Hotel Business Review ( May- June 2013) The magazine for Hotel Professionals.

Apr-May ’13

Hammer Food & Beverage Business Review

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May-June ’13

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Editorial

HOTEL Business Review

HOTEL B u s i n e s s

R e v i e w

An Exclusive Business Magazine for the Hotel Industry

Publisher cum Editor

Rajneesh Sharma

rajneeshhammer@gmail.com

Associate Editor

Swarnendu Biswas Resident Editor

Sharmila Chand (Delhi) Ashok Malkani (Mumbai) Feature Editor

Kanishka Gupta

Layout & Design

Hari Kumar V Narender Kumar

Production Assistant

Mamta Sharma

Advertising Sales

Delhi: Debabrath Nath, Sumesh Sharma Mumbai: Rajesh Tupsakhre Subscription Sales

Dattaram Gangurde Director Sales

Sanjay Anand

Director Operations & Finance

Rajat Taneja

Editorial & Advertising Offices: Delhi:

Hammer Publishers Pvt. Ltd. 1202, Pragati Tower, 26, Rajindra Place, New Delhi-110008, India Phone: 91-11-45084903, 25854103 Telefax: 91-11-25854105 Mumbai:

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E-mail: hammerpublishers@vsnl.net Website: www.hbrmag.com © 2013 Hammer Publishers Pvt. Ltd. No article can be reproduced in part or as whole without prior permission of the Publisher.

Hammer Hotel Business Review is a bi-monthly magazine, printed and published by Rajneesh Sharma on behalf of Hammer Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 1202, Pragati Tower, 26 Rajindra Place, New Delhi. Printed at Print Creations, C-112/3, Basement, Naraina Industrial Area, Phase- 1, New Delhi 110 028.

Annual Subscription rate within India is Rs. 450 and overseas US $110, for surface mail. Single issue is available for Rs. 90 in India and US $25 overseas. Cheques are payable to Hammer Publishers Pvt. Ltd. Editorial Policy : Editorial emphasis in Hammer Hotel Business Review

magazine is on educational & informational material specifically designed to assist those responsible for managing instututional Hotel business. Articles are welcome and will be published on the sole discretion of the editor.

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The increase in disposable incomes in select pockets of urban Indian society and the maturation of globalisation, along with greater exposure to outbound travel among Indians have together contributed to the need for luxury in some select sections of India’s vast and varied socio-economic profile, whose numbers and money power are enough to influence market decisions. In fact, what was luxury a decade ago is conceived as need by many. An example of this is air-conditioned restaurants, which were perceived as luxury two decades before, but now are commonplace, and are frequented even by lower middle income population. The increasing MICE business in India’s hospitality sector is also perhaps attracting many global luxuary hospitality brands in the country.

One of the reflections of the marked lifestyle shifts in our society due to the above-mentioned reasons is the increasing demand for luxury hospitality.

No wonder, we are witnessing the emergence of a spate of luxury hotels in our hospitality industry. Several international luxury hotel brands have already made their presence felt in the Indian hospitality market and some others will be making forays in the Indian hospitality industry, in the near future.

Though it is expected that the international hotel chains entering the Indian market would face stiff competition from the established domestic luxury hotel chains like Taj, Oberoi, and ITC Hotels and also from many heritage properties, but these long-term players with deep pockets perhaps realise that there is enough potential demand in the market to absorb the additional supply in the Indian luxury hospitality space in the near future. One can safely say that though at present the scenario seems a bit overcrowded, but soon the growing demand for luxury hospitality in the country would be more than enough for the new players endeavouring to explore this vibrant market. Here we have attempted to explore the market of luxury hotels in India, through our Cover Story.

In the aftermath of the tragedy of 26/11, the safety and security concerns have assumed greater importance in the Indian hospitality industry. This has given an impetus to the private security systems. The good security is a product of sophisticated technology along with continual and judicious human resource intervention.

However, it is lamentable that though security has assumed greater importance in the Indian hospitality industry in the recent times, but overall, the security system across Indian hotels, especially across obscure non star hotels, still cannot be termed anywhere near great. Cost cutting when it comes to security concerns is still one of the lacunae of the Indian hotel industry, which if continues would increase the industry’s potential of peril.

We have attempted to holistically discuss the issues pertaining to the security parameters in the Indian hotel business, in our Business Story.

In the Focus section, we have covered the emerging trend of women only tours and women only travel clubs or companies, which have the potential to make our hospitality industry more women-friendly in the near future.

Besides these relevant and topical issues, we have attempted to cover a host of information, opinions and analysis through our articles and features, which we hope would give our readers enough enriching content across the pages of this publication.

HOTEL B u s i n e s s

inside

R e v i e w

An Exclusive Business Magazine for the Hotel Industry

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COVER STORY

One of the emerging hospitality trends in our country is an increasing demand for luxury hotels. Several international brands have already ventured into this land of hospitality with their brand of luxury hotels, or are in the process of doing so.

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BUSINESS

Security in the Indian hotel industry has become a hot topic of discussion since the Mumbai terrorist attacks of 26/11 where two important hotels of the country were targeted by the terrorists.

Many hotels in India did strengthen their security system after these heinous attacks, and the private security industry received a boost with the stepping up of hotels’ security systems.

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F&B

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DESIGN

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SPA

A passion for food & beverage with an avid interest in food & beverage concepts & trends, and a strong advocate for ‘change’ describe Tarun Seth – the F&B Director at The Claridges, New Delhi.

Signs and signage play a very important role in marking important venues in the hotel and guiding a guest to her/his desired destination.

FEATURE

Despite a number of favourable factors towards tourism, India doesn’t feature anywhere near the top ten countries in the world in terms of international tourist arrivals.

Aristo Spa and Salon, housed in Grand Mercure Bengaluru, is a perfect example of a contemporary spa, offering an exhilarating, uplifting and rejuvenating experience.

DEPARTMENTS

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MANAGEMENT

Hotels can optimally use the social media to raise awareness about their business, drive customer footfalls and increase covers. Firstly, hotels need to start examining and identifying the set of social media tools which would work the best for their business.

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Event

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News Scan

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Appointments

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Report

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Focus

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Product Preview

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Business Opportunity

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Interview

Cover Pix: Ranbanka Palace Heritage Hotel, Jodhpur

May-June ’13

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HOTEL Business Review

Hotelex India Yatra 2013: The Right Platform for the Hospitality Industry India will be having a 7-city road show named Hotelex India Yatra 2013. The event will take place during 13th September -30th November of this year and cover the cities of Cochin, Goa, Ahmedabad, Indore. Jaipur, Chandigarh and New Delhi. The event can be very useful for the Indian hospitality and food & beverage industry. The mega event will be organised by UBM India.

Today the industry is looking at cost-effective and innovative solutions to enhance production efficiency and profitability in the long run. Hotelex India Yatra 2013 provides the ideal platform for both the supplier and user segment of the hospitality and food & beverage sector to share and use the latest developments in the field.

The event will be presented as a two-day-long panel discussion. The forum will be aimed at interactive exchange and sharing of knowledge pertaining to the hospitality and food & beverage sector. This exclusive programme has been specifically designed for owners, Executive Directors, General Managers, Executive Chefs, and functional heads of F&B, catering, operations, facilities management and housekeeping.

In each of the seven cities, around 80-100 of the top decision makers will be invited to participate in this programme, thereby creating a unique, senior-level platform for the attendees of the forthcoming event to discuss and debate their top challenges as well as find solutions to the burning issues. The two-day programme will consist of leading industry keynotes from top hotels, restaurant owners and experts, interactive and exciting panel discussions, live demonstrations as well as carefully selected featured sessions from innovative equipment and solution providers, matched specifically to ensure they help you address your top challenges.

The forthcoming event will showcase catering & kitchen equipment, bakery, tableware, coffee & tea, IT technology services/security & sustainability, fitness & leisure, outdoor & resort experience, interiors & design among many others. Here the exhibitors can have the opportunity to showcase their products through live demos, speed geeking, facilitated networking cocktail and much more.

This forthcoming and promising event shouldn’t be any way missed by the Managers from various divisions of the hospitality and food & beverage industry, hotel consultants, hotel developers, spa operators and executives, General Managers/CEOs in the hospitality and food & beverage industry, Executive Chefs, restaurant owners, architects and interior designers, and hotel owners.

Dates & Venues of the Hotelex India Yatra 2013 • Cochin — 13th-14th September 2013, Hotel Gateway, Ernakulam • Goa — 11th-12th October 2013, The Lalit, Canacona • Ahmedabad — 18th-19th October 2013, St. Laurns, Ashram Road • Indore — 25th- 26th October 2013, Radisson Blu, Ring Road • Jaipur — 8th- 9th November 2013, Hotel Ramada, Raja Park • Chandigarh — 15th-16th November 2013, Taj Chandigarh, Sector 17 A • New Delhi — 29th- 30th November 2013, Le Meridien

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Event

EVENTS’ CALENDER MIFB 6-8 June 2013 Putra World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia www.hbf.co.in HOSFAIR 2013 27-29 June 2013 China Imports & Exports Fair Complex, Guangzhou www.hosfair.com TRAFS 2013 25-28 July 2013 Hall 103, Bangkok International Trade & Exhibition Centre (BITEC), Bangkok www.thailandhoreca.com Hong Kong International Tea Fair 15-17 August 2013 Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, Hongkong www.hkteafair.com International Baking Industry Exposition (IBIE 2013) 6-9 September 2013 Las Vegas convention centre, Nevada, US Annapoorna World of Food 23-25 September 2013 Hall-5, Bombay Exhibition Centre, Mumbai www.hbf.co.in Food Ingredients India 2013 3-5 October 2013 Bombay Exhibition Centre, Mumbai www.fiindia.ingredientsnetwork.com The 2nd Shenzhen International Hospitality Equipment & Supplies Fair 14-16 October 2013 Shenzhen Exhibition Center, China www.szhosfair.com Fine Food India 11-13 December 2013 Pragati Maidan, New Delhi www.finefoodindiaexpo.com

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News Scan

HOTEL Business Review

Tandoor Concept by Electrolux: Accredited by the Governing Body of ICF

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n a recent development, the members of the governing body of the Indian Culinary Forum have accredited the Tandoor Concept by Electrolux for its innovation and perfection. The Tandoor Concept

by Electrolux was developed at the Electrolux’s Innovation Center in Gurgaon by the Electrolux Chef Academy, and Electrolux has been tirelessly sharing this concept across seminars, events, and exhibitions with professional Chefs all over India and abroad.

“With adequate and relevant research in Indian cuisine, Electrolux has very successfully adapted, developed and showcased the Tandoor Concept, incorporating it in its programme designed for ovens, which the company is now successfully marketing in India.

The Tandoor Concept has successfully demonstrated application of technology to cook traditional Indian cuisine to perfection in less time and in an energy-efficient manner,” elaborated Chef Davinder Kumar, President ICF & Vice President, F&B Production, Le

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Meridien New Delhi, while speaking about the Tandoor Concept.

In the recent past, Electrolux Chef Academy has successfully demonstrated the making of biryani (in clay pot), chicken and paneer tikka, idli, samosa, and dhokla at Gulfood and AAHAR through Tandoor Concept. Prior to these demonstrations at these trade exhibitions, the Tandoor Concept by Electrolux was launched in front of an audience of over 300 Chefs from the Indian hotel industry at Indian Culinary Congress by IFCA, in Bangalore, in March 2012, and subsequently in September 2012, at the Electrolux Food

Theatre at Fine Food India, at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. Keeping up the momentum, Electrolux Professional India has been very busy in spreading the Tandoor Concept by Electrolux to Chefs across India, and encouraging them to apply this concept in their daily operations.

Speaking on the occasion, Kim Underhill, Regional Head, South East Asia and India, Electrolux Professional, said, “This Tandoor Concept can be applied worldwide and has the potential to take Indian cuisine to greater heights.

More so it opens up the possibility for other international cuisines to be cooked to perfection with Electrolux Professional equipments.”

“Since late 2010, tireless work has been put in for perfecting this concept,” asserted Marco Guerretti, Head of Region 8 and 10, Electrolux Professional.

“Electrolux’s Chefs, kitchen consultants and as well as customers have been engaged in detailed discussions and intense workshops to put it to test and now we have a winning concept,” he added.

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HOTEL Business Review

News Scan

Get Rejuvenated With The Oberoi, Dubai Comes to Life Six Senses The Six Senses Spa at the Jaypee Greens Golf & Spa Resort is the right haven to indulge in some great wellness options this summer.

The spa has an impressive array of refreshing solutions to rejuvenate and revive you this summer, which ranges from the comprehensive body rejuvenation treatments to quick pick me up therapies tailored for the time conscious working professional.

Some of the recommended spa treatments for this summer at the Six Senses Spa at the Jaypee Greens Golf & Spa Resort include hydrating facial therapies, scrubs, wraps, hammam and detox therapy. Refreshing dips at the cool pools of the spa or delighting the senses with ice fountains are other wonderful options at the spa to beat the heat.

Here it deserves a mention that Jaypee Greens Golf & Spa Resort is set amidst 60 acres of pristine land in Greater Noida. The beautiful landscape provides the perfect setting for the spa guests to indulge themselves; away from the hectic schedules of the concrete jungle.

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In the recent past, The Oberoi Group announced the opening of The Oberoi, Dubai. The Oberoi, Dubai happens to be the Group’s first property in the United Arab Emirates.

Located at The Oberoi Centre, which is a commercial complex and includes an office tower, the hotel comes across as a contemporary luxury hotel that embodies height, light and space. The hotel overlooks the iconic Burj Khalifa and each of its 252 rooms and suites has floor to ceiling windows which affords spectacular views of the city’s skyline.

The hotel enjoys a central location and is a few minutes drive from downtown Dubai and the Dubai Mall.

“We are pleased to present The Oberoi, Dubai which offers the highest standards of luxury and hospitality. The opening of the hotel is significant for us. A number of Oberoi hotels have been consistently recognised as amongst the best in the world. I am confident that The Oberoi, Dubai will continue this tradition.” said PRS Oberoi, Executive Chairman of The Oberoi Group.

Karim Bizid, General Manager of The Oberoi, Dubai added, “With the opening of The Oberoi, Dubai we will be offering discerning business and leisure travellers an oasis of tranquility with service which is warm, caring and personalised. We are confident that The Oberoi, Dubai will add tangible value to the hospitality sector in the United Arab Emirates.”

In keeping with The Oberoi Group’s tradition, The Oberoi, Dubai brings an ethos of ‘service without compromise’ to the UAE. The hotel has key team members who have been trained at The Oberoi Centre of Learning and Development. The Oberoi, Dubai will have seamless in-room check in, 24 hour butler service, and Les Clefs d’Or concierge services.

Culinary highlights at The Oberoi, Dubai include an array of gastronomic experiences. UMAI, a contemporary Pan Asian restaurant, NINE7ONE, an all day dining restaurant, which offers the best of world cuisine, and ANANTA, an Indian specialty restaurant, are expected to delight the guests.

Great service, delivered by attentive and caring team members is also expected to make The Oberoi, Dubai the preferred choice for discerning business and leisure travellers to the United Arab Emirates.

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HOTEL Business Review

News Scan

Toshali Resorts to Attract The Gateway to Scholars to Buddhist Circuit Hubli The Gateway Hotels & Resorts, part of the Taj of Orissa Group of Hotels, has announced the launch of The With the growing interest among academicians to explore the vastly spread Buddhist heritage sites of Orrisa, Toshali Resorts International, the Gurgaonbased hospitality and destination management company which manages four properties in the Buddhist circuit of Orissa, has come up with special offering which is expected to attract scholars and students to visit, stay and study the Buddhist art & culture of ancient Kalinga (now modern day Orissa), dedicated to the Mahayana & Vajrayana sect.

To promote study tours and academic conventions on Buddhist heritage, Toshali has made an exclusive offering of Rs.1000 per room night plus taxes for scholars, which also includes breakfast. Also there will be a 10 percent discount on meals (lunch & dinner) and a free access to the state-of-theart library cum interpretation centre at Ratnagiri property. To avail the special rates, the scholars need to produce their identification and assure a minimum stay of three nights. This offer is valid till 15th December 2013 and is applicable to the Toshali managed properties situated at the heritage sites of Ratnagiri, Udayagiri and Lalitgiri. Special packages & rates are also being tailored for academic workshops, seminars and conventions in these sites.

The three of the four properties managed by Toshali Resorts International at the Buddhist circuit of Orissa, that is the properties located at Ratnagiri, Udayagiri and Lalitgiri, are upgraded with star class amenities.

The flagship property of Toshali Ratnagiri, situated in front of the museum of Archaelogical Survey of India (ASI), is equipped with 19 rooms and a state-of- the-art library cum interpretation centre having a rare collection of books on art, culture, history & religion along with a multi-cuisine a/c restaurant, conference hall for 70 persons, and a coffee shop.

Toshali Lalitgiri has four rooms with dining facilities. Toshali Udayagiri Convention Centre, which has a capacity of six rooms and a conference hall for 350 persons, has recently hosted the three-day-long International Conference on Buddhist Heritage of Odisha, which was attended by a total of 1,547 domestic and 66 foreign scholars.

“With the upgradation of accommodation units at these heritage sites to international standards along with good connectivity, we expect to see lot of research and excavation in the near future which will showcase the glorious past of Kalinga art & Buddhism to the world. We are hopeful of a surge of 100 percent in tourist traffic to the Buddhist sites of Odisha from domestic as well as inbound segment this year,” said Harihar Patra, DirectorMarketing, Toshali Resorts International.

Here it deserves a mention that the ancient learning centres of Lalitgiri, Udayagiri & Ratnagiri were the cradle of Mahayana & Vajrayana Buddhist learning in ancient India. These Buddhist sites eventually became the last refuge of Buddhism when the religion was declining in other parts of ancient India.

The famous Chinese traveller Xuanzang (Huien Tsang) from the ancient era, who visited Kalinga in 639 AD, had counted more than 100 Buddhist monasteries in this region, which he mentioned elaborately in his travelogue. Only few of them have been excavated till date and lot more requires to be done to unearth the rich Buddhist heritage of Orissa on the global arena. The endeavour by Toshali Resorts International is a welcome step in this direction.

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Gateway Hotel Lakeside Hubli. This is the fourth Gateway branded hotel in Karnataka. The Gateway Hotels & Resorts caters to the upscale segment and with this launch, the brand has expanded its presence in north Karnataka. With the opening of this hotel, The Gateway Hotels & Resorts now has 22 hotels in its portfolio. The hotel is only 8 km from the Hubli Airport.

Commenting on the launch, Prabhat Verma, Chief Operating Officer, The Gateway Hotels & Resorts said, “The launch in Hubli is a proud moment for us and is essential to the brand’s growth strategy of catering to the new-age travellers.

We promise to bring a fresh flavour and style to hospitality in the city. With the immense growth and development potential in the state of Karnataka, The Gateway Hotel Lakeside Hubli is well equipped to cater to both leisure and business travellers.”

The hotel is located on the arterial road connecting Hubli to Dharwad and is close to the city centre. Spread over nine acres of pristine lush greenery, the hotel sits pretty on the banks of the picturesque Lake Unkal.

The Gateway Hotel Lakeside Hubli comprises 92 spacious rooms including four suites, each room affording wonderful views of Lake Unkal. Guests can workout at the Active Studio or have a refreshing swim at the Splash Swimming Pool, or relax at the Spa. The newly launched hotel has a spacious 3800 sq. ft. ballroom for hosting large meetings, conferences and weddings. The grand ballroom can host up to 450 guests. Wi-Fi connectivity and 24hour business centre and meeting rooms are other features of this hospitality property.

Food connoisseurs can indulge in a variety of gastronomic options at Buzz - The All Day Diner, indulge their sweet tooth at the Deli or relax over a few drinks at Swirl the lounge. Buzz offers a perfect cosmopolitan mix of international cuisine and authentic regional home-style delicacies including local Hubli specialties like the Dharwad Peda and a north Karnataka meal with Jolada Roti. It also has a menu tailored for those who are looking for a healthy bite. Swirl, located at the lobby level overlooking the pool, offers a relaxed and designed ambience with an eclectic lounge space and low seating couches. At Deli, one can choose from a mouthwatering range of freshly made breads, chocolates and pastries. If the guest prefers, she/he can go ahead and even create a customised dessert just the way she/he likes it.

May-June ’13

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HOTEL Business Review

News Scan

Treehouse Group Signs up New Property in Ranthambore The Treehouse Group announces its foray into the leisure segment with an upcoming premium property at Ranthambore, Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan. The property named Anuraga — A Treehouse Resort is a full service five-star property, which is a product of restoration of one of Ranthambore’s oldest hotels, the Anuraga Resort— into a modern complex with traditional legacy. The resort is an important new addition to the Treehouse group, which has already made a name for itself in the management of various hospitality concepts across the country.

Anuraga — A Treehouse Resort showcases authentic Rajasthani architecture and construction styles. The property is beautifully done up with distinctive motifs across the rooms, lobby and public areas. It will have 40 rooms, 4 suites, a banquet hall, swimming pool, gardens, conference facility, spa and gym as well as restaurant and bar. The resort would offer a comprehensive range of amenities to the tourists visiting Ranthambore.

The resort will be operational from October 2013. Visitors to the resort will also get a special chance to visit Shabri Farm and Dairy, which is one of the most successful organic farms in Rajasthan and gives every visitor a chance to experience the green and natural way of life.

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Richa K Singh, EVP, Treehouse Group, said, “The Treehouse Group has had a successful stint in the management of fully serviced hotels, with the 100 room Treehouse Hotel Club and Spa at Bhiwadi and the serviced apartment at Goa — The Treehouse Blue Goa. Anuraga — A Treehouse Resort at Ranthambore is another landmark for us, as it takes the group to one of the most popular destinations in the country, for travellers on business or leisure. We are confident that this new addition will set new benchmarks in hospitality and service for our guests.” Anuraga–A Treehouse Resort at Ranthambore will be the third property coming under the management of the Treehouse Group.

Goa Registers Impressive Tourist Arrivals During 2012-13, the Department of Tourism, Government of Goa, registered a record arrival of 27.8 lakh tourists in the state of Goa of which 4.5 lakh were foreigners. This is an improvement over 26.7 lakh tourists that Goa had during 2011-12, of which 4.45 lakh were foreigners. There was an increase of 4.4 percent in tourism inflow to the state, between 2011-12 to 2012-13.

Goa also witnessed an increase in arrival of chartered flights during 2012-13. According to Goa Tourism Department’s statistics, 987 chartered flights carrying 2.15 lakh tourists, landed in Goa between October 2012 and May 2013. As against this, only 910 flights carrying 169,006 passengers touched down Goa during 2011-12.

These chartered flights during October 2012 to May 2013 were from nine international destinations. Of these, about 742 arrived from Russia followed by 152 flights from United Kingdom.

Nikhil Desai, Director, Department of Tourism, Government of Goa, said, “In this tourist season, Goa did extremely well — better than the previous years. We are delighted to see the upswing in the arrivals of domestic and foreign tourists, which touched an all-time high. Goa has emerged as a preferred destination for MICE, weddings and also leisure.”

“Positive steps have been taken by the Government such as introduction of water sports policy, security force on Goa beaches, improvement of tourism infrastructure, marketing and promotional efforts, etc. which have paid good dividends.

However, for a sustained inflow, there is always scope for improvement, and we are working hard to further the cause of tourists’ comfort in Goa. We have a new outlook towards renewing the surge in the tourism industry during the current year,” he asserted.

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HOTEL Business Review

The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group Conferred with Three Asia Pacific Hotel Awards 2013-2014 The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group has won three awards at the Asia Pacific Hotel Awards 2013-2014. At the ceremony, The Lalit Ashok Bangalore was awarded the Best Convention Hotel, The Lalit Jaipur was declared as the Best Airport Hotel and The Lalit Golf & Spa Resort Goa was awarded the Best Golf Resort.

The award ceremony was held in Malaysia.

“I feel proud that all our three nominated properties —The Lalit Ashok Bangalore, The Lalit Jaipur and The Lalit Golf & Spa Resort Goa have emerged as winners at the Asia Pacific Hotel Awards this year. I am delighted that the Group has been recognised at an international platform of this stature with three awards,” said Dr. Jyotsna Suri, Chairperson and Managing Director, The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group and Vice President, FICCI. The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group is regarded as the country’s largest privately owned hotel company and also the fastest growing hospitality chain. The group believes in ‘Developing destinations & not just hotels’ through various and unique initiatives; offering its guests the opportunities to discover the destination as a whole, thereby giving a boost to the local tourism and economic environment.

News Scan

Cardamom County Awarded by TripAdvisor Muthoot Group’s Cardamom County resort has been awarded with the 2013 Certificate of Excellence by TripAdvisor.

Here it deserves a mention that Muthoot Group is one of India’s leading diversified business conglomerates, whose empire is demarcated into 16 divisions.

Speaking on this occasion, George M George, Executive Director, Muthoot Leisure & Hospitality Services said, “We are glad to announce that Cardamom County has received an outstanding response from TripAdvisor travellers, and has been awarded the 2013 Certificate of Excellence. It has been our constant commitment to provide our guest first class quality of service and our efforts and hard work has been well rewarded.

We thank our guests, who take the time out to write reviews and compliment the service we offer. TripAdvisor is the largest travel website in the world and we are honoured to receive this award.”

Cardamom County is perched atop a gently sloping hill facing the Periyar Tiger Reserve on one side and a vibrant spice-trading community on the other. The resort has cottages and rooms, each with a patio from where guests can enjoy the lush natural habitat.

It is the first ISO Certified four-star resort in Kerala. Cardamom County’s Green Leaf certified Ayurveda wellness center, Ayura, provides traditional stress-relieving therapies.

Delhi Government Initiates Green Movement for Hotels Recently, the Department of Environment, Government of Delhi signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with 32 five-star hotels in the city of Delhi for compliance of Green Hotel Guidelines of the department. Under this MoU, these hotels will have to setup dedicated sewage treatment plant/ biological effluent treatment plant, rain water harvesting facility, solar water heating system/ heat recovery system for water heating, natural gas boiler, and develop a green belt in their surroundings within the prescribed deadlines.

The deadline for installing dedicated sewage treatment plant (STP) for recycling of waste water and thereby to enable zero discharge is 30th September of the present year. The deadline for the concerned hotels to develop green belt in their surroundings is also 30th September of the present year. These 32 hotels also need to set up facilities for conversion of organic solid waste into compost or bio-fuel. The deadline for fully complying with other measures of Green Hotel Guidelines such as energy auditing, auditing of water consumption, application of renewable energy is 31st March 2014.

The MoU was signed in the presence of the Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dixit. While addressing the hoteliers, the Chief Minister urged them to adhere to the stipulated deadlines in both letter and spirit.

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May-June ’13

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HOTEL Business Review

News Scan

Tempting Summer Enjoy Mussoorie with Jaypee Packages from Lemon Residency Manor Located just 250 kilometers from north of Delhi and at a height of Tree Hotels around 7000 feet, Mussoorie’s natural beauty is spruced with the legacy Lemon Tree Hotels has introduced exciting summer packages across its resort hotels in Goa, Kerala and Aurangabad and its leisure hotels in Jaipur. These special packages focus on providing unbeatable value with a refreshing experience.

Lemon Tree Amarante Beach Resort, Goa is an ideal choice for those looking for a lazy, chilled out experience. Designed to evoke the poetry, history and romance of the 15th century Portugal, the property has the capacity to take one back to a time when life was slow and the pace unhurried.

However, at the same time, the property is located in the vicinity of the hot spots like Baga and Anjuna Beach on one hand and Fort Aguada on the other, and affords its guests with many partying and shopping options right next door.

Lemon Tree Hotel, Aurangabad is located in the heart of the city and provides easy access to the legendary Ajanta and Ellora Caves, which are just a short distance away. The hotel’s smart in-room amenities, vibrant café, recreation bar, pool and fitness center together facilitate the guests to unwind and feel refreshed.

A spectacular view of the calm backwaters welcomes the guests at Lemon Tree Vembanad Lake Resort in Kerala. The resort is located in Muhamma, on the edge of Lake Vembanad, to the west of Kumarakom.

All rooms offer a wonderful view of the lake. Guests can choose to rejuvenate themselves with time-tested traditional treatments at the Ayurveda spa or unwind in the infinity swimming pool while taking in magnificent views of the lake and beyond. Both properties of Lemon Tree Hotels in Jaipur are conveniently located in the heart of the city and offer easy access to all the exciting tourist spots of the Pink City.

The rates for these 2 nights/3 days packages apply for fully advance-paid reservations and are noncancellable. These summer packages rates are inclusive of breakfast. The 2 nights/3days summer packages at these above-mentioned properties entail 30 percent discount on food & beverage (including alcohol, wherever applicable), and free usage of swimming pool and fitness center (wherever applicable).

In fact, inclusions like buffet American breakfast, food and beverage discounts, airport transfers and a complimentary room for children below 15 (in some of these properties) make the packages irresistible.

Guests can choose from amongst an array of inclusions and decide on the duration of their stay to tailormake a summer package for themselves. The Lemon Tree summer packages are valid from 1st April to 30th September 2013.

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of colonial charm. In this scorching summer, experiencing the sombre green carpeted mountains and cool climes of Mussoorie at Jaypee Residency Manor, Mussoorie can come across as a wonderful holiday option for the well-heeled domestic and inbound tourists.

Enjoying the timeless beauty of drizzling on hills from the comfort and luxury of Jaypee Residency Manor, Mussoorie can be a soul uplifting experience. At Jaypee Residency Manor, Mussoorie, romance with the mountains begins with a 360 degree breathtaking view of the mighty Himalayas.

Spread over nine acres of lush green on a hilltop, Jaypee Residency Manor, Mussoorie, a five-star deluxe hotel, is characterised by luxurious accommodation, creative cuisine and unmatched recreational facilities.

The hotel has an extensive array of leisure facilities like an indoor temperature controlled swimming pool, spa, salon and wellness centre, a leisure mall featuring electronic games, bowling alley, kids room and outdoor play areas. A new wing named Valley View Tower has been added to the hotel. It comprises 41 rooms, a resto café, three banquet halls & a kids’ zone. The property can be described as an ideal retreat to enjoy the rains on the hills of Mussoorie, away from the hectic schedules of busy urban life.

FHRAI Seeks a Comprehensive Relief Package While expressing its complete solidarity with the Government and fellow citizens in Uttarakhand in this hour of crisis, which is brought about by torrential rains and flash floods, Federation of Hotel and Restaurants Association of India (FHRAI) made an urgent appeal to the Union Government and financial institutions to formulate a comprehensive relief package for the Uttaranchal’s hospitality and tourism industry, in the form of loan waivers, tax exemptions and subsidies, etc.

The comprehensive relief package will be crucial to allow the tourism and hospitality industry of the state of Uttrakhand to cope with the adverse impact of this colossal tragedy and stand on its feet again. FHRAI’s representatives will be seeking a meeting with the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, to personally appraise him of the immediate concerns of the tourism industry in Uttarakhand and make an earnest request for the Central Government’s support to help overcome this unprecedented challenge.

“The economy of Uttarakhand is heavily dependant on tourism, which is its mainstay. This recent disaster and its continuing aftermath have dealt a severe blow to the state’s hospitality and tourism industry, which comprises mostly of small and mid-sized establishments. On account of these incalculable losses, the sector faces a perilous future, which also threatens the livelihoods of lakhs of people,” expressed Vijai Pande, the Honorary Secretary, FHRAI.

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HOTEL Business Review

SANTANU GUHA ROY

Santanu Guha Roy has been appointed as the General Manager of Radisson Blu Resort & Spa — Alibaug. Graduated from IHMCTAN, Kolkata with over two decades of extensive experience in hospitality, Guha Roy is known for his dynamic leadership abilities. A resultoriented hospitality professional providing decisive leadership and guidance, he has the ability to effectively manage operations in intense competitive environments. He is adept at planning and implementing effective control measures to optimise resources.

SRIDHAR SIGATAPU

KUNAL CHAUHAN

Chef Sridhar Sigatapu has been appointed as the Executive Chef, Courtyard by Marriott, Chennai.

He brings with him sixteen years of experience in the hospitality industry. Chef Sigatapu has diverse experience of working with some renowned Indian and international hotels.

As the Executive Chef at Courtyard by Marriott, Chennai, he will oversee all operations related to multi-cuisine restaurants in the property.

Kunal Chauhan has been appointed as the Resident Manager of The Leela Palace New Delhi. He brings with him over 13 years of experience in the hospitality industry, and he has exposure of working with some of the finest luxury hotel chains in India.

Chauhan has had earlier association with The Leela Group. He spearheaded the F&B affairs at The Leela Kempinski Gurgaon, and led the project development for The Leela Palace Jaipur.

Operational experience, multi-property management, pre-opening & projects are distinguishing facets of Chauhan’s career in hospitality. He is proficient at handling the strategic development and management in emerging markets along with training and managing diverse human resource. Chauhan is professionally trained from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, London and has in-depth knowledge of the nuances of food & beverage.

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In the capacity of a Resident Manager, Chauhan will oversee and drive operations and initiatives for the group’s flagship property in New Delhi.

KIM UNDERHILL

Kim Underhill has been appointed as the Regional Head, South East Asia of Electrolux Professional.

Electrolux Professional is a leading global supplier to the catering, hospitality and care industry, providing professional kitchens and laundry solutions. During her 20 years of experience in the food service industry, Kim has held key positions in sales and marketing, business development and general management, and has worked with internationally reputed foodservice companies.

“We welcome Kim to Electrolux Professional Innovation Centre in Gurgaon. Not only will she bring a tighter focus on quality of customer relationship with our local partners and existing clients, but her experience and vision will help us strengthen and consolidate the business in India,” proffered Marco Pesce, Country Manager, Electrolux Professional India.

MAAHESH S. AIYER

Lemon Tree Hotels has appointed Maahesh S. Aiyer as the Vice President — Operations, Lemon Tree Premier. Aiyer has over 18 years of experience across sales & marketing and operations, both in India and abroad.

He was part of the team that created the ‘Vivanta by Taj’ brand. His last assignment was as the General Manager at Vivanta by Taj - Whitefield, Bangalore. He holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Madras University and has furthered his academic pursuits at IIM Bangalore and Cornell Winter University.

In his new position, Aiyer will play a key role in enhancing and implementing the operations strategy of Lemon Tree Premier and help the group realise its vision of being the leading mid-market hotel chain in India by 2016.

VISHAL SINGH

Vishal Singh has been appointed as the General Manager of the newly branded Hyatt Pune. He has an experience of 17 years in the industry and has worked with Hilton and Hyatt brands in the past. During his illustrious career, he played a crucial role in successfully opening the DoubleTree by Hilton, Gurgaon and Hilton Chennai. Prior to working with the Hilton brand, Singh, who is a hotel management graduate from IHM, Delhi, worked with the Hyatt chain for seven years.

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Taj Falaknuma Palace Gets a Prestigious Award Taj Falaknuma Palace Hyderabad bagged the coveted distinction of winning Travel + Leisure India’s Best Heritage Hotel Award 2012. Travel + Leisure India’s Best Awards 2012 ceremony was held at the Taj Lands End, Mumbai.

Travel + Leisure, world’s leading travel and lifestyle magazine and has been conducting the iconic World’s Best Awards for over 12 years. Travel + Leisure India’s Best Awards in 2012 were selected by discerning readers through magazine and online polls across 29 categories.

Taj Falaknuma Palace is a landmark hotel that has been the reflection of art, culture, heritage of the royal and cosmopolitan city of Hyderabad. Taj Falaknuma Palace’s 60 beautifully refurbished and lovingly restored rooms allow you to journey into the era of royalty, where grandeur and excess

were celebrated and savoured in equal measure.

Large Venetian chandeliers, rare furniture, grand marble staircases and gurgling fountains, priceless statues, objets d’art, stained-glass windows, unique sketches and murals encased in ornate frames, a world-class collection of crystals as well as the Mughal, Rajasthani and Japanese gardens personally conceived by the Nizam are some of

Park Hyatt Goa Resort and Spa Awarded Park Hyatt Goa Resort and Spa got the runner-up position in the Best Luxury Resort (India) category at the recently concluded Travel + Leisure India’s Best Awards 2012, while the property’s Sereno Spa was voted as the ‘Best Resort Spa’ at the asiaSpa India Awards 2012, held recently. Emerging a winner by competing with some of the most premium resorts and spas in the country, these awards reinstate Park Hyatt Goa Resort and Spa’s position as a leading resort destination.

Commenting on the achievement, Thomas Abraham, General Manager of Park Hyatt Goa Resort and Spa said, “It is a great honour for us to be recognised by Travel + Leisure India & South Asia, and asiaSpa India, both thought leaders in the publishing world. These accolades are testimony to our continued commitment towards fulfilling our vision of being India’s finest beach resort and spa. We thank all our guests for their goodwill and support.”

Here it deserves a mention that nestled along the pristine Arossim Beach and quite near from the airport, Park Hyatt Goa Resort and Spa is conceptualised as a charming Indo-Portuguese village, housing 250 Pousadastyle guestrooms and suites. Set within 45 acres of landscaped gardens with glimmering waterways and lagoons, the resort is a perfect reflection of the character and heritage of Goa. Sereno Spa at Park Hyatt Goa Resort and Spa is a unique health and wellness oasis that offers holistic treatments through a blend of unique therapies. Here one can relax, revitalise and refresh with a variety of spa treatments, massage therapies, and fitness and yoga activities.

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the visual delights and aesthetics of the hotel. Once home to the worldrenowned Kohinoor and Jacob diamonds, extensive refurbishment carried out under the guidance of Princess Esra Jah has re-instated the erstwhile grand palace to its former glory.

Speaking at a glittering ceremony, the General Manager of Taj Falaknuma Palace, Girish Sehgal, said, “We are delighted to receive the Travel + Leisure India’s Best Heritage Hotel Award 2012.

Taj Falaknuma Palace is renowned for Nizam’s legendary hospitality with beautifully refurbished rooms, inspired dining destinations and custom tailored experiences that offer guests a glimpse into imperial lifestyles encapsulating a slice of history, legend & romance, which were once the sole preserve of visiting royalty.”

Miramar Residency, Goa Wins TripAdvisor’s Certificate of Excellence Miramar Residency, a property of Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC), located on the Miramar beach in Panjim, Goa, has recently been awarded a ‘Certificate of Excellence’ by the popular travel website TripAdvisor.

This prestigious award, which places Miramar Residency among the top-performing 10 percent of all businesses worldwide on TripAdvisor, is given to businesses that consistently earn high ratings from TripAdvisor travellers. The site features reviews and advice on hotels, resorts, flights, restaurants, holiday packages, and travel guides.

Sanjay Chodnekar, General Manager of GTDC, said, “We thank TripAdvisor reviewers for bestowing this honour on us. Miramar Residency is indeed a unique property of GTDC with a fantastic location. We will persist in maintaining the high standards and delight our guests through continuous excellence.”

Miramar Residency has 60 well-furnished, comfortable rooms affording a spectacular view of the sunset on the Miramar beach. Its restaurant ‘Foodland’ is popular with the locals as well as tourists, and its food festivals are a big attraction.

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Appointments

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HOTEL Business Review

Ladies Only Travels Take Off

By Swarnendu Biswas

T

he growing empowerment of women can have a significant impact on the tourism and hospitality industry of India. Gone are the days, when women used to travel only with their families. But thankfully, nowadays a great many women are not at all reluctant or apprehensive of travelling single, especially for their business tours.

Nor they do not have to necessarily depend upon their husband or father or other male family members to give fruition to their passion for travelling to exotic locales for leisure purposes.

Even a decade back, the idea of women travelling to exotic destinations on vacations designed especially for women, and by women, was unheard of. But now a new trend of women only tours is emerging, yes, even in India. Another impact of the rising numbers of women travellers is the women only travel clubs, which has the potential to become a major business phenomenon in the Indian tourism industry within a few years.

Women on Travel Take the case of Femmes en Voyage (FEV), an exclusive travel club for women, which is based in Bangalore. FEV organises women only tours in India and abroad. “I have been working for airlines

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and travel companies for over 10 years and had handled many group tours in India and abroad. I found that in almost all group tours, the major decisions were taken by men which suited them. The entertainment and activities for women travellers in the group were not given due importance. This propelled me with the idea of starting a travel club for women so that they can have a time of their own in the company of likeminded ladies,” explained Prema Lakshmi, the Director of Femmes en Voyage, when asked on what made her start the enterprise.

FEV provides women the opportunity to travel in the safety and comfort of a small group, and offers authentic experiences through a wide variety of scheduled women only holidays including adventure travel, heritage tours, wellness holidays, wildlife tours, luxury cruises, shopping festivals and many more. “The demand from a good number of solo women travellers induced me to start Femmes en Voyage which means women on travel,” stated Prema. “FEV’s tours for women are unique as we combine a variety of activities which women always wanted to do like learning a new hobby, dressing up in a particular style, taking an adventure activity, living rural, cooking a local meal, learning some fashion and

fitness tips, doing yoga and meditation, getting wet in the country rains, having a bullock cart ride and many many such interesting things. The ladies come back to us as they know that they can expect something innovative and something new to do during all our tours. This coupled with thoughtfully selected accommodations, authentic and tasty food, experienced guides, local flavour and safe travel keeps Femmes en Voyage at the forefront of the women’s travel market,” observed the new-age business woman.

Prema asserts that the “Demand for these ladies only tours are going up every day. I get enquiries from all corners of India specially from small towns like Surat, Meerut, Ludhiana, Calicut, Mangalore, Nasik, Siliguri, Shillong, Jabalpur, Coorg, Trichy and other towns across the country.”

FEV provides a woman tour leader on every trip whose role is to focus on each client’s personal travel experience as well as the group’s shared experience.

Women join the FEV tours from diverse backgrounds and cultures and FEV creates an atmosphere where women feel comfortable being who they are, and where everyone enjoys sharing their similarities and celebrating their differences. “We have a welcome dinner on the first day of the tour where

Sumitra Senpaty

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equipment for adventure tourism in India is generally quite poor. Sumitra rightly thinks that for further encouraging adventure tourism among women, resorts/hotels need to train their staff to be more sensitive towards women and not stereotype them, a mindset which is prevalent in our society.

Women-friendly Hospitality

everyone get a chance to get introduced and almost all of them depart as friends at the end of the tour,” observed Prema.

“My first exclusive tour for women had about 17 ladies and this trip was to an eco resort in the interior part of Nilgiris, next to a Toda tribal village in Tamil Nadu.

Thereafter I never had to look back,” averred the dynamic lady.

The WOW Factor One of the important players in realm of women only tours is WOW or Women on Wanderlust, which is founded and run by the intrepid traveller and the internationally renowned travel writer, Sumitra Senapathy. Sumitra’s adventurous travels would make many a seasoned traveller’s jaw drop in amazement.

She has kayaked the South China Sea, snorkelled Great Barrier Reef & Red Sea, sailed the waters of Seychelles & Maldives, rafted the Zanskar in Ladakh, self-driven through New Zealand, cruised the Mediterranean, camped out in the African bush… the list of her adventures in travel is astounding indeed.

The woman traveller phenomenon was the inspiration behind Women on Wanderlust (WOW), a travel club that organises all-women trips the world over.

It is the perfect solution for women who want to travel, but do not like the idea of travelling alone.

“WOW delivers well-planned tours that include a balance of activities and leisure time along with carefully selected accommodations, knowledgeable guides, and a safe travel experience. The WOW Buddy is always with the group and the feeling of travelling with WOW is

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similar to holidaying with a group of old friends,” informed Sumitra.

Other Players Then there is Bangalore-based Women on Horizon, which specialises in conducting innovative tours for women within India and international destinations in the safety of a small group. The company offers complete travel solutions and holiday experiences exclusively for women. Women on Horizon selects exotic and rarely visited locations, provides boutique accommodations for stay, and offers authentic local cuisine to its lady travellers.

Kesari Tours Pvt. Ltd., a nationally renowned tour operator, also conducts all women tours, which are known as My Fair Lady Tours. It is one of the Specialty Tours from Kesri. These exclusive tours for ladies offer a range of exciting and super fun-filled travel experiences for ladies only. Staying at luxury hotels, travelling in hi- tech coaches, sumptuous meals, delightful sightseeing, musicdance extravaganza are some of the varied attractions that My Fair Lady Tours from Kesri can provide to its lady tourists.

The Spirit of Adventure And a section of women travellers are showing great inclination towards adventure sports too. “Our adventure tourism options in India include conducting treks in Nepal, Uttaranchal and Sikkim, paragliding in Nepal, and rafting in Ladakh and Rishikesh,” informed Sumitra.

She however thinks that presently the infrastructure and as well as the

This trend of women only tours, and travel clubs and companies catering exclusively to the women travellers can eventually induce our tourism infrastructure and hotels to become more women-friendly than before, in the near future. Already women-friendly hospitality is emerging as a happening trend across a multitude of five-star properties, but these properties of course primarily cater to women of affluence and power.

“Today many women are financially independent and they have more disposable income than they had before.

Travel is a major agenda for a financially sound woman. This makes a sound business sense for hotels and resorts and they should capitalise on female travellers by adding up facilities and activities to pamper them,” asserted Prema. She pointed out some ideas which can enable hotels and resorts to provide more friendly environment to their female guests.

“Some of the ways by which hotels and resorts can become more womenfriendly are by allocating exclusive floors in their properties for their women guests, inducting women trainers for adventure activities, by providing full-proof security for women, and by organising womencentric entertainment programmes for their female guests,” explained the enterprising entrepreneur. Some of these facilities targeted towards the women travellers are already seen across many five -star hospitality properties.

But there is no reason to not believe that this healthy trend would eventually percolate to non five-star hotels and resorts of the country too, in the near future, thereby making Indian hospitality industry more sensitive to the interests and needs of women.

One can say that going by the rising numbers of women only tours the day is not far when women butlers, women chauffeurs and women DJs would become a usual practice of hospitality industry of India and not the exceptions.

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Cover Story

Indulgence, Opulence and Hospitality India had about 740 million domestic travellers and over 6.3 million FTAs in 2011. No wonder, our country is considered among the most lucrative hotel markets in the planet.

Growing affluence in pockets of Indian society comprising sizeable population, and the growing influence that India is expected to play in the global economy are also some of the major reasons for the promising hospitality scenario in the country. And perhaps the increasing MICE business is making the country a target for some of the global luxury hospitality brands.

Renowned hotel chains like Taj, Hilton, Sheraton, InterContinental, Radisson and others have already established luxury hotels in various cities and tourist destinations in India.

Now Jumeirah Group is also ready to enter the Indian hospitality scenario. Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts is regarded as among the most luxurious and innovative expressions of hospitality in the world and it has been bestowed with numerous international travel and tourism awards. Ashok Malkani takes a look at the market of the Indian luxury hotels and what they have to offer by way of state-of-the-art lodging facilities to make the lodging options of the discerning guests truly charming and unforgettable experience.

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HOTEL Business Review

W

ith growing disposable incomes and maturity in globalisation, some select sections of Indians are becoming more conscious of their comforts and luxuries. In fact, the definition of comfort and luxury is changing fast, in this fast growing economy. What was regarded as luxury earlier is now considered necessity in urban India, especially in the upper echelons of the Indian society. This societal trend is also manifested in the changing guest preferences in the Indian hospitality sector.

The Rise of Luxury as Need One of the results of this emerging hospitality trend is an increasing demand for luxury hotels. There is now a class of guests who can afford and demand nothing but the best in terms of hospitality, and they are also very much aware of what constitutes luxury in hospitality by international standards.

Over the years, the Indian consumers of luxury have not only increased in numbers, but on an average, they are now more informed, better and widely travelled and have better knowledge of luxury products and services, than their counterparts of a generation earlier. To cater to this growing club of globally aware, widely travelled and loaded Indians, the demand for luxury hotels has been finding its growing space in the country, which is of course, is reflected in their growing supply.

Besides the socio-economic factors like increased disposable incomes and the influence of exposure towards international standards of hospitality among a sizeable section of Indian guests, it may be mentioned that another reason behind the growth of luxury hotels in India is the greater movement of business travellers both within and to the country than say a decade before.

Now, besides domestic brand of luxury hotels like the Taj and many palaces which have been converted to hotels, several international hotel chains have already ventured into this land of

Inc. did come up with the 255-room super luxury property in the Pink City of Jaipur. Thailand-based lebua Hotels and Resorts has also made forays into the Indian hospitality industry. In fact, lebua Hotels & Resorts has disclosed The Global Players that as part of its expansion plans, it was The huge complex, which will be endeavouring to add 1660 rooms across introduced to reality by Four Seasons seven properties in India, in five years.

Hotels and Resorts in Noida, will also lebua Hotels & Resorts has also have residences and retail space. This recently entered into a hotel management ambitious project can be construed contract with Boutique Hotels Private as one of the largest mixed-land Limited. Under this contract, lebua use developments by Four Seasons.

Hotels & Resorts will manage the The project is getting executed in hotel properties of Boutique Hotels collaboration with the real estate firm in Rajasthan, India. These hotels were 3C Company, which is known for its originally named as Devi Garh in environment-friendly constructions.

Udaipur and Devi Ratn and Rasa in Vidur Bharadwaj, the Director at the 3C Jaipur. The hotels have been re-branded Company, informed that this project is a as Devi Garh by lebua - Udaipur, lebua completely ‘green’ project.

Resort - Jaipur, and lebua Lodge at Amer Here it deserves a mention that Four - Jaipur.

Seasons Hotels and Resorts operates 91 W and St. Regis, the luxury hospitality luxury properties across the globe. Four brands of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Seasons Hotels and Resorts presently Worldwide Inc. are also about to make operates one luxury a great impact in the property in India, in industry. According to Mumbai, named as Four Dilip Puri, Managing Seasons Hotel Mumbai.

Director, India and Four Seasons Hotels Regional Vice-president, and Resorts is not the South Asia, Starwood only international luxury Asia Pacific Hotels and brand of hospitality Resorts, they “already have that India is going to 10 Luxury Collection experience in the near hotels under a franchise future. Last year, the arrangement with ITC.” W Canada-based Fairmont and St.Regis are also about Hotels and Resorts to enter India in the near Dilip Puri

hospitality with their brand of luxury hotels, or are in the process of doing so.

One such luxury hospitality realties in the offing will be a 300-room hotel housed inside a 5 million sq. ft. complex.

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future.

The W brand will arrive in India in 2014 with the opening of the W Retreat & Spa Goa followed by the W Mumbai, W Noida-Delhi NCR and W Gurgaon WTC, Delhi-NCR, all of which are highly anticipated additions to Starwood’s luxury portfolio. St. Regis will make its debut in India with the opening of The St. Regis Noida, Delhi NCR in 2017.

These brands have a strong following around the world, including among Indian luxury travellers. W London was awarded the ‘Favorite New Opening International Hotel’ by the Conde Nast Traveler Reader’s Choice Award last year, and this year The St. Regis Bangkok won the award in this coveted category.

Moreover, Starwood Hotels and Resorts seeks to double its resort room count in India, by the end of 2014.

Starwood is penetrating its upper upscale brands like Sheraton, Westin and Le Meridien further into the National Capital Region (NCR) and gateway markets with the signing of Sheraton Greater Noida Hotel, Sheraton Bengaluru Whitefield Hotel & Convention Center, Le Méridien Delhi NCR, Noida and The Westin Delhi NCR Noida. “The success of the Westin brand in India as well as of the Sheraton Bangalore Hotel at Brigade Gateway has propelled the expansion of these brands into key markets and we are seeing increased traction with the development community,” averred Puri.

Dubai-based Jumeirah Group, which is a member of Dubai Holding, has also entered into an agreement to operate an upcoming luxury hotel in Mumbai.

The hotel, which is expected to open in 2017, would be part of the major new

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Cover Story and leisure travellers.

“More than 90 percent of our luxury pipeline is in emerging markets, reflecting new demand for luxury in new places.

With a rising middle class, growing disposable income, an affinity for luxury brands and huge pent up demand for foreign travel, India is emblematic of the growth we are seeing in regions around the world and is key to our global growth plans,” said Matthew Fry, Senior Vicepresident, Development, Asia Pacific, Starwood Hotels & Resorts.

Robert Gaymer-Jones, the Chief Executive Officer of Sofitel Luxury Hotels, which is a part of the Francebased Accor group, is also of the opinion developments in the Lower Parel region that Indians are ready to avail the services of Mumbai. On completion, the hotel of luxury hotels. According to Gaymerwill comprise of 470 spacious rooms, Jones, Sofitel is “focused on the luxury suites and serviced apartments, along and upmarket guests.” He informed with a wide range of restaurants and that the Indian hospitality industry is bars, extensive conference, wedding, projected to have a growth rate of 8.8 banqueting and meeting facilities and a percent during 2007-2016 and believes Talise Spa. that their premium brand would play A statement issued by the company a “strong role” in India’s hospitality says, “This agreement represents the first industry. phase of Jumeirah Group’s expansion He is of the view that India has into India. The company is currently a paucity of branded hotels and this in advanced negotiations on potential provided opportunities to brands like projects for hotels and resorts in other key Sofitel to enter the Indian hospitality destinations in the country.” market and commit to long-term investments. Sofitel, which is a luxury The Promising Market brand in hospitality, had its first hotel in Many hospitality honchos are showing India in Mumbai, named Sofitel Mumbai optimism over the Indian market’s BKC. The hotel has a strategic location in potential for luxury hospitality. Atul the Bandra Kurla Complex. The hotel’s Lall, General Manager, Fairmont Jaipur, collection of extraordinary restaurants states that the luxury hospitality sector and bars offers some of Mumbai’s best in the country is experiencing growth dining experiences whereas its leisure at a rapid pace, which is “fuelled by the facilities like state-of-the-art So Fit and impressive inflow of inbound tourists the bejeweled extravagance of So Spa as well as enhanced domestic tourism.” offer refined ways to unwind. GaymerMoreover, he believes that with the Jones believes that their entry into the opening of FDI in hospitality, the Indian Indian hospitality market hospitality market is was “perfect” in many ways. attracting impressive The opening of this hotel foreign investment. coincided with Bandra Fairmont Gold Rooms of Kurla Complex emerging as Fairmont Jaipur can cater a financial and commercial to the connoisseurs of hub. luxury hospitality. They When queried about offer enhanced luxuries the wisdom of investing and an array of exclusive in luxury as several hotel privileges. The hotel’s chains were not making pillar-less 60,000 sq.ft. huge profits and hospitality of convention space is industry being among the the largest in the region, first to be affected due to catering to the business the economic slowdown, Atul Lall

Cover Story he stated that every economic slowdown also offered an opportunity. He opined that the current slowing down of the Indian economy would not affect their business as the hotel business in India involves long-term gestation period in construction process, and also because all business are cyclical. “If we start building a luxury hotel today, it is likely to open only after three to five years, and by then the business cycle has all likelihood of moving dramatically from its position at the time when the hotel’s construction began,” explained Gaymer-Jones.

Competitive Luxury But can all these international luxury chains really expect to make an impression in India? It must be remembered that the domestic luxury hotel brands control more than 50 percent of the segment, and are expanding their footprint to safeguard their market share. However, even without the presence of W or Mandarin Oriental, India still boasts of an impressive collection of luxury hotels

HOTEL Business Review

which can satiate the denying the fact that the most discerning guests. international luxury hotel India already has an chains foraying into India exhaustive luxury hotels’ are likely to face stiff portfolio with brands competition. such as The Oberoi, Indian Hotels Co. Ltd. Taj, The Leela, the ITC (IHC), which operates Luxury Collection and the Taj Group of hotels, The Park ruling the roost and Oberoi Hotels Pvt. in this luxury hospitality Ltd, which is known for its segment. flagship luxury hospitality Matthew Fry And all of these properties may prove to luxury hotel brands from India are be stumbling blocks to the plans of these providing international standards of international chains. By 2018, IHC has luxury hospitality for their guests. Here envisaged to have 200 properties across it deserves a mention that The Oberoi the globe, the majority of them being Vanyavilas, Ranthambhore was ranked in the luxury segment. Presently, the Taj as the best hotel in the world in Travel Group accounts for 30-35 percent share + Leisure’s World’s Best Awards 2010 of the Indian luxury hospitality market.

Readers’ Survey. Not only that, under the In fact, it is not going to be easy for Travel + Leisure’s World’s Best Awards the foreign luxury hospitality players to 2010 Readers’ Survey, The Oberoi compete with Taj’s more than 100-yearVanyavilas, Ranthambhore; The Oberoi old legacy.

Amarvilas, Agra; The Oberoi Rajvilas, ITC Hotels is another player whom Jaipur; and The Oberoi Udaivilas, the international luxury hospitality Udaipur were ranked 1st, 2nd, 3rd and brands need to watch out for. In 2012, 4th respectively in Asia. So there is no ITC Hotels introduced ITC Grand Chola

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Fascinating Vignettes of Luxury

in Chennai for the guests, which is a 600 keys property. Spread across 1.5 million sq. ft. and entailing an investment of Rs.1200 crore, this hotel has 78 luxury serviced apartments.

ITC Grand Chola stands apart from existing luxury hotels in Chennai; the hotel expresses the glory of the Chola dynasty – the greatest maritime power to have arisen in the region of South Asia.

In its grandeur and royalty, splendid columns and stairways, granite carvings and vast spaces, ITC Grand Chola comes across as a manifestation of an inspired architectural vision. Its 30,000 sq.ft. ballroom is the largest convention center in the country.

Offering a fascinating visual trip to a vibrant period in Indian history, ITC Grand Chola stands for timeless beauty and luxury. Built in the midst of the business hub of Guindy and located on Mount Road, ITC Grand Chola is within close proximity to many key areas of Chennai and is just 8 km away from the domestic and international airport of the city. This luxury hotel is also an ideal destination for both business and leisure sojourns. And what is more, ITC has three hotels under construction in the super premium luxury segment.

The Long-term Vision But despite the challenges of competition from the domestic players, the number of rooms managed by global hotel chains is showing significant growth in the country. These international luxury hospitality chains are players with deep pockets and have entered the Indian market with a long-term perspective.

“Presently, the premium hotel segment in India is characterised by oversupply,” affirmed Pavethra Ponniah, a hospitality analyst at the credit rating firm ICRA Ltd. However, she agrees that “The luxury hospitality chains are

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Already the standard of luxury hospitality in India has reached international levels.

Impeccable butler service which include unpacking of bags, refreshing cappuccinos during in-room meeting without drawing attention, and arranging for yacht rides are some of the wonderful services offered at luxury hotels in the country.

Rooftop helipad is another feature that can be found in luxury hotels. India’s first hotel to be granted permission to operate helicopters on its rooftop, ITC Gardenia, Bengaluru features a 25m diameter helipad on the hotel’s 22nd floor. Incidentally, ITC Hotels has an exclusive tie-up with Starwood Hotels & Resorts in bringing its premium brand, the ‘Luxury Collection’, to India.

The Oberoi Mumbai has a team of lady chauffers for its lady guests. The hotel has a fleet of super luxury Audi A8 sedans. The hotel also has lady butlers available, to assist the lady guests of the hotel throughout their stay at the hotel.

The exclusive charter service of the Taj Group — Taj Air — offers travellers high levels of safety, efficiency and reliability in the comfort of their charter aircraft. In addition to the existing fleet of Falcon 2000 private jet aircrafts, Taj Air has expanded to include a brand new Falcon 2000LX jet and P.180 Avanti II turbo-prop aircraft. Here it deserves a mention that Taj Air has been providing exclusive charter services in India since 2002, thereby bringing to the industry the world-renowned service and Indian hospitality of the Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces. Taj Air’s private jets fly to more than 150 airports across 56 countries. Within India, Taj Air’s jets can fly to over 130 destinations.

At The Leela Palace Kempinski, Bengaluru, the feeling of luxury and opulence is extended even when the guests are moving on the road. Whether she/he is going for a business appointment or a lunch with associates or for a shopping extravaganza, whether she is travelling within or outside Bangalore, the hotel offers a fleet of finest chauffeur-driven cars for travel, which include BMW, Mercedes and Nissan Xtrail among others.

Overall, one can say that the Indian entering the market with a long-term hospitality industry has now more room vision of say 10-15 year time frame.” She for its luxury segment, and the future of thinks that over a long period of time, this segment, despite the stiff competition the demand and market would gather involved, has more room for growth in momentum, and this will address the terms of both demand and supply, in supply that is flowing in. the years to come. And in this widening Pavethra rightly believes that the ambit of luxury hospitality, there would luxury hospitality brands would not be ample space for more international and be able to attract high traffic only by domestic players to come up with new targeting “high net worth individuals.” and innovative solutions in personalised According to her, they require to tap the luxury, for their discerning guests. corporate and leisure travellers, who are However, the brands desirous of making presently reducing their travelling. an enduring impact in the Indian luxury She opined that foreign luxury hotel hospitality space should realise brands entering India could that the concept of luxury itself give a different flavour to the domestic hospitality is going through evolution. It is market, even though a getting evolved from grandeur great many of their services and opulence to subtleties. like exclusive butlers and In today’s parlance, luxury in customised offerings are hospitality can be equated with same across the globe. a memorable experience of a Pavethra pointed out that lifetime for the guest. This may global players presenting lead many luxury hotels and luxury hospitality have resorts in India to focus more on adventure tourism and other robust loyalty schemes, unusual experiences, in the near which the Indian hotels had not capitalised before. future.

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Business

HOTEL Business Review

Safety First Security in the Indian hotel industry has become a hot topic of discussion since the Mumbai terrorist attacks of 26/11 where two important hotels of the country were targeted by the terrorists. Many hotels in India did strengthen their security system after these heinous attacks, attacks where hotel guests were not only kept as hostages but also suffered casualties, and the private security industry received a boost with the stepping up of hotels’ security systems.

Though the security industry in India is yet to match developed world standards, the import-based electronic security industry is experiencing impressive growth in the country. According to an industry data, by 2018, our country’s homeland security market is expected to be worth $16 billion. Ashok Malkani explores the security parameters in the Indian hospitality industry.

A

ccording to a report by the New York State Intelligence Center, there have been 18 major terrorist attacks against hotels worldwide, since 2002. Yes, hotels can be safe havens for guests, but they can also be the target of attacks. Terrorists may find hotels as the appropriate places to carry their sinister designs, as hotels usually have a heavy footfall of unarmed people, who can become easy targets. Also, since the guests comprise of international and domestic

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May-June ’13

communities, the strike is likely to have far reaching political effect.

All these terrorist attacks have induced many hotels in tightening their security. While several hotels have inhouse security, others have a third party security agency. Some of the hotels have an amalgamation of the two — in-house security and third party security agency.

According to several hotels, employment of a third party security service provider gives them an opportunity for their trained and

experienced personnel to focus on serving guests. Another advantage of using a third-party security service provider, according to them, is that they have the right kind of training.

The Secured Role At The Westin Mumbai Garden City it is a mixed bag. Pawan Sharma, the Director of Security and Wellness at The Westin Mumbai Garden City said, “We have a mix of internal and external security combined with electronic

Business security, which together assures the safety and security of all our guests and associates in the hotel.”

At Hotel Shantai, Pune, they have their in-house security system. “Security in hotels play an important role in the image of the property. Besides terrorist attacks there are other crimes that the hotels have to prevent. With large corporate customers stepping up their requirements in terms of employee safety and data protection, the hospitality industry as a whole is challenged to increase safety and security levels, without impacting the day-to-day operations, or the guests’ experience,” explained Mr. Deshmukh, the GM of the hotel.

“Putting security in place has also become necessary for the hotels as this is considered to be one of the criteria for star ratings. In the last one decade the security needs of a luxury hotel has evolved immensely. The hotels all over the world have realised the importance of investing heavily into security as the guests have started demanding a safe and secure environment,” Deshmukh elaborated further.

HOTEL Business Review

However, the challenge of a good security system in a hotel is not only to keep the guests secured, but also to minimise their inconvenience while adhering to the stringent security regulations. Managing security in hotels needs delicate balancing. On the one hand, guests want to know

that their lives, rooms and possessions are secure within the hotel but at the same time they would get disturbed if their lifestyles and work are frequently hindered by blatant and oppressive security measures during their stay.

According to G4S, a leading security solutions group in the country, a key challenge for hoteliers is to have more stringent security procedures that do not impact the guest experience. The first interaction of guests is with the guard, so it becomes very important that the guard fully gels with the ethos of the hotel.

G4S views that as technology finds deep inroads in the field of security it becomes more important that guards be trained to use the equipment effectively, while retaining the welcoming ambience of the hotel. “At our hotel bollards form an important part of the system. Our security personnel are so courteous that you do not feel that you are undergoing a security check,” pointed out Manoj Verma, GM of Evershine — A Keys Resort Mahableshwar.

“Besides the strict vigilance at the entrance, The Westin Mumbai Garden City is fully covered by CCTV cameras

May-June ’13

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Business

HOTEL Business Review

at all public as well as the back of the house areas for the security and safety of the guests and the associates of the property. The hotel does not have CCTV inside the guest rooms as it is our duty to respect the privacy of all our guests. However, all the public venues in the hotel are covered by the CCTV cameras,” affirmed Sharma.

“From simple lock-and-key mechanisms, we saw electronics transform access controls. Then, as usage of computers became rampant, IT professionals started designing systems. Today, some security systems are based on state-of-the-art technology and software. One area of hotel security where the latest technology has had great influence is CCTV,” proffered Verma.

However, it should be borne in mind that security in hotels is not only about sophisticated equipment, but also about careful and continual vigil. Though at the same it must be maintained that

integrated surveillance systems, advanced lock and access control systems, and sophisticated asset protection tools always facilitate the security concerns of the hotel guests.

In the hotel business, there are standard hotel management duties that must be performed, which can also contribute to the security measures of the hotel. “One of the duties of the hotel managers is the ‘hotel walkaround’ which is effectively a patrolling of the hotel corridors that should ideally be conducted at regular intervals. The hotel walkaround helps eliminate a multitude of untoward incidents,” affirmed Verma.

Security is one of the important factors behind conducting a walkround.

should be posted at the Supply Gate to detect any explosive. The document also recommends that certain percentage of packages can be opened and physically checked at random.

Specialised Training, Design and Cost Cutting

Deshmukh

their security quotient in a big way. In fact, the Indian hospitality industry’s apex body, the Hotel Association of India, had some time back, published a comprehensive list of security measures, which is titled ‘Guidelines for Security Measures in Hotels.’

The document recommends a list of measures. For example, one of the external access control guidelines of HAI is that premium hotels could consider installing devices like hydraulically operated road barriers or retractable bollards that can stop vehicles coming at high speed. Short humps can be raised from ground level to slow down/stop vehicles.

The document also recommends the installation of closed circuit TVs in all public areas of the hotel, especially at alighting point and entrance door for scanning people coming to the hotel.

One of the material access control guidelines of the document is that all supplies to the hotel — fresh and otherwise — should be put through scanners and trained security personnel

Guidelines for Security Alert to safety issues like never before, major hotels in the country are upping

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May-June ’13

Pawan Sharma

Security agencies claim that the evolving needs of the hotel industry require the agencies to provide specialised training which would prepare the security personnel to deliver on the challenges facing the hotel security. The training provided to the security personnel should make them conversant with the latest technology. Their training includes videos and live demonstration for effective knowledge gathering, resulting in a better on-site delivery of services.

In fact some of the hotels are being designed while taking into consideration the security aspect of the guests, and the property. According to a representative of Oberoi, the design of Oberoi Gurgaon has been primarily executed with security in mind.

The hotel’s white foyer which at first sight appears to have been designed chiefly with form in mind has the function of preventing a terrorist attack.

The representative of Oberoi hastened to explain, “This foyer has a small single access point on the ground level.

This makes it imperative for all visitors to enter through this monitored and fully surveillable space to the food and beverage facilities through an elevator, and to the hotel rooms via another open and surveillable walkway. The problem with the 2008 attacks in Mumbai was that there were way too many hidden entrances. Those old heritage hotels were susceptible to terrorist attacks, which they eventually found out to their cost.”

However, it is not to say that post 26/11, Indian hotels’ security standards are moving towards perfection. In fact, sophisticated security measures are still limited by and large, among the major hotel chains of the country. One security agency head, not willing his identity to be disclosed, says that some of the hotels try to cut corners by installing fewer cameras than what is required.

Attention paid to security details like the position of cameras, the capturing, storage and retrieval of images across hotels are also not adequate in India’s

Business hospitality sector. Regular annual maintenance contract with the security service providers is also an issue of concern in the Indian hospitality sector, which in many cases are not being adhered to by the hotels. In India, even today in the aftermath of 26/11, hotel authorities are often trying to cut costs as far as the security of the property is concerned, not realising that they are doing so at the cost of increasing their potential perils.

Women-friendly Security In the light of the spate of heinous incidents of attacks on women in India, in the recent times, the hotels must give added focus on the security of its women guests. Femalefriendly hospitality is the need of the hour, in the hospitality industry. Giving utmost importance on the women’s security should be the duty of every hotelier and his/her staff.

The hoteliers should also realise that ensuring impeccable safety and security to their women guests also makes for good business sense, as single women business travellers and groups of women travelling together for leisure are no longer a rare phenomenon. In fact, both are fast growing segments. “In the services sector, today women account for more than nine percent of workforce, which makes the role of the hospitality sector in ensuring their safety and comfortable stay a critical factor,” said Rahul Pandit, President & Executive Director at The Lemon Tree & Red Fox Hotel Company. Lemon Tree Hotels has recently introduced a special women’s wing.

“The Westin Mumbai Garden City assures that all women guests and associates are always secure and safe in the premises of the hotel. The Manoj Verma hotel has double lock systems, and safety chains for guests. It is mandatory for all the associates to carry their ID cards. Women guests are driven in the cars only by lady chauffeurs and GPS systems are installed in all our cars. All the guest elevators are access controlled and only the room guests have access to the guest floors. All single lady guests are escorted to their room by a female associate of the hotel,” elaborated Sharma when talking about The Westin Mumbai Garden City’s measures on women’s security.

Providing the single lady travellers with rooms closer to elevator, not allocating them rooms with an interconnecting door to an adjoining room, allocating a separate floor to women guests, offering women guests with the service of lady butlers and lady chauffeurs, introducing more female security personnel in the hotel are only some of the measures needed to address this issue. Thankfully, all of these measures are getting reflected in reality in the industry, but sadly mostly these women-friendly measures are limited to the realms of five-star and four-star hospitality. It is about time, women’s security measures are given an added  focus in other hotels of India too, in a big way.

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Feature

HOTEL Business Review

The Need for Responsible

Tourism

I

ndia, with its plethora of tourist attractions comprising breathtaking natural beauty, regal historic splendour and perennial cultural and religious legacy, does have the potential to be among the top five countries in the world, in terms of international tourist arrivals. From its sun-kissed beaches to the countless places of worship resonating with timeless religious aura, and from the sombre mountains of the Himalayan ranges to the majestic forts and palaces, India encompasses an enviable tourism tapestry.

However, despite all these favourable factors towards tourism, India attracted only 6.29 million foreign tourists during 2011, when the USA garnered 62.33 million foreign tourist arrivals, and

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France had 79.5 million international tourist arrivals, during the same year.

Yes, US happens to be much bigger than India, and France is also not a small sized country, but that doesn’t only account for their more than ten times foreign tourist arrivals as compared to India, in the recent past.

The Lost Potential Even much smaller countries like the UK and Germany had 29.2 million and 28.4 million international tourist arrivals in 2011, respectively. China, despite its repressive socialism, generated 57.58 million international tourists during the same year. During 2011, Italy attracted 46.1 million international tourists whereas for Malaysia this figure was 24.70 million.

India doesn’t feature anywhere near the top ten countries in the world in terms of international tourist arrivals and in the Asia and Pacific region also its rank was 9th out of top 10 countries in terms of international

By Swarnendu Biswas

tourist arrivals in 2011. All these figures are compiled by United Nations World Tourism Organisation(UNWTO).

This is not a scenario of 2011 only but more or less the general scenario of inbound tourism in India for quite some time. Succinctly, our tourism has been faring much worse than its potential, and this translates into huge potential loss of revenues and employment opportunities for the Indian hospitality industry.

Depressing Sanitation Infrastructure In my opinion, one of the many reasons for this failed opportunity perhaps can be attributed to our failure to develop our sanitation infrastructure to international standards. The lack of comprehensive sanitation infrastructure coupled with rampant lack of civic sense has made our roads attract piles of garbage, which include urine and defecation. Unclean roads with inadequate numbers of clean public toilet facilities complement the unclean bathrooms of many unknown hotels in India, which crowd our hospitality scenario, far from the star-rated media attention.

Unclean roads and dirty hotels are common features of many of our tourist destinations, particularly religious tourism destinations, and I think this factor discourages many repeat tourists to visit these destinations. Moreover, the water quality and food hygiene in plethora of unknown restaurants and roadside eating outlets dotting the Indian tourism landscape are still nothing better than debatable quality, which may make foreign tourists who are not used to such mass scale lack of hygiene feel repulsive about India. The water crisis is also very much rampant across India, and in a prominent tourism destination like Shimla, water crisis has

Feature been a recurring feature, which affected its tourism in last year.

The Unhygienic Trail Indian Railways is one of the critical facets of our tourism infrastructure and its general level of cleanliness leaves a lot to be desired. In our country, trains are perhaps the most prevalent means of transportation from one destination to another. Many high-end inbound and domestic tourists in India too travel by trains. In fact, travelling in trains has the potential to afford better enjoyment of the journey to the majority of travellers and tourists as compared to that of flights, what with scenic montages of greenery and kaleidoscope of day-to-day life passing you by, instead of distant clouds. Moreover, train travel affords a traveller or a tourist better glimpses of the day-to-day life of the people, than a flight journey could. Therefore, in many ways train travel is not only more affordable but also more preferable than travelling by flights, especially if one is travelling on leisure.

However, there is no denying the fact that traveling by trains in India can often be a harrowing experience. Especially, if you are not a moneyed tourist and are travelling by ordinary sleeper class in non AC coaches for your leisure or business travels, you are sure to expect some unpleasant experiences pertaining to hygiene.

Many of the toilets in Indian Railways’ coaches are kept callously unclean. Very often they even lack basic facilities like water and soaps. This is one of the many issues that haven’t changed in India, despite the advances of globalisation, and the country’s graduation towards a knowledge economy.

Not only that the walkways near the seats of the coaches are often strewn with varied forms of litter that range from plastic bottles to dispensable outer covering of groundnuts. Scurrying rats in those walkways are not uncommon sights either. In many of my harrowing travels, I have seen walls of the coaches stained with dried beetle leaf juices, and had to locate hard to find a bin, which in most cases seemed to literally burst with garbage.

In the recent past, a survey conducted by a research firm named Market Xcel covering 12,000 respondents revealed that

HOTEL Business Review

unclean toilets were the biggest concern among frequent travellers on Indian Railways, followed by unclean coaches.

However, it has been evident that our Indian Railways is not at all partial to its passengers in this regard. The visitors to railway stations in the country are also frequently welcomed by the abundance or rather the omnipresence of litter, comprising paper cups, snack food packets, plastic bottles, paper, human waste, etc. on either side of the tracks of the stations.

These reflections of combined callousness by authorities and people at large can bring a sense of distaste among many inbound tourists travelling through India by trains, especially if they are not likely to witness such blatant lack of sanitation norms at their homes.

Reckless Littering Not only the maintenance efforts of our tourism heritage are found wanting in many places, but we as a society seem to be quite earnest on spoiling our tourism potential, which is not only limited to carving depravities or love interest on our historic monuments in the form of graffiti. One of them is through indiscriminate littering.

Here I am not talking about dumps of garbage or urine and defecation on the streets which are primarily due to paucity of sanitation infrastructure, and due to lack of control over the huge bovine population of ours, but am pointing at the strewn plastic bottles, chips packets and gutka packets, which mar the beauty and environment of waterfalls and mountains, beaches and forts. And this can be attributed to sheer apathy and insensitiveness on our part, for it does not require great effort or any cost on our part to collect and take our rubbish back with us for their proper disposal.

Marred Environment Our unclean beaches mar the boundless marine beauty to a great extent, and the fast depletion of the serenity of our hill stations due to unchecked pollution and storming of huge numbers of insensitive crowd without the infrastructure to support them have lowered their tourism appeal among high-end inbound travellers. For example, the environmental deterioration of the once pristine Naini Lake in Nainital and

May-June ’13

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Feature

HOTEL Business Review

Affecting Tourism, Livelihood and Lives

H

ere it deserves a mention that the rampant lack of sustainability in environment can not only affect tourism in the long-run, but can also threaten several lives and livelihoods, thereby doubly affecting the hospitality industry. The recent floods in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, which together has taken the shape of a natural calamity, can not only be attributed to the insensitive march of development characterised by the reckless construction of a mind boggling number of dams, buildings and roads in a fragile environment nestled by a young mountain range, which is complemented by rampant deforestation, but also may be attributed to the casual and repeated dumping of tourist induced wastes on the once pristine rivers for years together.

The combined effect is not only loss of hundreds of precious lives (at the time of writing this piece the expected death toll in Uttarakhand alone climbed to 1000) but also property and livelihoods of many. It is unlikely that the tourists in the next few years would come in Uttarakhand for Char Dham Yatra with same enthusiasm and similar numbers as they had done this year. This translates to the loss for tourism revenues at the macro level as the state’s awesome religious tourism potential itself now stands jeopardised, and loss of livelihoods of many at micro level.

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its surrounding ecosystem is very wellknown. The pollution which includes unabated illegal dumping of garbage in the lake is making it difficult for the fish in the lake to sustain.

Thankfully, in the recent years, some conscientious citizens have displayed proactive efforts to check the environmental degradation of Nainital, which has perhaps prompted the Municipality and District administration to start the scheme of ‘Mission Butterfly,’ a program for the integrated solid waste management, and making appointment of ‘Lake Wardens’ from the civil society to keep a watch on the polluters.

Take the case of Puri, which with its mighty Bay of Bengal and the Jagannath Temple, is a destination with great appeal for tourists looking for natural beauty and/or religious solace to seep into their souls. But the roads of the city are unclean as is its crowded beach. At least it was so when I last visited it, some five years ago, and I suspect the things have not changed much. I felt that the combined callousness of the sweepers, beach vendors and hotels did contribute to the messy scenario at the Puri each, which couldn’t match the vastness and beauty of the Bay of Bengal caressing its shores.

It would not be far-fetched to state that the rampant uncleanness at the Puri beach has contributed to the lowering of the inbound tourist potential of Puri. No wonder, less than one percent of the total number of tourists visiting Puri per year, on an average, happen to be foreigners.

During my visit to Puri, I talked with an US national, whose disgust about the widespread lack of cleanliness did prompt him to exasperate and say that he would never visit Puri again. His travel partners voiced similar opinion.

Though about a year back the state government did slap a blanket ban on the use of polythene and gutkha packets on the Puri beach, but it is hardly a sufficient measure to check the environmental degradation of the Puri beach, on a regular basis. Strewn solid garbage on the beach is not an uncommon feature at all.

Here it deserves a mention that a group of foreign tourists took cudgels to clean the Puri beach in 2009, which obviously left the Puri district administration embarrassed. Besides initiating a sincere attempt to clean the beach, they also held placards and

expressed their displeasure over the shabby condition of the beach, which induced the district administration to take a few face-saving beach cleaning measures. The decision of the Orissa government in the recent past to introduce mechanised sweeping of the Puri beach can translate into an effective measure towards the direction of clean Puri beach.

Recently, I visited the holy city of Varanasi, an important centre for religious tourism in India. There also as usual, I was disappointed with the rampant squalor on the narrow streets, lanes and by lanes. The crowded ghats besides Ganga were dirty to say the least, with straying cattle and strewn garbage being their regular feature, amidst the busy microcosm of life. There were many low-priced hotels in the city where basic sanitation standards are not being met.

The Ganga flowing through eternity is also far from clean at Varanasi.

Addressing the Culture of Callousness You can find similar stories of apathetic lack of sanitation in many of our tourist places. The lack of sanitation infrastructure coupled with the lack of civic sense is a reflection of combined culture of callousness on the part of the authorities and the civilians at large.

And its impact has the potential to be detrimental for our growth of tourism and hospitality industry, for without good clean & hygiene standards tourism cannot bloom to its full potential.

In this new age, with growing health and environment consciousness spearheading through the society, unless we undertake a series of sincere and innovative efforts to make our tourism clean and sustainable, the revenues of the hospitality industry of India would not reach its optimum potential..

Clean and sustainable tourism is one of the pragmatic solutions towards our hospitality industry’s growth. A sustained effort in generation of civic awareness towards keeping our tourist places and spots clean should be complemented by the initiative of the respective state governments of the country to ensure that the hotels of its tourist places and as well as its various tourist spots maintain a basic cleanliness standard. Any stringent legislation in this regard is most welcome. 

Apr-May ’13

Hammer Food & Beverage Business Review

May-June ’13

55 41

Management

HOTEL Business Review

Social Media for

Hospitality

By Sharmila Chand

S

ocial media is the new buzzword in the hospitality industry. It is a medium to create awareness, engage the audience and enhance the business.

There is no doubt that social media is emerging as a powerful tool for generating mindshare among customers about a particular brand. However, the experts warn that social media should not be considered as a replacement for traditional marketing; it is only another tool in your marketing strategy. A powerful one, though.

Inform, Update, Interact and Market So how do hotels can optimally use the social media to raise awareness about

their business, drive customer footfalls and increase covers? Firstly, hotels need to start examining and identifying the set of social media tools which would work the best for their business.

Tools such as Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and Google are all powerful platforms in building and enhancing business. “Facebook has become a great platform for us to reach out to our existing and potential customers. It is an effective medium through which we inform, update and interact with our guests,” informed Kadambari Sabharwal Talwar, Director of Sales, Renaissance Mumbai Convention Center Hotel and Lakeside Chalet Mumbai — Marriott Executive Apartments. “We post the upcoming food festivals at the restaurants on our official Facebook page, which help keep our customers informed about the activities at the property,“ she added.

As with any marketing tool, it takes time, patience, focused content, and frequency to build and create brand awareness in social media too. “We are currently tapping the Facebook and Twitter with a focus on building a community of food and lifestyle enthusiasts. We always create a buzz around food festivals through posts & contests on social media platforms,” stated Hema Hariramani, Director, Sales and Marketing, JW Marriott Hotel Mumbai.

The Focused Content Kadambari Sabharwal Talwar

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May-June ’13

The marketing content should promote the business brand and the

Sanzeev Bhatia information posted should be pertinent to the people whom the business is endeavouring to reach and serve.

Moreover, the content developed should be relevant and updated so that it can help in the goals of the social media marketing plan.

“We have created an Events page for relevant activities with post updates. We are also updating on Twitter and posting contests on Facebook. We did ‘Live Tweeting’ during Shehnaai fashion show and it was a big success,” Hema asserted.

“Also, what has worked for us is our Facebook page dedicated to the Renaissance entertainment program — RLive LIVE. The page is especially dedicated to inform our patrons of the various RLive LIVE events and artist

Management performances held at the property. It is a great platform for us to communicate with our guests and receive their feedback simultaneously,” explained Kadambari.

“Our official Facebook page for our service apartments, Lakeside Chalet Mumbai — Marriott Executive Apartments, allows us to communicate with the residential guests. The page has helped build an online community, where we post the weekly activities scheduled for the families, post pictures of the activities held and communicate important messages and receive feedback and concerns the guest may have,” Kadambari further elaborated.

Facebook and Budget Prior to engaging any social media tool, it is important for the hotel or the resort to chalk out an adequate budget for the social media exercise. The budget must not only consider apparent financial considerations but human resources and time needed, which are often the hidden costs.

It is also important to keep a tab on measuring the success of the social media marketing plan in order to evaluate the return on investment over time.

“Facebook is perhaps the most economical platform in the ambit of social media marketing. There have been campaigns by marketers where the cost of reaching a person has been below one rupee! There is no other platform which lets you reach out to your target audience at that low cost. While Google lets you filter your audience based on geographical location and keywords searched, Facebook gives you the flexibility of choosing your audience down to the personal interests of people,” observed Sanzeev Bhatia, GM, The Metropolitan Hotel & Spa, New Delhi.

Bhatia has some important points to make about the economic efficiency of Facebook as a marketing tool. “As Facebook has access to personal profile of the users, your advertisements can reach the most relevant audience based on their interests, preferences, and likings and therefore your money invested on each click or impression has better chances of reaping you decent ROI. In traditional marketing, you reach a person and your message dies there. Even if a person gets influenced

HOTEL Business Review

“When you are on the right social media platform there is some or the other target group watching you. Sometimes, the response is not instant. However, a well designed social media plan will always work.”

— Aloysius D’Souza, Social Media Executive, Courtyard by Marriott Mumbai International Airport.

by your marketing, he or she can only spread the message further through word of mouth. On the other hand, in Facebook a single ‘Like’ makes your message reach out to several people who are connected with the person who ‘Liked’ your message,” elaborated Bhatia further.

Not Selling, Simply Engaging However, Aloysius D’ Souza, Social Media Executive, Courtyard by Marriott Mumbai International Airport, feels that “Advertisement is the last thing that a person would want to see in his/ her social media space. Therefore, it is wiser to find creative ways of storytelling to spread your message on the social media channel.”

“Your audience would like to know more about you and/or like or follow you or be subscribed to you because your product/service has generated an interest in them. Speaking/posting pictures about vague topics that are not related to you would not generate a buzz.

However, contests do create a buzz. If you want your audience to share, post or retweet; request them creatively and they will do it,” maintained D’ Souza.

Pragmatic Suggestions During the course of our interaction, Kadambari gave some useful suggestions to use social media for fostering hotel

business.

“Use attractive visuals along with the post, especially in case of food promotions, run exciting contests that allow guests certain discounts/incentives to give them an opportunity to try out the new activities/food festivals hosted at the property concerned, use interactive posts to help build a relationship with the guests,” are some of the pragmatic suggestions by her. “Furthermore, uploading of interesting videos and sharing recipes and cooking tips from Chefs of the hotel on social media platforms can also be a wise strategy,” viewed Kadambari.

Hema thinks that it is not the right strategy to “force your brand offerings on the social media platforms.” Instead, she believes that the marketer needs to “focus on engaging her/his audience.”

“Build a community of loyalists which will take your brand further in the long-run,” Hema pointed out. She believes that in social media marketing for hotels, it is better to “Target one primary platform and leverage other platforms to attain its goals.”

“Leverage your brand through emarketing initiatives by engaging in cross promotions, target efficient media planning and budget allocation, and explore online PR and digital press to connect to thought influencers, who are expected to promote your brand/s across digital platforms,” Hema elaborated.

“Social media in India is continually evolving and hence it is of importance to focus on investing in the medium for getting a larger picture.”

— Hema Hariramani, Director, Sales and Marketing, JW Marriott Hotel Mumbai.

May-June ’13

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Management

HOTEL Business Review

Business of F&B Through

FB?

By Sharmila Chand

H

imanshu Garg, CEO and Founder, Bigbite.in, is a Bachelor of Technology (Electrical) from IIT Delhi.

After graduating from IIT, he became a part of the technology team at Contata Solutions, an IT MNC. There, he was involved in development of various web and social applications. He was also engaged as a promoter for developing and managing web technology at CIU (Career Incubation Unit), an educational start-up, before venturing into Bigbite.

After the stints at Contata and CIU, he started Bigbite in August 2011 along with his partner, Sajal Garg, with a mission of simplifying food ordering process with the help of technology. In the initial stage, he himself was involved in getting restaurants on board by signing SLAs (Service Level Agreement) and through development of web application to support an end to end seamless food ordering experience. Bigbite.in was successfully launched in March 2012.

Since then, Garg has been involved with handling restaurant acquisitions, operations, marketing and sales at Bigbite.in. Bigbite.in is an online food ordering website. It lets customers browse numerous restaurants and their menus and consequently place an order for delivery of food.

“I have been working on social media to acquire customers for about two years now. Over this period, we have used a lot of tools with a purpose to create great content, engage customers and tracking

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May-June ’13

ROI for social media campaigns,” pointed out Garg.

Garg believes that “With the increasing reach of social media, it is no longer just a medium to increase the awareness of brands.”

People are now using social signals and recommendations to take decisions on the most suitable service/ product.

This is influencing several businesses, which also include food service and the hospitality business. They can leverage social media tools and have a tangible impact on the monthly sales they drive.

“Of course, social media strategies need to be coupled with an online presence and SEO. After all, social media and SEO are the two strongest components of inbound marketing. Over time, you will build value which would not simply vanish as soon as you stop spending on those google and FB adwords,” explained Garg.

The conversation with him follows:

Which social media platforms a restaurant in a hotel should target?

First and foremost, the important thing to keep in mind is that before implementing any strategy, goals of a social media campaign need to be crystal

clear. If you are trying to boost sales, have number of actionable leads and transactions (if they can be measured) as the key metrics to evaluate the success of your campaign. I think Facebook is the most important social media platform for marketers in India, followed by Twitter, YouTube and blogging.

How to go about it?

Firstly, set up a FB fan page, Twitter page, YouTube channel, use Pinterest, Google + and a blog. A great resource for getting started for newbies is http://www. socialmediaexaminer.com/getting-started/ Secondly, have a focused content strategy. Over time, you would be able to produce creative, engaging, relevant and original content and would be posting it on your page. You also need to have information about great and relevant content others are producing around Internet. Two great tools to accomplish this are Alerti (for scouting information) and Scoop.it (curating information before publishing on twitter/fb).

Thirdly, give emphasis to social media campaigning through contests and promotions. To leverage and engage fans on Facebook and Twitter, marketers need to create engaging content day by day. A

Management

HOTEL Business Review

great way to do so is to take advantages of flexibility given by FB to create engaging promotion and contests. A few awesome tools which make uploading and running these contests a child’s play would be www.shortstack.com, www.wildfireapp.com and www. socialappshq.com.

Shortstack is more focused on just FB, while the later two give you a broad range of functionalities apart from creating apps on other social media networks as well. These will help you measure the number of users who subscribed to your contest and advanced analytics to help the hotelier/ restaurateur create follow up campaigns to convert leads into customers.

Social media automation is also needed. One of the greatest and most important parts of any social media strategy is consistency. And the best way to ensure it is to create all your content and posts and schedule it for future. Also, social media management tools allow you to post your content across multiple platforms easily.

There are tools like http://buffer.com which would tweet your message to your followers at a time when it can create most engagement. At http://bigbite.in we use one of the most popular tools to schedule our posts at FB, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ from a single dashboard. There are other great services for social media publishing out there as well. You can have a look at some free tools here like: http://mashable.com/2010/08/02/schedulesocial-media-updates-free/.

How do you track ROI on investments on social media?

Now, here at Bigbite.in, we have been managing the social media for more than a year and the question ‘How do I measure ROI of social media?’ has been one of the central concepts around which we evaluate all our strategies .

Setting up Google analytics goals and custom building the URLs to include source, campaign and medium details can help measure ROI for a social media campaign. This would provide a generic solution to enable the tracking of a conversation for a social media campaign. For example, let us say you are marketing your restaurant and sending a free meal if the person fills out his details in a form and subscribes to your newsletter.

How to measure cost per impression/click/ conversion?

Restaurants can place the conversion pixel by FB into their website to directly measure which of the users had a FB cookie in place when they were placing their order. Thus, it is able to account transactions to FB ad campaigns you are running at FB.

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How dependent is social media on other online and offline mediums?

Social media does not work alone. It assists other marketing channels (e-mail marketing, white papers, google search/display ads, retargeting ads, affiliate ads, etc.). Now the extent to which these channels are supported by social media can be measured by assisted conversion section in google analytics.

It is generally a smart strategy to generate soft leads with social media and converting the leads via e-mails /promotions/ sample meals, etc. according to the sales cycle of restaurant and relationship that marketing and sales components share. 

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11.06.13 15:56

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May-June ’13

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F&B

HOTEL Business Review

A

Passion for F&B and

Change

By Sharmila Chand

A

passion for food & beverage with an avid interest in food & beverage concepts & trends, and a strong advocate for ‘change’ describe Tarun Seth – the F&B Director at The Claridges, New Delhi. Seth completed his diploma in Hotel Management Operations from the Institute of Hotel Management, Lucknow in 2002 and joined The Grand Hyatt, Delhi.

After working for five years with The Grand Hyatt, Delhi he joined Hyatt Regency Delhi, where he worked till 2010. During his tenure with Hyatt Regency Delhi he was also responsible for the successful opening of a 240 cover all day dining restaurant named Café in 2008, and also of operating it.

Seth also successfully opened and operated a 36 cover patisserie named Sidewalk at Hyatt Regency Delhi and a casual dining restaurant named Fifty Five East at Grand Hyatt Mumbai. In 2010, he joined Hilton New Delhi/Janakpuri Hotel as the Director of Food & Beverage where he was responsible for the opening of three restaurants, namely Chynna Gold(Chinese), Pomodoro( Italian) & Zune(an Indian specialty restaurant).

Before joining The Claridges, New Delhi, he was Vice President

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May-June ’13

– Operations with Lite Bite Foods. Seth joined The Claridges, New Delhi in September 2012 and is presently taking care of all the F&B operations of the hotel. The excerpts of the interview with him follow: What are the top three traits or skills every Food & Beverage Manager must have to excel?

In my opinion, the three most important professional traits or skills for being a good F&B Manager are a passion towards achieving service excellence for all her/his guests, a commitment to perform, and most importantly, being consistent in what she/he does.

What do you enjoy the most about being an F&B Director?

The fact that I can surprise my guests through various delightful culinary options is what makes me happy. I also enjoy interacting with people from diverse backgrounds, which this designation provides me with the opportunity. One can learn so much in this profession.

What is your take on an ideal professional in the hospitality industry?

I personally do not like people who do their job just like a job to be paid. I

Tarun Seth like to work with people who live in the hospitality industry and consider it as a part of their lifestyle. Above all, integrity is the key value for me in any individual.

Lastly, for any hospitality professional the motto should be ‘Love all, serve all.’

Is your work challenging? Can you point out five challenges in your day-today work schedule?

Yes, our profession is challenging but without challenges there is no fun in a job. Five important challenges that I could perhaps list are the challenge of matching the expectations of all kinds of guests, the challenge involved in planning and prioritising when multiple events are around the corner, the challenge of adhering to the budgets with the current market trend in mind, to compete with new and big players entering the

F&B market, besides the challenge of sourcing and retaining quality and committed manpower.

If you could change one thing about your profession, what would it be?

Personally, I have accepted the industry and I love all aspects of it. I love what I am doing and would continue every single day with the same passion, honesty and high morale. I would only look forward to learn every day to make myself a better individual. I believe the rest will fall in its place.

What is your take on work pressure?

These days, work pressure is in every field and I don’t really have any problems as such in handling work pressure. I think pressure is all in the mind and so far I have been tough and very organised to handle it as and when it comes.

How do you explain your quality of life?

My quality of life is directly proportional to my commitment towards excellence.

Can you suggest any tips or insights

HOTEL Business Review

for F&B Managers to strengthen their team?

Engage and get involved with your team members; coach rather than instruct them. Furthermore, to make the team strong, keep team members in good humour as it always takes off the pressure.

What is the USP of the hotel where your present tenure is?

Our hotel has a unique and great location in the heart of the capital. Its food quality is very consistent and our property’s residential look and feel with homely culture makes it even more special.

Our Regional General Manager, Oliver Martin’s vision can be encapsulated in just two key words, “Create Home” and we all are looking forward to achieve more by getting inspired by these two magical words.

Anything else you would like to say to the professionals in the hospitality

industry?

Be consistent and detail each small task, as small tasks are the ones which get bigger goals achieved. This philosophy of mine has always helped me.

What is your perspective on the hospitality business in India, in general?

It is a great industry and I think it has a bright future in the times to come. Specially, the kind of development pertaining to the hospitality industry that is happening in Delhi/NCR is very impressive. We need greater support of our government to stabilise the market conditions and support  the travel trade industry.

May-June ’13

47

Design

HOTEL Business Review



Right Address

By Kanishka Gupta

I

n many ways, a five-star hotel is like a mini city in itself. It has various amenities and facilities which a mini city is expected to have.

These include rooms, banquet facilities, conference venues, kitchens, restaurants, swimming pool, gym and spa, shopping arcade, discotheque and what not. To complement these is the air-conditioning system, water treatment plant, exhaust system, electricity back up, etc.

In such a scenario in-house guests and visitors would be at a loss to understand where these services are located unless arrangements are made to guide the

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guests. In this regard, signs and signage play a very important role in marking important venues in the hotel and guiding a guest to her/his desired destination.

Signs and signage can be found in the hotel’s atrium, guestrooms, alleys, and public areas, not to mention at the heart of the hotel, that is at the restaurants. “Signage are essential tools to communicate important information to the guests who are staying at the hotel or may be visiting it for various reasons. In the absence of signs and signage, a guest or a visitor to the hotel would have to ask the front office staff or the lobby staff for directions for each and every small thing. Moreover, signs and signage show guests the time and location for upcoming meetings at the hotel, which are generally displayed at the lobby or at the conference or banquet areas or many times in front of restaurants,” explained Sandeep Bhatnagar, Director, Rooms, The Grand New Delhi, while elaborating on the utility of signs and signage in hotels.

Facilitating Promotion and Revenue Generation “They provide way finding maps, directions and room listings from the lobby. They enable a visitor to find her/his destination in the hotel. They promote value-added services like room upgrades and loyalty programs. Many such upgrades and programmes are announced by a hotel depending on the room occupancy and the inflow of visitors to the conference and banquet facilities.

These announcements and upgrades are communicated to the visitors through signs and signage,” Bhatnagar articulated further.

In the hotel industry, signs and signage have some key features, advantages and benefits. Besides the above-mentioned utilities of signage, “they display welcome messages for conferences and large group events, thereby not only promoting the events but also making the visitors aware of the happenings inside the hotel.

Furthermore, they help congratulate valued guests on their birthday, anniversary, or other special dates,” asserted Bhatnagar.

He believes that since hotel guests and visitors are the most important asset and a major source of revenue and goodwill for

Design the hotel concerned, signage help hotels to build brand loyalty and develop a deep connect with the end customers. “Many hotels have theme restaurants serving exotic dishes from different parts of the world. Signage prominently announces these developments in attractive neon lights or in digital form, thereby attracting customers and facilitating towards enhancing the hotel’s revenues.

And they show also training videos and safety tips to employees,” he pointed out. That is not all. Signs and signage can be of great help during emergencies.

Bhatnagar informed that “electronic signage is used in the information board — they are useful to display important messages or information during emergencies.”

Over the years, like everything else, signs and signage have also undergone massive revamping. Gone are the days when say 15-20 years back, a hotel or a restaurant had to rely predominantly on paper, plastic and cardboard base for signage.

During those days, all important signage would be made of these materials which generally were hand-crafted. Often this required investing sufficient amounts of time and effort as for every sign, detailed handiwork had to be done.

However, with the advancements in technology, especially of electronic technology, you now have electronic and digital signage which are not only attractive, but are long lasting and are easy to maintain. These electronic and digital signage can be centrally controlled by just one person who is fed all the information and who in turn programmes the signage.

“The on-premise sign industry has seen many developments and changes over the years. From hand-carved signs to electric neon signs; from fluorescent box signs to LED technologies; and from painted

HOTEL Business Review

and screen printed signs to the advent of digital printed signs, each change has required sign manufacturers and installers to adapt to the latest technology, and they have done so with remarkable dexterity,” viewed Rich Gottwaid, Executive Vice President, International Sign Association.

“Currently, we have electronic signage in our hotel, which display the various promotions going on at the various F&B outlets of the property. Our many specialty restaurants, coffee shop and banquet facilities conduct special food festivals with different themes from time to time. What better way than to

Dynamic Digital Signage

T

he new-age technology in the world of signage is that of ‘Dynamic Digital Signage.’ “Any time there is a new technology, it takes a while for the terminology to catch up, and this is no different. Many outside of the traditional sign industry refer to it simply as “digital signage” or “digital out of home” (DOOH). Some in the audio-visual industry may refer to it as “electric display networks.”

Still others may call it “digital electric signage.” Our industry typically terms it “dynamic digital signage” to differentiate from digital printing, a term which has become more entrenched in the on-premise sign industry,” explained Gottwaid.

“No matter what the name, though, this type of signage has several key components: a screen, a player which provides content for the screen, and cables to connect those two. This might be as simple as a small video screen connected to a DVD player, or as complex as a national network of screens connected via wireless Internet to a hub which controls the screens,” Gottwaid articulated further.

Gottwaid believes that somewhere between these two extremes lies most of the opportunities for the signage industry. “The greatest potential for the majority of sign companies is found in providing solutions for companies that want to connect several screens to a single content player,” he asserted.

announce them than through electronic signage? However, digital signage are also used for lobby way finding systems; these are bright coloured and are placed at strategic locations of the hotel to enable a guest to find her/his way to a desired location,” informed Bhatnagar.

Visibility and Other Factors Signs and signage are installed in the hotel, while keeping various factors in mind. “The signage needs to be installed in a way so that their visibility is potentially maximum to the people visiting the hotel. This is done by placing them in strategic locations where the movement of visitors is maximum and at locations where visitors are most likely to look for directions. Besides taking into account of these factors, they need to be conveniently located and should not obstruct the movement of the staff or the guests. Signage can be placed at important locations such as at the entrance of the lobby, above the reception desks or near the major banquet venues,” pointed out Bhatnagar.

“Finding the right sign and signage for the hotel would depend on several other factors. These are the purpose or the intended information that the sign and signage needs to give; location where the sign and signage will be put up; the decor and ambience of the surrounding area; type of material the hotel wants to use for the signs and signage (wood, brass, ceramic, acrylic, digital); cost-effectiveness of the sign and signage’s installation; finding the right supplier; reputation and goodwill of the supplier; innovative ideas and levels of customisation; quality of work by the supplier; location of the supplier (whether local or outstation) and its after sales services,” explained Bhatnagar. 

May-June ’13

49

Engineering

HOTEL Business Review

Exhaust for Hotel’s

Kitchens

By Kanishka Gupta

H

otels generally are large properties which generally have the presence of a large floating population of guests with a substantial number of in-house employees. Restaurants in hotels as well as stand-alone restaurants too have a large floating population of guests, and an array of staff.

Due to space constraints and to minimise capital expenditure, hotels and restaurants in urban as well as non urban areas are mostly constructed on a modest area of land where the management tries to fit in as many facilities as possible. One such facility is the exhaust system.

For Comfort and Safety “Exhaust system plays a very vital role in maintaining the freshness of air for

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May-June ’13

guestrooms, kitchens In this regard, an and restaurants, and exhaust system is of crucial also regulates the overall importance. Without a ventilation system. Exhaust good exhaust system, a systems remove odours hotel’s kitchen or any other and this process improves commercial kitchen is indoor air quality, which expected to have lots of also includes indoor air harmful fumes and smoke, quality of restaurant and the heat in the kitchens kitchens,” informed Rajat would be unbearable.

Jaitly, Chief Engineer, The All these would lead to Park, New Delhi. extremely uncomfortable Sandeep Tanwar In hotels’ kitchens the and hazardous conditions presence and the use of burners, stoves, for the kitchen workers and as well as boilers, etc. has the potential to generate the guests. a great amount of unwanted fumes, “Exhaust systems are of great vapours and odours which are required importance for modern kitchens of to be eliminated from the air, in order to today. They keep away fumes and safeguard the health of the staff and as vapours and stop smoke generation. well as the guests.

So, a proper working exhaust system

Engineering

HOTEL Business Review

and spacious areas so that holds the key to a good levels and labeling of the exhaust system,” and clean kitchen, and they can have easy access asserted Tanwar. He views that “the creates proper working to clean and fresh air usage areas, location, load factor, and conditions for the kitchen which can then be cooled environment friendliness including staff,” explained Sandeep and pumped in the hotel energy efficiency,” are the aspects which Tanwar, Executive Chef, rooms. It is important need to be taken care of while installing The Metropolian Hotel & an exhaust system. that the area surrounding Spa, New Delhi.

Hotels are constructed across different the exhaust system is Imagine a scenario geographies, on different sizes of plots clean and there are no where a hotel does not have and in different architectural styles. unpleasant odours and it a proper exhaust system.

Thus the type of exhaust system to is free of smoke, smog, Then the indoor areas like be used by hotels depends on these or dust. “Exhaust system Rajat Jaitly lobby, atrium, guest rooms, must be accompanied with factors too. Different types of exhaust restaurants and kitchens appropriate supply of fresh systems are available in the market and would have polluted air and this would there are a number of different dealers air. The main advantages of exhaust greatly affect the efficiency of the staff in and suppliers for the exhaust systems. system are that it enhances the freshness the hotel besides posing as a big health However, choosing a dealer or a supplier of the area,” added Dutta. hazard. “Installation of exhaust systems in of an exhaust system is an expertise in The exhaust systems come with a a hotel has many advantages like giving number of key features, advantages and itself and requires careful planning and fresh air, and imparting a feel of natural benefits. “For the main kitchen, we approach. have two speed exhaust motors which climate in the hotel, etc.,” added Tanwar. can be adjusted as per the requirement, Choosing the Supplier depending upon the kitchen load.

“We refer to various applications for AC Factor Duct cleaning for the main kitchen is which exhaust systems are required, Moreover, these days most of the decent done on yearly basis as per based on the inlet air quality hotels are air-conditioned; keeping in mind ISO-22000 and fire safety and various installation the discerning tastes of the guests. In such a norms.

Also the exhaust factors. We chose our scenario, ensuring pure and fresh air quality, air generated from kitchen supplier based on his work proper ventilation and keeping the kitchens & generators is connected capacity, availability of properly aerated is an important task. to wet scrubber to prevent options, product technology, In any dedicated air-conditioning air pollution.

We record the quality of the exhaust system, a good exhaust system is of stack temperature of our system that the supplier is prime importance. Since in AC systems, machinery to monitor their offering, product life, energy the treated air generally moves in via efficiency on a regular basis,” efficiency, how the system ducts which are fitted in different floors elaborated Jaitly fits into our application, its of the hotel, exhaust systems play a vital Installation of exhaust warranty and costing, etc. role in treating and purifying the air.

Saurav Dutta systems is a complex task and Also past performance and “Exhaust system is an essential part of requires a high degree of expertise and client list is used as a criteria for our HVAC. To keep the air-conditioned engineering skills.

“We have ducting inside choosing a given system,” articulated areas fresh and ventilated we have to the shafts connecting each guest room.

Jaitly. provide the system with supply of fresh These ducts from shafts are connected to “The supplier should have authorised air and exhaust air as per the design the main duct on terrace, connecting the dealership of the exhaust system. He parameters of HVAC,” elaborated exhaust unit.

For the main kitchen we has to take the ownership of the after Saurav Dutta, Executive Assistant have separate exhaust with exhaust hoods sales service after the proper installation Manager, Radisson Blu, Kaushambi, in areas,” pointed out Jaitly.

Sound level of and commissioning, and last but not Delhi NCR. the least the rate must be competitive,” the exhaust, its installation process, energy “Exhaust system for guest rooms in pointed out Dutta, when asked about his efficiency of the unit, area required by the our hotel is done with heat recovery hotel’s expectations from the suppliers unit, the length of ducting are only some wheel. In heat recovery wheel, exhaust air of the exhaust systems.

He believes that of the factors which should be kept in of the guest rooms is used to pre cool the scrubber exhaust system is ideal for mind while designing the exhaust systems. fresh air. Then this air is passed through restaurant kitchens, for hotels.

“Exhaust system for our main kitchen is air handling unit. Exhaust system for the “While buying an exhaust system, accompanied with treated fresh air as per kitchen is accompanied with treated we check factors like efficiency, quality designed ventilation system,” proffered fresh air as per designed ventilation and after sales service and energy Dutta. system,” explained Dutta. He informed consumption factor.

We buy our “For installation of the exhaust system, that for guest rooms his hotel require heat systems from a supplier who can give first we have to check the load of the recovery wheel, in order to save energy. us a good quality exhaust at reasonable installation process, and connection of prices with proper ISI marks, etc.,” inlet and outlet. After that, we need to Features and Installation  concluded Tanwar. check the direction of blower, sound Exhaust systems must be located in open

May-June ’13

51

Spa

HOTEL Business Review

Explore Your Bliss at Aristo

By Sharmila Chand

Aristo Spa and Salon, housed in Grand Mercure Bengaluru, is a perfect example of a contemporary spa, offering an exhilarating, uplifting and rejuvenating experience.

Located in the up market residential area, within 5 km of major corporate businesses and IT park and close to the City Centre, the spa is an ideal retreat to bring relief to the jaded spirits.

Transporting you to a different level of serenity with its refined treatments and packages, Aristo Spa and Salon amalgamates the ancient sciences and modern therapies to awaken your senses.

Some of the signature treatments available at the spa include a rejuvenating spa package which can pamper you, a back massage which can invigorate the guest after a jet lag, a foot massage, which is an ideal option after a hard day around the city for shopping, travel or business, a facial to make your skin sparkle before you enjoy a night out, among others.

Succinctly, whatever may be the reason for enjoying a little de-stressing luxury or a rejuvenating session, Aristo Spa and Salon with its tranquil location next to the pool, comes across as an ideal haven.

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May-June ’13

Spa

HOTEL Business Review

Leading Wellness Through Four Rs Born and raised in coastal Mangalore in South India, Sabrina FB Hougaard – Operational Director, Aristo Spa and Salon, at the Grand Mercure Bengaluru, developed an interest in wellness, early on in her life.

Her interest in practical psychology and her study of human resources proved to be a great asset when she got involved in the fascinating world of spa.

Sabrina ventured to set up a training curriculum for spa therapists and the Serena Spa Institute in Mangalore, in 2003, and over the years she has trained more than 350 spa professionals till date.

Here it deserves a mention that in 2012, the Serena Vocational Training Institute was the first to receive Government of India accreditation to conduct Government certified spa therapy courses.

She as the Director of Spa Operations, oversees Serena Spa’s operations in India and Maldives, with more than 15 spas under her supervision.

Among her specialties are pregnancy massage and child massage, Pantai Herbal Energy treatment as well as original treatments learned at the famous Traditional School at the Wat Po temple in Bangkok.

She is also a NLP Master Practitioner from the NLP Academy in London. Excerpts of an interview with her follows: How long have you been in the spa industry? What are the kind of changes you have witnessed in your field during the last five-six years?

I have been working in the wellness industry for the past eight years. I have seen that today the guest has a better comprehension about the wellness trends and has become articulate about her/his

needs with regard to technique of service areas. They also like to have a good combination of age-old treatments with modern ones and also like to use top quality products.

What are some of the latest trends in spa operations and spa design?

Spa has emerged as a major revenue

generating department in hotel operations. So it has clearly assumed a very important position.

Nowadays, there is also a lot of emphasis on designing the spa with a clear theme and impressive infrastructure.

Serious attention is now being paid in recruiting a trained team headed by a seasoned Manager who has adequate

May-June ’13

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Spa

HOTEL Business Review

duration is of 50 minutes. This full body pampering massage features a range of customised aromatherapy oil blends that impart the healing, harmonising and rejuvenating properties of essential oils into the body through rhythmic touch.

You can choose the oil to suit your mood.

experience in spa methodology and as well as in leading the team, so as to generate impressive revenues.

Lastly, the effort is made to introduce latest gadgets and products, which can make the spa infrastructure strong and as well as lucrative to run.

What are the top three traits or skills every Spa Director must have to manage the spa successfully?

She/he must have honesty, punctuality and sincerity towards guests’ services.

What do you enjoy the most about being a Spa Director?

As an Operational Director of Aristo Spa and Salon, I enjoy interacting with my colleagues and guests the most. I also like to use eco- friendly products. I enjoy introducing new services, products and techniques.

Can you point out some challenges in your job?

Staff retention is the main challenge of my job. Making customers/guests understand the philosophy of our service when they have unreasonable demands is also a big challenge. Having to inform a guest that his/her code of conduct in the spa is not acceptable is another of the important challenges that my position entails.

Could you tell us the USP of your spa? What distinguishes it from others?

The logo of our spa is self explanatory.

Our logo is that of a good horse, which is a performer. We help our guests reduce the burn out factor by offering efficacy based, time conscious services.

Our spa primarily caters to

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May-June ’13

the corporate executives and the industrious entrepreneurs who need to be taken care of, groomed, rested and revived.

Furthermore, our spa addresses the needs of city life. Here we focus on the four Rs that the city spa goers wish to attain — Relax, Reflect, Revitalise and Rejoice.

How many treatment rooms do you have, and how big is the Aristo Spa and Salon?

We have four individual treatment rooms of which three are for single guest, one is for couple. We have a hair salon with dedicated pedicure and manicure stations.

Tell us about your signature treatment It is the Bliss Massage, whose

What about other facilities and features offered at your spa?

Our spa reception faces the entry to the pool. The guest walks through a small walkway always lit with candle, which facilitates their transformation into the world of wellness.

All our rooms are equipped with shower and steam. The salon is large and airy for a single station. Besides these are the manicure and pedicure station, cocooned for your rest during the clean up and beautification.

Do you have some other special massages?

Our Detox Massage for 50 minutes duration is very special. Here we have combined ancient herbal knowledge with modern day spa techniques to create a wonderful and efficient combination of neem, tulsi and aloe vera. Neem relieves dry skin, soothes itching, redness and skin irritation; it also combats bacterial infections, such as acne. Extracts of tulsi, the holy plant also known as basil, is antifungal and anti-bacterial, besides being a great mosquito repellant. Aloe vera is claimed to be useful in the treatment of wound and burns. It also improves healing of minor skin infections.

Also our Mud Rub of 30 minutes duration is special. Apart from the child like joy of playing with mud during the monsoon, mud and clay with high mineral contents have been used for skin improvement and detoxification therapy for ages. Mud not only facilitates to purify the skin, but incorporates essential minerals into the body and improves healing. This therapy is also deeply relaxing and improves blood circulation.

It is also known to alleviate rheumatic pains.

What is your favourite treatment to receive and why it is so?

Bliss Massage is my favourite as it is an anytime massage, which helps me to relax, de-stress and renew my physical and emotional energy.

May-June ’13

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Product Preview

HOTEL Business Review

WMF “Juwel” - a Real Jewel for Your Table

Extraordinary design by JetteJoop now in the professional range bringing joy to people is the enduring goal behind every creation from the muchloved designerJetteJoop. With the Juwel cutlery model, created exclusively for WMF, this joy finds its way into the upper echelons of gastronomy and the hotel industry. Juwel is a visual and haptic delight. The elaborate facets at the lower end of the handles are reminiscent of a finely ground gem and transform the pieces into a sparkling focal point at your table. Juwel always creates a festive mood, whether on special occasions or simply for bringing a flourish of atmosphere to your day-to-day. These generously proportioned cutlery pieces are perfectly balanced with polished surfaces and are beautifully rounded. This 20-piece cutlery set leaves nothing to be desired and offers guests a sensual culinary experience par excellence.

The four millimetre thickness emphasizes the finesse of Juwel.

There are two variations of appetizer and dinner knife and both are available as a monobloc or stainless steel hollow handle design with integrated blade steel cutting edge. All items of cutlery are made from Cromargan stainless steel and are dishwasher safe.

Juwel is also available in a silver-plated version.

Soft Sensations Pvt. Ltd. info@softsensations.net

Smart and User-friendly Curtain Systems by Ozone

Ozone brings to you smart and stylish curtain and blind systems— Automatic Curtain &Roller Blind Systems. These newly introduced curtain & blind systems from Ozone are easy to operate by a remote control or a wall mounted switch. With fully programmable preset stop points and smooth, consistent movement, these curtain systems offer smooth & silent operation. These curtain systems can be easily installed on any existing wall, ceiling or window casement. They have the advantage of making minimal change to your interior space.

The Automatic Roller Blind System can be easily used for narrow windows and its tube is available at a diameter of 45mm. This system does not allow the transmission of heat and harmful ultra-violet rays, thus there is no airconditioning loss. These roller blinds offer convenience and suitability for its users.

Ideal for use at homes, offices, hotels, hospitals, auditorium and home theaters, Ozone’s Automatic Curtain &Roller Blind Systems conforms to international quality standards for long life and is 1,50,000 cycles tested.

Ozone Overseas Pvt. Ltd. ozone@ozone-india.com

Affording a Divine Slumber

DIVINITY Mattress is one of the premium products from Springwel. The concept behind DIVINITY Mattress is to give people on slumber a feeling similar to sleeping on top of a big, fluffy cloud. The classy mattress incorporates memory foam which senses and shapes itself to individual body contours. Memory foam works best for supreme relaxing comfort.

The mattress supports your body in its natural position and reduces the irksome possibility of tossing and turning during sleep. The product is elegantly designed and packaged with soft quilted cover for a superior look and feel. Thick upper layer of pressure-relieving memory foam works in perfect integration with the core structure of strategically crafted pocketed springs. The mattress is best suitable for home and institutional purposes. It comes in both normal & fire retardent fabric. This mattress has the potential to give even the most discerning guests in hotels a satisfying sleep.

Springwel Mattresses Pvt. Ltd. info@springwel.com

Clearing the Smoke

Smoke Point smoking cabins by Smoke Solution converts the tobacco smoke into clean air and stops the spreading of harmful nicotine and annoying foul odour. They clean 99.99 percent of air impurities from cigarette smoke.

These cabins are 100 percent effective in air-conditioned areas.

With Smoke Point smoking cabins, the guests can smoke in an airconditioned area without having to go out for smoke in unpleasant weather.

This facility can increase the beverage sales considerably.

Furthermore, the cabins are equipped with a stainless steel fireproof ashtray that can take up to 3500 cigarette butts thereby reducing the load on the housekeeping staff. They are sensor based and are operational only when occupied, which helps in saving power. The cabin automatically switches off when empty.

These Smoke Point cabins are endowed with a beautiful Danish design that is completely hassle-free, and they require no ducting and can be shifted easily. They are available in different models with a capacity of 6 to 14 people. Smoke Solution India has recently launched a model specially designed for existing smoking rooms to remove the foul smell from them.

Smoke Point cabins are ideal for hotels, bars, pubs and restaurants, shopping malls, multiplexes, offices, airports and other public places. They make socialising for non-smokers enjoyable with smokers without the risk of passive smoking. These cabins are already been installed at premium hotels and bars.

S.N. Global shashi.sngm@gmail.com

The information published in this section is as per the details furnished by the respective manufacturer/distributor. In any case, it does not represent the views of Hammer Publishers Pvt. Ltd.

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ADVERTISER’S INDE X COMPANY

PAGE NO.

AIM TECH

47

AKSAI CREATION

FIC

ALPHA FOAM PVT. LTD.

35

ANUGA 2014

45

COIRFOAM INDIA PVT. LTD.

BC

COMBII ORGANOCHEM PVT. LTD.

25

FCML DISTRIBUTORS PVT. LTD.

17

FHA 2014

53

GREEN FUTURE WINDOWS PVT. LTD.

09

HIFI 2014

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HOSFAIR 2013

55

IFB INDUSTRIES LTD.

15

IH EXPO 2013

33

LOOM CRAFTS FURNITURE (INDIA) PVT. LTD.

26, 27

MEHTA FURNISHERS

13

MITORA MACHINEX PVT. LTD.

08

MITZVAH ENGG. INC.

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NEELKANTH INDUSTRIES

21

OZONE OVERSEAS PVT. LTD.

39

PUSHKAL TEXTILES

12

RAMSONS GARMENT FINISHING EQUIPMENT PVT. LTD.

19

RAMSHA HOME & LIVING

11

RANS TECHNOCRATS (INDIA) PVT. LTD.

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RIMARI INDIA PVT. LTD.

31

SIO VASUNDHRA INTERNATIONAL PVT. LTD.

01

S.N. GLOBAL

37

SONY INDIA PVT. LTD.

GF

SPRINGWEL MATTRESSES PVT. LTD.

07

SUPERSHINE LAUNDRY SYSTEMS PVT. LTD.

23

TRAFS 2013

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TREND N DESIGN

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VENUS INDUSTRIES

05

VIKRAM FURNISHERS & DECORATORS

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BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY

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* GF - GATE FOLD

* FIC - FRONT INSIDE COVER

* BIC - BACK INSIDE COVER

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BIC

REMINGTON STEEL ARTS

* BC - BACK COVER

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Interview

HOTEL Business Review

A Seasoned Industry Player A

By Sharmila Chand

veteran of the hospitality industry, Aseem Kapoor has recently joined Hyatt Regency Delhi as the General Manager.

Kapoor brings two decades of in-depth industry experience and an impressive track record in fostering favourable bottom-line results. Most recently he was the General Manager of Hyatt Regency Mumbai.

He began his career as a Management Trainee with Holiday Inn, Mumbai in 1989 and since then there has been no looking back for him. He has been associated with Hyatt since 1995 when he was appointed as the Assistant Director, Food and Beverage at Hyatt Regency Delhi.

Following his successful tenure in Delhi, in 2001 he took up the assignment of Executive Assistant Manager, Food & Beverage at Hyatt’s first hotel in Mumbai — Hyatt Regency Mumbai. During this tenure with Hyatt Regency Mumbai he also assisted the pre-opening support team of Hyatt Regency Kolkata for three months.

Prior to his tenure with Hyatt, Kapoor was associated with The Oberoi Mumbai, where he was exposed to the hotel’s catering and sales operations for almost five years.

His background in the industry gives him an exceptional understanding of hospitality operations in various sub-divisions and of the Hyatt brand’s product and service standards. These are the qualities that make him a valuable leader. Excerpts:

What is the USP of the property where your present tenure is?

The unique selling point (USP) is the property itself that offers a comprehensive range of services and facilities tailored to serve the needs of meeting planners, business travellers and leisure guests. We have one of the largest event spaces in Delhi, and a unique selection of food and beverage concepts manifested through our award-winning restaurants, all under one roof. The hotel is positioned to cater to a broad spectrum of clients’ business and leisure requirements.

What is the marketing strategy you have adopted to promote your property?

The hotel is one of the most recognised names in the market, since its inception 30 years ago. I would like to further embellish this image by helping to ensure that both our existing and new guests keep a personal connection with the hotel and its team, while ensuring that we continually innovate in all aspects of guest service delivery, which of course includes packages for the MICE market, spa therapies, new food and beverage promotions, etc.

What according to you. is the role of F&B in getting business for a hotel? How much importance do you give to this department?

F&B’s role is extremely crucial for a hotel’s business. Not just restaurants

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but also banqueting is a key element in bringing guests to the hotel and having them experience the unique selections that the hotel has to offer.

Living by our brand ideals, we always give heed to the local guests from in and around the markets that we operate in.

This factor gives us a prime customer base.

What would you say is the ‘Differentiating Factor’ of your F&B outlets?

We believe in authentic décor, ambience and food. Furthermore, the hotel hosts interesting promotions throughout the year to ensure that we always bring ‘current’ culinary concepts to our guests. The sheer variety of cuisines we offer, ranging from Italian and Chinese, to Teppanyaki and Indian, always ensures that all our guests — be they in-house or visiting diners — have something to look forward to. And we cater to everybody’s tastes.

Could you reflect on the future plans and new initiatives, which you wish to undertake at Hyatt Regency Delhi?

We have just launched newly renovated suites and Regency Club Lounge. There are two more exciting offerings which will be introduced to the market before the end of this year. One being our contemporary and spacious 1/2/3 bedroom apartments will be

available for rent or lease. The residence tower is already ready and we are putting finishing touches to it prior to its launch.

The next big arrival is a completely new event space that will be unique and will help cater to large MICE events and social functions.

What is the most crucial issue to tackle in the Indian hospitality industry these days?

The critical issue to tackle in the industry today is to be able to develop and retain talent. Paucity of skilled and talented manpower across all levels is increasingly becoming a challenge and needs to be addressed by the Indian hotel industry in a concerted manner.

What is your strength, professionally?

I would say that my rich exposure in the hospitality industry is my strength as working with different brands has been a learning experience for me.

I have been exposed to different work cultures and in the long run it helps me in adapting to my new roles fast. I am also able to implement new ideas based on my past experiences and learning, which I think is also my strength.

What is your working mantra, your guiding philosophy in work?

It is being true to your work. I believe a hands-on approach always works.

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