The Hotelier India Awards 2009 was an opportunity for the Indian hospitality industry to come together and recognise the best ideas, hospitality success stories, and high profile talent.
Grohe presented the Hotelier India awards which featured three Hall of Fame awards, and recognised achievements for 10 different categories.
Mathew Job, vice president and managing director, Grohe India, addressed the crème de la crème of the hospitality industry who were present at this glittering, much-awaited event of the year.
Said Job: “By presenting and being a part of the Hotelier Award 2009, Grohe honours and recognises these heroes. Grohe has always provided its customers in the hospitality industry with products and services that lead to the highest guest satisfaction, supported by one of the most prestigious brand philosophy that is known by travellers across the world – Enjoy Water.”
Job gave away the prestigious Hall of Fame awards, while Nishant Grover, director, Grohe India, presented the awards in the Chief Engineer and Green Initiative categories.
Philips India and Hafele India were the associate sponsors. Philips had put up a stall showcasing its latest range of products, and also gave away the awards in the HR and IT categories, presided over by Jitendra Agrawal, general manger, Prof Marketing, Philips Lighting.
Hafele had the opportunity to bestow undeniably the most coveted and awaited award of the evening – general manager of the year – charmingly presented by Jurgen Wolf, the managing director.
The event was supported by FHRAI. Hotelier India’s other valued sponsors were sustainability partners Carrier and Otis, who were category sponsors for Procurement Manager and Laundry Manager respectively.
The award for the former was presented by PR Menon, director, Residential and Light Commercial, Carrier Airconditioning and Refrigeration Limited, and the latter by Engineer Raghib Azmi, general manager, NE Sales and Marketing, Otis Elevator Company (India) Limited.
Category sponsors included Alutec, who sponsored the Housekeeping award, given by Subhash Sahu, director, Alutec; Vira, who sponsored the Chef of the Year award, given away by the CEO, Alijan Rajan; Taj Lands End, the hospitality sponsor, and Aspri, the beverage sponsor for the evening – together, the duo ensured that the evening was a smooth, fun-filled affair to remember.
Our thanks to Rohit Khosla and his team, and the Aspri team led by Jackie Matai, managing director, and Sumedh Singh Mandla, CEO (Aspri Wine Division), Aspri Spirits Pvt Ltd.
and the winner is…
The inaugural Hotelier India Awards function saw all the glitterati of the hospitality industry come out in full support of the event. It’s been a long time since so many hoteliers gathered under one roof, to celebrate an evening meant exclusively for them, and the Ballroom of the Taj Lands End reverberated with cheers and claps of team members who turned out in their best for excited nominees and jubilant winners.
Hall of Fame
Jose Dominic
Managing Director, CGH Earth
A qualified chartered accountant, Dominic took over the family’s hospitality business in the early eighties. Under his leadership, Casino Group, now CGH Earth, has grown from one to 11 distinctly styled properties across Lakshadweep, Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu.
Dominic has proven he is a true pioneer and social entrepreneur, by localising his hotels and resorts according to the ethos of the place they belonged to. He made the local residents part of his operations, which gave them a productive livelihood.
Beyond CGH Earth and hospitality, he has worked tirelessly to bring about qualitative changes. He has made contributions to the agriculture sector as an advocate for organic farming and by ensuring many geographic specific products get indexed by the government.
His inputs in regional and national tourism too are well documented. He has served on several national and state advisory panels of tourism of both the government as well as industry bodies.
Chef Hemant Oberoi
Corporate chef – luxury division
Executive grand chef, The Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, Mumbai
Chef Oberoi has had a long and illustrious innings, and has introduced new dining concepts to Indian palates with Golden Dragon, the first Sichuan restaurant in India; Wasabi, dedicated to Japanese cuisine; Blue Ginger, featuring Vietnamese delights; and Souk, offering a Middle Eastern dining experience.
Conde Nast and the Times Food Guide regularly fete him, while Institutional Hotelier has listed Wasabi as one of the top ten restaurants of the world.
He has had the distinction of serving Gerald Ford, Henry Kissinger, the Shah of Iran, and Hosny Mubarak of Egypt, to name but a few dignitaries.
His many achievements include preparing a special dinner for crown prince of Japan in Akasaka Prince Hotel, accompanying then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for on his various international tours, catering for former President Bill Clinton’s banquet in The Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, Mumbai, and many more state functions.
Francis Wacziarg and Aman Nath
Co-chairmen, Neemrana Hotels
In 1989, when Francis Wacziarg, already a successful businessman and former member of the French civil service, showed a keen interest in restoring old Indian forts into heritage hotels, he contacted Aman Nath with whom he shared a common passion for the arts.
Together, they resurrected the Neemrana fort in Rajasthan which also lends its name to their innovative venture. Their efforts in restoring old buildings has kept alive the use of traditional materials and building skills. In 1991, Neemrana opened its door to guests with only 12 rooms.Five years later, it was the first Indian hotel to be chosen by the prestigious Small Luxury Hotels of the World and it was its only member in India for three years.
The word Neemrana is synonymous with restoration for re-use. Their example of turning ‘liability to viability’ is now called ‘Neemranification’ in architecture and has inspired several others to attempt similar ventures.Today, the duo receive hundreds of propositions to restore and run the ancestral properties of families or states in different parts of India, which has encouraged them to go public in the near future.
(The award was received by Anu Katoch, branch manager, Francis Wacziarg Agencies (P) Ltd, on behalf of Francis Wacziarg and Aman Nath)
F&B Manager of the Year
Kunal Chauhan,
The Leela Kempinski Gurgaon
The award for ‘F&B Manager of the Year’ goes to Kunal Chauhan for his ability to think beyond the conventional and give little extra touches to the service, which reacts on guests in a positive manner.
“We have tried to focus on areas which affect more number of people. For example, if you go to five-star hotels, we always get good service – which is the basic requirement. Then we thought of what more we could do, and we took on a simple thing like breakfast which is a necessity of the day for every corporate customer who is travelling around the world,” said Chauhan.
Chauhan said he changed the breakfast from a daily chore to a fun meal which allows guests to choose from a selection which is as wide as an elaborate lunch or dinner buffet.
“The concept has been innovated to become a market place breakfast, which brings specialties from over seven countries under one roof. This one little touch can make the start to their day much more interesting,” he said.
Nationality-based comfort food menu is yet another addition that the Leela has done, keeping its large international clientele in mind. “These menus come in very handy not only for our customers but also in empowering our guest relation executives and other F&B staff, who can easily delight guests by offering them familiar cuisine from their country,” Chauhan added.
As with banqueting, every hotel has a concept, so what can one do differently to make it more interesting?
“The little touches that we brought about affect the majority of guests coming in. What we try to do is, affect as many people as we can who by creating a very positive change. And that’s what I thought was a good thing about whatever we did as a team,” he said Departing from the traditional approach, Chauhan has tried to change the rules of banqueting by introducing the concept of modular banquet tables which are easy to set up at any location.
It eliminates the usage of chaffing dishes and has turned most of the banqueting food set ups into hi-end retail outlet set ups.
“Banqueting in India is only about providing halls and food and beverage. We have started taking it to the next level of making it unique by showcasing event halls prior to the day of the event. We also can help our guest change elements of their hall and displays to ensure no detail is left to chance,” Chauhan concluded.
HR Person of the Year
Neesha Sachi Mohapatra,
The Leela Kempinski Gurgaon
As part of the hotel opening team for The Leela Kempinski Gurgaon, Neesha Sachi Mohapatra, director human resources, has played a key role in designing and formulating HR policies, recruitment systems, talent development, employee relations, and performance management.
She was the main architect behind developing the on-boarding programme – ‘Prarambh’ – for employees, which monitors every team member through a complete annual career cycle.
“The first 60-to-90 days of a team member’s tenure with the company is very important and critical because employees are the most impressionable during this time. This is the period which needs more understanding, in order to make the employee-employer relationship right,” said Mohapatra.
She also said that the quality of people they have recruited is extremely good and therefore, more care needs to be taken of them. “If you have professional people in your organisation, you have to give them the right structure to grow otherwise, they will get frustrated.”
IT Person of the Year
Ravish Jhala,
Trident, Bandra Kurla, Mumbai
The inaugural Hotelier India award for the ‘IT Person of the Year’ category went to Ravish Jhala, systems manager with Trident, Bandra Kurla, Mumbai. He is the man behind implementing the Visitor Management System (VMS) through which the hotel can collect visitors’ data quickly and more efficiently.
“Whenever I take on a new project, I always try to do something which will keep not only my guests happy, but also my visitors. People tend to lack in terms of satisfying the visitors, which includes your back-of-the-house visitors and vendors who are actually the backbone to run a hotel.
Earlier, it was a complete manual process but now we are taking less waiting time, hence, saving time for visitor as well as the employees. The second thing that was in our mind was from the security point of view, as to how we can create a data base system for visitors which can be of help for the long-term,” said Jhala.
He said they have implemented the project keeping in mind the cost, flexibility, and expandability of the system.
The process helps the hotel to create a database of all the visitors whom their sales team can pitch to in future. The system also has a unique feature where the person whom the visitor has come to see will get an sms alert as soon as the visitor checks in. Jhala said the next thing that they plan to do is to tag the visitor’s pass with RFID.
Housekeeper of the Year
Indira Paul,
Trident Gurgaon
Paul’s simple mantra is that each and every guest that stays with the hotel should leave happy and satisfied. She realised that, despite all their best efforts, the guest feedback index for remained constant at 85-86% in early 2008, whereas there was opportunity to move this score to 90% and above.
“After brainstorming and analysis by the team, we realised that most of the hotel housekeeping is done in the guest’s absence, and therefore there is minimum human contact with guests. A new process was put in place, wherein each housekeeping assistant, supervisor, and executive, would meet three guests each during the day and ask specific questions related to quality of housekeeping, maintenance, room temperature, lighting, privacy, and laundry service,” said Paul.
She said the guests’ recognition and appreciation towards housekeeping team members has increased, which they mention in the feedback forms. The monthly guest scores for quality of housekeeping have also shot up to 93-94%.
(The award was received by Visheshwar Raj Singh, general manager Trident Bandra Kurla, on behalf of Indira Paul)
Laundry Manager of the Year
MK Sundar,
Group of Hotels & Resorts, Chennai
Sundar is the group fabric care manager at the hotel, and loves his work passionately. He pioneered the use of Nano Silver technology in the washing process of room linen, especially white towels, to give additional protection to in-room guests against microbiological growth.
“After almost two years of extensive hard work and research, we have used this unique Nano Silver technology to provide the guests with a quality product. This is the first time in the country that this is happening,” said Sundar.
He had taken up extensive research to analyse and counter the growth of micro organisms in fabrics. He engaged some eminent people who have doctorates in the field of micro organism and microbiology, to develop a product not merely to counter the problem, but to provide better protection to fabrics without affecting the basic characteristics.
Sundar made the breakthrough with Engel 103 named Silvate-L product which has various chemical ingredients such as calcium phosphate, quartz, and silver oxide.
This gives good protection against coliform bacteria, escherichia coli, sulphate reducing anaerobes, pseudomonas aeruginosa, yeast, and mold and aerobic microbes. His innovation has inspired other sectors such as hospitals and the pharmaceutical and food processing industries, to use the Nano Silver technology.
Green Initiative of the Year
ITC Sonar, Kolkata
This was the only category where the award was shared by two hotels – ITC Sonar, Kolkata, and Spice Village, Kerala, for their contribution to the green cause. The jury felt it was important to acknowledge the contribution of both the hotels, especially as one represents a completely urban location, and the other a rural setting.
“We believe as corporate citizens of today’s rapidly changing global community, we should all be striving to adapt to the evolving needs of society and contribute to the environment we function in. Green House Gas (GHG) emissions, if not reduced drastically, will lead to serious consequences,” said Ranvir Bhandari, area manager-East and general manager, ITC Sonar.
ITC Sonar, Kolkata was the pilot project for ITC WelcomGroup. Built in 2003, the hotel started preparations and enlisted with CDM a year later and got registered as a CDM project in 2006 – the first hotel in the world to do so. The hotel has sold 1884 tons of CER and earned credit of about Rs15 lakh in 2007.
(The award was received by Kersy Anklesaria from ITC Grand Central Mumbai, on behalf of ITC Sonar).
Spice Village, Kerala
Spice Village has taken lots of green initiatives involving the local community. They do not throw any waste outside the hotel, and have three types of waste management systems, that is, water-based, food-based, and paper-based recycling.
The handmade paper making project is one of them, where they pick up waste paper from hotels and within the community, and give it to local people to make paper. “We are not running it as our own business enterprise and have given it to the community here. Subsequently, we are buying the handmade paper back from them,” said Karan Bakshi, general manager, Spice Village, Kerala.
The hotel also has the 50-mile restaurant concept. “The concept has been introduced to reduce the carbon footprint where we procure everything right from vegetables and meat to ingredients, from within a 50-mile radius. We are now looking to reduce it to 20-miles for our specialty restaurant,” said Chandrakumar C, chief engineer, Spice Village.
The hotel is encouraging the local farmers to grow produce for this purpose which in turns helps the socio-economic factor.
(The award was received by Jose Dominic, MD & CEO, CGH Earth)
Chef of the Year
Soumya Goswami,
The Oberoi Group
Goswami, executive chef and chef de cuisine, wholly responsible for The Oberoi New Delhi as well, believes there is no shortcut to success, and has put in a lot of hard work to open three innovative restaurants since 2007.
One of them, ‘Samudra’, has a coastal seafood concept with modern presentations using ingredients and seafood from along the coastal belt of India. The restaurant features live crabs, prawns, and other seafood, in fish tanks.
His menu comprises lobster, pomfret, mussels, anchovies, and mackerel from the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea. The restaurant has won numerous accolades from the day it opened its doors and continues to sustain the same till date.
His other innovation is ‘The Dining Room’ at Trident Agra – a restaurant that pioneered the brasserie-style dining in Agra. It features wood fired oven pizzas, organic vegetables and lettuce, and signature dishes from Lucknow and Agra.
He was also instrumental in opening The Oberoi Patisserie and Delicatessen, India’s first state-of-the-art gourmet food store.
The store consists of six distinct sections spread out over a 4,000 square feet area, and each section offers a wide range of high quality products, varying from delicatessen items, homemade pastas and single origin chocolates, patisserie, freshly baked breads, cheeses, and condiments.
He was involved in the conceptualisation, design, and project implementation of Raj Mahal, a boutique Indian restaurant set against landscaped herb gardens in The Oberoi Rajvilas, Jaipur.
GM of the Year
Biswajit Chakraborty,
The Leela Kempinski Kovalam Beach, Kerala
This senior position was a tough choice to make for the jury. Unlike other categories, they felt the need to do a one-on-one with all the five shortlisted general manager’s before taking the final decision. It was finally Biswajit Chakraborty who stole the show by winning the coveted ‘GM of the Year’ award.
When Chakraborty took over the property in 2005, it was an old hotel and didn’t have the Leela standards.
“In the last four-to-five years, there has been a lot of work which has gone in re-launching that product and positioning it on the world map today. I think training has been very key here, especially since we inherited a lot of old staff from ITDC and we have brought them up to the Leela standard now,” said Chakraborty.
“Today the product is definitely beautiful, because a lot of money has been spent by the company on it, but we also get a lot of appreciation on our service levels. I think we set a benchmark in terms of the Leela hospitality training standard,” he added.
The YOY growth percentage of the top line was 115% in 2006-07, 41% in 2007-08 and 10% 2008-09 – due to the financial crisis. One of the major highlights during his tenure was the conceptualisation, launch, market positioning, creating brand awareness, marketing, and bringing in operational effectiveness in The Club – a hotel-within-a hotel concept.
After the launch of The Club in 2005, Chakraborty represented various international trade fairs such as WTM, London; ITB, Berlin; BIT, Milan; and CROCUS, Russia, to reach out to international clientele, which resulted in high-end FIT movement to Kovalam.
He had conceptualised and launched several new products such as Romantic Escapades, Suite Temptations, and Diplomat packages, to bring in a definitive market positioning and brand awareness for The Club. The Leela Kovalam is the first resort in South India to offer a full butler service.
Another key initiative taken by Chakraborty was to create a landscaped garden area of 15,49,440 square feet around a built up area of 1,44,755 square feet, in two years. His is the first resort in India to be certified for both ISO 22000 and ISO 14001 within a span of one year.
Chief Engineer of the Year
PRP Ramakrishnan,
The Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, Mumbai
The Editor’s choice award went to PRP Ramakrishnan for his invaluable contribution towards rebuilding the Taj hotel, which faced the unfortunate terrorist attack on 26/11 2008. He had the massive task of putting together the hotel once again.
“When we were standing outside the hotel after the incident, we thought it would take three-four years to rebuild everything. How we put the hotel back in operation was a great challenge for us, and it is being wonderfully done by our engineering team. Taj is a very renowned hotel which has many old systems. My focus is on modernisation without compromising on the technical aspects,” said Ramakrishnan.
He was instrumental in replacing fossil fuel with natural gas to reduce the carbon footprint. This has been implemented for the first time in south Mumbai. Ramakrishnan believes in encouraging new ideas and interaction from all levels.
In his address, he thanked all the team members of theTaj, with a special mention of the general manager, Karambir Singh Kang, for his support.
Procurement Manager of the Year
Naresh Kumar,
Lemon Tree Hotel Co.
Naresh Kumar won the ‘Procurement Manager of the Year’ award for successfully opening six Lemon Tree and two Red Fox hotels, totalling about 900 rooms in less than three years time. Having joined Lemon Tree Hotels Corporate three years ago, he helped in standardising the pre-opening purchases by fixing products, brand and quality, based on minimum cost per room(CPR).
As materials manager, Kumar was instrumental in implementing the electronic material management system (MMS) across the company.
“Earlier we were doing everything manually which was very time consuming. These new practices have resulted in better audit and controls, reduction of dead stock and smaller inventories to manage. The system allows having online access of all MMS reports,” said Kumar.
He also started the practice of conducting user training for both the purchasing as well as stake holder functions, and that has proved to be beneficial for all. Kumar is now working towards opening four more hotels in the coming financial year.
(The award was received by a colleague on behalf of Naresh Kumar)
