Merging business with pleasure at Cebu Marriott

MANILA, Philippines - Traveling on business is often associated with glamour and excitement. But for business executives who are on the road two weeks out of the month, eight months out of the year, stress and a sense of isolation are the more common realities they face.

“Across the globe, you see them at hotel lobbies close to midnight picking up calls and responding to e-mails from the head office, which could be on another time zone,” says Roy Abraham, general manager of the Cebu City Marriott Hotel.

They often travel to meet other colleagues with whom they discuss projects past dinnertime and even over breakfast the next day. Hotel cafes and traditional outlets are not natural venues for these extended meetings and neither are individual guest rooms suited for them.

By responding to these and the other dilemmas of the business traveler, the Cebu City Marriott Hotel, which recently underwent a major renovation, continues to be the preferred hotel of business executives in Cebu City. Acknowledged as a showcase of Filipino design ingenuity, the lobby has become a venue for “social business” — as it is called in the Marriott world. These are spaces that allow the seamless merging of business and social activities.

Abraham, who in over three decades has worked in nine hotels in six countries, influenced the team that fused the insightful design guidelines of the Marriott chain with the best in contemporary Cebu craftsmanship.

The lobby has been divided into various zones: one area where one can have a meeting and even project a power point presentation on a flat screen, another where an executive can do serious work on his laptop but has the flexibility of ordering a glass of wine and appetizers, and an active zone for checking in, checking out, and availing of other business services.

“By providing areas for working, meeting and socializing, the most pressing needs of the hotel guest on business are met,” notes Abraham. “It allows them places to merge business and social needs.”

Touches like the sleek contemporary furniture featuring Philippine wood, mother-of-pearl lighting fixtures, and coconut shell tabletops clearly differentiate the establishment as a hotel in Cebu City, the capital of furniture exporters in the Philippines. Distinguished for its furniture designs that combine Eastern craftsmanship, natural materials, clever forms and modern technology, Cebu has been likened to Milan, Europe’s design center. “Ninety-five percent of the furniture and accessories were naturally sourced from the city known the world over for its urban ethnic design chic,” affirms Abraham.

The design further showcases Cebu’s exceptional craftsmanship in the renovated guest rooms with headboards created from donut-shaped, cross-sections of coco shells pieced together and bleached white. The coco shell compositions are mounted over unadorned wood veneer with inviting white pillows lean against it. While the quilted mattress enveloped in cotton-rich sheets and a down comforter have been known to lure guests back to the Marriott, the rest of the room has also been designed to pamper the hotel guest on a business trip.

The desks are ergonomically designed and come with high-speed wireless connectivity in each room. Beside the desk are flat screen TVs, which may eventually double as screens for electronic gaming.

“We think we’ve given the hotel guest the amenities and facilities he or she needs to do what they want when they want it,” adds Abraham.