“As a luxury resort, while every digital convenience is available to our guests, we are conscious that our guests also seek for their experiences to be guided and enriched through meaningful interactions with our team.”
Sabrina Dey, Hotel Manager at JW Marriott Prestige Golfshire Resort and Spa
- What makes the JW Marriott Bengaluru Prestige Golfshire Resort and Spa unique?
This hotel is Marriott’s first integrated golf resort in this region. That being said, the hotel has so many things going for it. The location, a mere 45-60 minute drive from the city, makes it an ideal conference, staycation, or dining destination. Despite having 301 keys, the hotel is divided into wings and pockets, thus providing distinctive experiences for the activity-seeking families, business and social groups, as well as the serenity-minded leisure traveller. The hotel offers scenic award-winning dining venues with stunning outdoor spaces making the most of Bengaluru’s weather, state-of-the-art conference facilities, two pools, and blissful spa and recreational experiences. A haven for pet lovers, our unique garden terrace rooms offer frolic space for our four-legged guests. The cherry on the cake is the largest convention centre in and around the city and a celebration lawn spanning 1.6 acres. The hotel provides ample space for every kind of traveller to pause and engage in moments of mindfulness, with 24 acres to unwind, relax and reconnect with oneself and others.
On a personal note, the journey from the pre-opening phase of this hotel starting last October has been a truly rewarding one for me. The feeling of seeing a dream hotel come to life, with the addition of every tile, every carpet, and every crystal chandelier, has been surreal, and I have been privileged to share this with the best team one could hope for. Every step of the process has been a labour of love, and we feel blessed for the warm reception this unique product has received from guests and the hospitality fraternity.
- What are some key design elements of this property that you believe will appeal to today’s travellers?
The hotel is blessed to be surrounded by natural beauty; the building itself is finished in neutral colours with natural stone surfaces, so that it seems a part of the landscape, while offerings panoramic views of the hills, lakes, and greens around. The actual built-up area is a very small portion of the property, providing for interludes of greenery, water bodies, birdsong, and seasonal blooms as one proceeds from one building to the next. On a sensory level, the connection to nature is maintained in the public areas, as well as in the guest rooms and suites, with every room in the hotel offering a balcony or an outdoor living area. A unique offering of the property is five villas, which offer privacy to guests with private gardens, pools, jacuzzies, and outdoor dining.
- Post the pandemic, what kind of safety measures are part of the hotel?
The hotel has adopted all the best practices of ‘Marriott’s Commitment to Clean’ program, which assures the global traveller of sanitised and safe travel. Besides cleanliness, which lies at the heart of the program, the hotel offers the best contactless solutions like digital contactless check-in, invoices on the interactive television, mobile key, and continuous connectivity via the Marriott Bonvoy app for any guest requests.
- What are the HR initiatives taken by the hotel to maintain a customer-to-staff ratio?
Our organisation’s philosophy revolves around taking care of our associates so that they take care of our guests, who will keep coming back to us. Thus the human element is critical to our success. As a luxury resort, while every digital convenience is available to our guests, we are conscious that our guests also seek for their experiences to be guided and enriched through meaningful interactions with our team. As a result,
our human resources team is always on the search for motivated and service-oriented individuals who would like to pursue a career in hospitality. Building a team is an ongoing process, and so far, we have been very lucky in this regard.
- What are some of the international practices adopted by the hotel that are relevant to the Indian context?
The world, in general, is moving towards more sustainable practices and ‘good travel’, which is good for the environment, community, and the individual. In this regard, the hotel follows many green initiatives which make the travel experience a responsible one. We also have a small JW Garden on site, where the produce grown is used to create farm-to-fork experiences for our guests. There is a conscious effort to create world-class cuisine with locally sourced ingredients, to deliver an experience that is ‘glocal’.
- Can you elaborate on the steps taken to maintain the hotel’s carbon neutrality and sustainability measures?
The hotel strongly practices the usage of sustainable materials, recycling, and re-using through our on-site organic waste converter and sewage treatment plant. We are paperless in terms of Marriott Bonvoy keyless check-ins and have a smart hotel room temperature control system to ensure higher energy efficiency while enhancing the guest experience. The on-site water bottling plant has eliminated the usage of single-use plastic bottles, while the hotel rooms have moved to larger residential-sized toiletries, again eschewing the usage of small single-use plastic bottles. All F&B
packaging uses compostable materials, while internally, we have eliminated paper usage for user access forms and manual user recertifications. Motion sensors LED lights and water taps help reduce the wastage of precious resources. The list goes on and this will always be an ongoing initiative, as every day, there is some new process or innovation that helps us get closer to our goal of being carbon neutral or even negative.
- What are some of the F&B trends that the hotel follows?
Keeping in mind global demand, the hotel offers vegetarian, vegan, and responsibly sourced seafood options. Options like mock meat are, of course, available, but the effort is to use as much locally sourced and organic produce as possible, to reduce carbon emissions from transportation and provide a unique local touch. For example, given the cooler climate in the surrounding areas, fruit like red grapes, pummelo, and dragon fruit thrives on neighbouring farms, which our talented culinary team incorporates in recipes and well as buffet spreads for our guests.
- What is next for JW Marriott Bengaluru Prestige Golfshire Resort & Spa?
It has been just under six months since the hotel opened its doors, and every day has been a learning experience. The path forward is driven by our desire to provide more new and memorable experiences for our guests, develop talent and further strengthen our ties with the community. Looking forward to an exciting ride ahead
