'Going Touchless' with and without technology

BW HOTELIER on Friday, July 17 held its ninth show in Breaking The Pandemic WebBlast series: ‘Going Touchless’. The discussion was moderated by Biswajit Chakraborty, General Manager Delegate of Pullman & Novotel New Delhi Aerocity. Panellists included: Arindam Kunar, Vice President – Operations, Fortune Park Hotels Ltd; Zubin Songadwala, Area Manager, South and General Manager ITC Grand Chola, Chennai; Taljinder Singh, Senior Vice President – SeleQtions & Mumbai Hotels, IHCL;  Julian Ayers, Area Vice President North India and General Manager Hyatt Regency Delhi;  Vijay Wanchoo, Sr Executive Vice President and GM, The Imperial, New Delhi; Reuben Kataria, General Manager, JW Marriott Hotel, Bengaluru; Sanjay Gupta, General Manager, Le Meridien, Gurugram.

Initiating the discussion Chakraborty stated that these are challenging times, but there is immense positivity now and there is a feeling, situation will improve. He said, “Innkeeping is one of the oldest industries and will always continue to be. It has grown leaps and bounds, stayed abreast of technology, kept pace with any other industry. Its been home to business captains. Home to holidaymakers, across every continent and every country. Its brick and mortar and it will never die come what may.”

Touchless but not without heart

Going touchless has many connotations and Hoteliers are remodelling their SOPs with special focus on safety. Chakraborty requested all GMs to expound on the same. Elaborating on the new SOPs, the Taj Group has adopted and how thing are going to pan out in the future, Taljinder Singh   feels that the arrival process of a guest and again during the stay, may be touchless but at the end of the day India Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) are known to be a brand which has a lot of warmth so touchless it will be but not without heart.”

Taking yup the concerns of hotel owners in terms of Return on investment (ROI) Chakraborty asked, how do you convince on Business continuity, sustaining the team and ROI to the owners?

Getting back customer confidence

The industry fallout is more challenging now than ever before, shedding light on business continuity, sustaining the team and Return of Investment (ROI), Songadwala said, “It’s very important to have a very fine eye and a conscious look at the cost parameters. Certain investments must be made to get the business back. There are certain technological interventions, there are certain safety aspects, there are investments we need to make, to gain the confidence of the guest. The only way we’ll get our business back is by creating a moment of trust.”

Honing the right skills

Chakraborty said that the world must now get used to lesser numbers; things are no longer going to be the same. Taking the cue, Reuben Kataria added, that today technology is increasing to another level, it is important to have the staff given the right kind of training, right attitude to handle that technology. However, personalisation will always remain important in hospitality. Also, there is a lot of information out there today and every hotel needs to decide what specifically is relevant to them. Chauffeurs and all the staff have to be trained and have to be safe to inspire confidence in the guest.”

While Vijay Wanchoo added that every hotel is now thinking about these SOPs and are ready to adapt the changes they need to go through. “Customer will not gain confidence if you give them basic infrastructure and communication, Train people to smile with their eyes.” He emphasised on raising trust with genuine services.

Ensure safety in supply chain management

“The two aspects that every company needs to work on is supply chain management and human/people practices,” Kunar added. He said that it is pertinent to make sure that the vendor programme is well-captured in the safety and hygiene docket, and that people should be trained on human practices in terms of cleanliness, hygiene and social distancing. “Technology is now available, and it will be proliferating in the next few years in terms of having more pre-arrival choices. Contactless payment modes already happened in the last couple of years, but it has bounced ahead due to the pandemic now,” he added.

Retain essence of warmth in hotel design

On the aspect of design, Julian Ayers said, “People’s expectations of the hotels continue to change constantly. The important thing is that we do not destroy the design to make it completely safe.”

The essence of welcoming should not vanish from the hotels with technology coming in. The designing of the hotel needs to be in a manner that is easy to use for all the age groups and is welcoming. 

Medical focus in the heart of housekeeping

Sanjay Gupta said, “At our hotel premises, after every 25-30 minutes area is sanitised and cleaned to get away with something we fear." Speaking at the webinar, Gupta talked about putting ‘medical focus’ in the heart of the house areas and associates. He shared that to avoid contact the associates are given the facility to stay back at the hotel. Undeniably, engagement and balanced communication will help in keeping the problems of the workforce at the bay. Speaking on this, Sanjay said,” For associates, we keep all the communication session opens. Every 15 days we get associates at a common platform. We also arrange competitions and prizes to keep them engaged.”

The webinar concluded on a positive note with GMs getting ready for future business to come.