PEOPLE| Honey Thakur joins DDHI is General Manage...
PEOPLE| Crowne Plaza: Tejpal Uberoi, Vice Presiden...
PEOPLE| GL Hotels: Romil Ratra, Senior Vice Presid...
PEOPLE| Movements

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>NEWS| Taj Group| The Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd. Honours Taj

>NEWS| The Taj Group launches Gateway Hotel in Vijayawada

> NEWS| Taj has big plans for Delhi

> NEWS| Raymond N. Bickson Named Corporate Hotelier of the World
See more Hospitality Professionals, Know- People


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When Priya Paul took the reins of Park Hotels in 1990, India's hospitality industry was "in the dumps", she says. "We were faced with lots of empty hotels." Before the country's economic reforms of 1991 ushered in an era of growth, there was "little optimism" about the future.

It was an inauspicious time to launch a sleek, designer hotel in India - a risky concept in a country accustomed to large, marble-clad hotels. But the well-travelled Ms Paul had seen the success of Ian Schrager's chic Royalton Hotel in New York and was convinced that the concept could take off in India.



Today, Park Hotels is the country's leading boutique hotel brand, with properties in Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata, outer Mumbai and the resort city of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh state. Twenty more are in the pipeline.

Ms Paul was only 24 when she took over the fledgling Park Hotels, part of the Apeejay Surrendra Group, one of India's family-controlled conglomerates, in a role that was thrust on her by the suddent death of her father, Surrendra Paul. At the time, there were few young Indian women in similiar positions in business. But she was no novice. An economics graduate of Wellesley College near Boston, she had spent every summer working for her father, who "made it clear for my sister and me that he would love for us to work for him".

When she was 22 her father appointed her marketing manager of Park Hotel. "After graduation I thought I was going to spend three months travelling. But he said: "This is the first day of your work,'" she recalls. "I had to make calls and make sales happen." She educated herself by meeting travel agents and clients, trying to understand where they were getting business and "asking lots of questions".

Her siblings were also brought on board. Ms Paul's brother is now chairman of Apeejay Group while her sister oversees its retail and real estate units. While Ms Paul's is not a rags-to-riches story, hospitality was relatively new territory for the Apeejay Group. With holdings in tea, shipping and steel, it owned two hotels before it began building the brand in the late 1980s.

Ms Paul set to work immediately, overhauling the Kolkata property with entrepreneurial zeal. She admits that initially "people needed alot of education" about The Park. Indian guests were used to cavernous, chandelier-lined lobbbies and asked why that those at The Park were so small. Ms Paul had to fight for her idea: "Yes, we're different, design-led. We're not for every type of customer."

Attitudes began to change when she added Zen, a chic restaurant, at the hotel in 1992. Soon the Park Kolkata developed a reputation as a trendy venue for live bands.

Ms Paul introduced more unconventional design into subsequent properties. On the site of an old 1930s film studio in Chennai, she opened a hotel with an Indian cinema theme. She also created the tongue-in-cheek "Leather Bar" at the hotel because of Chennai's legacy as a leather-making hub. "The designers said: 'You are mad.' [But] I wanted it to be dark and sexy with walls and floors of leather," she says.

As a self-styled "great ripper of magazines", Ms Paul is fastidious about her interiors. She oversees every aspect of design "down to the ashtrays" and works with international designers such as Conran & Partners as well as contemporary Indian designers. "My job is to alert foreign designers to Indian elements," she says.

Overhauling design was not Ms Paul's only strategy for bringing India's hotels up to date. She also modernised the company's business processes. One of the biggest moves was to install modern IT systems to manage reservations and "yield management software" to help determine room prices.

In an unusual move for a hotel, The Park last year installed expensive SAP business software to manage its human resourcees. Shortage of skilled personnel is a pressing concern for the Indian hospitality industry. The Park's move was an attempt to address the problem by establishing its own management training programme and hospitality training centre in outer Mumbai.

Predictions of growth in the sector are encouraging. Fuelled by underlying economic growth of more than 9 per cent, the World Travel and Tourism Council forecasts that spending on Indian tourism will grow by 7.9 per cent between 2007 and 2017.

Meanwhile, there is adearth of capacity. HVS, a consultancy, estimates that there are about 110,000 hotel rooms in operation in India, of which fewer than 40,000 are branded rooms. By comparison, Las Vegas alone has about 150,000 rooms. As a result, The Park, like most luxury hotels in India, commands high rates. Room rates at The Park in Bangalore, for example, range from $375 to $700 a night.

Ms Paul is scouting for properties overseas in locations such as Thailand, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, as well as Dubai and London, which lie on the well-trodden route of globe-trotting Indians. She sees the entire "collection" growing to between 25 and 30 hotels in the next five years. "There's a need for our hotels in other countries as customers change and become more individual," says Ms Paul. "They are looking for more hotels with character."

As a local pioneer of boutique hotels, The Park "created and found a niche in India. Now the growth opportunity in India is tremendous," says Ms Paul. The company generated sales of about $55m in the last fiscal year.

Credit Suisse's recent $55m investment for a 10-15 per cent stake in the company will help The Park expand as it aims to go public in a few years. For a family-run conglomerate, The Park's goal of going public is itself a "departure from the traditional way", Ms Paul admits. "There are things we can do on our own. But we also need to harness other resources."

Two decades ago the idea of The Park becoming an Indian internal boutique hotel bran seemed a fantasy. But, Ms Paul says: "You have to have that courage in what you believe in and what you're trying to do."

Source: Gnoel Review

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> Sudhir Jena has been appointed area general manager of Royal Orchid Hotels, Pune.

> Tejus Jose has been appointed director of sales for Novotel Hyderabad

> Vivek Shukla has been promoted as general manager of InterContinental The Grand New Delhi

> Atul Lall has been appointed chief operating officer of the International Division at Berggruen Hotels

Read details about these hospitality professionals, Click here

Know of any movements in your hotel/circle.
write to me editor@hospemag.com

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A group of 6 people started India’s first Chinese fast food chain called Yo! China. Founded by 6 dynamic entrepreneurs – Ashish Kapur, Ajay Saini, Joydeep Singh, Sampat Talwar, Arun Chadha & Mandhir Soni – Yo! China’s first restaurant started in May 2003 at Gurgaon’s MGF Mall.

Currently Yo! China has 30 outlets across 12 Indian cities. “The vision is to grow to 300 outlets over the next 3–4 years....

read the full story, Click here>

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Grand Hyatt Mumbai has appointed Duncan Gray as director (F&B) effective August 1, 2007
Other stories on Hyatt | See Jobs with Hyatt | Search for Jobs with Hyatt

Peter Leitgeb has joined The Claridges Hotels & Resorts as president and CEO
See Jobs with The Claridges | Search for Jobs with The Claridges

Rajiv Narain has joined Jaypee Hotels as vice president (operations)
Other stories on Taj Group | See Jobs with Taj Group| Search for Jobs with Taj Group

Stephen R Magor has been appointed general manager, Intercontinental Eros, New Delhi
Other stories on Delhi | See Jobs in Delhi | Search for Jobs in Delhi

Please let us know of any movements you know of.
write to editor@hospemag.com
You can choose to be featured or remain anonymous.

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YC Deveshwar's climb to corporate success

The biggest turning point for this entrepreneurial career professional however came in 1984 when he joined ITC's board of directors, taking charge of Welcomgroup (Hotel Division) as its chairman. Building flagship hotels in Delhi and Mumbai, he used his wide social network to make the hotel chain the place for happening people. Today, some of the hotels are run in partnerships with leading international chains (such as Sheraton), others are fully run by ITC, and the branding has changed from Welcomgroup to ITC. Yogi's passion for the hotel chain is evident in the fact that once he got the job, he actually enrolled at USA's Cornell University for the Advanced Training in Hoteliering and Services course.

I found this on a nice little blog, http://reachinspirations.blogspot.com.. read the complete profile there

Wanna read about Other Hospitality Professional, Click here

>A Little about Anjan Chatterjee - Owner Mainland China and Oh! Calcutta
>IN CONVERSATION -Ashok Khanna, MD, Ananda and Ista.
>Tea & Luxury with PRS 'Biki' Oberoi


Other stories on ITC Hotels | See Jobs with ITC Hotels | Search for Jobs with ITC Hotels

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From Economic Times

At 44, Chatterjee owns what is arguably India's leading private chain of specialty restaurants, with its two most popular brands: Mainland China and Oh! Calcutta.

When foreign guests used to come visiting at the Chatterjee household in Delhi's Pandara Road, they were invariably served up a lavish Bengali spread. "My father always believed in his cuisine,"says Chatterjee. This kindled an interest in cooking, leading to a three-year course at the Institute of Hotel Management, Kolkata, for this physiology graduate. Chatterjee's first job was at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, which lasted for just a year. A two-year stint in Ananda Bazar Patrika followed, and Chatterjee juggled a MBA in marketing at the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management studies while working.



Finally it was time to go solo and with wife Minoo, he started Situations Advertising, working on home-grown brands like Ujala, Cello, Everest and Super Vasmol. But food was uppermost on his mind, and finally the couple opened their first restaurant, Only Fish, in Mumbai's Prabhadevi. In a few months, word got around and Only Fish began to attract people from all over including celebrities like Anupam Kher and Jaya Bachchan. "That's when the entrepreneur in me said, 'Why not look at food seriously?" says Chatterjee.

He got a few former Taj colleagues to join him, and Specialty Restaurants was born in 1993. Chatterjee recalls how difficult it was to sell the idea of niche eateries those days when people weren't as adventurous and global in their food preferences as they are today. "But I knew the days of speciality restaurants were coming."

Chatterjee then turned his attention to 'Chinese' food, where there were a handful of restaurants serving authentic fare. Mainland China was the result of three months of traversing the interiors of China to understand the nuances and diversity in Chinese cuisine. The first outlet in the unlikely Saki Naka locality in Andheri opened to a shaky start but picked up soon. "Our proposition was — five-star values but not at five-star prices," he says.

Meanwhile, Only Fish was rechristened as Oh! Calcutta and the menu was expanded and improved. The Speciality Restaurants chain now includes other concepts like Sweet Bengal, Mostly Kebabs, Sigree and Just Biryani and is present across most major cities. Chatterjee says he's on the verge of getting private equity funds to invest: "Today there is lots of money for a good idea. When I started there was nobody to support me with money."

He's also expanding to London and the US through a tie-up with the Glorious Group of London. But the real icing on the cake is the upcoming Mainland China restaurants in Dalian and Shanghai. A Chinese restaurant in China? It wasn’t easy, though. Chatterjee says he had to make a presentation to the mayor of Shanghai and get him to come down and sample his fare at the Mainland China restaurant in Kolkata before he was convinced about the idea. How's that for passion?

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Gordon Ramsay is closing one of the brown jewels in his restaurant empire, prompting fears that his off-screen career may be on the verge of collapsing like a pooly timed souffle.

The famously cantankerous chef has parted company with The Connaught, the leading Mayfair hotel where he opened a high-profile restaurant in 2002 under his protégé Angela Hartnett, who went on to win a Michelin star two years later.

Yesterday, the hotel confirmed that Ramsay will not be returning to its premises when it reopens in December after a £60m refurbishment.



The fine cuisine served in his dining room there had been a favourite with celebrities and statesman from Tony Blair to Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Connaught, which is owned by the Maybourne Hotel Group, insisted the severing of relations was entirely amicable. However, Pandora understands that the two parties came to a disagreement about the restaurant's role within the hotel. Ramsay was apparently unhappy at being forced to extend the remit within the hotel which included providing guests with room service prepared in the restaurant.

Ramsay's empire, Gordon Ramsay Holdings, released a statement last night saying that Ramsay would not be returning to the venue. "The Maybourne Group and Gordon Ramsay Holdings confirm that GRH will not be renewing their lease on the restaurant at The Connaught, 1 Carlos Place, London, W1 when it re-opens at the end of the year following an extensive refurbishment," it read.

"Gordon Ramsay Holdings has operated the restaurant at The Connaught since 2002, when Angela Hartnett's Menu opened, with chef patron Angela Hartnett at the helm. The restaurant has enjoyed five years of success and critical acclaim and was awarded a Michelin star in 2004."

Ramsay's position as top dog among Britain's chefs has already been called into question this week, after his flagship restaurant in Chelsea lost top billing in the esteemed Zagat restaurant guide. The annual Harden's guide, released earlier this summer, also saw Ramsay fall from pride of place, while a high-profile new restaurant in New York has also attracted mixed reviews from the famously hard-to-please local food critics.

The departure from The Connaught will leave Ramsay with five restaurants situated in other major London hotels. He still has The Savoy Grill and Banquette at The Savoy, Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's, Maze at The Grosvenor, La Noisette at the Carlton Tower and Petrus at the Berkeley.

Elsewhere, it was recently reported that his other venture at the Berkeley, the Boxwood Café, could be moved or even closed once the hotel undergoes its own revamp in December.

So far in his otherwise glittering career, Ramsay has only had to close one restaurant for financial reasons (Amaryllis in Glasgow, which he shut in 2004 citing poor takings). He has often been criticised for allegedly spreading his talents too thinly across his numerous establishments in the UK and abroad.

The Connaught has yet to confirm its intentions for replacing the restaurant. However a spokesman claimed an announcement would be made in a few months. A spokesman for Angela Hartnett said she would be opening a new venture later this year.

source: Independent UK

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When you boil it down to the basics, the hotel business is about service. From the greeting you get as you walk in the front door, to the furniture and amenities in your guest room, to how quickly we deliver room service. I know that's how we're judged. If a problem comes up, you want us to fix it, and fast.

If we don't meet your expectations, you can go to one of our competitors. If we meet or exceed your expectations, then hopefully we'll earn your loyalty and you'll come back.

This is from the blog Mr. Bill Marriott manages.
I love reading from one of the leaders of our industry!

Read his complete blog, click here

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Ravi Teja Sharma / New Delhi August 23, 2007

Having carved a niche for itself in the wellness segment with Ananda in the Himalayas, the IHHR Hospitality is on an expansion track.

Ravi Teja Sharma talks to its managing director, Ashok Khanna, about Ananda and its new brand, Ista.

IHHR set a benchmark with Ananda in the Himalayas. What’s next?

We believe that when you reach a certain level, be it in luxury, you must upgrade. And that’s what we’ve set out to do. Ananda is a health and wellness destination and we are now expanding this brand to Mauritius, Maldives and Jaipur.

The Ananda in Mauritius will have a destination spa and will be even more luxurious than the Ananda in the Himalayas. All the 55 rooms here will face the sea and each guest will get personalised attention.

Beyond Ananda, we have launched our Ista brand, which will comprise 5-star deluxe hotels in business destinations across India, and will not necessarily feature health and wellness. Like Ananda, the Ista city hotels will reflect a resort feel.

One Ista opened this May in Bangalore, and another one will start operations early this September in Hyderabad. Besides, there are three more under construction in Ahmedabad, Pune and Amritsar and we are also considering Ista properties in Coimbatore, Nagpur, Noida and Navi Mumbai.

We are also planning another Ista in Bangalore. A 200-plus room Ista alongside a 75 room Ananda is also under planning in Delhi, on one large piece of land, negotiations for which are on at the moment.

Within the Ista brand will be Ista Resorts, which we are planning in Puri and Kumarakom on 40-50 acres of land. These will be low-rise ground covered properties with villas, complete with private pools, large spa and outside activities.

What was the need to add another brand offering?

We strongly felt this need to mix our hotel offerings for a better exposure. More importantly, this is in keeping with our strategy to have only limited number of Ananda properties. For, if there are more, they will start taking away business from each other.

Diversified offerings also mean more secure operations. After most world mishaps, leisure business is the first to get hit. It wasn’t a smooth start for us when we came up with Ananda in the Himalayas in 1999.

The first few years were very troublesome, what with the Kargil War, plague, SARS, and then 9/11. During that period, we had very little international business and we survived with mostly domestic clientele. And that’s how it should ideally be. A mix of business and leisure properties puts a company on a surer footing.

What kind of investment is the company making?

Over the next five years, we plan to invest in excess of Rs 700 crore in our properties. Ananda hotels in Mauritius and Maldives, the new Ista in Bangalore, the Ista and Ananda in Delhi and the Ista Resort in Kumarakom will all be management contracts, though they’ll remain greenfield, built-to-suit properties.

The Ananda in Jaipur will be a 75-room property spread over 40 acres and will cost us over Rs 140 crore to build.

Earlier, we sold a 15 per cent equity stake to investment firm Morgan Stanley for Rs 175 crore, so we have enough funds for our expansion activities. Also, we are planning to go for an IPO by 2009-10.

The company is also picking up land in cities like Chandigarh, Mysore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Nagpur for future expansion.

How many properties are you targetting?

We should touch at least 15 properties in the next five years.

Considering that tourism is moving to newer parts of India, would IHHR be interested in properties in emerging destinations?

Tourism is picking up in Gujarat, Orissa, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and even in parts of Assam, Meghalaya and Nagaland. The issue till now has been easy access. We are looking at all these places as infrastructure develops. Having an airport an hour away from our resorts would be ideal, as high-end clients are generally not comfortable travelling more than one hour by road.

What about hospitality concepts in India — how are these changing?

Though a lot of international brands are entering the Indian market, they are not bringing in anything fresh. The concepts that they are bringing in have already been flogged overseas.

In reality, it is the smaller companies, international and local, which will bring in newer innovative products into the market. And these companies include Banyan tree, Soneva Fushi and us.

What are the other areas of hospitality that the company is working in?

We are going to unveil a large spa institute in Hyderabad soon. This will be one of its kind in the world and will have ayurveda and yoga under one roof, offering an international curriculum and certification. There is a huge demand for certified therapists in the market.

Right now, most therapists working in India are without any kind of certification. So, we are setting up a management institute in Hyderabad itself to meet our internal demand for managers for the 15 hotels in the pipeline.

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The pair of black handcrafted John Lobb opera shoes with red insoles and black grosgrain bow brought to us by a liveried young retainer says it all. Prithvi Raj Singh ‘Biki’ Oberoi is all about classic, timeless style.

“There aren’t too many people who wear a dinner jacket anymore,” sighs the 78-year-old hotelier whose surname bears a weighty legacy that belies his diminutive frame.

“But I used to throw formal, black-tie parties in Delhi right up to the late 1970s... Now these shoes are a bit tight for me.”



His eyes twinkle as he enunciates the last bit in his impeccable accent and lights up his Cohiba for the nth time on a muggy Sunday afternoon. Obviously there’s no question that the shoe fits when it comes to hoteliering, as we sit chatting at the 55-acre green haven on Delhi’s outskirts that the chairman & CEO of EIH Ltd calls home. “This is the only home I’ve ever had,“ he says of this modest Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired building. Till he bought and renovated Naila fort in Rajasthan and recently finished a 40-acre retreat in Bangalore, that is.

“This place hasn’t changed since it was built in the 1970s,” say the man who heads the Rs 1,115 crore Oberoi empire comprising 32 hotels and luxury cruisers in five countries, flight catering, tour services, air charters and more.

As he nurses a china mug of his favourite Earl Grey tea with a chocolate labrador and black spaniel snoozing at his feet, a surreptitious 360 degree glance around the room confirms what Lobb and Cohiba assert: classic style. A Castiglione Arco (the iconic lamp of the late 1960s) swoops out from a corner as a distinctly Satish Gujral fireplace soars between the living and dining areas; greenery soothes the eye from large French windows and the raucous call of peacocks pierce the heavy air outside.

Like the Barcelona chairs in his office, the Husain and Kishen Khanna paintings and silver framed photos of his children, there’s nary a nouveau piece to jar the eye: everything has an air of, well, aptness. Not surprisingly, this underlines Oberoi’s own idea of luxury: everything in its place.

source: Economic Times

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The Oberoi Group’s vice-president of sales, Vivek Govil, tells SHALU CHANDRAN the company is now promoting India as a luxury destination.

Excerpts from an interview:

What are your expansion plans of your luxury hotels in India and internationally?

In India we have projects in Goa and Rajgarh – which will be a completely leisure hotel. We also have Oberoi coming up in Gurgaon, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Outside India, we have the UAE; we are also opening a property in Cambodia and we are also launching this October the The Oberoi Zahra, Luxury Nile Cruiser – which will take cruising on the Nile to a completely different level.

And then there is the luxury train which will cover Delhi and Rajasthan.

There's more...to read, click here

>Editor: I do like his statement ' We put India on the Luxury Map!'
I have always maintained that the Vilas properties are in a class of their own! Absolutely stunning stuff, the attention to detail, the sheer magnificence and the gall to spend so much on them...

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Jack Horne of Naperville was promoted to vice president of sales for Hyatt Hotels and Resorts.

Previously, he worked as the assistant vice president of national sales. Horne began working for Hyatt in 1988 as the associate director of sales at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare.

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Hospitality People....

With a new brand, and 56 new hotels set to open in the next four years, JONNA SIMON catches with Allan Edgar, vice-president of marketing at Hyatt International to find out more. Excerpts:

I understand that Hyatt International is aiming to open 56 new hotels in the next four years. Can you tell me a little about which of your brands these hotels will be operated under?
The new hotels will be a mixture of our top brands – Grand, Park and Regency.

India and China will predominantly have Hyatt Regency hotels.

Read the rest of the interview...click here

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Dubai is on the right track of hospitality

By Shakir Husain, Staff Reporter, GulfNews

Oberoi Group is focused on building luxury hotels in select locations. P.R.S. Oberoi shares the company's development strategy and offers sharp views on the tourism industry in a conversation with Gulf News.

Gulf News: How do you look at the future of tourism in the region?

The five minute interview ......click here to read>>

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David Gibbons is escorting an 80-year-old grande dame into the 21st century.

The general manager of Taj Boston is resetting the tone at the former Ritz-Carlton Boston to reflect the more relaxed social mores and parlance of 2007 luxury under new owner Indian Hotels Co. Ltd. of Mumbai, India.

From the floral arrangements to the dress code and the hotel staff’s interaction with guests, Gibbons is readjusting the attitude of the first Ritz, a venerable Hub institution that opened in 1927 and whose tradition-steeped history has been held dear by generations of Bostonians and visitors.

Know more... click here

Jobs @ Taj | Taj News | Taj Interview? Know this! | Taj People | Taj Hotels

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Andrew Steele has transferred to the Shangri-La New Delhi as General Manager. He was most recently the Resident Manager at Shangri-La's Tanjung Aru Resort and has held various positions at the Shangri-La Pudong and the Shangri-La Jakarta.

Rajan Viswanathan has joined the Four Seasons Mumbai as Director of Rooms. He joined Four Seasons in 1998 as Front Office Manager at the Four Seasons Resort Maldives. He was most recently the Assistant Director of Rooms at the Regent Singapore after joining the property as Front Office Manager.

Pierre Burgade is the new Executive Chef at the Imperial in New Delhi. He comes from the Oberoi Mauritius. He previously served as the Executive Sous Chef at Raffles Singapore and the Peninsula Bangkok.

Jean-Francois Pelaez has been appointed Executive Chef at the Shangri-La Far Eastern Plaza in Taipei. He had been in New Delhi since 2005 as the Executive Chef, first at the Oberoi, then at the Imperial.


Tell us more movements in & around you.....mailto:editor.hospemag@gmail.com

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Karan Khiani, assistant F&B manager at Hotel InterContinental, Marine Drive, Mumbai, speaks with Neeti Mehra about F&B trends in India... click here to know more

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Repositioning of India as a leisure destination has spelt bigger profits for the hotel industry.

As the business goes, hotels are raking in moolah. The demand-supply gap has given a boost to hotel rates over the last two years. Leisure traffic, which incidentally was the only segment that was eluding many of them of higher revenues, has now come around in the last one year owing to the push for higher-end leisure traffic by the ministry of tourism.

There has been an overall increase in yields from leisure traffic for hotels. Traditionally, leisure traffic was associated with group travel business, which was low yield. Free individual travellers (FITs) were few. This scenario seems to have changed in recent times with some hotels claiming higher leisure volume and within it, a tremendous growth in FIT traffic.



Shobu J Mathew, GM, sales and marketing, InterContinental The Grand, New Delhi, says the quality of leisure traffic has gone up and they are spending more money within the hotel. The overall yield from leisure traffic for the hotel in 2006-07 has gone up by 30 per cent over 2005-06. The leisure yield for The Imperial is also up 25 per cent.

More spending can also be attributed to an increase in FIT traffic. Certainly so for The Park in New Delhi. “Apart from the hotel room, FITs spend on the spa, food and beverages and other activities within the hotel, which the groups usually don’t,” says Rohit Arora, director, leisure sales, The Park.

The hotel’s leisure yield is up by 60 per cent in one year. This, says Arora, can also be attributed to a change in the hotel’s positioning.

Also, India as a destination is now being projected as a high-end destination, compared to its budget stance a few years ago. According to Anirban Sengupta, director marketing, Grand Hyatt, Mumbai, business customers now come all year round and since the hotel doesn’t distinguish between seasons, pricing is kept more or less constant. Higher prices, in turn, have meant improved customer profiles. Yields from leisure are up at least 15-20 per cent for them.

“Over the last two years, the difference between corporate and leisure yields has been coming down,” says Arora. The difference has come down from 40-50 per cent two years back to 12-15 per cent today. The corporates today have a structures expense control mechanism leading to price control in terms of hotel usage and rent payable by different grades of people.

As India becomes a friendlier destination for investments, more people are combining their business trips with leisure.

There are some hotels though like the InterContinental Marine Drive, where, as their GM, Romil Ratra points out, leisure yields have actually come down by half in the last one year. “This might perhaps be because of our positioning as a boutique business hotel and not really a kiddie hotel,” says Ratra.

But what takes the cake is the 150 per cent growth in leisure volume for the Trident Hilton in Gurgaon. Yield from leisure for them is higher than their corporate yield. According to the hotel, leisure yield has gone up 60-70 per cent over last year.

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