Seclusion at its best

Thursday, 30 April 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

OAK Residencies Director Anne Rosenna Josephe By Shehana Dain Escaping from the busy city life, OAK Residencies Kiribathgoda provides a sublime atmosphere for a peaceful vacation for professionals yearning for a break. OAK Residencies Director Anne Rosenna Josephe in an interview with the Daily FT elaborated on how they set off with this initiative to provide luxury within the parameters of the city keeping in mind their base strategy to grant their customers a hidden serendipity. I must say I was also pleasantly surprised when I entered the premises, to witness this type of property in Kiribathgoda, which is normally a very busy town. The location is a major advantage as it away from the city yet in a very convenient locality to reach business appointments on time. The villa is surrounded with paddy fields giving an eyeful of a green paradise, the gentle wind gives much-needed comfort away from the hustle of the city, the birds chirping away in the evening elevates the serenity of the property. Getting back to the materialistic offerings, it comprises six fully furnished bed rooms to suit varying needs ranging from Delux room – $ 60; OAK Suite – $ 80; and the Luxury Villa – $ 120. All guests are entitled to access the pool, which is an added bonus. Wi-Fi facilities and mini bar facilities make the villa almost equal to the standard of a high end hotel. During my visit there, Anne showed me the ongoing progress of setting up a home gym and conference room, stepping up their game plan to stay ahead of the competition. Why it’s special The residence comprise of two villas. Anne emphasised: “Mostly it’s foreigners who come here and our main objective is to give our customers a homely feeling in a peaceful environment.” She also went on to outline how this idea sparked within the group of investors. “The Free Trade Zone is nearby; we saw it as a great opportunity as most of the hotels around here are out of town and the few hotels we have in the town are crowded and not spacious enough to provide a calm setting.” She explained how they saw the niche market of business personnel arriving at the Free Trade Zone, who are eagerly waiting to get away from their busy lifestyles and step into a tranquil mindset. Hence they came up with the idea of OAK Residencies. The main difference from this villa and hotels is, as Anne professed, “We will always only have to two villas in one property; we can of course build more rooms to increase volume and gain more profit, but if we do that it will go against all our concepts” The demand Anne highlighted: “The demand for such luxury villas is very high, and we cater to the high end middle class. Our prices are not cheap because we provide high quality services in every aspect.” When asked about the challenges they are facing in this condominium industry, Anne stated: “At the moment we don’t have any competition because we are the only people who are doing this the way it’s being done.” Commenting on future investment prospects, she stated: “We are planning on initiating two more such projects in the Seeduwa-Negombo area and Kurunegala-Narammala area.” The positive vibe has picked up, as she highlighted: “We are making profits, we are a profitable business; that’s why we are moving out investing in new projects. I can assure you the Negombo project will be one-of-a-kind.” She was very secretive about the design as they wanted to stun the business world with its uniqueness. Customer satisfaction OAK Residencies has got a high rating of nine out of 10 from customer feedback via the booking.com website. When I read the customer reviews on the website, many had mentioned how they loved the service and this caught my attention. I asked how customer feedback has been so far and with a confident smile, Anne assured that customer feedback has been positive throughout mainly because they attend to each customer individually. “We talk to them and ask them what they need and most importantly give them freedom; it’s not a hotel with rules imposed on guests, which is in a way the true meaning of tranquillity and a peaceful stay.” Anne pointed out how they go out of their way and provide customers with special favours, sometimes even providing the OAK Suite to frequent guests without an additional charge. It’s not a surprise that with such customer service they have a regular customer base. “We don’t have to always advertise and find people to come to the villa as we have a frequently visiting loyal customer base. Our business operates on a theme where we provide whatever the customer wants.”