Challenging times bring to the fore a company’s propensity for innovation, perseverance and patience. While the hospitality industry continues to modernize and digitize, one can’t lose sight of the fact that it remains a human capital-intensive business model, where people spell success.
During COVID, Auro Hotel’s strategy was simple – ensure the financial health of its portfolio and keep associates’ morale high and overcome their fear about employment prospects. Hasmukh P Rama, Chairman of the Board of Auro Hotels, recalled the strategies the company employed to overcome labour force disruptions.
“We deployed more corporate resources to recruit and retain associates and, in some instances, adjusted hourly rates to meet market demands,” he stated. “We became more flexible in hourly associate work schedules and hours of work. Moreover, we created clusters or area sales teams where we had multiple hotels in the same market. This move reduced the number of sales associates required in a market.”
MAKING A BIG PLAY
Auro Hotel’s efforts to run operations more efficiently stressed adaptation of efficiency in service delivery through technology and cross-training associates. Fortunately, international lodging brands were appropriately reactive in making certain operating standards more flexible to accommodate the challenges of a changing travel, labor and procurement environment.
“Our partners, Marriott and Hilton, pushed back due dates for some brand standard requirements that required sizeable capital investment – associate panic device deployment, RFID locks, and new exterior sign packages – which was helpful,” Rama stated. “They also defined future hotel renovations on 7/14/21 year cycles, with Marriott introducing its Temporary Renovation Investment Program to address shorter term capital constraints that owners have emerging from the pandemic. This reduced the scope of required renovation items in 2022 and 2023.”When it came to distribution platforms or channels, he noted that brands are making large investments in digital media buying and allowing individual hotels to co-op with the brand. This can boost a hotel’s digital visibility and bookings.
Auro Hotels renegotiated all service contracts for future profitability, and focused on its purchasing platform. This got it the best product pricing and created new housekeeping service protocols to take advantage of labour cost savings in not requiring service in stayover rooms.
In India, in addition to its Marriott hotel in Surat, its focus for the past decade and the next one has been on Earthspace, a master development in the city. “This hosts Auro University and Courtyard by Marriott. We are working on a convention centre, offices, retail and golf, which will take the offerings in the Surat-Hazira corridor to the next level,”Rama proudly claimed.
