Typically, when faced with a crisis, especially something as prominent as the pandemic, most professionals step back, pause, and relook at everything. It could include how they do business, conduct themselves, how they can priorities their time, etc.
Diving straight into the session ‘Digging Deep to Build Stronger Business Foundation’, moderator Anshu Sarin, CEO of Keys Hotels, asked her fellow panelists about that one thing that they doubled down their efforts on, processes that they eliminated and concepts that they introduced. Responding to this, Ranju Alex, Market VP-West India, Marriott International, said that the hotel chain doubled its efforts for efficiency.
“In the Indian hospitality sector, luxury plays a huge part in our lives. Often when business is good, we take this for granted. As a result, the number of people employed to do different jobs takes a different meaning,” she elaborated. “The pandemic compelled hotels to relook at their manning levels to do things better.”
The hotel company cut down dramatically on various traditional frills, including workforce and HLP to survive the tough times. Currently, the industry is on the cusp of converting survival into thriving. This presents the perfect opportunity for hoteliers to move forward while remembering the learning for the last two years.
LOOKING INWARDS
Many luxury brands were very significantly impacted during the pandemic, but companies with a portfolio mix of economy and mid-scale properties were able to hold their own. Narotam Singh, Area Director- West at Lemon Tree Hotels Limited, explained how the group decided what strategies should be adopted for survival while caring for people.
“We were very clear that we will not lay off anyone. So starting from the MD, Patu Keswani, to general managers, everyone took a salary cut,” he stated. “Additionally, the leadership team would have a weekly review on Wednesday to discuss steps to take to
weather this storm.”
Sarin noted that as an industry, hoteliers often tend to slip into silos, not just at individual units but also at the corporate level. The pandemic brought a synergy into the system and got everyone on the same page. While hoping this status quo would stay for a longer time, she asked Koustuva Mukherjee, Regional General Manager of Pride Plaza Hotel Ahmedabad, what was the one thing that the company decided to toss out of the window.
He stated that the mandate was not to close any of the brand’s hotels in Gujarat for a single day. “We decided to stay operational throughout, even make employees stay onsite and
avoid salary cuts,” Mukherjee claimed. “The properties had an average of 72% occupancy throughout the pandemic.
Interestingly, Pride Plaza Hotel Ahmedabad is located close to several automobile companies. During the first wave, the focus was to provide accommodation to professionals from these organizations and media people travelling to the city. During the second wave, this was expanded to house healthcare professionals. These initiatives helped the property to achieve 46% EBITDA.
MEN AT WORK
The pandemic forced most hoteliers to challenge the existing state of affairs. “We were already talking about relooking at manning levels across many areas, even pre-pandemic,” Rohit Dar, Regional Director, Operations – India (South) at Hilton, pointed out. “But the last 24 months forced us to take hard decisions in this space.”
Dar added that it is unlikely that any hotels will revert to the older manning levels as things work fine with the current ratio. “I am not saying we will not ramp up, but it won’t be at the pre-pandemic level because many of us have realized the efficiencies and ways to leverage it,” he reiterated.
Atul Bhalla, Area Manager – West, ITC Hotels and General Manager, ITC Maratha Mumbai, noted that in addition to changes in manpower structures, cost structure also underwent a re haul. “We deliberated a lot on how to bring the cost down to a level to be better prepared for future contingencies. This is how we launched our sleep amenities and F&B verticals, which have become successful enterprises in their own right,” he added.
The end game was to future proof the hotels for any unforeseen eventualities without impacting customer expectations about the brand. Thinking out-of-the-box became par for course for most hotel companies, be it food delivery or tapping new clientele. Those that did this seemed to do better than their peers. In fact, food and beverage business breathed life into the revenues of most hotel brands. And most of them are likely to continue focusing on this segment increasingly going forth.
Anant Leekha, Cluster General Manager for ibis Navi Mumbai and ibis Vikhroli recalled how his earlier property, ibis New Delhi Aerocity was the first to offer a quarantine facility to international travelers. And it prepped for this business within 24 hours. “Since I was personally heading the hotel, I remembered how I spent the initial days convincing and training associates to cater to this new business vertical,” he reminisced.
With many people becoming pet parents during the lockdown, ibis turned all its 20 properties into pet-friendly hotels. The hotel brand also introduced Cinema @ibis, showcasing movies over the weekend. “Over a week, we see more than 150 new guests coming to the hotel because of these initiatives,” Leekha added.
While frugality has become the game’s name, hoteliers have realized that they need to revisit their strategies as business starts picking up. They continuously seek ways to optimize their current operations by unearthing newer means to remain efficient.
