It has just been over a month that Arjun Baljee took over the reins of Royal Orchid Hotels Ltd (ROHL) as its President. The co-promoter of the Group, Baljee was involved with the development of the first Royal Orchid hotel back in 2001. In fact, His role of project implementation with the group saw the company grow from two to 10 hotels within a short span of six years. Under his leadership, the expansion proved to be the catalyst for Royal Orchid’s successful IPO in 2006. In 2010, he setup Peppermint Hotels, a budget hotel platform.
Baljee, the son of Royal Orchids Hotels Founder, Chander K Baljee, studied at the Hotel School at Cornell University where a part of the academic journey involved working for hotels around the roles to gain real world experience. These job opportunities helped shape his world view on what hospitality should be, he shares. The President of ROHL brings over 20 years of diverse experience spanning real estate, technology, startups and hospitality. Throughout his career, Baljee has advised a wide range of businesses, from cutting-edge startups to established conglomerates. Notably, he served as a strategic advisor to the Tourism Development Fund of Saudi Arabia, overseeing investments in the kingdom’s tourism infrastructure.
Sharing his views on the primary goals and vision for the Group, he says, “Royal Orchid has grown exponentially over the last two years. Growth brings its own challenges – increased team, more varied hotels and the like. These are good problems to have but it’s now that we have to set ourselves up for the future with a distinct brand vision, and processes that are sustainable for the future.” Aiming to carry forward the family legacy, Baljee opines that one needs to do three things – reinvent the brand, create new hotel development standards and setup a team to execute on this new vision. “We are reimagining a couple of brands, and what they will stand for. Our first upscale hotel brand will open in Mumbai and then we will open our interpretation of what a lean lux hotel means to us in Jaipur. These two will be the growth engines going forward,” he informs.
The three major challenges that the hospitality industry need to address, feels Baljee, include it not being classified as an “industry” by the Government, the country having enough headcounts but no manpower. “Industry status is a massive issue as the cost of capital is never commensurate with the time it takes to develop and stabilise a hotel. We need lower cost of capital. Then, we need many hospitality vocational training schools but that’s not enough to give us the required manpower we need to power the long tail of hospitality,” he opines.
ROHL President shares he believes in simplicity of management to maintain competitiveness in a rapidly evolving hospitality market. “We need to speak the customers’ language, use technology to enable and empower the team, and continue to evolve our offerings to change with the customer preferences. We have two customers we need to make happy – the paying guest and our shareholders. These two are at the heart of every decision we will make,” says Baljee. ROHL has recently launched Regenta Rewards, the new freemium rewards platform. “With a combination of instant gratification and traditional rewards and a massive rewards supermarket, we believe our guests will continue to stay with us and be rewarded constantly,” he adds.
To foster a strong organisational culture as also motivate teams across different properties, Baljee says the only way is to maintain transparency in the process, in the communication and a clear communique that it is the process and not the people that drive progress. “There has to be a clear direction that everyone buys in to. A clear distinction of brands and what the deliverables to the guest are per brand are being created and rolled out. Clear processes lead to clear expectation management across the group, which would help everyone know what they are to do, and how they will be rewarded for excellence,” he says.
Baljee welcomes Government’s move to spend more on creating tourism attractions like the Statue of Unity or even opening large format religious destinations in the country. “Along with international tourism, domestic tourism has witnessed an upward trend. The YOLO or You Only Live Once culture, be it weddings or long weekend travel seems to have set in. People from all over the world come to see experience all this which, in turn, gives a boost to the overall economy of the respective micro-markets,” he says.
Sharing his thought on the requirements of the international tourists, the ROHL President feels they arrive here to immerse themselves in the Indian culture and relish the varied offerings on the cuisine front. To cater to the global road warrior, Baljee shares that they will soon open their first gateway hotel in Mumbai at T2 with new innovative service and amenities.
Targetting a significant expansion with 35-plus new hotels in FY24, Baljee shares as ROHL is an asset-right company with a heady mix of management contracts and revenue share agreements, it has a host of revenue share properties. “Most of this capital is internally accrued with debt at unit level,” he says, adding that they aim to grow the business through various offerings in different markets. “Royal Orchid 2.0 is an ambitious plan, and you will see the changes coming through Q3 of 2024 onwards. We will grow the business but always keep the customer at the centre,” he concludes.
