The Fern Hotels & Resorts To Use Dynamic Pricing Strategies to Increase Occupancy Rates

DEVRAJ HALDER  has recently been appointed as General Manager- Operations (North) at The Fern Hotels & Resorts. BW Hotelier spoke to Halder to know about his plans with the hotel brand. From providing seamless guest stay experience to enhanced f&b operations he has kept all the key areas in mind to work upon. Excerpts from the interview:

With this new appointment, what new do you plan to bring into Fern's portfolio?

We will make every possible effort to consolidate ‘The Fern Hotels & Resorts’ position as market leaders in its segment. We are expanding at a formidable pace and for our successfully running hotels, plan to initiate a number of ‘best practices’ to strengthen guest connect. Our feedback redressal system needs to be seamless and that is another area we need to work on. It is our endeavour to deliver ‘The Fern’ experience to clients visiting any of our properties. Our Food & Beverage experience is sure to be of delight and we are working on local inclusions in contemporary presentations. As a brand, we will work towards super-value-for-money and look to have in place micro SOP’s. We are in process of making working checklists on changing client needs and patterns in an ever dynamic and progressive business scenario. All our new properties are to have these USP’s integrated into the system from the start.

How do you see the North Market in terms of hospitality and what are the areas to be worked upon more?

Business has definitely been better than last year. This year presents a great opportunity to improve hotel GOP’s, enhance product and services. Business in the North has always been robust. People are travelling out for short-stays and leisure much more frequently. Travel for business and MICE has also shown a quantum leap, we need to retain the trust levels of our clients and grow. We need to capitalize on seasonal trends and even long-weekends to optimize business. North has also been a great market in terms of weddings and social functions; we are working on ways to improve better conversions of such events. Monthly marketing campaigns with focused agendas are sure to produce great results.

How do you plan to promote the Eco-Tourism?

We have always been steadfast in our commitment to sustainability. We would strive to promote eco-tourism through consistent awareness programs. We have been market leaders from the perspective of all environmental initiatives with our five globe policies in place in our properties. It is also a matter of great responsibility to ensure sincere implementations and measurable outcomes. We plan to involve our guests as much as possible and create word of mouth campaign through social media and other channels to boost awareness and a steady influx of environment enthusiasts to visit and stay with us. We have ‘eco-tour’ in all our properties and also have a steady calendar of events on community involvement. We work with most of the local agencies and wish to involve more for betterment and upliftment of the community and locales we thrive upon.

What are your plans in details to increase the Occupancy rates?

Upscale services at value for money has been our strategy and we have been very successful in implementations. Our dynamic revenue management initiatives are already giving great results. Adhoc pick-up factor on occupancies are rising and will continue to do so. The same requires better alertness from both the unit and the corporate level. We have improved our presentability and detailing on booking engines. We have also taken a number of initiatives to improve our website bookings and conversions. Better tracking of occupancies and rates and their patterns can also improve occupancy dynamics. Despite the rate wars, we have been a hotel group with popular demand and we wish to work on our pluses. Dynamic pricing strategies will push up our occupancies and optimal rates.