Tourism News

Queens Garden Resort now part of Dutch Hotel chain

Story and photo by Suzanne Nielsen and reprinted with permission of the Daily Herald.

February 10, 2005

The Queen's Garden Resort General Manager Roel Klaassen has announced that the hotel has been accepted as part of the Hampshire Hotel Chain, headquartered in Holland.

Klaassen said that the Group is the fastest growing chain in the Benelux countries and now lists 45 properties. It is the only hotel chain in that region to make a profit since 9/11. The Queen's Garden Resort was the first property listed outside Europe.

Klaassen explained that the hotel chain is a grouping of individual hotels that fit into three definitions: inns, hotels, or "classic." The classic category, into which the resort falls, is advertised as "small enough to care," offering upscale customized service in a unique setting. The grouping allows the member hotels to take advantage of an organized merchandizing approach. Information on every Hampshire listing is available in each hotel, promotion is done jointly, and there is much wider exposure in the media and industry press.

The initiative came from Klaassen, who first contacted the Hampshire Group in November. After a vigorous exchange of information and pictures regarding the hotel's infrastructure and amenities, the contract was signed and became affective February 1.

Klaassen said that he was excited about the new opportunity to reach out to Dutch clients, his target market. "This gives enormous exposure to a hotel with just 12 rooms, and also to Saba, since we promote all island activities," Klaassen noted. Queen's Garden Resort owner Herman Henken is also very enthusiastic about the resort's new status.

Klaassen said that the hotel branding would change with a new logo, naming the hotel as "a Hampshire Classic Hotel." The Hampshire group will print 10,000 brochures on the Queen's Garden Resort, with most of the publicity distributed within Europe. It will integrate the resort web site with its own (www.hampshirehotels.nl.)

Photo: Queen's Garden Resort Manager Roel Klaassen.

Click here for a larger version of the photo.


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