New concepts in hospitality
HE IS a firm believer in the fact that it’s always important to keep trying and it’s not necessary that if something hasn’t worked in the past doesn’t mean it won’t today. “A lot of time the circumstances change, creating a new dynamic for growth,” shares Suhail Kannampilly, CEO, Concept Hospitality, which operates the country’s leading environmentally sensitive hotel chain, The Fern Hotels & Resorts. It was over two decades back, in August 2002, that this IHM-Mumbai graduate stepped into the field of hospitality and joined the Orchid Hotels in the Financial Capital of India as a management trainee.
“It was a good learning experience as it gave me two advantages: one, I got a crash course on actual functioning of all the departments in the hotel and two, it gave me a step up over the next one. In fact, when I joined the industry, I was told that the best way to grow is to see the issue from a step above as it helped you with a rounded perspective and a target on the larger picture,” says Kannampilly who spent six years in operations at various hotels before moving to the corporate office at Concept Hospitality, understanding the finance and viability bit of hotels. “I strongly believe in continuous learning, be it through exposure or self-learning. It’s important to keep challenging yourself and step out of your comfort zone,” he feels.
Kannampilly spent almost six-and-a-half years as Vice President Operations at Concept Hospitality before taking over as the COO in 2015 and finally becoming the CEO in April 2019. Since his joining the organisation founded by his father, Param Kannampilly in 1996, the Group now has over 90 hotels across six brands as of September 2022 at 75 locations and over 5,000 rooms. The Fern is known as the brand which goes out of its way to deliver authentic and enriching experiences that make their world feel bigger. The promise is a premium standard of amenities and service with a true passion for the environment. “In a world where guests require proactive, individualised service, The Fern delivers much more. Elegance and personalised service with contemporary facility, and all packaged together with minimal impact on the environment,” feels Kannampilly.
“To be honest, we have never placed much importance on where we fit in the grand scheme of the hospitality industry in India. Our pipeline looks healthy, and we are very strong regionally in the west of India and are now focussing on growing in the north and south too. Our task is much simpler. We focus on each of our micro markets and look to provide the best hospitality experience while ensuring to stay true to our core belief of protecting the environment. This has worked for us as our guests appreciate the effort on all fronts and we are able to drive returns to all the stakeholders,” opines Kannampilly who has played an instrumental role in the growth and development of Concept Hospitality and has fore fronted the success of the Fern brand across India.
NEW TRENDS
Sharing his thoughts on how the latest trends have influenced the strategy for business development, especially with the pandemic accelerating global shifts in consumer behaviour, Kannampilly shares, “Hygiene and sanitation always played a key role in hotels. The only difference is that in the past, it was underplayed and never advertised. Today, there are a few more touchpoints that re-emphasise hygiene to the guests. However, I feel it will soon get redundant.” The pandemic, opines the Concept Hospitality CEO, has created a larger swing in the customer’s mind to pick either branded or exclusive stays for a reassurance on the hygiene front and this trend is what will stay. “From a business development perspective, this is great as many standalone hotels migrated to the organised branded space. It’s essential that when a property migrates, the brand doesn’t forget its promise to the customers and ensure the property does what’s required from a safety and hygiene perspective,” he adds.
Environment is something that has always been a core value to the Kannampilly family and Concept Hospitality has forever been synonymous for its environmentally sensitive hotels. “As a child, I remember watching my mother plant trees along the road or segregating garbage and composting it back in the early 90s before governments even knew about the concept. This ethos was brought forward to the brand but more so it now rests on the team that makes up the brand. Each and every team member of the hotel goes through a detailed induction on the environmental practices. It’s only when each one of them believes in the cause that it makes a huge difference to the environment,” he says, adding that their pre-pandemic campaign with National Geographic took this message and action to the community and resulted in a direct saving of over 2.5 million litres of water.
“We have been recognised and awarded more than 200 times for our commitment to the environment and are proud to have received the HICAP Award for Positive Community Impact (Hotel Investment Conference Asia Pacific) too,” shares Kannampilly who has a strong process background and has ensured key operating efficiency standards across the portfolio of brands under Concept Hospitality.
TECHNOLOGY AS AN ENABLER
The Fern Hotels & Resorts was one of the first hotel chains to move to a Cloud-based Property Management System, shares Kannampilly. “Technology plays an important role in creating lean and efficient processes. It helps reduce or eliminate duplications and delays in workflow as well as helps us speed up by automating specific tasks. We have automated our systems in various departments of the hotel and made the entire process easier, both at the front and back of the house. Today, we have a detailed Human Resources Management System (HRMS) on which all 5,500 team members function. The ongoing development of our marketing automation will help the hotels improve their acquisition costs,” informs the CEO of Concept Hospitality.
SIGNIFICANCE OF MICE & WEDDINGS
We all are well aware of the fact that the wedding market in India is huge and it got elevated to a new level during the period of the pandemic, especially the smaller destination wedding segment. “Earlier, our hotels weren’t the size to cater to the big fat Indian weddings. But the trend of boutique weddings has opened a new market for some of our resorts. The business at these resorts has crossed 20 per cent of their annual revenue,” says an elated Kannampilly. However, he feels the country is still undersold when it comes to being a MICE destination. “We don’t attract the larger MICE functions as frequently as we should. The domestic MICE movement has recovered post-pandemic and is driving significant volumes to both business and leisure hotels. What we need is a concerted effort along with government bodies to drive the high paying international MICE,” he opines.
CSR APPROACH
“As the leading environmentally sensitive Group in the country, we develop and promote hospitality with responsibility and hence contribute heavily with targets to sustainability. Our focus is on five globes – water conservation, energy efficiency, solid waste management, employee education and community awareness. As a Group, we are actively involved in programmes like #iamsurti, a community awareness programme to save every drop of water which has led to a 2.5 million litres saving in a year and advanced locality management where the Fern property is an active member in its locality. Community initiatives, often led by the Green Team, range from working alongside local administrators and residents in planning infrastructure projects to outreach projects in schools and cleanliness drives,” informs Kannampilly who religiously takes an annual holiday with family and spends the weekends with them too. “On workdays, I try to get an evening swim which helps me de-stress after a day at the office,” he says.
Ask the Concept Hospitality CEO his mantra to stay relevant in today’s world and he is quick to reply, “I distinctly remember listening to an interview of late Arne Sorenson who served as the President and CEO of Marriott International, describing the Marriott chain in one word – ‘restless’. I remember thinking that we have to be truly driven when the number one in the industry is still restless. Our goal has always been to be recognised as a partner of choice, an employer of choice and a hotel of choice. That’s been our focus and we have a long way to go to get there. As a partner of choice today, we are probably the only Indian company open to all forms of engagement if the deal is right for both. We are taking on properties on revenue share, equity partnership and management contracts,” he discloses.
LOOKING AHEAD
With 90 hotels at present and a pipeline of 20 opening in the next two years, Kannampilly aims to reach the magical figure of 100 soon. “Going forward, we want to increase our bandwidth with two main objectives. One, driving volume business and profitability to our existing hotels and two, upping the ante of growth from the average 15 to 25 hotels a year. Our focus is to get to the 150 mark by 2025,” he says.
