ILOILO City – Being at the heart of modernity, the “City of Love” has given Courtyard by Marriott Iloilo a chance to see first-hand its growing economy and to feel how the Ilonggos have warmed up to an international hotel brand that promises them the best treatment and helps them promote to the world the locality they hold dear.
Over the past year and a half of operating at the Iloilo Business Park in Mandurriao district, the hotel had accommodated guests who were there not only to huddle for business, but also to celebrate life events and make meaningful connections. “We always want to set the trend for Iloilo,” says Director of Sales Joy Alonte, “a positive environment and working relationship, and good collaboration with the community.”
As hundreds of guests come in and out of the hotel every day, Courtyard by Marriott Iloilo and its associates find themselves in a unique position to experience how partnerships are built among the residents and their visitors, and what the city and its neighboring municipalities have to offer.
These have allowed Courtyard to identify and imbibe a cultural character which highlights wherever and whenever the community that hosts them, and informed the ways they attract and care for all of their customers, as they reap the reputation for being a highly preferred accommodation establishment and one of the most recognizable landmarks in the burgeoning metropolis today.
“We promote Iloilo first. … [But] you need to embrace and love the city first before you are able to talk about it,” says Alonte, noting how Iloilo is different from other areas like Manila and Cebu, where their brand can also be found. She says many of the foreigners – their market – they have spoken to do not know where Iloilo is yet “only Boracay” so they resort to “creating interest about Iloilo first” before talking about the hotel.
Talking about Courtyard by Marriott Iloilo without talking about Iloilo City “will never work,” says Marketing Communications manager Nico Velasquez. “While people will get a great experience here at [the hotel], it will still be [about] what they experience in the community that will make a difference in their stay. [So] we can’t stop talking about Iloilo.”
Bringing forth the importance of Iloilo in the Philippines’ economic and tourism development is not much of a challenge at all, owing to its immense potential for investments, Alonte says.
The hotel opened in May 2018. After the “soft opening” on May 1, it had a grand launch eight days later, with executives from the hotel management and Travellers International Hotel Group, Inc., government officials, the media, and other special guests in attendance. At that moment, it was about time for Iloilo City to have an international hotel – the first international hotel in Western Visayas and the first Courtyard, a Marriott International brand, in the Philippines.
Aside from the obvious spur of businesses (the Iloilo Business Park of Megaworld Corp. itself is teeming with establishments, from high-end hotels and restaurants to classy boutiques and supermarkets), the conservative lifestyle and security will make anyone fall in love with Iloilo City. “This environment is ideal for raising a family,” says the mother of one.
No wonder why Iloilo is such a “family market,” Velasquez notes. “It’s a market that thrives in who you know, who you talk to and what you want to do that’s centered on the family.” This warm hospitality, among big groups and even among guests who are not related by affinity, has made making connections at the hotel easier – and is exactly the kind of culture that Courtyard by Marriott Iloilo wants to promote.
Talking to the guests, especially those from outside of the city, Velasquez says, “We would talk about the linkages they could get when they visit Iloilo. We link them to the government, we link them to the DOT (Department of Tourism), and we link them to specific private business owners.” And they believe these ties that they help facilitate contribute to the growth of Iloilo. “It’s an assisted growth,” he adds.
These connections are made wider by the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, and Exhibitions) industry, which the hotel actively campaigns for.
Majority of the hotel’s guests are Filipinos and foreigners engaged in business – the same market that the general manager, Cleofe Albiso, tagged as the “trailblazers”: the influencers, the decision-makers, people living fast-paced lives — and who are highly likely present in big conventions and conferences, particularly at the nearby Iloilo Convention Center, says Alonte. “There’s a 100-percent occupancy at the hotel whenever there is a MICE event in the city.”
MICE events are “a key driver of revenue not just for the hotel but for the entire city,” Alonte admits. “You are looking at [people getting on] flights, (land) transportation, events organizing, [the influx of people in] restaurants, shopping malls.”
Courtyard by Marriott Iloilo is grateful to have a share of the local and foreign guests who abound in this city whenever there are big and small events. It’s always a chance for the hotel, particularly its associates, to showcase the kind of hospitality that makes customers want come back. “Every guest who comes to the hotel is our business partner,” says Alonte. “We treat them fairly – whether you are a local or a foreign guest, regardless of race or place of origin, everyone is treated fairly.”
Behind the smiles and the greetings from the associates is a mind-set deeply ingrained in every level of the Marriott hotels’ human resource. “Putting people first – that’s our mantra,” says Alonte. “We serve the associates – our internal clients – first. (John Willard) Bill Marriott (Jr., executive chairman of Marriott International) would always say that, if you put people first, they will pay it forward to the guests.”
The hotel official notes that 80 percent of their associates are Ilonggos. “Our associates would treat the guests the same way they want their families treated,” she says. “Guests will get what they deserve, which is excellent service, and when they check out of the hotel, there’s a bright smile on their faces.”
Velasquez says serving “from the heart…with honesty and genuineness” is their key to making lasting connections with their guests. “We’ll give them the best that we could, the best option that they can get, and identify the best way to go about whatever they want to accomplish here in Iloilo,” he says.
Citing the recent launch of a movement that pushes for innovative products and processes toward the creation of a smart city, which is hoped to usher in more investments in the future, Velasquez said it is getting easier to sell Iloilo City now that it is starting to “boast of what it can do to the global community.” He adds: “There’s so much pride in Iloilo. The past may always be present, but we are always forward-facing.”
Meanwhile for Courtyard by Marriott Iloilo, Alonte says “touching the lives of the people we meet and create a lasting partnership with them” is what they hope to keep doing. “How we want the community (in Iloilo City) to grow is how we want to grow ourselves.” PN
