UTech builds boutique hotel

[Exile]

UTech builds boutique hotel

BY NEKIESHA REID Business reporter
Wednesday, October 24, 2012

KINGSTON'S newest hotel is being built in an unexpected area — the Papine campus of the University of Technology.
And it will have culinary facilities that go far beyond room service and minibars — such as a food laboratory.


Chef technologist Karl Thomas and lecturer Donna Kelly enjoying Jamaica Night at UTech’s Lillian's Restaurant, which is soon to be joined by a hotel.

1/1

The university's construction of a boutique hotel on its Kingston campus will expand students' practical experiences beyond what is learned through internships, said Dr Kofi-Nkrumah-Young, its vice-president of planning and operations.
Although primarily for training, the hotel — which is yet to be named — will also be open to the public, he said.
UTech's School of Hospitality and Tourism Management has 850 students working towards degrees such as Bachelor of Science in food service management, and hospitality and tourism management.
Undergraduates are expected to complete two 10-week internships, a condition which will continue after the training hotel opens, Nkrumah-Young said.
"UTech is known for providing practical experience over theory," he said, adding that the hotel would give instructors more control over the hands-on aspect.
The hotel joins the hospitality school's privately owned fine-dining restaurant, Lillian's.
Expansion of the school —including the new hotel — is part of the university's US$44 -million ($4- billion) enhancement project.
Financed in part by a loan from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), the UTech Enhancement Project aims to upgrade the school's facilities to meet the demands of a growing student population.
The university has contributed US$17 million of its own funds to the project, Nkrumah-Young said, adding that Government will repay CDB's contribution.
In addition to the hotel, the expanded hospitality school will have a public bar, a restaurant and laboratories for food and beverage as well as housekeeping training.
Full-scale operation is expected to begin by January 2014, Nkrumah-Young said.


Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/busin...#ixzz2AXgK7wbQ

[Assasin]

Saw it. Look like them a use the HEART runaway bay model. Good for them.

[Exile]

Hope it works.

[Assasin]

hope it does. The runaway HEART Hotel is now upgraded and called Cardiff Hotel. yes hope Utech's can grow like that and hopefully the will think of something like this out west too.

[Stonigut]

Excellent stuff, now how do you keep people performing above expectation, minimize the temptation to steal goods, services and money from the operation which is bound to happen.

Must set very clear goals, must have excellent measurement systems, consistent, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, tying individual, unit, division, system performance to incentive systems across the enterprise and creating audit systems using multiple trails to cover all possible holes.

This is the fundamental challenge of this kind of operation in Jamaica, can we build operations that are efficient and profitable in an institution such as this without compromising level of service and the basic sustainability of such an enterprise over time. When we can do that, Jamaica will take off, until then we will remain to sit on excellent money making assets like Colbeck castle, port royal, national museum, institute of Jamaica, lucea and Falmouth central square and every other significant historical site laying in ruins, that should be operational with multiple money making streams that should enable revenues o consistently outpace operational and borrowing cost, especially if it is on the tourist breadcrumb trail.

[Exile]

Also.. give incentives for excellent performance, not only to management but to top performers. As you say, must have excellent measurement standards...
More than ever we need INSTITUTIONS that are defined by politics...so that there is continuity and singleness of purpose.

[Assasin]

take a look at the Runaway Bay HEART academy, I was there when it started. If you get good professionals and clearly define the achievement and set standards it will work.

When my group graduated it was hard for some of us to even adjust to less standard in some of the biger hotels. The standard today at the Cardiff Hall hotel is still great until today as they produce award winning chefs and others in the industry. Two of the graduates were actually tutors at UTECH a few years ago. Schools like George Brown University in Canada would accept any graduate of HEART and even provided scholarship for some.

This institution has lasted JLP and PNP admin and is actually paying for itself and growing. I can tell you the managers in hotels just in my group. One of my batch mate went back to be the acting Manager for a while.