Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels Embraces the Online Space in Covid Times

India has 65 per cent of its population in the younger demographic, who look for ‘experience’ and THE Park Hotels have striven to charm the youth. A leader in the luxury hospitality segment and Chairperson, Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels, Priya Paul, believes that entertainment, food and beverage services were the customer value propositions that make her hotel chain attractive to the more ‘youthful’ market.

With the spread of Covid-19 and a lockdown in force, consumers now miss the social element of their lives, she said, “If you survey a 100 people, the first thing they want to do right now is to go and meet their friends and family. People are social, all they want to do is dine out or hang out or go to clubs, bars, all this is very much part of an experience of a modern city or of a person aged between 18 and 45 years,” she said, speaking at the BW HOTELIER Webinar: Breaking the Pandemic 'Getting Indian Hospitality Back... Hear The Leaders'.

Known for her knack to be ahead of the times and an instinctive understanding of the younger demographic, Paul said during the lockdown, the Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels group had moved to the online space to offer entertainment. “It is quite amazing that you can have a higher level of reach online including people who we would have not reached otherwise because we have not been using the technology. Whether it is Zoom or Facebook Live, we are offering bands or performers into your living room. And the young kids are putting it on, doing a watch party and getting all their friends to participate in that experience,” said Paul.

“Entertainment and food is all about being immersive. How do we take our hotel experience to people’s homes is something we are looking at. With technology, there are many hybrid ways in which it can be done,” she added.

Paul further pointed out that the five-star hotels are looking at food delivery as a revenue stream, which is not easy. “Our kitchens and hotels are not geared to cut A-line and scalable quality. We are better off doing smaller quantities of orders, but we are heading towards it as we have that capacity and there is no reason why some kitchens cannot be converted to this market,” she said.

Earlier this month, THE Park Hotels across Delhi, Navi Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad, began food delivery service. Apart from providing a helping hand to its guests and neighbours across cities through #THEParkHeartofHope initiative, THE Park Hotels is also extending support to healthcare workers and under-privileged sections of the society, who are most-affected by the pandemic.

“It is really an evolving situation. My fundamental view is that people are social, and we are in the right space where people can meet with safety, hygiene, and high-quality security which can be guaranteed with a lot of efforts that we are doing it. And, I think, people will be back very soon,” she concluded optimistically.