By BW Hotelier ANMOL AHLUWALIA has been appointed as General Manager of Taj Wellington Mews, Mumbai. He was earlier the Executive Assistant Manager (EAM), Accommodations at Taj Bengal, Kolkata. Anmol has been with the Taj Group since September 2005, when he joined the Vivanta by Taj ’ Fort Aguada, Goa as Executive Housekeeper. He rose to Accommodations Manager position in 2008 at Vivanta by Taj ’ Panaji, Goa. Thereafter Anmol moved to Taj Bengal, Kolkata as an Executive Assistant Manager ’ Front Office and was subsequently elevated to the post of Executive Assistant Manager - Accommodations. Anmol holds a diploma in Hotel Management from the Institute of Hotel Management, Mumbai, and an Advanced Diploma in Hotel Management from The Oberoi Centre of Learning & Development. Anmol began his career with The Oberoi Group Hotels and Resorts in 2000, when he joined the Oberoi Grand as a Housekeeping trainee. He continued his training at The Oberoi Amarvilas (2000-2001); The Oberoi New Delhi and The Oberoi Cecil, Shimla (both in 2001) before joining The Oberoi Mumbai as Housekeeper (2001-2005). He was the Deputy House Keeper at The Trident Hilton, Gurgaon, before shifting to The Taj Group. In his new role, Anmol will report to Taljinder Singh, Area Director ’ Mumbai and General Manager - The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai.
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By Shantanu Jain AUSTRALIA-BASED StayWell Hospitality Group which is present in India with two properties in their budget segment, Leisure Inn, in Gurgaon and Jaipur, took another step towards a more involved expansion in India with the launch of the first Park Regis property in Jaipur recently. Park Regis Jaipur, a four star property, on Amer Road, is located close to Jal Mahal, 30 minutes from Jaipur International Airport and 15 minutes from the railway station. The property offers a basic room which is 270 sq. feet, with suites measuring 410 sq feet in size. Debarshi Sanyal, General Manager of the hotel in an exclusive conversation with BW Hotelier shared that the hotel currently has 72 rooms and he is looking to expand this number by 10 more by the end of the year. Speaking on the banqueting arrangements and other facilities he said, ’We have indoor banqueting space for 150 people and outdoor banqueting space for 550 people. The hotel currently features two restaurants Anand and Palm, which cater to Indian, Mughlai and world cuisines. The staff to room ratio is 2:1 and the executive chef of the hotel is Deepankar Mandal.’ In an exclusive conversation with BW Hotelier Rohit Vig, Managing Director of StayWell Hospitality Group in India (see photos) shared the plans, ’By mid-October 2015, we will be launching a Leisure Inn in Banajara Hills which will be a 90-room hotel with Telengana’s only revolving restaurant. By December we plan to open our second Park Regis in North Goa which will have 120 rooms with a minimum room size of 55 sq. meters--the biggest Park Regis room in the world.’ Speaking on the overall expansion plans of the group Vig stated that ’We have signed 10 hotels and look forward to sign 15 more by in the next two years. The first 10 hotels are difficult to establish, but as we grow in India, I can say we will be signing a new hotel every 3 months.’ When asked about the location of the upcoming hotels, Vig said the group had planned two properties in Mumbai and one in Chennai, as these are key feeder markets for business. After this, the group would shift focus to Kolkata and Bangalore. The StayWell group also hopes to establish a few properties in South India as well. Vig told us that the group’s strategy was to either rebrand existing hotels, or start greenfield projects. The author is Correspondent, Everything Experiential.
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By Sourish Bhattacharyya THE OBEROI Hotels and Resorts pulled off a worldwide coup by being named both the World’s Best Hotel Brand and having its luxury property, The Oberoi Udaivilas in Udaipur, Rajasthan, voted the World’s Best Hotel by the 6.3 million readers of Travel + Leisure magazine, which is circulated exclusively among American Express Platinum Card holders. The Oberoi Group’s Executive Chairman, P.R.S. Oberoi, in a press release issued earlier in the day, hailed the ’main asset’ of the luxury hotel chain established by his father ’ the people working for it ’ and said: ’We have been able to play a small role in ’Make in India’.’ Truly, The Oberoi Group has shown why it is undeniably a glowing example of the heights of quality the idea of ’Make in India’ can achieve. The Travel + Leisure Top 100 Hotels list, in fact, reads like a listing of The Oberoi Group. The other group hotels on it are: The Oberoi Rajvilas (Jaipur) at No. 5, Amarvilas (Agra) at No. 16 and The Oberoi New Delhi at No. 86. The only other Indian hotel to make it to the Top 100 is The Taj Mahal Palace Mumbai at No. 97. This is the elite list of hotels of the world, with iconic brands such as Four Seasons, The Peninsula, Mandarin Oriental and One & Only as well as legendary hotels with the stature of Le Maurice (Paris), St Regis (NYC), Belmond Hotel Cipriani (Venice) and Plaza Athenee (Paris) studding it. Udaivilas, Rajvilas and Amarvilas have completed ten consecutive years on the list and therefore have earned a place in the Travel + Leisure Hall of Fame. By being voted the world’s top hotel brand, The Oberoi Hotels & Resorts has achieved a rare double in the history of the Travel + Leisure awards. It is not often that the hotel that gets the No. 1 spot is also from the group that is crowned the No. 1 brand. The Oberoi clearly is in distinguished company. The others on the Top 10 list are: Aman; The Peninsula Hotels; Rosewood Hotels & Resorts (which finds itself for the first time on the list); Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts; St Regis (which is making its India debut in Mumbai shortly); Auberge Resorts Collection; Belmond; Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group; and The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. The-Photo:-The premier rooms with their semi-private swimming pool at The Oberoi Udaivilas in Udaipur, Rajasthan. The luxury hotel has been voted the world's No. 1 in a poll conducted among 6.3 million Travel + Leisure Magazine readers. For more lists, go to http://www.travelandleisure.com/worlds-best/hotels-top-brands The Author is Consulting Editor of BW Hotelier.-
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By BW Hotelier GETAWAYS WITH pristine beaches and upscale hotels are most likely to top the family vacation destination list for well-heeled Asia Pacific families, according to the Visa Affluent Study 2015.* Family beach holiday The Study, which looked into the travel patterns of affluent consumers in eight major markets in Asia Pacific, found that four in five (82 percent) respondents have traveled with their families in the past 12 months and they also prefer to spend their holidays within the region. Respondents rank Japan (26 percent), Hong Kong (25 percent) and Australia (21 percent) as the most popular destinations over the past 12 months. In the same period, the survey shows the region’s most frequent affluent travelers to be from Singapore and China (3.1 trips each), followed by Hong Kong (2.8 trips) and India (2.0 trips). James Lim, Head of Consumer Products, Asia Pacific, said, ’Family vacations have become important occasions that affluent families in the region look forward to every year. However, where the family chooses to go ’ whether it is for cultural activities, kicking back at a resort, or a shopping and dining extravaganza ’ is highly driven by the types of authentic and discerning experiences that the destinations can offer.’ Beaches are the top draw for Asia Pacific affluent When asked for the main activities when traveling abroad, respondents say their top pick is relaxing on a beach (44 percent), followed by shopping in popular or large shopping centres (36 percent) and exploring landmarks independently (35 percent). More than a quarter (27 percent) also say they travel to try out popular local restaurants. In the survey, relaxing on a beach was the most popular activity among respondents from China (55 percent), Indonesia (51 percent) and India (47 percent). The affluent from Hong Kong (46 percent) and Japan (43 percent) are the most likely to have traveled to explore landmarks independently, while those from Japan (32 percent), China (31 percent) and Singapore (29 percent) are most likely to have followed the food trail to local restaurants. Upscale hotels for the Chinese and boutique experiences for the Australians When it comes to accommodation, the affluent are more likely to pick upscale hotels (48 percent) and luxury hotels (39 percent) over mid-scale hotels (35 percent). Among respondents who chose upscale hotels, they are most likely to be from China (67 percent), Hong Kong (53 percent), Singapore and Japan (49 percent each). For the most discerning, luxury hotels are the choice for those from China (55 percent), Australia (49 percent) and Hong Kong (43 percent). The survey also found that boutique hotels are the most popular with respondents from Australia (49 percent), Hong Kong, China (24 percent each) and Singapore (23 percent). Lim added, ’For the affluent, accommodation quality is just as important as destination offerings for a complete holiday experience. Because we understand these different needs, this is why Visa has created a suite of travel benefits to allow our cardholders to access a world of unique experiences and make each trip extra memorable.’ * The Visa Asia Pacific Affluent Study 2015 was commissioned by Visa and conducted by TNS in November and December 2014. 500 respondents from each market ’ Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore and South Korea were interviewed in online and face-to-face surveys. Respondents have an average household income of USD$ 73,000 per annum and are aged between 18 and 55 years old.
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I AM 17 jobs old! Now those you out there searching for a life partner or those of you who have finally found your soul-mate will understand that true love takes time. It works just the same in your profession. While some of us are blessed with love at first sight, others settle for the safe bet, whereas a few like me are willing to wait to find that one love that will last a lifetime!
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By Bikramjit Ray JW MARRIOTT, New Delhi Aerocity has two new chefs, both first timers in Delhi and India, who have joined them last month. We got an opportunity to meet both very different personalities to find out what their aims were for the coming season. Half-Okinawan and half-Italian is how Corey E Asato (see photo right), Chef de Cuisine of Akira Back, at the hotel, introduces his background. Asato honed his kitchen skills in Las Vegas. So, in his words, ’a 700 person service isn’t really a big thing. I started off in banquets and in Vegas that can mean much more,’ he told us. We can expect interesting things from Asato, who even during his stint in Vegas owned and operated his food truck. Asato grew up in Hawaii so he has a very unique flavour palate growing up, but he really wants to get to know this new country which he has come to. ’The furthest I travelled before this was Mexico and Canada,’ he tells us. Asato hasn’t really been introduced to the colours and tastes of India, but he is willing to really work on making his menu more streamlined and more suitable for clients in Delhi. ’One thing which I noticed with I arrived here was that everyone really insisted on a lot more spice and sauce in their food, which really kills the subtleties of the dish,’ Asato told us, adding that his job was to make sure that the balance of the dishes are perfect. Asato began his career in January 2004 in banqueting, as the Kitchen Manager for UNLV International Gaming Institute Banquet Hall, Las Vegas, Nevada. In May 2009, he moved on to co-own his own company- Island Breeze Lunch Wagon and Catering- Las Vegas, NV. Following this stint, he worked as the Sous Chef at Island Sushi and Hawaiian Grill at the Plaza Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, before moving to Kumi Japanese Bar + Restaurant By: Akira Back at Mandalay Bay Hotel. Corey is also a certified mixologist from ABC Bartending Schools of Las Vegas, which could translate to some interesting dishes at Akira Back. In comparison to Chef Asato, Chef Giovanni Ricci (see photo left), the hotel’s Italian Chef de Cuisine is much more of a journeyman, having travelled the world from Italy, where he grew up right in the middle part of the country in Marche (in the calf part of the Italian foot), in the small fishing village of San Benedetto del Tronto. Ricci has worked in as far off places as Beijing, China, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Blagoveshchensk in the eastern part of Russia, in a career which began in 1992. ’I am working on the new a la carte menu at the restaurant and want to make it contain more simple dishes,’ Ricci tells us. His food philosophy, much like Asato’s is about being able to taste the ingredients in the food. ’The first thing I want to do is work on the pasta here, it is one of the most important cornerstones of Italian cuisine,’ he tells us. Ricci, is still a seaside dweller at heart and really enjoys his seafood. His best dish is one his mother used to make, ’It is very popular where I grew up, a seafood soup called a Brodetto, soured with vinegar,’ he said. It’s something which we all hope he will make at the JW Marriott’s K3 restaurant as well.
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By Rishi Puri IN THE last 10-15 years Hospitality industry has grown by leaps and bounds. If we look at the past, people used to travel less as businesses were confined to certain region. Leisure travel was almost negligible with the segment almost being nonexistent. Now with the advent of the technology, the whole world has opened up for business. Another thing is that with double income families becoming norm, the disposable income has grown and with that there is a huge rise in demand for leisure travel as well. All in all there has been exponential growth in demand for Hotel rooms in business, leisure, pilgrimage and the MICE sector. With the increase in demand there has been increase in the supply of hotel rooms too. Many new Hotels have come up. New International Hotel chains have announced major plans for India. But what has happened is that in a short run big cities like Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Chennai had greater influx of hotels then the demand itself. Last few years have been really tough for the industry and Average Room Rent (ARR’s) have actually dropped as the demand has not kept with the supply. But this is a short run aberration and going forward with the economy picking up, the demand is definitely going to rise. Further this phenomenon has remained confined to Hotels in big cities and that too in luxury and super luxury sector only. The one’s in Mid Hotel (which my group Lords Hotels & Resorts belongs to) has grown. The real growth is in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. They are the real hub of business activity and so far the competition from the branded hotels has not yet come in these cities. Our property in Kandla (a major port city in Gujarat) has 100 percent occupancy almost throughout the year. Same goes for our other properties in other industrial cities. Yes there are problems related to infrastructure, problems from local civic authorities and reluctance of top staff to relocate to these regions but this is more than offset by cheaper land values and above all readymade demand. Another segment which is growing and asking for better hotel accommodation is the religious travel. Religious travel was always considered as lowly with elderly who were undertaking these trips were expected to stay in sarais, guesthouses and likewise. But there is a transformation in this sector, with nowadays people demanding better and branded accommodation. And these are recession proof segment. MICE- which is the traditional bread and butter of the Hotel industry is directly related to state of the economy but the religion one at least in India is growing up. Another trend is direct booking by the guests through the website. This has caught on big way in the past 3-4 years. This is not only benefits the guest as they get competitive room fares but it benefits the Hotel Chains as they save on the commissions which they would otherwise pass on to channel partners. So online presence is a major issue and hotels have started allocating good part of their marketing budget on online promotion. One more thing would like to share that Hotels have become very environment conscious. They see it is if in the society’s interest, it is in their interest as well. In our new properties we have built facades in such a way that during day there is least requirement of lighting. This saves power costs and of course can be termed as environment friendly.Similar other small- measures are being taken which contributes to environment conservation. Indian Hospitality Industry across all segments has huge scope and I feel we have barely scratched the surface. The Author is Vice President, Operations, Lords Hotels & Resorts.
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By BW Hotelier AFTER A distinguished career in top restaurants in Beijing that spanned for over a decade, Delhi sees the arrival of Chef Jiayi Hu, popularly known as the Dimsum King, as he takes up his new assignment at The Oberoi New Delhi’s Taipan restaurant. Chef Hu is a master of innovation and can make over 300 varieties of dim sums. He is also trained as a master of handpulled noodles. This is what Chef Hu had to say to BW Hotelier when we asked him why he decided to become a dimsum chef. ’I had been working on my dimsum making skills for as long as I can remember, so it was no surprise that in 2008, when I won a gold medal in the dim sum competition organised by the China Hotel Association, This made me decide to pursue it more passionately. In my opinion, this competition is considered to be the Holy Grail of culinary discoveries, so it’s a great honour’. On his move to India Chef Hu told us he first did some research and spoke to fellow Chinese chefs based in India, when he first got the offer to join Taipan. ’To be part of this restaurant and an iconic hotel such as The Oberoi, New Delhi is an honour and I am looking forward to adding to the legacy,’ he told us.
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By Sourish Bhattacharyya THE F&B revenue of the Trident Gurgaon had been growing by Rs 1.5 crore to Rs 2.5 crore year on year. The last financial year, though, beat all expectations, that too in a market shaken up by the new kid on the block, DLF’s immensely successful Cyber Hub ’restaurant mall’. FY2014-15 saw the Trident Gurgaon register a steeper upward line on its growth graph ’ its F&B earnings saw a jump of more than Rs 3.25-crore, the highest in its 11-year history, primarily because of the hotel’s entry into the high-end wedding market. It was a smart move by the hotel’s general manager, Nitesh Gandhi, that did it. Having worked his way up since his green years at Cilantro, the Trident Gurgaon’s all-day dining restaurant, when the hotel opened in 2004 under the leadership of Kapil Chopra, now The Oberoi Group’s President, Gandhi knows the hotel like the back of his hand. And he had this feeling that there was a revenue opportunity waiting to be tapped. It all started with an inquiry from a major international client a year ago for an al fresco upper- crust party for 700 people. Till then, the hotel wasn’t able to entertain such inquiries because it had limited banqueting space to offer. But the client was too important for the Trident Gurgaon to be asked to look for another venue. Gandhi therefore undertook a recce of the property and discovered that it had a vast under-utilised parking lot that could, on occasions, be turned into an open-air banqueting venue. The parking lot, in fact, has two little tree-shaded green islands ’ one ideal for a bar and the other, for a marriage mandap. Significantly, the approach to this parking lot is past the water body at the hotel’s main square, which presents a spectacular sight in the evening when it is lit up by flaming torches. The corporate party was a huge success and it paved the way for the hotel to sell the space for what Gandhi calls ’uber luxury weddings’. Typically, a wedding reception in this league is for 500-700 people and the hotel charges Rs 7,000 per guest. Unsurprisingly, F&B revenues today contribute 55-60 per cent of the hotel’s earnings. The hotel’s two restaurants ’ Cilantro and the Indian fine-dining destination, Saffron ’ have also given Gandhi an additional reason to look happier. Their earnings, year to date, are up by 20 per cent, which means they have bucked what is known locally as the ’Cyber Hub Effect’. In other words, unlike other Gurgaon and South-West Delhi restaurants, they’ve shown a revenue growth despite the phenomenal success of DLF’s Cyber City, which has snatched business out of the hands of established players in the neighbourhood. Even the hotel’s 1,200 sq. ft. bar’s revenue has climbed by 40 per cent, year to date, in the first four months of 2015. All it took was an idea from Chopra, a mentor to many of The Oberoi Group’s young executives, to make this turnaround possible. Post-6 p.m., the lobby-level bar is lit up by more than 40 candles, the tempo of the music is revved up, the bartender, hired from Bacardi, shakes and stirs cocktails infused with birch or apple wood smoke, and the bespoke snacks menu doesn’t have any item priced over Rs 350 per portion. The transformation of the ’bar’s landscape’, to use Gandhi’s expression, has had a dramatic effect not only on the bar, but also on the footfalls at Saffron and Cilantro. ’Once guests have had a couple of drinks at the bar, they want to stay on at the hotel and complete their evening at one of the two restaurants,’ explains Gandhi. Another major attraction is the Harley Davidson parked at the lobby. It will go one fortunate room guest or a diner who spends more than Rs 10,000 on a meal at the hotel. The lucky draw, which got 750 guests to sign up coupons within the first ten days of the prize being displayed, will take place at September-end. For initiatives such as these, Gandhi takes inspiration from the words of the company’s executive chairman, P.R.S. Oberoi: ’If you look after your guests, they’ll look after your business.’ At the Trident Gurgaon, each employee is empowered to spend up to Rs 1,500 on gestures to ensure guest delight, like framing the picture a lady guest kept at her bedside of her daughter and leaving a toy behind for the mother to take back home. The best way to the guest’s heart, though, is through the stomach. ’Food is one of the top three reasons why corporate travellers choose to stay at a particular hotel,’ says Gandhi, offering a rationale for his F&B focus. The hotel, he says, has earned Rs 850 crore in the past 11 years and earned a gross operating profit of Rs 450 crore. ’Each room at the Trident Gurgaon has been sold 3,300 times in these 11 years,’ Gandhi adds with an air of self-satisfaction. Food therefore is the new goal post for the Trident Gurgaon. Few people understand food as well as Gandhi, who’s been primarily an F&B ops person, and his target, set by his president, is to ’bring luxury back to Indian cuisine’. As a first move, Gandhi got Izzat Hussain, a brilliant chef, unani doctor and descendant of Awadh’s last royal family, to showcase his cuisine at Saffron. Throughout 2015, Hussain will be coming back to Trident Gurgaon to share his secrets with Saffron’s chefs. With such inputs, Saffron will definitely find a place at the top of the must-visit restaurants of Delhi-NCR. For Gandhi, it translates into happier guests and the cash registers ringing a bit louder than usual. The Author is Consulting Editor of BW Hotelier.-
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