SOFITEL WANDA BEIJING

The 5-star hotel scene in Beijing has seen 5000 new rooms put on the market for the Olympics, bringing the total amount of rooms of this segment to approximately 20'000. Needless to say that business will be ultra competitive after the Olympics. The properties are expecting a drastic drop in the occupancy rate, especially for the month of September, since the visa restrictionswill be in effect until the end of the month.

Hotel Manager Lionel Houliat (worked several years at Hotel des Bergues in Geneva), Drusilla Gao, H. Fournier, Toumert AL Khalloufi, Nicolas Luo

Drusilla Gao with Cedric Besler F&B Director and Thonon graduate

The Sofitel Wanda Beijing, 417 rooms with 660 staff and 6 F&B outlets opened in August 2007 in the CBD area. "César Ritz" graduate Drusilla Gao joined the pre-opening team in November 2006. She had graduated (WSU) in 2004, completed her last in-training at the Mirador Kempinski overlooking Lake Geneva and then returned to China to work in events at the Kempinski Great Wall. She then joined the Accor group and is now E-commerce Marketing Asst. Manager at the Sofitel.

The entire hotel celebrates the intimate links between two splendid cultures: the visual ambiance of Chinese design with a subtle blend of French and Western contemporary style. Drusilla is keeping up her French, she is even taking advanced lessons.

The Central Business District (CBD) includes the China World Shangri-La and the following new properties: Sofitel, JW Marriott, Park Hyatt, Ritz-Carlton and the Mandarin Oriental which has yet to open (pictured below next to the CCTV tower)

It was a pleasure to catch up with Toumert AL Khalloufi at the Sofitel. Our 2001 graduate and F&B trainee is now Vice-President Academic Affairs at the Delter-Telfort International Business Institute in Beijing. The institution enrolls 15'000 students overall. Tom oversees the tourism faculty with around 1500 students. There are plans of expanding the programme, this is China after all!