Amritara steers ahead with zeal

Ruchi Uberai, Director, Amritara Hotels & Resorts, discusses the hotel company’s plans for this year including adding new properties at new leisure destinations, and increasing its number of keys. And while the pandemic posed a challenge for many, for Uberai, it was a blessing in disguise.

Nisha Verma

Amritara Hotels & Resorts recently brought a few inbound tour operators together for a soiree to thank their associate partners for standing by them and assuring them of their complete support when business restarts. Ruchi Uberai, Director, Amritara Hotels & Resorts, said the response was positive. “Everybody who attended told me that we were the first ones to invite them for a get-together in these difficult times. We didn’t discuss business, but only chit-chatted and got to know each other better. We hadn’t been in touch with them since March 2020 so this event was to reconnect with them,” she adds.

Sharing details about how they are faring, Uberai says, “Amritara is a leisure-based hotel chain, with 13 operational properties across India. Currently, all our properties which are located in the north to west are running well. Some of the hotels in South India, which opened a little late owing to the pandemic, are still struggling to cope up. However, we assume that by another month or so, we will be back on track with our revenues and ARRs.”

Experiences

Amritara Hotels & Resorts is an experience-based hotel company. “This means that every property offers a different experience. Even when we are looking at properties, we make sure that there is a unique experience that it can offer. Right from a wellness experience at our wellness properties which offer a detox package or weight management package, to properties which offer beautiful views of the valley in the north of India where people come for relaxation, to Rajasthan where we have a property in Jawai, which offers jungle safaris – all hotels offer unique experiences,” she explains. She also said that they have old forts and palaces, which have been converted into hotels and offer a heritage feel.

Pandemic, a blessing

While the pandemic posed a challenge for many, for Uberai it was a blessing in disguise. “The pandemic gave us an opportunity to work on many grey areas. When everything was at a standstill, it gave us an opportunity to rethink and rework everything. Since we are an inbound-based company, it made us rethink how we want to market ourselves. We needed to strategise in terms of operations. It gave us an opportunity to rework, rethink and re-enter the industry once again,” she claims.

The pandemic also made the company realise the value of their employees, Uberai shares, “While we didn’t let go of anybody, it made us question if we can hire more people, who are more professional or fill in the gaps that we were waiting to fill in for a very long time, especially at this point of time with so many people not having jobs. It made us realise the kind of opportunities that we can give to people. Hence, we wanted to be a helping hand, while making sure that we fill in all our gaps.”

Plans ahead

She insists that expanding further is a key goal. “There has been a pause since a year because of the pandemic. We have a lot of hotels in the pipeline that we are working on. Some of the destinations that we were looking at were Goa, Shimla and Chahal. We are reworking on them, and it’s the right opportunity for us to look at many new properties, new leisure destinations, where we can bring in guests and offer specific USPs. We are looking at increasing the number of keys that we have as well,” shares Uberai.

After getting feedback from inbound agents, she said, “From what I have heard from everybody, November 2021 onwards, some footfall of inbound is going to start. However, I think people are still going to be a little hesitant to travel, despite the vaccination drive in many countries. I am not sure how this year is going to pan out but we are keeping our fingers crossed.”