New 70 Room Branded Boutique Hotel For Kamala

Bangkok listed firm Tanayong have announced they will develop a 70 room hotel in Kamala that will open in 2011. An affiliate company Absolute Hotel Services will manage the property under their U hotel and resort brand. The growing chain currently operates a property in Chiang Mai and has other projects under development in Khao Yai, as well as Kanchanaburi.
With a stragegy in focusing on hotels under 80 rooms, the development cost of the Kamala property has been set at 500 million THB. Viewing the current trend in the hotel pipeline for Phuket we are seeing a defined move away from larger cookie cutter room's factories, where Twin Palms broke ground a few years ago, now with properties such as Cape Sienna, Sala Phuket, Aleenta and the up coming B-lay Tong and Paresa smaller and more personal hotels are coming of age.
It's interesting to note that Jonathan Wigley who is CEO of Absolute had been with Kevin Beauvais' InVision chain a few years; who are also becoming a growing concern with management of Zeavola along with a number of new hotels in the works under their Lantern and Glow brands.