JW Marriott expects to reopen in 30 days

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Still shocked by the terrorist bomb attack on Tuesday, the employees of JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta are now busy cleaning up and repairing their place of work, vowing to reopen the hotel in 30 days.

Despite their shock and gravity, all the hotel's 642 employees -- except for the eight employees injured by the bombing -- arrive at the hotel everyday and work normal hours.

"We're working hard here to make sure the hotel will resume operation in thirty days," Mellani Solagratia, Marriott's public relations officer, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

"I'm optimistic we can meet the target. We have to be (optimistic)."

She said, although all the guests had already been transferred to other hotels, employees still came to work to serve the guests who want to reclaim their belongings, (left at the hotel after the bombing).

"Employees also help clean up and repair the damage," she said, adding that the police were still cordoning off the area, barring non-employees from entering the hotel.

Asked whether there would be any lay-offs, she firmly replied, "We give our employees top priority, and also the guests."

JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta is run by PT Permata Birama Sakti (PBS), a family firm established in 1982 by an Indonesian tycoon, Tan Kian.

When the Post tried to contact him on Friday, Tan Kian's secretary said that Tan Kian had told her to refuse interview requests from all mass media.

"He's currently overwhelmed by all this (the bombing). He will explain everything at the proper time," the secretary said.

According to an interview with Tan Kian that appeared in The New Asian Cuisine & Wine Scene magazine in December 2001, Tan Kian started his property business by building Plaza Lippo in the late 1980s. The office building is located on busy street Jl. Jendral Sudirman.

Later in the 1990s, he started developing an ambitious project in the heart of Jakarta, called the Sentral Mutiara Superblock. The block consists of office building Plaza Mutiara and luxurious Sailendra apartments.

The 33-story JW Marriott Hotel Jakarta is the final part of the superblock. It was built in 2001 and boasts 333 rooms, 12 meeting rooms, complete sports and recreation facilities and four restaurants and lounges.

Mellani said that the hotel had an average occupancy rate of 70 percent, which put the hotel among the top three highest occupied five-starred hotels in Jakarta. The direct competitors of the hotel are, among others, Grand Hyatt, Shangri-La, Intercontinental and Regent, she said.

The vacant land, across from the hotel, is also owned by Tan Kian and is reserved for the development of Hotel and Apartments , The Ritz-Carlton. It is not yet known whether the plan to build The Ritz-Carlton is still on PBS' business plan after the bombing.

Both JW Marriott and The Ritz-Carlton are hotels managed by worldwide hospitality company Marriott International, Inc., based in Washington D.C.

Besides these two, Marriott International also operates franchise hotels under the brands Marriott, Renaissance, Residence Inn, Courtyard, TownePlace Suites, Fairfield Inn, SpringHill Suites and Ramada International names.

Under the franchise system, any company can lease a brand, either JW Marriott, Grand Hyatt, Four Season or Intercontinental.

Therefore, for example, 2,600 hotels under Marriott International, Inc. around the world can be owned by 2,600 owners. In Indonesia itself, there are two JW Marriott hotels, respectively in Jakarta and Surabaya and Tan Kian only owns the Jakarta one.