Hotelier India takes a look at what preparations hoteliers are undertaking this festive season.
It’s no secret that the hospitality industry is a busy place to be during the festive season. While business hotels experience a slight lull in footfalls, most leisure establishments are inundated with guests wanting to celebrate in style at their favourite hotel. This year hoteliers are trying to make the most of things by designing ‘short-break’ packages to attract domestic guests who don’t wish to travel abroad or even too far within India.
Lance Ourednik, general manager of the Westin Mumbai Garden City, says, “Segments that are expected to contribute to business at this time are the local market, corporates who stay back in the city and would like to spend quality time with friends and family and residents from around Mumbai or even South Mumbai who are looking for a refreshing break, a rejuvenating get away.”
In fact, hotels find the festive season ideal for launching exciting packages to lure tourists as well as locals. These packages are activity filled and aimed at providing quality time to the entire family.
The Westin Sohna resort and spa has a host of activities planned such as such as yoga, sports tournaments, adventure activities, bonfires in their weekend package, which also includes a buffet breakfast, a themed buffet dinner and the use of hydrotherapy areas.
The JW Marriott at Juhu in Mumbai as a part of one of their packages has volleyball and rangoli competitions to give their in-house guests an experience of togetherness.
Chandrashekhar Joshi, director of sales JW Marriott Mumbai says, “From December 15 to January 10, the NRI market becomes a big contributor to occupancy as they take the comparatively pleasant weather as an opportunity to come back to the city.”
As far as more concrete festive preparations are concerned, hotels are going the distance with refurbishments to rooms, ordering of new linen and carpets, spruced up flower arrangements and such.
Executive Housekeeper, Mrs Rao of the Sahara Star shares, “We deliver comfort and ambience that will allow guests to feel like at home; we ensure detail-orientation and are well equipped with new concepts when it comes to everything from exclusive linens for the club rooms and suites to the welcome carpets in the elevators, to the fresh flowers around the hotel and the aroma oil essences that help add flavour to the surroundings.
To stay in tune with the festive times ahead of us, Hotel Sahara Star is going to be bringing out a more colourful look to the hotel in terms of banquet linen, exclusive runners, premium chair covers, plush carpets for the lobbies and much more.”
Pradipta Biswas, GM of The Orchid Hotel informs about the construction of a brand new wing with 140 rooms, which is planned for completion before the year end.
“This is our way of coming up with a premium segment to compete with the very top of the line such as the Grand Hyatt.” Similarly, the Hyatt Regency in Mumbai is currently undergoing a soft refurbishment of the rooms and is expecting more than 60 % of their room inventory to be ready by mid-November.
At The Imperial Hotel in New Delhi, senior vice president and general manager Vijay Wanchoo adds, “As our preparation for the festive season, we are painting the structure, adding special lighting, and laying new carpets in our huge corridors.
We’ve also changed the front of house uniforms and given them a distinctly Indian touch. Our hotel also has appointed a special steward known as an ‘aabdar’ who will greet guests with a traditional namaskar, he is already very popular with our foreign guests.”
With the celebratory mood likely to draw people out of their homes, hotels are paying special heed to engaging the local market in their F&B offerings.
According to Sachin Mylavarapu, F&B manager at the Westin Mindspace Hyderabad, social and corporate guests are very active in the months of October and November, while socials and special events are dominant in December. “We are rolling out a special festive promotion with hampers on display and sale at our gourmet deli shop, Daily Treats.”
Aseem Kapoor, General Manager, Hyatt Regency Mumbai, informs, “Traditional preparations will be a part of the buffet menu at Glasshouse, where popular delicacies will be offered to the diners. We also have hampers created especially for the occasion that will be available at our Bakery shop.”
At the ITC Grand Central, Kuldeep Bhartee, general manager shares that the local market reportedly contributes heavily to F&B, probably attracted by the large range of sweetmeats that are a part of the menu.
“This year they have on offer specially arranged customised gift hampers with sweets, wines and products from the Kitchens of India, which are available on request,” he says.
The Westin Hyderabad transforms itself on Sundays, turning into a festive and vibrant arena, with a special brunch at Seasonal Tastes with loads of entertainment and beverages.
Guests are encouraged to sip on unlimited sparkling, white and red wines, laze in the pool and indulge in an elaborate Italian fare at their outlet Prego.
The Orchid has increased buffet items for lunch and dinner, and have launched a Sunday brunch, while the Leela Kempinski hotel has arranged for a selection of international and domestic beer and vodka brands coupled with a fine collection of cigars for their guests.
“Besides sweets that are specially prepared during this season, and are part of our buffet, towards Christmas we have the auspicious cake mixing ceremony wherein we import a variety of exotic dry fruits to give the Christmas cake it’s authentic and rich flavour. Apart from that we also prepare the ginger bread house within the hotel.
The festive season is summed up with a special Christmas buffet that offers the traditional Christmas roast turkey and a host of Christmas cookies and sweets,” shares Chef Qader of the Leela.
The Orchid Gourmet Shop, the 24 hour coffee shop, recently held a cake mixing preparation for the traditional Christmas cake where they went through the elaborate procedure of soaking in all the ingredients with liqueur and nuts usually done a month before Christmas.
According to Nasir Sheikh, director of food & beverage, The Westin Pune Koregaon Park, “During the festive period, a focus for us is special buffets with a good amount of traditional food since the market that comes in is families and this is significant to them.
At Kangan we will have set Indian menus and each dish will be paired with different single malts. Tasting notes will be given to the guests (which they can also take home) and the staff at the restaurant will explain the pairing to them. This was launched during Diwali and will run throughout the festive season.”
He further explains that their property is adopting a very straightforward strategy towards packaging for the festive season. “We are looking to roll out a niche product that is accessible to all. At this time it is important to give your guest something new and fun for him and his loved ones to experience together,” he comments.
Every year, on the eve of most festivals, the Imperial carries out a display of fireworks in the garden, with live music, Indian snacks and street food, which are most appreciated by foreign guests.
Besides this, the hotel also hosts a jazz band and a menu from the 60s at their fine dining outlet, the Brasserie. ITC Grand Central in Mumbai, too allows their guests the opportunity to partake in Diwali celebrations by inviting them to participate in noiseless fireworks sessions with sparklers.
Novotel Mumbai Juhu Beach marked a start to the Christmas festivities on October 21 with an elaborate Christmas cake mixing afternoon.
Making the centuries old tradition even more special were the children from the Cancer Patients’ Aid Association who came together to help pastry chef Javed and his team mix the delicious concoction of exotic ingredients that will eventually go into the hotel’s Christmas puddings.
Speaking on the occasion, Xavier Cappelut, general manager, Novotel Mumbai Juhu Beach said, “At Novotel, we always strive to give our guests the most authentic Christmas experience. Since Christmas cake-mixing signifies the beginning of the festive season, we have decided to make this a momentous affair for the children from the Cancer Patients’ Aid Association. After all, Christmas is as much about sharing as it is about celebrating.”
In another effort to align social work into festive season preparations, the environment department at The Orchid in Mumbai announced plans to hold a silent rally around the Vile Parle vicinity where the hotel is located. The theme of the rally was ‘Reduce air and noise pollution by saying no to firecrackers.’
Aside from the festivities, hotels are also ensuring that guests are safer than ever. Keeping in mind the increased footfalls during this period, security arrangements get the once over and are especially beefed up in these months.
“With the incremental influx of people in the city, we beefed up our security measures with all guards and supervisors being briefed to be extremely vigilant during this period. Hotel staff- are told to be meticulous when accepting bookings, and guests being hesitant on sharing mandatory details is reported immediately to the Security personnel.
All vendor and goods movements entering or leaving the premises are thoroughly checked. Close contact with police, security agencies and other hotel security staff is being maintained” shares Colonel Ashutosh Kale, head of security at the Leela.
