In the fourth episode of the third season of BW HOTELIER’s webBLAST series, The GM Show, titled Luxury in Urban Chaos: Operational Excellence in Mumbai, distinguished hoteliers got together to discuss hospitality in the country’s Financial Capital. From addressing challenges with innovative solutions to talking about luxury and guest expectations, the discussion aimed to uncover the evolving trends shaping the city’s hospitality landscape.
The show began with the host and moderator, Bhuvanesh Khanna, CEO - BW Communities, BW Businessworld introducing the panellists: Sumeet Suri, General Manager, The Westin Mumbai Garden City; Kunal Pahwa, General Manager, ITC Grand Central, Mumbai; Shilpi Khanna, General Manager, Hyatt Centric Juhu; Rajiv Kapoor, General Manager, Fairmont Mumbai (Pre-Opening) and Salil Fadnis, General Manager, Sahara Star.
In the conversation about how The Westin Mumbai Garden City maintains its focus on wellness, Suri shared, “The Westin has a few pillars on wellness which includes sleep well, eat well and move well. Being a business hotel, it focusses on all these small touch points which offer aspects of wellness.” While discussing the hotel’s alignment with The Westin’s global sustainability initiatives, he highlighted, “The property has a 1 km radius with about 750 trees and more than 5,000 shrubs and plants. In 2024, we were able to reduce our energy by 2.5 per cent as compared to 2023. We have also reduced our water consumption by 26 per cent with 50 per cent of our water coming from STP units. We aim to be LEED certified by the end of next year,” he added.
When asked about ITC Grand Central’s approach to blending luxury with responsibility in the heart of the city, Pahwa said, “The hotel is powered by green energy and is LEED certified for responsible luxury. Our company and our hotel’s ethos of responsible luxury relies on four pillars – our guests, our associates, our nation and mother earth.” While discussing strategies to foster guest loyalty in Mumbai’s competitive luxury hospitality market, he added, “When we talk about operational excellence, we look at it from a guest perspective. Whatever we are doing has to happen seamlessly. The basic reason for guests to spend money is good sleep and good food. We’re very guest centric on how we can incorporate responsible dining. We have a sleep menu which gives the guests the choice of pillows. We also try to work towards a work-life balance for our associates.”
Highlighting Hyatt Centric Juhu’s commitment to offering authentic experiences, Khanna shared, “When we talk about operational excellence, we look at it from a guest perspective. We try to ensure that guests have great breakfast and serve amazing local experiences in the evenings like cutting chai. At Restaurant Sesame, we curate some great Asian food and focus on Japanese food but we curate local experiences to make guests feel like celebrities.” She adds that all this while she ensures the team and colleagues remain happy as it helps achieve operational excellence.
Discussing the launch of a new luxury property in Mumbai’s highly competitive hospitality skyline, Kapoor outlined, “Fairmont Mumbai will have 446 keys but within this hotel complex, there will be two hotels. Later this year or early next year, we’ll be bringing Accor’s new brand, Morgan’s Origins. It’ll be a super ultra-luxury lifestyle full suite hotel with 109 keys.”
|On the positioning of Fairmont Mumbai as a unique destination in the city’s luxury hospitality landscape, he shared, “We want to bring the New York culture to Mumbai. On Saturdays and Sundays, we want to turn the hotel into a resort and also look at turning it into a destination of top luxury weddings to top grand events.” Kapoor added the ballroom in Fairmont Mumbai will be the biggest luxury ballroom in Mumbai.
In a discussion about how Sahara Star’s distinctive design and prime location shape its operations, Fadnis explained, “There’re a lot of elements of water and green, which are the USPs of the property. The lagoon here provides a lot of calmness to all the guests who walk in.” When asked about the secret to Sahara Star’s success in hosting grand events, he said, “Event management at the hotel doesn’t start from the banquet hall, it starts at the gates. We have three big halls for MICE - Sapphire, Jade and Ruby. While Sapphire is about 28,000 sq ft, Jade and Ruby are about 10,000 sq ft each.” He also stressed on the fact that arrival pattern of guests is extremely important to streamline operations.
The show culminated with Bhuvanesh Khanna thanking the panellists for sharing their thoughts and views on the subject and informing about Episode 5 of The GM Show scheduled for January 16, 2025, starting 4 pm on Operational Excellence in India’s IT and Hospitality Capital.
