‘The pandemic has given us an opportunity to consolidate and replan the expansion and business development’

2020 has been a challenging year for the hospitality industry to say the least. In hindsight, what is your take?

2020 has been a black swan year- unprecedented with severe consequences. As aptly articulated by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, many years ago “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen”. The hospitality industry has seen several disruptions in the last decade including the terror attacks and economic fall outs which affected the growths. This pandemic was different, in the sense that it affected the entire world simultaneously necessitating lockdowns to save lives which in turn effected livelihoods. In hind sight, if I could rewind, I would have planned the company’s reserves better to manage cashflows during the lockdown and had a plan B and even a Plan C for such eventualities. Hospitality has learnt many lessons, albeit the hard way in the past few months. 

Due to the on-going crisis, what constitutes the new normal for GRT Hotels?

The ‘new normal’ is a misnomer. It should ideally be the ‘new future’. Calling it a new normal is telling you to sit back, relax and wait for the turbulence to get over and fly into the clear sky. 

The world has changed permanently for the future. It has to start from ground zero. At GRT Hotels, our think-tanks have come together to re-imagine the future and make strategies to forge ahead. The broad keywords in the 'Strategy 2021 - into the future', are agility, adaptability, awareness, leadership, resilience, and technology. The strategy emphasis is on rapid acceleration of digital transformation, pivoting on the run to creatively look at new streams of revenues and to have plan-A, plan-B and plan-C to build resilience into the system. Hotels are being re-imagined and new revenue streams like cloud kitchens, facility management, co-working etc. are being woven into the new business plans. Life will become hybrid with people working remotely and travelling when it is required to collaborate.

In the face of the pandemic, how have you managed to cement your relationships with the different stakeholders?

Situations like these demand compelling leadership and reliable communication. The pandemic has thrown up numerous challenges which are unprecedented. Most of the time they were also overwhelming. We communicated constantly with customers and helped them in many situations during quarantine. The lockdowns had resulted in hotels closing down overnight, staff from different regions of the country trapped in locations without transport and unable to eat out. We were able to house our staff in hotels, feed and engage them throughout the lock down. This way we safeguarded the health of employees. We organised cashflows to keep the bare necessary machinery running and to pay the salaries, guiding the owners in critical decision and helping the society. We interfaced with the society and managed to feed nutritious food to healthcare and essential service workers, doctors, and migrant guest workers with the help of corporation and police officials in regions where our hotels are located. We also ensured we set up counselling camps in the hotels for the staff and vendor-partners. 

With the year 2020 coming to an end, what major plans and developments have you set in motion for GRT Hotels in the year 2021?

The ‘Strategy 2021 - into the future’ of GRT Hotels is a multi-pronged effort to surge ahead and thrive. We have re-imagined and re-designed services at the hotels. We launched the ‘I Care’ programme at the GRT Hotels in association with Diversey to ensure contactless services, high levels of sanitation and sterilisation, guest and employee safety and immunity boosting food and beverage menus. We are working with SGS, UK to certify the hotels for safety and wellness. We have redesigned the interiors- public areas and restaurants with physical distancing. We have accelerated our digital transformation and have a new customer experience journey to mark the new era in hotels.  We are also embarking on training programs to re-skill and up-skill our teams to thrive in the new world of hospitality and delight the new customer who will be germ phobic. 

In this revival phase, what strategies have you adapted to expand GRT Hotel’s footprint?

Disruption is always the mother of opportunity. Especially, a disruption like the one we are going through needs an optimist to see a bright new future in a new world. The next decade will see a surge in leisure destinations thriving with demand from the domestic traveller and the re-entry of the international travellers. GRT Hotels has acquired a beach resort in Pondicherry and we are upgrading it with new age facilities to be a Radisson franchised resort. 

We have also closed one of our hotels, Radisson Blu GRT Chennai near the airport, to embark on an ambitious renovation and expansion to open as the new-decade hotel with superior technology stack. We have also taken the opportunity to plan new exciting hotels projects in Tamil Nadu – our resort brand, Great Trails by GRT Hotels in a large plantation estate in Palani hills and a resort in the temple town of Kumbakonam. We are also finishing a beautiful Great Trails resort in Wayanad in Kerala on top of a coffee plantation hill with verdant views. We also have plans to open our select service hotel brand -Zibe by GRT Hotels in Tirupati soon. The pandemic has given us an opportunity to consolidate and replan the expansion and business development. 

How important a role will technology play in the hotels of the future? Can you elaborate on the company’s vision in same regards?

We have suddenly jumped into the world of the fourth industrial revolution. We will see the blurring boundaries between the physical, digital, and biological worlds. Hospitality will embrace technology without hesitation to survive. Facilities will be based on technologies like artificial intelligence, NFC, RFID , Big data , Machine learning, M2M, RFID , Internet of things (IOT) among some of the technologies on which hospitality services will be based from now on.

At GRT Hotels, we have embarked to build an ambitious technology stack ready for the future. All our buildings will be IOT and connected with an internet backbone. We will work on the latest WIFI-6 framework. We have plotted the changed customer experience journey with the help of focus groups. We are now making headway into installing chatbots on our website, a new age revenue management system which uses complex algorithms to forecast business and make the pricing model dynamic, video concierge for guests to contact the hotels round the clock, instant messaging from website or even google search, keyless door locks for guest rooms, contactless remote check in , face recognition for entry into gyms and other restricted facilities, NFC and RFID for hyper personalisation, complete room automation to control networks via IPads or guest’s own mobile devices for lighting, motorised curtains, entertainment hubs,  guest task request management, air quality and air-conditioning and many more.

With the current change in market dynamics, what are the top trends that you have noticed in the hospitality sector?

The hospitality, travel and tourism have taken a somersault in recent times. The dynamics of business seems to have changed permanently. The pandemic will have financial ramifications on the industry and the focus will shift to cash flow management. The unused facilities in hotels will be repurposed to suit the new normal. Smaller banqueting spaces, redesigned restaurants with social distancing, and co-working spaces will take precedence in hotels. With depleting revenue per room, hotels are rightsizing resources, and the future focus will be on tight operational expenses. Domestic traveller will take precedence. Facilities and operations will be designed for the local traveller. City hotels will continue for a long time with lesser occupancies. The people will travel less as they will be germ phobic. The future will be about bio-wars and cyber-attacks. Hotels will have to plan for such eventualities. 

What do you feel can be done to grow brand ‘Incredible India’ especially post Covid-19?

Emphasis should be on safety and wellness in the tourism and hospitality. The industry should take visible initiatives and communicate these effectively. Air bubbles arrangements should be negotiated with source markets effectively. Airports will need to be spruced up with to meet the new normal travellers. Fast test kits should be made available to check travellers arriving and thermal scans should be installed. Local transport should make changes to ensure contactless and social distancing norms. Tourist spots should be regulated for crowds and strict controls on wearing masks and washing hands should be given importance. Hotels should have clear norms for safety and wellness. A Govt approved certifying body should inspect the hotels regularly.