Dreamland Gold Resort is expanding its capacity to accommodate its guests that have expanded exponentially over the years since its establishment four years back. Along with adding 20 rooms to its existing 24 rooms, this resort situated near one of Nepal’s hottest international tourist destination – Lumbini, is adding health club, fitness centre and children's park facilities. Regarded as one of the best places to rejuvenate by its guests, this resort is spread across 48 ropanis of land and is located between two of the promising industrial towns in Southern plain— Bhairahawa and Butwal.

 

Established by four entrepreneurs as a venue for business meetings and conferences for corporate and non-profit organizations of Butwal and Bhairahawa, the resort grew popular as a retreat, party and conference venue among guests that includes individuals, corporate houses and NGOs. Gradually the popularity pushed it to expand its capacity from the initial 12 rooms to 20 rooms. “There were no good hotels and resorts in Butwal for organizing meetings and conferences, so our promoters acquired this unused facility. We renovated it to meet our business objective. Gradually it evolved into a popular resort. Back then we had no idea that it would turn out to be such a popular resort,” says Rajesh Khanal, General Manager of the resort. The resort has two conference rooms, 24 deluxe rooms, dining restaurant, swimming pool and a lush green garden. 

 

Informing that the resort has a consistent 60 to 70 per cent occupancy rates in all seasons, Khanal said that it has 30 per cent occupancy till 2016, on the basis of reservations made so far. Earlier, there was customer inflow shortage during Dashain and Tihar festivals, but in the recent years it has been not the case. Comparatively, this is the best year in terms of occupancy. Khanal credits the resort’s excellent hospitality and personalised services for its growing popularity. 

 

Growth

With an initial investment of NRs 30 million, the resorts present investment rests around NRs 150 million. In its initial two years the resort struggled hard and incurred loss, Khanal informed. “During the initial two years we struggled. We faced shortage of rooms to accommodate our guests. So, we simply focused on expansion and renovation,” shared Khanal adding that these investments paid off in the following years with 15 to 20 per cent annual growth in business. Buoyed with the growth, Khanal says that their annual growth target for this fiscal year is set at 40 per cent. 

 

Khanal claims it is one of the best resorts in Lumbini zone and hopes to make it one of the top ten Nepali resorts in the years to come. With plans up their sleeves to expand the resort to Lumbini in the near future, they have long term plans to open up branches in Pokhara and Kathmandu.

 

Major Challenges

The hotel industry is a sector where business takes place round the clock and keeping its guests happy is a big challenge for it. In lack of laws and guidelines that ease off problems arising from this, Khanal says that it is hard to overcome these challenges. Like others in the sector, he says that the resort has also been facing challenges like load shedding, skilled human resources and unstable politics of the country. However, Khanal is quite positive about the resort’s performance and strongly believes that problems and solutions come hand in hand.

 

CSR Activities and Future Outlook

The resort provides donations and supports various activities of local clubs. Though it has not initiated any CSR activities on its own, it is presently discussing ways through which it could contribute to social causes.