Intervi ew
Hotel Business Review
Thriving on Challenges By Sharmila Chand
In his 30 years with the hospitality industry, seasoned hotelier Avneesh K. Mathur, General Manager, Park Plaza Gurgaon, has held leadership positions in leading hotel chains. Mathur has recently joined Park Plaza Gurgaon as the General Manager. He is known for his strategic planning and expertise in driving revenues. This valuable skill has helped him play a pivotal role in opening and renovating hotels. With a strong background in F&B, he is passionate about handling operations with a keen eye on detailing and delivering profitable business growth. No wonder, facing new challenges everyday & having something new to learn each day is what he enjoys the most about being at the helm of affairs at the hotel. The excerpts of the interview follow: What is the USP of your property? This is a boutique hotel, ideally located a stone’s throw from Huda City Center, the commercial hub of Sector 45, Gurgaon, at just walking distance from NH 8, and hospitals of international repute. Well balanced space allocation makes the hotel a favourite place for corporate guests with value for money. Very warm and personalised services of the hotel makes the guests feel at home after hectic travel and office schedule. Any unusual requests you have come across as an hotelier? All unusual requests are ‘usual’ for an hotelier. What is the marketing strategy you have adopted to promote your property? We are focusing on corporate companies, located within a radius of 5 kilometers from the hotel. We are offering very personalised services to make a guest feel at home. Customised packages, and balance between Rev Par and ARR are other strategies of ours to promote the hospitality property. What distinguishes your property from others in the same bracket? Warm hospitality, key location, spacious rooms, terrace pool and lounge are highlighting features of our property. Natural light in all guest rooms and corridors gives a very positive vibe. The Great Kabab Factory adds on to the culinary delight of all our resident guests and walk-in guests. What according to you is the role of F&B in getting business for a hotel? F&B is considered to be the backbone of any
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hotel. Repeat guests will come to the hotel only if the quality of the food is good, coupled with variety and vibrancy. In many cases, F&B outlets of hotels become the landmark of the hotels. After all we are dealing with human beings and food & beverage is an integral part of her/his hospitality experience. What would you say is/are the differentiating factor/s of your F&B outlets? The differentiating factors of our F&B outlets are their concept and the warmth in service. I personally check the quality and conduct surprise checks on raw materials being received. We strive for continuous improvement, which is the key towards success. What are the most crucial issues to tackle in the Indian hospitality industry these days? They are issues of undercutting, and of decreasing GOPs and increasing payroll. How has your journey been so far in the hospitality industry? My journey in the hospitality industry has seen all the patches, including both good and bad! One has to understand that there are many external factors which impact our business. I have seen the time when there was absolute scarcity of rooms in Mumbai and Delhi and hotels were commanding unbelievable room tariffs, and looking into the current scenario I now feel that even the middle class families in India these days can afford a stay or a meal in a five-star hotel. What is your strength, professionally? Exposure of working in different cities has given me the flexibility of accommodating myself in different work cultures and of celebrating diversity.
Besides, patience and deep understanding of any situation helps me in taking the correct decision. Moreover, the experience of handling the hotels from project stage and launching them successfully has given me enormous exposure. Handling the renovation of running hotels has made me understand the pain it takes and the detailing it requires for renovation. Kindly talk about a challenging situation in your career, and also how did you overcome it I would narrate one incident which happened in 2013, when I was the GM of Country Inn & Suites By Carlson, Jaipur. During monsoon time suddenly one day the hotel basement got flooded with water due to heavy downpour in the night, since the hotel is located in low lying area. Then the hotel was on 100 percent occupancy. It was only due to great team effort and patience we managed to keep all the services of the hotel uninterrupted. The complete engineering team coupled with security and finance teams were engaged in organising pumps and taking help from the fire department to extricate the water. Nearly seven days of efforts, day and night, in shorts and t-shirt, brought back the normalcy, and proved the strength of team work. How do you de-stress? Yoga at 4am in the morning and long drives help me de-stress myself. What is your working mantra that is your guiding philosophy at work? Keep on coaching, guiding, and training your team since they are never ending processes and are always required.