The Epitome of Tajness

GAURAV POKHARIYAL, the Area Director, Delhi Hotels for Taj and General Manager of one of the NCR’s oldest and most successful MICE hotels, the Taj Palace on SP Marg, took time off his busy schedule to speak with BW Hotelier and explain how his current ward was such a huge success story even with growing competition and a market which is only just seeing an upturn. Here are excerpts of the interview 

Gaurav Pokhariyal: I’ve just moved into my current position about a year back so I am still trying to understand what makes this hotel tick in terms of what is the natural inflow of business because of its location plus certain other inherent features that this hotel enjoys. MICE contribution to this hotel is about 30 to 35 percent. To a large extent I can safely say that around 15 percent of that business comes because of its location. We are on the periphery of Lutyens Delhi and next to Dhaula Kuan. What drives business to us is the large convention facility that we have and the large selection of rooms available, close to 403 rooms. 

We are still in Delhi and are still considered to be close the airport. The other 15 percent is on account of the fact that is considered to be a very safe hotel and considered to be a hotel where the convention facility as well as the two largest suites were made in consultation with the security forces in India. We have separate entrances leading into holding room of the top two banquet halls. Huge foresight for the person who built the hotel. We have very high word of mouth recommendations for this hotel which comes both from MEA as well as security agencies. We also have dedicated offices located at various feeder markets like US and UK and the international conferences largely get channelled through those. 

GP: This hotel doesn’t have the typical hotel challenges which other hotels have as far as MICE segment is concerned. It has its own unique set of emerging challenges. Typically other hotels would have a lack of breakaway rooms, a lack of inventory in the hotel, would have misaligned products--like a large convention centre but not enough rooms. The layout of the convention centre with its own entry and exit as well as porch. It’s own basement parking of 150 to 200 cars, in itself negates some of these typical challenges. However, the challenges here are very unique and very different. I have parking facilities of close to about 400 to 500 cars. I get conventions where I need parking for about a 1000 odd cars. A hotel located in any other area of Delhi, will usually shove your car anywhere. I have the Battle Honours Mess right next door, the Army colony right behind me. In the front of me, I have SP Marg which has frequent VIP movements, which tends to create an issue when it comes to parking, after about 600 to 700 cars. 

The second emerging challenge that I see, in spite of the fact that I am located in Chanakyapuri, is that when there is a Head of State movement, irrespective of the hotel they are staying in, people come here and get stuck, sometimes for two to three hours. That is the other challenge as far as the convention facility. I don’t want to be slapped with a notice tomorrow. 

For instance, I do the Vogue Wedding show here. A couple of years back we have 3,000 people attending every day. We had to make some adjustments and made it an invites only event. The numbers dramatically reduced and the event was far more controllable. 

My third issue as far as MICE is that I have a huge amount of inventory in Aerocity, with a very large convention facility. It is a huge challenge because they are undercutting the hotels in Delhi. Traditionally we are expected to have a higher ARRs. We can’t afford to have business at their numbers. 

GP: Frankly in Delhi, surprisingly the numbers don’t differ much, unlike in Mumbai, where they swing from 50 percent in off season to 80 percent in season. Delhi does 60 percent occupancy and can go up to 75 to 80 parking facilities. Last year when I joined, I averaged 270 to 280 rooms even in off season. Occupancies were not an issue till this year. Inspite of renovation which forced me to move  a 30-room crew to another hotel, I was still doing 61 percent occupancy. I think the issue is the average room rate. Mumbai has lesser occupancy but higher ARRs. This city has higher occupancy but lower ARRs. I have no idea, why because ideally higher occupancy moves with higher ARR. I think Mumbai has been able to hold on to their rates, while in Delhi, there is an unnecessary dropping of rates without any strong rationale. This year, I have been able to take up my ADR by 12 to 14 percent. 

GP: There is a different strategy to retain our regular customers and our repeat customers. In the last one to one-and-a-half year since the management changed hands, there is a lot of activity going on in our corporate office. They are very aggressively working on digital platforms, whether is the new website or various marketing initiatives, which is all going to slowly unfold. As far as conferences and new markets are concerned, we are very aggressively looking at new geographies other than US and UK. We have started getting leads from Russia. We have also realised that one of the inherent weaknesses of large organisations were, that you tend to get divided into silos. We have broken those silos and now we have a very effective team-other than a dedicated resource at the hotel who only looks at international conferences. 

A lot of my business is funnelled through banqueting. If I look at banqueting it is my biggest account for my rooms. My three top corporate accounts don’t generate that many rooms as the banqueting does. Within banqueting and catering sales, we have a seasoned chef, a seasoned sales head and a dedicated sales and marketing professional who looks after the international conferences. They work as a team, all three deal with any leads.

The manner in which you put forward a proposal also matters. It depends on the manner in which a hotel effectively puts across two value propositions. One is sheer money, the price point. They come and see the facility and correlate it with the price that you quote. The second is the convenience of working with the hotel team. How warm, friendly and flexible are they? Are they willing to go the extra step for the perfect occasion? Banqueting in Delhi is extremely important from a MICE standpoint. If you do not have one large international conference every winter month, a hotel of this size cannot sustain itself. You may do 80 percent occupancy, but you won’t necessarily get the kind of required ADRs. 

GP: This hotel is considered to be a favoured location. Unfortunately there are very few auspicious dates, the game we play here is about maximisation. If I know in season time there are ten days that are very auspicious, I will not take a wedding unless it is more than 1000 people. I need to look at the number of people and the rate. Liquor consumption for weddings in Delhi is very high, twice that of Mumbai. The thumb rule is 1000 people will consume Rs 15 lakh worth of liquor. A regular bar will consume 15 lakh in a function here. My daily expectation in winter from Durbar and ShahJahan put together is Rs 30 lakh a day. 

GP: Last year we broke every record. We earned the most revenue through a convention facility in India, around 40 percent of this hotel’s turnover,  Rs 15 crore more than what my rooms got me and three times more than all my restaurant revenues put together. The figure was somewhere between Rs 85 and Rs 100 crores, which was easily the highest revenue for any other Taj Hotel.