Right people, right attitude, right training: Vijay Wanchoo

Shruti Rastogi Jul 20, 2020

Covid-19 pandemic has brought catastrophically complex situations in the hotel industry and shook the enormous pillars of many hotel chains. The technology has yet not penetrated into the hotel industry completely but these tough times had made the realization of its necessity. Technology will boost up the agendum of ‘Going Touchless’ and there are myriad ways in which smart technology can improve the hotel experience today.

Speaking at the ninth BW HOTELIER Breaking The Pandemic WebBlast: ‘Going Touchless’, Vijay Wanchoo, Sr Executive Vice President and GM, The Imperial, New Delhi talks about leveraging technology to get past the pandemic.

Expounding to the on-ground arrangements, Wanchoo expressed his concern that technology will take away personalization in the upcoming future. “At this moment there is an overdose of information is floating in the market.” He talks about the touchless check-ins, elevators, billing on the command of an app, QR coded menus, etc. and mentioned that the technology will already be there but to build confidence in the guest personalisation is important.

Elaborating about The Imperial, he said that it is still very traditional kind of hotel and shared his experience with the introduction of ‘Namaskar’. “The new trend in serving hospitality to the customer will be taken away by technology but for battling up the situation, they need the basic infrastructure for technology and well-trained staff to handle it. Acquaintance of staff with technology needs smart training for the efficient functioning of the hotel.”

“The confidence and trust could only be built right from the reservation, for which he ascertained all the human meeting points, from picking up from the airport the first human contact,” he added.

Furthermore, Wanchoo suggested that a sanitized car and the shield between the guest and chauffeur will help in boosting up the confidence of the guest. He also puts light on pre-training of the chauffer that is the first impression of serving hospitality to the guest and will play a pivotal role in the hotel industry.

Illustrating 26/11 that had made the realization of ‘physical frisking’ and now this horrendous pandemic has made the hoteliers realised the safety protocols they need to follow. Heading towards his 360-degree approach, in implementation of this ‘new normal’, he focuses towards serving hospitality as the acute target even in these tough times, he made visualize 60-70 touch-points that the guest will come across from arrival to reaching till the room.

Resolving the difficulty, he explained how the screens at the reception will serve hospitality by a ‘dialogue delivery’ in lieu of an associate, to remain contactless with the guest. He said, “Now the automated sanitisers, foot operating sanitisers all over the lobby, sanitized rooms and staff wearing PPE kits will supplement the needs of the guests.”

“Therefore, grooming of the staff wearing masks, will not be able to express gratitude which is very necessary for personalization. We need to train people to smile with their eyes,” he added.