Page 139 - Masala Weddings in Thailand 2018

Bob F
Bob Fabiano
abiano
Gregory Bob F abiano

Preslier General Manager at Bangkok Marriott Marquis

Queen’s Park

Area Director of Sales and Marketing Thailand,
and Director of Sales and Marketing at InterContinental With approximately 44 years of experience under his
Bangkok and Holiday Inn Bangkok belt, Bob Fabiano has worked for approximately 40
Marriott Internationals; making him one of Marriott’s
most experienced executives. His noteworthy career
began in 1972, where he joined Newton Marriott
Hotel in Massachusetts. He later went on to receive
his first General Manager position at Marriott Suites

Perimeter Center in Atlanta in 1987. Afterwards, he
showed no signs of slowing down, as he managed

no fewer than 11 hotels in five countries in 29 years.
Now, Bob embarks on his latest accomplishment
in his long and distinguished career as GM of the
largest hotel in the City of Angels, Bangkok Marriott
Marquis Queen’s Park.

How serious is the hotel with respect to catering to
the Indian wedding market?
No other hotel in Bangkok can
We are absolutely committed. We recognise the value of “ “ No other hotel in Bangkok can
We are absolutely committed. We recognise the value of
this sector and our responsibility to provide unsurpassed offer this variety of venues
services for such important occasions. These large and
lavish events generate important revenue for our hotel, both and facilities. “
in terms of rooms and catering. But that’s not all! They also
create a real buzz around the hotel and generate a lot of
social media attention. The last Indian wedding we hosted How competitive is it for hotels in your particular area
was still trending two weeks after the event finished. of the city?

The Bangkok market as a whole is very competitive.
What are the main challenges when managing one? However, as the largest hotel in the city, Bangkok Marriott
Managing Indian weddings is not necessarily a challenge for Marquis Queen’s Park is the only option for large weddings
us, because we have a professional team who can handle that occupy over 300 rooms. We have three large ballrooms,
the logistics and specific requirements of such large events. meaning that we can organise back-to-back functions.

The main challenge comes when we are trying to host a In addition, we have three outdoor venues for rooftop
large wedding and other corporate groups at the same time. receptions, pool parties and alfresco events. No other hotel
As our hotel is so big, with over 1,300 rooms, we usually in Bangkok can offer this variety of venues and facilities.
cater to two or three large groups at the same time. It’s not
an unusual situation for us, but balancing the needs of the So what is the largest wedding group that has been
different groups can be quite demanding. hosted thus far?
In terms of guests, we have hosted a local Indian wedding
How many Indian weddings has your hotel hosted in 2017? for over 1,200 people. In terms of scale, the most recent
We have hosted seven Indian weddings: three from overseas wedding we held lasted for five days and comprised of

and four for local Indian families. more than 20 different events. The various set-ups were
phenomenal, and the buzz the event generated was
Have you received any extraordinary requests from fantastic. Not only the whole of Bangkok, but every Indian
the couple? community around the world was talking about this event.
Recently, the couple’s baraat featured a full-sized Batmobile! This was also trending on our social media feed for several
That caused quite a stir parked in front of the hotel. weeks after.

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