Anantara Pursuing Rate Versus Occupancy Strategy

Talking over the weekend to Anantara's Director of Sales and Marketing Narelle
McDougall who commented 'we are in this for the longhaul" on the subject of strategies for the newly opened property in Mai Khao. The 83 luxury pool villa resort located next to the JW Marriott is starting to attract attention in overseas markets and despite the current tourism slump the property is taking a pragmatic long term rate driven approach.
Bill Bensley has done his handwork on the resort landscaping and his tribute to southern Thai influences and highlights leave no doubt where you are. Offering a unique entrance experience of a long corridor providing either mist by daytime or flames by night time, if you haven't had a chance to take a look, its well worth it.
The food an beverage outlets who had design and lighting by a top Singapore firm who has done work at the acclaimed W in the Maldives provide some pretty spectacular night 'wow's." One of the most notable outlets is the resorts Tree House which has a private wine room on the ground floor.
From my conversation with Narelle is was comforting to see key players viewing an extended horizon which is squarely aimed at high yielding long haul markets without taking a knee jerk reaction to offering purely cheap rates to get visitors in the doors. My view of Anantara is it's going to be a solid long term player here and well worth the attention of its upper tier luxury competitors.