SEEING the growing potential of business-process outsourcing (BPO) talents as a market, Golden Phoenix Hotel Manila is bringing to the Metro area the so-called Silent Rave—a new trend in the party scene of Europe—to attract more guests, especially from the younger crowd, popularly known as the millennials.
As a quiet type of disco, hotel clients and even walk-ins can groove to the music synched to their headsets while being played by a disk jockey (DJ).
Golden Phoenix Hotel Manila Director of Sales and Marketing Christine Urbanozo-Ibarreta said they have decided to launch this new offering, dubbed “Neonized.” She said it is fitted to their location at the center of the booming residential area of the Mall of Asia (MOA) Complex in Pasay City, where noise curfews were strictly imposed.
This is not the first time this kind of event debuted in the Philippines. The first took place at the Malasimbo Music Festival held last year in Puerto Galera, Mindoro Oriental, she said, though this is the pioneering party event of its kind in Metro Manila.
“It’s the first silent disco party in the city,” she told the BusinessMirror at the sidelines of their kick-off party over the weekend.
“So true enough, since we’re in a condominium side [of the MOA], we cannot be too noisy. [But] for you to still enjoy the music all night long without disturbing the neighbors, there’s a headset,” she said.
The hotel has partnered with event production and artistic management company Liberty Grounds that provides the wireless headgears and DJs coming from abroad.
In the mean time, Urbanozo-Ibarreta said they plan to do this as one of their series of events to be held initially at the seventh floor of the hotel, particularly at the pool side area, from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m.
“We might do it [starting] next month, on Fridays and Saturdays. And then, it will depend on the occupancy of the hotel, as well,” she said.
Apart from the hotel’s main market, who are businessmen aged 35 years old and up, who usually go out for recreation at night during their free time on weekends, the top executive expects Neonized to also tap the younger guests, especially call-center agents within and outside the area.
“In fact, we do get a lot of people from the BPOs looking for hotels [to check in here] every weekend. Maybe it’s their day off,” she said. “We want to cater them because they have more money nowadays. So why not spend it with us with this new offering?”
Given the inquiries they have received from prospective clients who also want to book such kind of event in the hotel, Urbanozo-Ibarreta is positive it will drive their business growth further since their opening last year.
At present, Golden Phoenix serves both the business (65 percent) and leisure (35 percent) markets, including families, couples and transients.
Nationality-wise, the 281-room hotel facility is home mainly to local guests (55 percent), followed by those coming from overseas (45 percent), particularly the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom.
Without citing exact figures, Urbanozo-Ibarreta is bullish their foray into the silent-party scene will help them continue to exceed their projections in terms of occupancy which, on the average, stands at 88 percent a month.
“That’s high, meaning we’re almost fully booked every day,” she said. “Even without this [Neonized], our occupancy is very good. But I see it as complementing our business. We can attract more people. While on weekends—Friday and Saturday—we are fully booked, we can actually look at Sunday to Thursday, which are a bit lean for us, and do something like this. [But] we’ll see first [its initial success].”
Apart from Manila, Golden Phoenix Hotel is in Station 3, Boracay. It also has two branches in Kenya.