Tag Archives: FHRAI

Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, Vice President, FHRAI and President, Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI), voices his members’ opinions and says that hotels and restaurants are the unsung COVID-19 warriors for serving the country by offering their rooms and their kitchens. “Unfortunately, we are not being recognized. Hotels are being used by all states for housing the health workers. For almost two months now, hotels are being used for the purpose without any compensation or payment. Also, the compensation marked for this requisition is next to nothing. It tantamounts to further burdening a sector which is already on the verge of extinction. None of the hotels have been paid for the occupation since more than two months and although we have approached the authorities several times verbally and expressed to fix a reasonable compensation and make payment immediately, there is no revert from them till date.”

While certain states like Rajasthan have been allowed to open their hotels and restaurants, those in Mumbai and certain parts of Maharashtra have still not been permitted to open for guests. Commenting on this is Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, President, Hotel & Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI) and Vice President of Federation of the Hotels & Restaurants Associations of India (FHRAI), said, “Hotels and restaurants have been ready to serve customers for quite some time and are fully prepared. But there needs to be proper coordination between the Centre and the state governments. As of today, in Mumbai and certain parts of Maharashtra still, hotels and restaurants are not yet allowed to re-open which is strange as it is further pushing this failing industry into oblivion. Putting deadlines of shutting after 9pm and not allowing liquor to be sold are some of the other impediments which will not allow many restaurants to open even after lockdown on them is lifted.” He added that all HRAWI and FHRAI members are fully equipped in ensuring the safety of customers as well as staff and have been updated about the best practices in addition to the MHA guidelines for ensuring guest safety.

According to Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, Vice President, FHRAI, the industry has witnessed a decline in revenues to the extent of 60-70 per cent as compared to the previous year’s figures. He says, “In stocks alone, the industry stocks have taken a beating of over 51 per cent. While retaining jobs of workers seems like a noble thing to do, job losses are inevitable. Almost 50 to 60 per cent of the total jobs are in danger if the sector is not revived.”

Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Association of India (FHRAI) has requested their members to refund 100% deposit on bookings made by travel agents. Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, Vice President, FHRAI, and President of HRAWI, has said, “We have advised all our hotel members to give 100 per cent refunds to the travel agents through whom the bookings have come. Some of them may have not done so. But they are definitely deferring the dates. We have advised them not to do this because at the time of crisis to gain the confidence of the guest, one must offer immediate and 100 per cent refund whenever asked for. Of course, deferment of dates is already there. We request the travel agents to try and influence the airlines – certain airlines have not been kind enough to refund. They are only offering a change of date. Unfortunately, that is not how it will work specially at a time like this. We are a service industry and customers are of prime importance.”

Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, Vice President, Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) and President of HRAWI, has said that the association’s hospitality institute has launched new courses that were to start from March 2020. He says, “We have an institute called FIHM, which is short for FHRAI IHM in Greater Noida and keeping the demand for shorter courses in mind and so many new trends emerging, we have introduced short-term courses on FOSTAC and FSSAI that involve skill development. This is also something that the government is pushing. We have these courses ready and they were due to start immediately but now we have kept it on hold because of the unfortunate coronavirus situation. We will start them as soon as it comes under control. Apart from short-term courses, we also have the regular courses but we have stressed in these short courses as that’s the need of the hour. There will be guest lecturers and visiting facility for this as well.”

Voicing his opinion of the Union Budget, Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, Interim President, FHRAI, said, “The industry expectations were high but the Union Budget has neglected us completely and we are disappointed yet again. While the Govt. wants to give impetus to hospitality and tourism and our. PM has envisioned big things for the sector, there is no mention except for the 17 tourist-friendly spots which we welcome. We were expecting reforms in rate slabs of GST, Input Tax Credit and a definitive step to boost the domestic and inbound traffic. Hospitality plays a vital role in the growth of the economy therefore this sector cannot be ignored. It is one of the biggest contributors to GDP, taxes, Foreign Exchange and most importantly in generating employment. The success of Incredible India lies in managing its hospitality and tourism right and requires policy support.”

The Sikkim Hotels & Restaurants Association (SHRA) recently convened hoteliers’ meeting in Gangtok during which it was unanimously agreed to not continue conducting business with Go-MMT until the concerns were addressed and resolved. Effective January 16, 2019, hotels in the state have indefinitely closed inventory to the OTAs and have decided to not honour any new bookings that might come through. During the meeting, SHRA member hotels also decided to terminate their contracts with Go-MMT immediately. Pema Lamta, President, SHRA, said, “We are in solidarity with the country’s apex hospitality body – Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) and also our regional body – Hotel & Restaurant Association of Eastern India (HRAEI) in uniting against the OTAs’ unfair and discriminatory business practices. We have made an official appeal to all our members to not honour Go-MMT bookings from January 16, 2019, and have requested them to terminate their contracts with the OTAs immediately. However, we will accommodate guests who have already been booked through Go-MMT even after the 16th. We do not want our guests to be harassed or inconvenienced. However, they will be requested to make payments directly to the hotel instead of to the OTAs.” Many other hotel Associations across India have accused the said OTAs of charging exorbitant commissions, unfair accounting practices and unauthorised and further discounting of hotel prices set by hoteliers. The boycotting of the two online portals gained momentum after Ahmedabad Hotel Association had first raised the issue, which many other associations and hotels followed on later. “SHRA had earlier written to OTAs with concerns raised by local hotels and even held meeting with them. The association had raised specific concerns …

The Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) has reached out to the Ministry of Tourism (MoT) regarding the hotel industry’s ongoing dispute with Goibibo, MakeMyTrip and OYO requesting its urgent intervention for redressal of hoteliers’ grievances. After a month of failed attempts to amicably resolve issues with the Online Travel Aggregators (OTAs), the apex hospitality body has written to KJ Alphons, Union Minister of State (I/C) Tourism, outlining the major issues of concern to the industry because of the OTAs’ unfair and arbitrary business practices. A number of FHRAI’s members are experiencing hardships due to the OTAs’ business ethics which are exploitative, unethical and divisive, leading to predatory pricing and other market distortions. The letter to the Ministry states that the hotel industry in the country is going through a very challenging phase which is threatening the livelihood, business, investments and entrepreneurial initiative and spirits of the hospitality industry, and thereby eroding the viability of the sector. “The hotel industry, especially the budget and mid-market hotel segment is reeling under the adverse business tactics of the OTAs. The OTAs’ malpractices are affecting the hoteliers’ livelihood and business. These hoteliers who are part of the local and city hotel Associations across the country have approached FHRAI seeking consultation and support, and are in solidarity with the Federation. The FHRAI has tried to resolve the issue directly with the OTAs, however instead its CEO has chosen to dismiss FHRAI’s role in the matter. It leaves us with no choice but to ask for the Government to step in and create a norm for the OTAs just as the Commerce Ministry has done for the e-tailers recently,” says Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, …

After MakeMyTrip (MMT) group’s chief executive Deep Kalra’s recent comment that the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India (FHRAI) has no locus standi to determine commercial agreements between MMT and the establishments on its platform, Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, VP, FHRAI, says, “Goibibo and MMT have been exploitive, unethical and adapted divisive business practices, leading to predatory pricing, market distortions and cannibalisation. I fail to see how our letter clearly worded as requesting to “resolve” the situation would be misconstrued as trying to “dictate” terms. India has approximately 100,000 establishments which provide accommodation. Approximately, 65,000 are structured licensed establishments, out of which around 45,000 hotels are stand-alone hotels. “FHRAI has never got involved all these years in any negotiations with standalone vendors but takes a strong stand when the industry faces any outside coercion or intimidation. It is only when 1000’s of hoteliers realised Goibibo and MMT’s arrogant method of pressurising the small hotels in high commissions, more free rooms, started price control on the owners. FHRAI has, in its fiduciary duty stepped in to amicably resolve matters. Please note FHRAI is not here to negotiate as wrongly being projected. It is here to ensure that agencies like MMT and Goibibo do not take the industry for granted by parenting such market conditions in which it would be difficult to do business for one party but a win-win situation for the other.” He further said, “Going back to December 7, 2018, whilst the Ahmedabad Hoteliers blocked GOMMT in the city, Kalra wanted to sit with FHRAI and work out the issues. The team sent to “resolve” arrived but with a fixed agenda of “fixing” only commissions that too by a paltry reduction …

The Federation of Hotels & Restaurants Association of India (FHRAI), along with its regional associations, met four representatives from MakeMyTrip to discuss reduction of the commission charged by the OTAs to 15-18 per cent. The meeting was attended by Surendra Jaiswal, President, HRANI and Vice President, FHRAI, along with Garish Oberoi, Immediate Past President, FHRAI and Treasurer, HRANI. Also present at the meeting were Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, President, HRAWI, along with some of the Executive Committee members. Another points discussed in the meeting include ceasing discretionary positioning and self-rating by properties since they have no authority to rate hotels or mention star ratings based on reviews; no predatory pricing and no further discount on rooms without consent of hotels. Apart from it, the association wants that discounting on rooms and its display will be done after the express consent of the hotel and not via the extranet. Several other points raised in the meeting included the service charge on hotel room booking to be rephrased and given a different nomenclature to avoid taxation issues for the hotel, the burden of the loyalty points and discounts passed to their guests to be borne by them from the commission and not to be passed to hotels, a full break-up of pricing in case rate is displayed with full board, commission to be levied on room only and the component of food should not attract any commission, PLBs only with express agreement with hotels not blanket, PLB taxation to be borne by MMT and not the hotel and illegal hotels apartments, B&B to be immediately delisted from the portals — only legal  properties to be listed.