New consumers are looking beyond just the hotel, but is the industry prepared to wake to this new reality?
The perceived differences between the Indian and international travelers are now blurring. Don't forget that a lot more Indians travel abroad, so they are getting used to the service abroad.
A lot of mid-level operators coming into the country are now giving the kind of service they offer in their hotels abroad. There are no bell boys in many of the new three-star hotels. You have to come down to get a newspaper, which is an add on.
I believe that the over-expectation of Indian customers is getting tempered today. They have more realistic expectations. What has changed today is that customers no longer expect just a good hotel. They want good food and a good experience overall. Whether they are there for leisure, business or a conference, it's the overall experience that they get in a hotel that counts.
What do we do differently, being an international brand, in India? We are bringing in an entirely new culture. Many Indian hotel companies are trying to do new and different things. A number of international companies are already doing them. We have the experience and expertise globally, which makes it easier for us to bring it into India.
For the Indian companies, the challenge and the opportunity is to quickly understand this fact and do it better.
I don't for a moment believe that Starwood can come here and operate hotels better than Indian companies can, but I certainly believe we bring in more efficiencies to the use of technology and to the use of our global processes, which Indian companies will certainly start adopting as well.
The transition in the attitude to service we see in the hospitality industry isn't just limited to it. Indians are changing the way they live. Look at social media platforms. Indians use them more than anywhere else in the world. We have Gen Y travellers, millennial travellers who are more adaptable to global trends. When we have a 60-year-old customer, they would probably say, "I don't want to do laundry", while someone who is from the younger generation, a techie who travels abroad, may not mind. He has done it abroad, after all.
The altering demographics of the customers are making changes like those happening in mature markets easier to adapt to India.
When we speak about service in hotels, we have to also look at whether India has enough people to staff the industry. The industry is growing so fast that questions being raised on the quality and availability of talent to meet its demand for skilled hands.
Rooms will remain in short supply, but what about the shortage of talent? The talent crunch is a reality that the industry must face up to.
Nonetheless, we are heading towards another golden era of the hospitality industry. The surge in business that it saw between 2003 and 2008, when demand grew faster than supply, is poised to come back in 2015. It's back to the days of growth.
As spoken to Bikramjit Ray. Dilip Puri is the Managing Director-Indian and Regional Vice President, Starwood Hotels & Resorts.
New consumers are looking beyond just the hotel, but is the industry prepared to wake to this new reality?
The perceived differences between the Indian and international travelers are now blurring. Don't forget that a lot more Indians travel abroad, so they are getting used to the service abroad.
A lot of mid-level operators coming into the country are now giving the kind of service they offer in their hotels abroad. There are no bell boys in many of the new three-star hotels. You have to come down to get a newspaper, which is an add on.
I believe that the over-expectation of Indian customers is getting tempered today. They have more realistic expectations. What has changed today is that customers no longer expect just a good hotel. They want good food and a good experience overall. Whether they are there for leisure, business or a conference, it's the overall experience that they get in a hotel that counts.
What do we do differently, being an international brand, in India? We are bringing in an entirely new culture. Many Indian hotel companies are trying to do new and different things. A number of international companies are already doing them. We have the experience and expertise globally, which makes it easier for us to bring it into India.
For the Indian companies, the challenge and the opportunity is to quickly understand this fact and do it better.
I don't for a moment believe that Starwood can come here and operate hotels better than Indian companies can, but I certainly believe we bring in more efficiencies to the use of technology and to the use of our global processes, which Indian companies will certainly start adopting as well.
The transition in the attitude to service we see in the hospitality industry isn't just limited to it. Indians are changing the way they live. Look at social media platforms. Indians use them more than anywhere else in the world. We have Gen Y travellers, millennial travellers who are more adaptable to global trends. When we have a 60-year-old customer, they would probably say, "I don't want to do laundry", while someone who is from the younger generation, a techie who travels abroad, may not mind. He has done it abroad, after all.
The altering demographics of the customers are making changes like those happening in mature markets easier to adapt to India.
When we speak about service in hotels, we have to also look at whether India has enough people to staff the industry. The industry is growing so fast that questions being raised on the quality and availability of talent to meet its demand for skilled hands.
Rooms will remain in short supply, but what about the shortage of talent? The talent crunch is a reality that the industry must face up to.
Nonetheless, we are heading towards another golden era of the hospitality industry. The surge in business that it saw between 2003 and 2008, when demand grew faster than supply, is poised to come back in 2015. It's back to the days of growth.
As spoken to Bikramjit Ray. Dilip Puri is the Managing Director-Indian and Regional Vice President, Starwood Hotels & Resorts.
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