Fern Hotels Will Open 12 New Hotels by 2017 End

FERN HOTELS and Resorts will be opening 12 new hotels towards the end of this year.  “We have a very aggressive domestic growth trajectory coupled with opening hotels in new markets of Nepal, Bhutan. Post this we will be targeting the APAC & GCC countries. Our Vision is to cross 100 hotels by 2020,” says Suhail Kannampilly, COO, The Fern Hotels and Resorts in an exclusive conversation with BW Hotelier.

The group has closed last financial year (2016-17) with a turnover of Rs 247 crores. “This year we are targeting Rs 325 crores.  In the International market we look to start our presence with around Rs 30 crores from Nepal & Seychelles,” Kannampilly told BW Hotelier.

Kannampilly believes that the Eco friendly practices and providing great value to the customers helps in reaching that growth rate. “Each of our team members is trained religiously on our Eco practices and guest anticipation. So bottom line great service coupled with a great price that gets driven by our eco practices make a brilliant combination to be a hotel of choice,” he said.

However, for Kannampilly, finding professionals ready for the grind of the hospitality industry is by far the hardest activity. Adding more to this he said, “We employ close to 3000 people through our hotels, that number will grow by a minimum of 500 per year. We see over 50 per cent attrition in our workforce every year, this means that every year we have to re-recruit and re-train more than half our employees.”

Kannampilly also spoke about the tourist foot fall in India and feels that focus needs to be towards newer destination in India. He said, “There are a lot of factors here like regional stability, Infrastructure, the international press is quick to pick up on the negative so we need to ensure we work towards changing and projecting a positive image of India in socio-economic and hygiene factors.”