Singapore – Serviced residence company, Oakwood Asia Pacific, is gearing up to expand the network of its five-star Premier brand across the region and has clinched a new contract to manage the 207-unit Oakwood Premier Cozmo Jakarta.

The property, located in the prime Mega Kuningan area, is scheduled to open in 2006. Oakwood will also open the Oakwood Premier Beijing and Oakwood Premier The Column Bangkok next year.

Oakwood Asia Pacific director of sales and marketing, Mr Robert Philips, said additional Premier sites in Thailand, Japan and India would be announced by the end of the year. “Because we also have a hotel licence for the Premier brand, we want to work with the agents and we will be focusing on daily as well as long-stays,” Mr Philips said.

“And apart from offering luxury serviced residences and resort facilities, Oakwood Premier properties also offer space for small meeting groups of up to 50 people, catering facilities and business centres with teleconferencing capabilities.”

Oakwood’s Premier properties also offered room service, unlike other operators, Mr Philips added.

Oakwood has also introduced Oakwood Miles, a loyalty programme that offers 100 miles for every US$150 of accommodation expenditure at participating properties in Asia.

The miles can be redeemed through membership of United Airlines Mileage Plus, Continental Airlines OnePass or American Airlines AAdvantage programmes.

To raise its profile and the Premier brand, Mr Philips said Oakwood would be participating at the PATA Travel Mart, taking place in Bangkok from September 22 to 24.

“We are launching a new campaign for the Oakwood Premier brand and we are planning familiarisation trips targeted at travel agents,” he said.

Roadshows are planned for Japan, South Korea, India, Thailand and Singapore.

Oakwood, which has 30,000 serviced residences in North America, Asia and Europe, can be booked on the major GDSs. In Asia-Pacific, Oakwood now operates nine Premier and Residence (four-star brand) properties with more than 1,500 serviced residence units. There are five Oakwood properties in Tokyo and one each in Seoul, Bangkok, Manila and Guangzhou.

“In Japan, we are the only option for long-stays,” Mr Philips said.

The number of properties will increase to 20 by 2007 when sites under development in Indonesia, Thailand, China, Bangladesh and Japan are completed, and Oakwood will have doubled the number of serviced residence units, he added.