Sunday Dec 15, 2024
Sunday Dec 15, 2024
Thursday, 1 August 2019 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The Blackpool Hotel in Nuwara Eliya, has received the four-star status and is now looking at adding a spa to their portfolio. The hotel which was built on former potato cultivation is owned by a consortium including a Japanese investor, Yatara Travels, former Director General BMICH, Bandula Ekanayake and three book publishers, Sarasavi, Samayawardana and Sadeepa.
“The investors had first wanted to build seven cottages to be used as their holiday homes, but I suggested that we build a hotel which was easy to manage and it was how Blackpool Hotel was built with an investment of Rs. 750 million in 2015.” 
The hotel has 54 rooms with seven suites built on different themes and each has cold water, heaters, tea coffee making facility, Cable TV and free Wi-Fi. The hotel also has a large banquet hall to accommodate 225 guests and a conference facility to cater to 100 guests with modern facilities. The hotel has a multi cuisine restaurant, ‘Altitude 1818’ that could accommodate 120 guests and the ‘Single Tree Lounge and Bar’ and ‘Taylor’s Tea Lounge’. “In a bid to create exclusivity, we also introduced the first heated outdoor swimming pool in Nuwara Eliya, which even at present, is a much sought-after attraction.” 
As the hotel adopts sustainable energy practices, the swimming pool too is powered by solar energy. “This concept also won us several global and local sustainable awards including the German Sustainable Energy Conservation Award, which placed us seventh out of 100 projects in the world. The hotel also won the Presidential Environment Awards in 2018 and has also achieved the ISO 14001:2015 as well.”
The Blackpool Hotel has also received the World Luxury Hotel Awards and Luxury Mountain Hotel (Asia – Continent Winner) recently. Blackpool Hotel has a new management theme where the General Manager is designated as Leader of the House, Room Boy as Team Members and Chefs as Leaders of Culinary Expertise. He said that while they were constructing the hotel, a kitchen helper and a mason was later recruited to the hotel staff and today one of them is a Guest Relations officer. The make shift cook has excelled in the culinary sector and won a Silver and later a Gold at the national Culinary Arts completion.
While offering special rates for Sri Lankans due to lean patch the industry is going through, the hotel offers a special $ 5 coupon to all foreign guests that can be cashed at the hotel against any bill. Ekanayake, a veteran in the industry said that Nuwara Eliya is still considered a one-night destination though there are so many things that could be marketed to make it a three-day destination. “This includes a site to the Haggala Park, World’s End, golf, horse riding, tea fields and factories and the water falls as well as the Ravana trail.”
