Indian hotel design is gradually and surely gaining its own identity felt the panellists at the second Hotelier India Think Turf organised in Delhi on October 9.
Presented by Hafele India, the panel which included seven leading hoteliers and architects, discussed a key issue of Indian hospitality today; how to make Indian hotel design profitable.
“It is a slow evolution, but I see hotel design here gradually reflecting Indian sensibilities. Even international brands are customising their models to suit local conditions,” said Mandeep Singh Lamba, managing director, Ten Hotels.
Niranjan Khatri, general manager at Welcomenviron Initiatives of ITC Welcomgroup, said: “One of the key areas of design today is to have universal rooms i.e. rooms which everyone can access, especially for disabled guests. A larger number of rooms at our new hotels can be used by the disabled and all the service areas have been designed so that even staff with mobility issues is not disadvantaged.”
“Our hotels are no longer cookie-cutter,” said Vilas Pawar, CEO of Choice Hospitality India. “We design as per the needs of the location and guest. However, the biggest challenge for management companies like ours is to convince the owners to stay realistic by focusing on the business aspects.”
Sonali Rastogi, co-founder and director at architect and design firm Morphogenesis felt that design and functionality are coming together in Indian hotels to make profitability possible. “The brief needs to clear and precise. It is possible to design aesthetic yet functional hotels,” she said.
Chaired jointly by James Durston, ITP Publishing India’s group editor and Jurgen Wolf, managing director at Hafele India, other panellists included, Sudeep Jain, executive vice-president (India), Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, Taranjit Singh Chandpuri, director design, IHG South West Asia and Lokesh Kumar, associate vice-president, Technopak.
A full report will be published in the November edition of the Hotelier India.
