Growing with the team

Right spirit, supporting staff and managing finances well, helped Waxpol Hotels & Resorts sail through the last two years affected by the pandemic, and now they are set to expand in Kanha National Park, as well as in Eastern India.

Nisha Verma

Akanksha Garg, Director & CEO, Waxpol Hotels & Resorts, claims that the last two years were a time of exciting opportunities to learn and look at their operations.

“We’ve had a great time planning what we need to do in the next five years and the next decade to grow. Keeping those in mind, we are coming up with a new property at Kanha which should be open by the end of this year and we are very excited about it. We also look at expanding to more national parks in Eastern India by 2023-24 as well. In 2023, we are looking at opening two more hotels in North Bengal on the corridor that connects it to Assam,” she revealed.

She claimed that it’s also been a great time to rework what’s been happening. “We’ve actually innovated a lot with technology. We are very technology-forward now as a company. Our team is more women empowered and we are doing training with the village level people. One great initiative that is taking place in Pench is that we were able to activate the local Panchayat to start a garbage and waste management system last week. I think, overall, Pench, as a destination will grow to be a sustainable destination in next couple of years,” Garg said.

Survival strategies

While initially, Garg said, the pandemic gave her a break from the madding rush. “It was a great opportunity to look at the way we were doing things and see where we had pitfalls and where we could train our team members, she added.

New opportunities

During this period, they have kicked off a new venture as well. “We started a very interesting business called ‘Two Dots Advisors’, which is a company about connecting the two dots. At the time when companies were on sale and people were looking for cheap alternatives to sustainable alternatives, I and three of my friends thought of doing something sustainable in this sphere,” she said.

Woman in travel

For women interested in entering the industry, she said, “It’s not easy and one has to work hard to make a mark.”