Exceptional destinations, outstanding value

The General Manager of the Crown Towers and Nobu hotels in Manila’s booming City of Dreams gaming, events and leisure complex has an illustrious hotel pedigree. In an interview, he shares insights into his events and leisure businesses and outlines his vision.

It’s a small thing for some people, sure, but it suggests a well-run establishment, whose operators are mindful of the green sensibilities of many of today’s travellers.

On a grey-blue sea, ferries scuttle about in bright sunshine. A cruise liner looms at its mooring, while in the distance a low-cone-shaped sleeping volcano rises from the harbour – an unmistakable clue to the city I’ve recently arrived in.

Just off Saigon’s heaving, teeming Ben Thanh market, up a discreet flights of steps in a pencil-thin precinct reminiscent of apartments in Paris or New York, is a hidden gem: the 21-room Anpha Boutique Hotel.

It was late, after 11pm, when I arrived at the La Rose Boutique Hotel and Spa in Phnom Penh, tired after two long flights. I soon discovered to my dismay that the people at reception weren’t expecting me – I’d given them the wrong dates.

A Chinese banquet for over 2,000 people, an incentive event for 8,000 already done and dusted, and 500 future bookings secured. You could say things are going pretty well for the new International Convention Centre Sydney.