fully disconnect from the stresses of on a regular basis life. We acknowledge that wellness at the moment means various things to completely different individuals, and we intention to satisfy these wants in methods which might 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 assist this hybrid way of life, with communal areas reimagined as trendy, productive environments that assist work with out sacrificing consolation or hospitality.
By way of partnerships with coworking platforms akin to Reef Rocks, an app that connects distant staff with welcoming areas, we’ve remodeled 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 might 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 assist how individuals stay, work, and join each on the street and near house.
TDM: Inform us concerning the Thailand centre of studying, monetary providers, recruitment, income, digital spine and operations assist that SK Resorts has established?
Scott Walton: Once we launched SK Resorts within the aftermath of COVID, we had been met with the identical challenges going through 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 solely. To rebuild, we knew we needed to take a recent method, not simply to recruitment however to the long-term improvement of our individuals and the programs that assist them.
The institution of a decentralized Centre for Studying marked a turning level. Relatively 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 assist wanted to succeed. In simply three years, many of those people have grow to be integral to our operations and are already progressing into management roles.
In parallel, our method to recruitment has continued to evolve. With conventional channels yielding diminishing returns, we’re presently 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 slightly than simply prior expertise. We’re searching for mindset and angle people who find themselves hungry to develop inside a fast-paced, agile atmosphere.
Alongside expertise improvement, we’ve constructed a monetary providers platform that goes past the usual GOP focus typical of lodge administration corporations. Our finance group operates with a transparent mandate: to prioritize investor returns and long-term worth. That is achieved by way of robust inside 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 offers our traders confidence and our lodge groups readability.
Within the space of income technique, we’ve taken a hybrid method. Every of our motels is provided with instruments akin to 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 programs introduced in from Kew Inexperienced Resorts, whose affect has helped form our industrial route and method to demand optimization. Supported by a centralized industrial group underneath Mrs. Tassanee Mangkala-apinun (Khun Pait), this hybrid mannequin permits every lodge to reply domestically whereas being backed by broader market intelligence and strategic oversight.
Our digital and advertising operate has additionally grow to be an important progress 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 division has developed robust, narrative-led campaigns for every property. These will not be generic lodge adverts, however model tales that resonate with their goal audiences, crafted by way 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 programs throughout all properties, guaranteeing not solely performance however scalability as we develop. Each lodge underneath SK Resorts is provided with standardized {hardware} and software program from PMS and back-office programs to firewalls and IPTV options guaranteeing operational effectivity and information safety. The IT group additionally performs a proactive position in property assist, 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 – will not be working in silos. They’re built-in and aligned to assist SK Resorts’ 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 Resorts’ main proprietor Siamese Asset’s portfolio?
Scott Walton: Expertise sits on the core of SK Resorts’ 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 building strategies. 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 worthwhile throughout 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 way of a devoted app, whereas every room additionally contains a stay show of present air high quality readings. This stage of transparency and environmental management has not solely reassured visitors, however has additionally grow 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 Resorts 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 could require robust model partnerships; in others, the vacation spot itself is likely to be the draw, permitting us to launch distinctive, impartial lodge ideas.
We’re additionally persevering with to develop strategic partnerships just like the one we’ve 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 stage. Not like extra inflexible company buildings, our management works contained in the motels, for the motels. This leads to quicker decision-making, stronger group assist, and finally, higher visitor experiences.
On the coronary heart of our philosophy is an easy however highly effective mission: to function motels with a relentless concentrate on 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 worth that usually 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 wish to share a current instance that highlights the sort of sensible intelligence and calm management we worth throughout our groups. It passed off throughout 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 seen uncommon foot site visitors close to a little-used emergency exit that led right into a service hall, an space sometimes quiet and safe. Regardless of the calls for of the day and the overwhelming distractions going through 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 simple 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 Resorts: a tradition the place group members are empowered to behave, to suppose 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 choice we make. At SK Resorts, the long run isn’t nearly enlargement it’s about evolving well, sustainably, and with function.
The publish SK Resorts’ Scott Walton talks new motels and locations developing in Thailand, innovation and know-how appeared first on Journey Every day Media.
