The Galadari Hotel in Colombo has a facility ideally suited for businessmen in its “Executive Floor”, an entire floor of rooms reserved solely for guests who are in Colombo on business matters.
The Executive Floor is actually the 12th floor of the 14-floor five star hotel, and it has a wide array of services which are geared towards making the stay of business executives, who are rushing from one business task to another, pleasant one.
For starters, the floor has a preregistration service, with check-in facilities on the floor itself, and an express check-out service, to make sure that business guests aren’t kept waiting needlessly.
The floor has its own guest relation officer, who assures friendly and speedy service, helping guests to set up appointments, travel details, and everything they may need during their stay.
The entire floor is comprised of four suites, and 40 twin rooms, some of which have two beds and others with king rooms with a single large bed. If the Executive Floor is full, guests who want a room will get a suite on one of the two higher floors, giving them a better view of the city at the same rate as the Executive Floor.
All rooms are equipped with international direct-dialling telephone facilities, and a fax machine or computer will be connected to the room on request. They also have 12-channel televisions, with BBC, CNN, Star Plus and even an Arabic channel, so that can guests can be up-to-date with what’s going on in the rest of the world.
Each room gets a deluxe fruit basket, flowers, chocolates, Perrier Water and a gift from the General Manager.
Other items found in these rooms which you won’t get in normal rooms are body lotion, mouthwash, bath foam, bathrobes and bedroom slippers. The hotel will also press your suit or dress each day, free of charge.
A room on the Executive Floor is priced at 85 US dollars a day, which is only 10 US dollars more than a normal room.
Executive Floor guests also get free breakfast, and since guests in normal rooms have to pay seven dollars for breakfast, the Executive Floor is indeed a bargain.
The Executive Floor has its own exclusive conference room, with a fax machine, and a lounge where businessmen can meet clients at their leisure. The lounge has the latest newspapers and periodicals, and if you need to kill time, you could always check out one of the many board games. available.
The floor offers a complimentary tea and coffee service, high tea from 3 to 5 pm, cocktail hours from 5 to 7 pm and a bar from 7 to 10 pm.
The Galadari prides itself on being a business hotel, rather than being a resort or entertainment hotel.
The Business Center on the ground floor, which is open 24 hours on weekdays, has some of the best conference facilities in town, including secretarial services, photocopying and courier services, mobile phone and dictaphone rentals, laserprinting spiral binding, private mail box facilities, personalized letterheads and business cards within 24 hours.
The hotel’s ballroom, which seats up to 800 people, has drop screens, full audio-visual facilities, and a media board which automatically photocopies what you write on it, so you can get as many copies as you like, to hand out to anyone. The ballroom also has facilities for simultaneous translation into four languages.
Five smaller conference rooms are conveniently located around the main ballroom.
Two of Galadari’s three restaurants, the California Grill and the Spice Market, especially cater to businessmen, with tables set apart just far enough, to ensure that the businessmen at the next table won’t hear what one is saying about a hush-hush multi-million dollar deal.
The Spice Market, on the lobby level, is an original Sri Lankan restaurant, specializing only in local cuisine for lunch and dinner, while the western style California Grill serves seafood, grills and American steaks, and has two private dining rooms in addition to the main dining areas, where business executives can impress colleagues by holding luncheon meetings.
The California Grill also has a special business lunch on weekdays, while another alternative is the Coffee Shop, which has a buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as an extensive a-la-carte menu, and is open 24 hours.
The Galadari’s service for Executive Floor customers begins at the airport itself, where the hotel operates a counter open 24 hours a day. The staff there handle practically everything, from paging pssengers, to booking you into the hotel, arranging transport, and sending your bags on ahead to the hotel, if you want to go somewhere else first and get to the hotel only hours later.
Apart from the facilities of the Executive Floor, the hotel also has all the luxuries of a five star hotel, including a health center and pool, and the popular nightclub “Valentino’s” to help you have some fun after a hard day’s work.
The Galadari’s phone number is: (9 41) 544544, e-mail address is: galdari@sri.lanka.net, and internet access is: http:\sri.lanka.net galadari
