Hyatt in India, on song
Beginning with Hyatt Regency Delhi in 1983, Hyatt has had a long innings in India. From being one of the first international hospitality chains to establish operations in the country, the Group has exemplified how to marry the best of local culture and heritage to international hospitality standards. At Hyatt, the belief is that India has a high growth potential and is a market to significantly grow its brand representation. The brand has been mindful about its expansion and focussed on strengthening its presence where its guests prefer to travel. In fact, since 2005, it has expanded presence to 31 Hyatt-branded hotels across eight distinct brands – Andaz, Alila, Park Hyatt, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, Hyatt, Hyatt Centric and Hyatt Place.
“India holds a significant place in Hyatt’s global growth pipeline – third to the US and China. Yet it is one of the most dynamic markets with constantly evolving guest preferences and hospitality landscape. The biggest challenge, which presented a great learning opportunity, was in the past 18 months. Hyatt’s purpose – to care for people so they can be their best – truly served as the guiding light as we navigated through an unprecedented period,” shares Sunjae Sharma, Vice President and Country Head, Hyatt India. As a positive step in this direction, Hyatt launched the Hyatt Care Fund, designed to support colleagues with the most pressing needs through a series of coordinated efforts around the world, in April 2020. Launched with contributions by the Hyatt Hotels Foundation, Hyatt’s Senior Leadership Team and the Board of Directors, and donations from Pritzker Family Foundations, over $17 million has been distributed till today,” informs Sharma.
HYATT’S INDIA PLANS
“The desire for innovative hotel experiences from guests, World of Hyatt members, customers and owners drive our ambitious expansion in India. We intend to grow our portfolio by more than 70 per cent through 2023. With over 24 executed managed and franchised agreements, Hyatt will foray into 12 new markets and add over 3,800 keys to its existing portfolio by 2023. Thereby, our presence will be over 50 hotels and ensure a more diverse portfolio of hotel offerings in new and existing markets,” he says.
The Group is focussing on conversion opportunities in current business conditions. “We are confident that our brand reputation and strong owner relations will help in capitalising on them. While generating revenue is important, sustainability remains at the core of our decision-making process. Our goal is to advance corporate, hotel and collective action on climate change, water stewardship, waste and circularity, responsible sourcing, biodiversity and local environment protection so that our guests can enjoy vibrant destinations worldwide,” he puts in.
At present, Hyatt, as a brand, operates with over 7,000 rooms across 21 destinations which include 31 hotels across eight premier brands and is present not just in urban locations like Mumbai and Delhi but in key leisure markets such as Goa and cities like Hampi and Thrissur. “We are focussed on introducing our brands to destinations where our guests are travelling or would like to travel. The aim is to ensure a multi-brand presence across cities. In the last three years, we have introduced our guests in India to three new luxury lifestyle brands – Andaz, Hyatt Centric and Alila. We have witnessed great acceptance of the Hyatt Regency and Hyatt Place brands in India, and we do see a great focus on growing them further. Urban and leisure destinations have an equal play (50 per cent each) in our current pipeline. In fact, in the last 18 months, 60 per cent of our signings have been in the leisure segment and we expect more opportunities in the sme space as we see it picking up quicker than the other ones,” he informs.
Sharma shares there are five new openings lined up, starting with Hyatt Place Vadodara, expected to open on November 15, 2021. This will be followed by Hyatt Place Bharuch, Hyatt Regency Dehradun and Hyatt Place Jaipur Malviya Nagar. “Further down the calendar, we will see Hyatt Centric Sector 17 Chandigarh opening its doors to guests,” puts in Sharma whose journey in the hospitality sector began almost three decades back and his association with Hyatt took off in 2002, as Director (F&B) at the Grand Hyatt New Delhi.
Andaz Delhi
PANDEMIC AND THE WAY FORWARD
As this has been a pivotal period for the hospitality industry, every experience serves as a learning opportunity. Today, there is an even greater focus on innovation around tech-introductions, safety benchmarks and wellbeing aspects. All these have resulted in Hyatt establishing itself as a trusted brand. “We are confident for a long-term recovery as people would want to experience the joy of travel again. We are increasingly noticing the trend of ‘impulse travel’ with guests booking trips in a much shorter window than past years – average booking lead time is less than a month. We believe that despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, domestic travel will soar,” opines Sharma.
The Hyatt India Country Head adds that even for the MICE segment, the industry has started catering to a newer audience where safety, security and cleanliness have become the key asks. And preparing for hybrid events is an important measure to ensure guest safety is given utmost priority. “Our aim is to provide guests with a reimagined hospitality experience in a new normal, which is only possible through personalisation, creativity and care. We are moving out of this slowdown with a focus on helping people get back out to explore new places, de-stress and re-energise safely,” he says.
Grand Hyatt Goa
RECOVERY PLANS FOR INDIA
The second Covid-19 wave was tough, says Sharma, but adds the situation is improving and we are on the road to recovery. “In August 2021, room occupancy stood at 50 per cent in India. Our RevPar recovery was at 389 per cent of August 2020 and 65 per cent in August 2019. Our occupancy recovery is at +36 ppts compared to August 2020 & down just 10 ppts compared to August 2019,” he shares. Specifically, at business locations, the brand expects to achieve the pre-Covid level demand by Q2 of this financial year as Q1 results exceeded expectations. “Overall, we are relatively optimistic for upcoming quarters, but believe that levels of occupancy will come back quicker than the rates and we’re looking to 2023-2024 before we see ourselves getting back to the pre-pandemic levels,” he says.
EFFORTS TO MEET EVOLVING PRIORITIES OF GUESTS
The brand was been swift to respond to the challenges posed by the pandemic and announced its Global Care & Cleanliness Commitment in April 2020 to prioritise the safety and wellbeing of guests and colleagues. In fact, Hyatt became the first hospitality brand to have committed to the GBAC STAR accreditation which includes detailed training at more than 900 Hyatt hotels worldwide. “Every Hyatt hotel has at least one person on property trained as a Hygiene & Wellbeing Leader and is responsible for maintaining their hotel’s mandatory GBAC STAR accreditation, including a cleaning, disinfection and infectious disease prevention programme that will focus on establishing sanitary, safe and healthy hotel environments. Additionally, we have been ensuring the wellbeing of our colleagues, through efforts like colleague certification, trainings and recertification for hygiene and cleanliness,” shares Sharma.
Hyatt India has invested in enhanced digital amenities to provide guests greater control over how they connect with them. This helped transform the nature of hotel services in the new normal – from scheduling housekeeping, choosing between pick-ups or knock-and-go food orders, mobile key entry, contactless check-in and check-out and more. Through its exclusive collaboration with Headspace, the guests, members and colleagues, have been able to access mindfulness exercises, guided meditations and sleep content via the World of Hyatt app either on in-room TVs or on the road.
Grand Hyatt Kochi Bolgatty
“We keep introducing initiatives like Together By Hyatt are hybrid event packages that enable guests to rediscover the joy of connecting at global meetings and events while keeping safety and social distancing needs in mind, and the all-new lifestyle and luxury rewards programme, Hyatt Dining Club which has a range of value-added curated offerings across all Hyatt hotels and restaurants in India,” avers Sharma.
ROLE OF F&B IN HOSPITALITY MARKET
In the new normal, the brand plans on delivering reimagined dining offerings in beautiful, unique spaces like private dining in garden suites at Hyatt Pune or bringing individual buffet-style meals at Hyatt Place Hyderabad Banjara Hills. “With the launch of the all-new Hyatt Dining Club, we are bringing a holistic and reimagined experience in three-tiers – Silver, Gold and Platinum to our members. The programme introduces ‘members dine free’ concept, instant benefit redemption and a complimentary spouse card. In addition, members get gym memberships, spa treatments and access to members-only events. We have also introduced an exclusive programme for World of Hyatt members where they get an opportunity to earn triple points on Eligible Non-Stay Charges for dining at participating Hyatt hotels and resorts,” he shares.
Alila Fort Bishangarh
PROMOTING DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
Diversity and inclusion have been at the core of Hyatt’s purpose to care for people. “We are committed to actions that fight injustices and accordingly, we introduced our ‘Change Starts Here’ commitment with actionable goals to accelerate our D&I efforts by 2025. At Hyatt, we continue to ensure a level-playing field for career growth for all colleagues, through our Internal Recruiting & Hiring Guidelines and encouraging diverse candidates for key leadership roles and beyond,” he puts in.
A firm believer in the fact that both individuals and companies should only speak when required, Sharma says, “A defining ethos of living for me is that I see challenges as opportunities, not failures. It is a mind-set that I encourage among my colleagues. Nothing worthwhile comes easy. One can choose to dwell on failures or learn from them and keep evolving.”
MANTRA FOR SUCCESS
“It is important to underline that the management contract model worked successfully, given our brand reputation and global reach as well as quality and trust benchmarks. We consciously prefer the asset light route of expansion and to partner with local owners and developers who have experience and insights into Indian culture and know what appeals to travellers in India. This allows us to create the perfect amalgamation of local and global experiences for our guests and communities. Our owners, who have been greatly responsible in helping Hyatt take forward its purpose of advancing care in the country, are extremely critical to us and we have always been quick to understand and meet their needs. It is owing to this healthy relationship with Hyatt’s stakeholders that we have been able to reach here,” he says.
