Hotels on the revival path

 

With hotels in Delhi now open, hoteliers are gearing up to clear the mist of doubt in the mind of guests. Some prominent hoteliers talk about challenges of and strategies for the new normal.

Rohit Arora, Area General Manager, The Park New Delhi

As of now there is no corporate or leisure business coming in. People who are really fed up of staying at home are coming back to hotels, so we are seeing staycations. Dropping prices will not get us business, we will end up losing more money. For the last couple of days, we have started operating our F&B with social distancing norms; footfalls have picked up.

Sanjay Gupta, General Manager, Le Méridien Gurgaon

We decided to keep our hotel open during the pandemic. We also opened a floor for our associates in April, and rebranded the entire hotel programme. In June, we were one of the few hotels to see a pick-up in the wedding business. This has helped us stay afloat. Our focus is more on staycations, marriages and parties that have helped us generate a cash flow.

Varun Chhibber, GM, The Leela Ambience, Gurugram Hotel & Residences

It’s incredible how things change. In the new scheme of things, with 50 guests, you can book luxury hotels in Rs 3-4 lakh. People are showing a lot of interest in doing small events; buffets have changed – they are served by our chefs; every associate has to wear PPE. There are 335 odd seats in the restaurant – now we have reduced it to 50% due to social distancing.

Rajesh Namby, General Manager, The Lodhi New Delhi

All through the pandemic when we were closed, we were practising how we would re-open. We restructured our kitchen in line with hygiene and sanitisation guidelines. We also have an in-house cleaning manager. As  we opened, we saw luxury is here to stay. We got 25 reservations from OTAs, and guests at the restaurant.

Inputs by Neha Rawat