ITC Grand Bharat Testing Ground for the Idea of ’Unhurried Luxury’

By Sourish Bhattacharyya WITH HIS recent elevation as Managing Director of Landbase India Limited, Anand Rao, General Manager, ITC Grand Bharat, now presides over a 300-acre estate in the lap of the Aravallis where peacocks come home to roost. On this vast green stretch, the 104 suites of the showpiece ITC hotel that Rao heads sprawl across 14.5 acres and on the rest of the land sits the Classic Golf & Country Club, Jack Nicklaus’s first South Asian championship course divided into three nine-hole sections. Yet, Rao has an unbelievably lean staff of 190-200 people, of whom just 70 are on the permanent staff, managing not only the 100 suites (the four presidential suites are nearing completion), but also four food and beverage destinations, a 30,000-square-foot spa, and a plush convention zone that has already caught the fancy of corporate houses and families scouting for suitable addresses to host niche weddings. How does Rao staff this lean machine that manages ITC Grand Bharat like clockwork? As he explained to me during a guided tour of the property, Rao draws on his third role in the organisation ’ yes, his third hat is that of General Manager, Learning Services, ITC Hotels, which makes him the boss of the ITC Hospitality Management Institute (ITC-HMI), Manesar ’ to manage the luxury resort almost entirely with the help of the students under his charge. It is an operation run by two batches of ITC-HMI students ’ the juniors who perform the nuts-and-bolts tasks and the seniors who double as assistant managers ’ and they report to their respective department heads, many of whom are teachers of their institute who have been assigned to the hotel so that they can brush up their rusty real-world hoteliering skills. For the students, it is an unsurpassable work experience; for Rao, it is a way to keep his staffing costs and the number of permanent employees low, as he taps the passion of students, which more than anything makes up for their lack of experience. With an in-house talent pool, getting to run the resort may not be as much of a challenge for Rao as filling up the 100 suites and, eventually, the four presidential villas nearing completion. The 800-square-foot suites, each of which opens either on to a private dip pool, or leads up to a terrace, today command an average room rate of Rs 25,000 a night, which makes Rao’s task doubly daunting. To achieve desirable occupancies, Rao’s team is tapping ’a varied portfolio of segments’. To these different markets, the resort is being sold as a golfing destination, a wellness getaway, or a venue for corporate retreats and even niche wedding receptions. Rao will also target another important segment, which is increasingly attracting the attention of hoteliers. It consists of leisure travellers whose idea of a good holiday is a ’staycation’, or a break not very far from their place of residence. ’The layout of ITC Grand Bharat and the range of activities it offers are such that we let our guest set their pace themselves,’ says Rao. ’We believe in ’unhurried luxury’ and that’s what we are giving our guests at ITC Grand Bharat.’ Say ’hello’ to unhurried luxury before you return to the rat race after you leave the gates of the benchmark-setting luxury resort. Sourish Bhattacharyya is Consulting Editor, BW Hotelier.-