Hotel Sogo, the largest hotel chain in the Philippines, will invest in mobile applications for iOS and Android devices so guests can have the luxury of making mobile bookings and room reservations in an hour.
“Our target is to be the first hotel to have a mobile application that can accept accommodation in an hour. If you’ll notice, all hotels have 24-hour reservations, or maybe a minimum of 12 hours but our target is to have reservations in an hour,” said Sue Geminiano, marketing manager at Global Comfort Group Corporation
Geminiano said innovation in their operations is a continuing process. The company is also planning to use solar panels and have started offering Wi-Fi Internet access, a centralized 24-hour Guest Assistance SMS Center where guests from any branch can communicate their concerns through text and get immediate action. These technologies are part of their commitments to improve their services to customers, and achieve its target of having a 100% occupancy rate.
As come-ons to let customers patronize the hotel and its services, promotional activities were offered to customers. They make the guest’s stay in the hotel affordable with five-star hotel service by offering discounts. The hotel offers a lifetime Hotel Sogo card which offers 22% discount on stay awhile rates, 10% in all other room rates and 10% for food and beverage.
Hotel Sogo merchandise items such as key chains and ball pens can be used as discount item when shown in the front desk. Users of these items are offered 22% discount for stay awhile rates, 10% in other room rates and 10% for food and beverage. Other promotional activities include Mother’s and Father’s Day, Rainy Day and the Fingerprint mo, Discount mo! where fingerprints of guests will be saved and can be used to get a 22% discount for stay awhile rates. These promos are applied to all Hotel Sogo branches, except for new branches which include Timog, Alabang, Molino and those that will be built in Mindanao Avenue and in Davao.
Hotel Sogo, which started in 1993 with its first branch located at the LRT Monumento, is also looking to expand its operations in the country by establishing additional branches inside and outside Metro Manila. The hotel currently has 39 branches nationwide.
“In 2015, we have 35 branches and now, we have the latest and the 39th branch in Timog. In two years time, we had four branches and we’re opening up another two branches soon. In 2020, we’re planning to have 55 to 60 branches,” claims Geminiano.
Finally, Hotel Sogo is not all business. It also extends its service to the community through the Doctors on Wheels (DOW) Program that focuses on providing free medical consultations, laboratory examinations and medications to under-served communities throughout the Philippines.
