Category Archives: Hotels

Speaking at the third TravTalk Digital Conclave, Dilip Puri, Founder & CEO, Indian School of Hospitality (ISH), said that technology would be used in hotels to monitor guests’ health. “Many hotels have started working with technology or proximity software. With our loyalty programme, we wanted to recognise our platinum guests in and around the lobby, allowing us to go ahead and personalise their stay more. In terms of policing in hotels, they need to understand the health condition of a customer and see if social distancing is being maintained. Technology would begin to take this over as well. Not only will the guests be thermally scanned and checked while entering a hotel, but there would be technology that would also allow hotels to recognise a guest’s health condition, like what the Aarogya Setu App is doing. How technology is going to play out in this new normal is going to be a very significant factor in how hotels operate in the future, whether they are new hotels, existing hotels or hotels under renovation,” he said.

Speaking at one of the sessions of the of the virtual conference, Hospitality Tomorrow, Puneet Chhatwal, MD and CEO IHCL said, “Among the segments that will come back first, I think opportunistic business is going to be key like repatriates, which we did not even know where it came from, we did not even realize that it could be a new market. Secondly people will take domestic trips, within driving distance to begin with, then some corporate demand will come up once the airports start functioning, as well as railways and highways. Step by step business demand will resume, maybe not at the same pace. Maybe some people will take vacations within the same city for an extended weekend. Since people are fed up of being inside their houses. ”

India’s hospitality industry has declined sharply in the first quarter of 2020, as the COVID-19 outbreak impacts various segments of the sector. A recent report by JLL states, “Investment action will likely get deferred as the sector rebuilds itself after containment of COVID-19, however, we estimate that more assets may fall in the ring for sale in the latter half of the year.” While 2020 started with a strong deal pipeline estimated at about US$ 1 billion worth of tradeable assets, JLL’s findings reveal that growth and development is likely to slow down in the next two years and projects under development will likely get delayed and raising development finance will also become more challenging.

Anuraag Bhatnagar, COO, Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts, believes in the resilience of the hospitality industry. He says, “We are very lucky to be working in a country like India where we have extremely robust domestic economy. People in India fundamentally like to travel, experience new destinations and go to new resorts. They probably would want to ‘unlock’ themselves after this lockdown. We will see some business coming in July and August, we see a sense of ‘near normalcy’ coming in in Q4 (OCT-DEC).

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has signed a management agreement to bring the Crowne Plaza brand to the historic city of Lucknow, in northern India. Pascal Gauvin, Managing Director, India, Middle East and Africa, IHG, explains, “The signing underscores confidence in the industry despite challenging times. In India, the sector is primarily driven by the domestic travel, which is expected to recover first once the crisis is behind us and it is safe to travel again. Domestic travel has remained a key growth driver for our business in India and we will continue to expand our presence meaningfully to cater to the needs of our guests in the country.”

In its latest General Manager’s Sentiment Survey, HVS ANAROCK has reported that over 60 per cent of the General Managers (GMs) are preparing to open their hotels as soon as the lockdown is lifted this month. The survey suggested that upscale business properties are expected to open sooner than others. The anonymous online survey captured responses of 160 GMs across branded hotels PAN India. 74 per cent of the responding GMs were from the business hotels while rest 26 per cent represent leisure hotels.

PP Khanna, President, Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India (ADTOI) during the 2nd TravTalk Digital Tourism Conclave said that it is important for states, hotels and travel agents to come together and do joint promotions for domestic tourism and boost it further. “Both states and hotels should look towards doing joint promotions with the travel agents to boost domestic tourism in India. M!CE is a big segment and according to 2018-19 data, this segment earned a revenue of Rs25,000 crore. With new ventures like banquet halls, trade fairs and facilities in cities like Delhi coming up, it is expected that by 2022, this revenue could double to the tune of Rs40,000-50,000 crore. All the states should consider opening new M!CE facilities.”

The recently-released HVS ANAROCK monthly newsletter titled ‘Hotels & Hospitality Overview’ reveals that among five key Asian markets – India, China, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore – India had the lowest y-o-y decline in hotel occupancy for March at 52.9 per cent, while China witnessed the highest at 65.4 per cent. Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore witnessed occupancy declines of 64.7 per cent, 62.6 per cent and 53.6 per cent, respectively, for the said period. The report suggests that occupancies across hotels in key Indian cities witnessed a sharp decline, as travel restrictions intensified and India went into lockdown towards the end of March 2020.

Kerrie Hannaford, Vice President Commercial, Accor (India & South Asia), says that hotels should work along with travel agents as they are experts in packaging the right products, and together they shall strive towards offering a value proposition and unique experiences to customers. Speaking at the 2nd TravTalk Digital Conclave, she said, “What we need to do collectively, with our consultants, is to become absolute experts in offering something unique and bespoke. There must be those ‘surprise & delight’ moments for our customers. The perception of value for money is going to be crucial. It is also important to know what unique experiences we can give to consumers, whether they are from the same city or have travelled from another end of the country. How the travel agent community helps us to establish that uniqueness is important, so that we can sell something to a consumer. As we step towards that level of recovery, that’s what people are going to want. They want to be able to ‘feel’ the value and it doesn’t matter whether it is a $50 hotel or a $100 hotel. They only want to ensure if they are getting that connectedness, that personalisation and as an industry, we need to come together and build that confidence for consumers.”

As per HVS revised estimates, RevPARs in the organised hotels segment are expected to decline by 58% in 2020 due to COVID-19 shock. Mandeep Lamba, President- South Asia, HVS ANAROCK, says, “The industry has not witnessed such an unprecedented decline in RevPARs in the last two decades, since HVS has been recording this data. We should now use the learning from this disruption and plan for the new realities beyond COVID-19, keeping in mind that we need to better prepare ourselves for future events of a similar or even more vicious impact.”