Amongst the many hotels peppering urban Colombo, snuggled right into its heart, the Colombo City Hotel bestows a bounty for your budget. Whether you’d like an escape into or out of the city, this hotel makes all the difference. Apart from a restful stay, guests are treated to a good dose of the shores of the Indian Ocean, a culturally diverse city stir and the lasting impressions of history, left behind by Arab, Indian, Dutch, Portuguese and British influences.
Words Sonali Kadurugamuwa Photographs Indika de Silva
While the Colombo City Hotel is complete with 48 rooms and amenities to match most five star hotels around Colombo, Gamini Mathew, Managing Director, adds that, “all of our rooms are equipped with mini bars, satellite television with LED TVs, hair dryers, European imported personal safes, tea/coffee-maker, air conditioning, hot/cold water on tap, IDD enabled phones, piped music and the entire hotel premises is Wi Fi enabled.”
Entrance to rooms are equipped with digitally controlled card lock systems offering peace of mind to hotel guests. “We don’t compromise on the quality of our services,” he affirms. From standard to deluxe and family rooms, the Colombo City Hotel makes booking and even arranging for airport pickups and drop offs easy through its website. Left luggage facilities, laundry service and free basement parking are offered to guests with self-driven cars, while its travel desk offers value for money tours and excursions. “Our services don’t stop there,” he continued. “We have additional facilities such as currency exchange and we accept all major credit cards.” Since a majority of the hotel’s guests are expatriates, Mathew is persistent on keeping the hotel’s conveniences to an optimum.
For a well-deserved trip to the commercial capital, there is such a thing as ‘having the cake and eating it’
Colombo City Hotel rises to six floors and with the exception of the value added rooms, situated inside is also a conference hall, outfitted to host up to 200 guests for any occasion, with all the facilities to hold a first class conference/seminar or wedding reception that would match any five star venue at a fraction of the cost. Further, way up at the opposite end, the rooftop houses a quaint little restaurant that is partially opened to the city sky. Theme nights at the restaurant, every Wednesday and Friday, host flavours from the world over and live bands keep the entertainment flowing. “Daily, we have a big crowd. People, mainly from the surrounding corporate offices, queue up for lunch, as the hotel’s value for money is not just limited to the accommodation,” adds Mathew.
Having won the Agoda Gold Circle award in 2011, Colombo City Hotel liberates a magnetic location for conveniences, “and that is why we have such a large occupancy rate here. We are at the city’s centre while being a budget friendly hotel at the same time,” states Mathew. In addition, “we keep our environment, not only within the hotel, but also the outdoors, extremely clean and well maintained. Furthermore, being eco friendly the hotel has switched all public areas and rooms to energy saving three watt LED lights and the newly refurbished rooms come with inverter AC’s,” he adds on the hotel’s Corporate Social Responsibility to the city of Colombo.
“The hotel is situated right in the financial hub of the city centre, just opposite the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and adjoining the recently opened shopping and dining mall, the Dutch Hospital Precinct,” says Mathew. Thus, if you’re hopeful of a well-deserved trip to the commercial capital, then there is such a thing as ‘having the cake and eating it,’ at the Colombo City Hotel.
33, Canal Row, Fort, Colombo 1
Tel: (+94 11) 554 1962
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