We Need to Take it to the Next Level: Anand Ganesan

BW HOTELIER spoke with Anand Ganesan, the newly appointed General Manager at Kochi Marriott Hotel. Ganesan, has more than 25 years in the hospitality industry. He was the multi-property General Manager of the Renaissance Hotel and Fairfield by Marriott in Lucknow before joining as head of the Kochi property. Ganesan started his career in Switzerland and his career includes stints in the Middle East, Africa, and Malaysia as well. This is an excerpt of our interview with him.

Ganesan who had worked in Kerala more than a decade ago before his current stint spoke on the changes he saw in the state and industry. "The industry is very progressive from what I see, but I haven't yet had the chance to go out and explore the market as of now, since it's just been one and a half weeks since I joined the Kochi Marriott. The hotel has been super performing with lots of VIP movements. When I was here last, there were only two large hotels, the Taj Malabar and the Le Meridien, Kochi, now there are so many more which has also lifted the market significantly," he told us.

The hotel was doing really well, even without a full time liquor license, Ganesan said. The hotel was a beautiful property with a great team, so internally, he felt there weren't many challenges other than elevating the food and beverage services and trying to push the ADR up for the market. "Currently the ADR in the market is 4200 to 4500, we are touching 5000, we need to push this higher and reach 5500 next year, so that the market also increases. We need to give better service so that when the price goes up, there is a value add in the product," he said.

The team which Ganesan had was a great mix of old and new, he stated adding that he was the newest member of it, followed by the Executive Chef who joined four months ago. "But when I have interacted with the team as a whole, both new and old, they are open to take this place to the next level and that gives me a lot of confidence that we can do better," he added, saying the liquor license when it arrives, will increase revenues even more.

"I personally think the MICE and social (wedding) segments have huge potential. They all need venues and we have a pretty good venue. Having the Lulu Mall next to us has also played in our favour and we get lots of Middle Eastern Market. The other area is medical tourism, where there is a lot of inflow guests and we want to capitalise on that market as well," Ganesan explained when asked about the potential growth areas for the hotel.

As far as competitors go, Ganesan thought it was Holiday Inn and Taj, now that Le Meridien was part of the same group. "We will all have to work together (Le Meridien and Marriott hotels) to drive the rates and drive the services. It's going to be an interesting year ahead," he concluded.