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DECEMBER 2014
magazine
Vol 14 Issue 12
Pages 70
`50
A MONTHLY ON HOSPITALITY TRADE
By DDP Publications
HOUSEKEEPING
TRENDS
RETROSPECT 2014,
AGENDA 2015
CLEAN INDIA
INITIATIVE
INDIA HOTEL
REVIEW REPORT
ROOFTOP
DESTINATION KYLIN
December 2014
COVER STORY
26
HOTEL HOUSEKEEPING
TRENDS
In the cover story we try to gage the
competitive edge from Executive
Housekeepers of well run hotels.
COVER DESIGN
Tushar Upadhyay
26 Cover Story
&217(176
THIS MONTH
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
FHRAI DESK
SECRETARY’S MESSAGE
NEWS UPDATES
PRODUCTS & SERVICES
EVENTS
APPOINTMENTS
08
10
12
22
60
64
66
FEATURES
22 News
OPINION 44
RETROSPECT 2014,
AGENDA 2015
Presidents of the Regional Associations
of FHRAI, share their viewpoints on how
2014 has been for Indian hospitality.
They also deliberate on their agenda and
expectations for 2015.
INTERVIEW 48
WE WANT TO PARTNER
WITH THE GOVERNMENT
In an interview Bharat Malkani,
President, HRAWI, tells us about his
priorities and agenda.
22 News You Can Use
6
December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
FEATURES
INTERVIEW 50
GOVT SHOULD SETTLE
CLAIMS UNDER NEIIPP,
2007
Sudesh Poddar, President, HRAEI tells
us about his priorities and agenda.
GUEST COLUMN 52
CLEAN INDIA INITIATIVE
Niranjan Khatri, Former GM,
Environment Initiatives of ITC hotels,
tells us ways to fully participate
and add on to the
Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan
64 Events
RESTAURANT REVIEW 62
ROOFTOP DESTINATION
KYLIN
In conversation with Saurabh Khanijio,
Owner, Kylin Sky Bar, we find out more
about the restaurant business.
62 Restaurant Review
SECRETARY GENERAL
M D Kapoor - sg@fhrai.com
EDITOR
Deepa Sethi - deepa@ddppl.com
PUBLISHER
Gunjan Sabikhi - gunjan@ddppl.com
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Kanchan Nath - kanchan.nath@ddppl.com
CREATIVE DESIGN
Ruchi Sinha
Tushar Upadhyay
FHRAI
B-82, 8th Floor, Himalaya House
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Tel: 91-11-40780780, Fax: +91-11-40780777
Email: fhrai@vsnl.com
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Email: fhraimag@ddppl.com
Tel : 91-11-41669575 Fax: 91-11-41669577
This issue of FHRAI Magazine contains 66+4 pages cover
60 Products & Services
MARKETING & SALES
Gunjan Sabikhi - gunjan@ddppl.com
Asst. Vice President – Marketing
MUMBAI
Harshal Ashar - harshal@ddppl.com
DELHI
Udit Pandey - udit@ddppl.com
Senior Manager – Marketing
(+919650399907)
FHRAI - MARKETING
S.P. Joshi
Shradha Kapoor - shradha@ddppl.com
Senior Executive – Marketing
(+919650196525)
All information in the FHRAI Magazine is derived from
sources, which we consider reliable and a sincere effort is
made to report accurate information. It is passed on to our
readers without any responsibility on our part. The publisher
regrets that he cannot accept liability for errors and omissions
contained in this publication, however caused. Similarly,
opinions/views expressed by third parties in abstract and/or
in interviews are not necessarily shared by FHRAI Magazine
or DDP. However, we wish to advice our readers that one or
more recognised authorities may hold different views than
those reported. Material used in this publication is intended
for information purpose only. Readers are advised to seek
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publication which is provided for general use, and may not be
appropriate for the readers’ particular circumstances.
Contents of this publication are copyright.
No part of FHRAI Magazine or any part of the contents thereof
may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system or transmitted in
Deputy General Manager
(+919619499167)
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Anil Kharbanda
ADVERTISEMENT DESIGNERS
Vikas Mandotia
Nitin Kumar
any form without the permission of the publication in writing.
The same rule applies when there is a copyright or the article
is taken from another publication. An exemption is hereby
granted for the extracts used for the purpose of fair review,
provided two copies of the same publication are sent to us for
our records. Publications reproducing material either in part
or in whole, without permission could face legal action. The
publisher assumes no responsibility for returning any material
solicited or unsolicited nor is he responsible for material lost
or damaged.
This publication is not meant to be an endorsement of any
VSHFLÀFSURGXFWRUVHUYLFHVRIIHUHG
The publisher reserves the right to refuse, withdraw, amend or
otherwise deal with all advertisements without explanation. All
advertisements must comply with the Indian and International
Advertisements Code. The publisher will not be liable for any
damage or loss caused by delayed publication, error or failure
of an advertisement to appear.
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Dear fellow members,
A
T.S. Walia
President, FHRAI
By now offering a
digitised, user-friendly
and flexible visa
facility, we have taken
a giant stride towards
firmly positioning India
as an attractive and
accessible destination
for leisure and
business
tourists alike
8
December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
t the outset, on behalf of all
members and the Executive
Committee of FHRAI, I wish to
extend our heartiest congratulations and warm welcome to Dr.
Mahesh Sharma, who has recently taken
over as the new Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Tourism, Government of
India. Dr. Sharma brings with him a wealth
of experience, eminent accomplishments
and vast contribution in diverse facets of
public life. His astute leadership, dynamism
and forward-looking approach, are sure
to be an indispensable source of guidance
and support for our industry. We are very
enthused that the Hon’ble Minister has
articulated that it will be his personal priority to forge greater synergy, cohesion and
alignment between various central government ministries, individual states as well the
private sector, towards the goal of unlocking
India’s true potential in tourism.
On November 27th, the eagerly awaited
Tourist Visa-on-Arrival (TVoA) enabled with
Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme
for international tourists was launched by
the Union Government. In the ﬁrst phase,
the facility will be available at nine international airports and offered to nationals
of 43 countries. We applaud the Ministry of
Tourism, Ministry of Home Affairs, Bureau
of Immigration, Ministry of External Affairs,
Ministry of Civil Aviation and the National
Informatics Center, for their joint efforts
which have ensured the timely roll-out of
this landmark initiative. I also congratulate
all colleagues in the hospitality, travel and
tourism fraternity, who have closely worked
together over the past several years to
vigorously pursue this key proposal with
the Government, at various levels. For far
too long, India’s complex and archaic visa
regulations, have been a major deterrent for
foreign tourists, thereby undermining the
country’s global competitiveness as a tourist
destination. However, by now offering a
digitised, user-friendly and ﬂexible visa facility, we have taken a giant stride towards
ﬁrmly positioning India as an attractive
and accessible destination for leisure and
business tourists alike. We are very optimistic that the adoption of an eVisa regime is
poised to catalyze a new wave of growth for
our industry.
In the past few months, the Union Government has initiated a series of welcome measures, targeted at improving the investment
climate and revival of business sentiment.
The Hon’ble Prime Minister has himself
stressed on the need to reduce the overall
complexity of doing business in our country,
so as to enhance India’s international
competitiveness and global market share in
trade, manufacturing and services. As such,
it is widely expected that the Government
will leverage the forthcoming Union Budget
2015-16 as an opportunity to usher the
second stage of policy, administrative and
regulatory reform in the economy. FHRAI
has been proactively engaged with the Ministry of Finance through detailed Pre-budget
interactions, and we have put forward
comprehensive proposals, spanning a broad
spectrum of issues pertaining to direct and
indirect taxation as well as urgent matters
of economic and ﬁnancial policy. I would
like to brieﬂy share with you, a few major
recommendations that FHRAI has made for
the next Union Budget.
The early introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) has been rightly taken up as
a priority agenda by the government. Given
the vast beneﬁts that this sweeping reform
can potentially bring, viz., simpliﬁcation and
rationalisation of the indirect tax system as
well as a ﬁllip to investments and economic
growth, it is an initiative that we enthusiastically support. While reiterating our commitment to extend constructive cooperation
and assistance in the successful implementation of the new tax regime, FHRAI has
highlighted certain concerns and suggestions regarding the design and structure of
GST. In particular, we have emphasised that
with the strategic objective of capitalising
on tourism’s ‘multiplier’ effect to accelerate
job creation and inclusive growth, it is imperative that GST is applied in the hospitality and tourism sector, not at the standard
rate, but at a concessional composite rate of
8 per cent. Through empirical international
benchmarking data, we have demonstrated
that recognising tourism to be one of the
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
most price-sensitive of all industries, it is
standard worldwide practice to levy a reduced
VAT/ GST rate on hotels and restaurants.
Lower tax rates will feed through to lower
prices, which will stimulate higher demand
and thereby, progressively broaden the total
revenue base on which GST is levied, resulting
in net ﬁscal gain to the Exchequer. We have also
requested that all services for which payment
is received by hotels in convertible Foreign
Exchange should qualify to be zero-rated under
the GST regime.
In order to achieve the overarching goal of
a transparent, streamlined and efﬁcient tax
system, there should be no exclusions, either
in terms of certain product categories (like
alcoholic beverages, petroleum products) or
local-levies like entry tax/octroi, from the ambit
of the GST. Such exclusions would lead to tax
cascading, create distortions in the credit chain
and signiﬁcant compliance-related complexities
for small and medium taxpayers, thereby being
counterproductive to the very fundamental
objectives of introducing GST. We have also
suggested that draft modalities and procedures
proposed to be applicable under the GST regime
should be placed in the public domain at least
six months in advance.
The investment-linked deduction under Section
35AD of the Income Tax Act is the primary
tax incentive offered to hotels. With a view
to attract the staggering additional capital
investment of over Rupees 1,25,000 crores,
which the Indian hospitality requires, FHRAI
has proposed that hotels be allowed a higher
weighted deduction of 150 per cent of the
capital expenditure incurred in setting up new
projects. India has a large number of heritage
residential buildings in private possession, which
can be suitably deployed as productive tourism
assets. Therefore, we have requested that beneﬁt
of the deduction under Section 35AD should also
be extended in the case of restoration and conversion of old buildings into classiﬁed heritage
hotels. The Union Budget 2014-15 had introduced some innovative institutional mechanisms
and ﬁnancial instruments to bridge the long-term
funding gap confronting key infrastructure subsectors. However, the beneﬁt of availing lower
cost long-term ﬁnance will effectively accrue
to our industry only if the unreasonably high
project cost threshold mandated for inclusion of
hotels in the RBI’s Infrastructure Lending List is
lowered from Rupees 200 crores to Rupees 20
crore. Pursuant to the announcement made in
last year’s budget, the RBI has recently notiﬁed
its ﬁnal guidelines for operationalising the socalled 5:25 scheme, wherein capital-intensive
projects in infrastructure and core industries
can avail long-term debt ﬁnancing with ﬂexible
structuring. While welcoming this important
initiative, FHRAI believes that that this scheme
should not be limited only to new borrowers
but also be available for reﬁnancing the debt of
existing and under-implementation projects in
all eligible sectors.
Small and Medium Enterprises are a vital catalyst for employment generation, skill development and innovation in the hospitality sector. It
is vital to facilitate timely and adequate ﬂow of
credit for their sustainable growth and expansion. In this context, FHRAI has submitted our
speciﬁc proposals to the high-level committee
which has been constituted by the Ministry of
Finance regarding modernisation and reform of
the ﬁnancial architecture for Ministry of Micro
Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
In order to accelerate industrial development in
the north-eastern region of India, the Government had formulated a comprehensive North
East Industrial and Investment Promotion Policy,
2007 (NEIIPP-2007), which offers a package of
ﬁscal incentives and other concessions, including capital investment subsidy and interest
subsidy on working capital loans.
However, there are serious practical constraints
being encountered by entrepreneurs in claiming
these incentives, which unless urgently addressed, will defeat the laudable intent of the
policy. The present imbroglio has dealt a serious
setback to the entrepreneurs who have already
undertaken large investments in good faith,
and is also dissuading potential investors from
setting up new projects in the region. We have
urged the Ministry of Finance to pursue with all
concerned Departments/ Ministries, the need to
put in place, a streamlined, transparent and empowered mechanism to fast-track the disbursement of all legitimate subsidy claims under the
NEIIPP, with clear accountability being ﬁxed for
adhering to the mandated timelines for claim
processing and sanction.
Wishing you and your family a happy, healthy
and successful New Year!
With warm regards,
T.S. Walia
President, FHRAI
To attract
additional capital
investment of over
`1,25,000 crores,
FHRAI has proposed
that hotels be
allowed a higher
weighted deduction
of 150 per cent of the
capital expenditure
incurred in setting up
new projects
FHRAI DESK
FHRAI DELEGATES WELCOME DR. PANWAR
D
r. Lalit K. Panwar, the new Secretary, Ministry of Tourism,
has served earlier as the Chairman and Managing Director
(CMD) of Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC)
from 2010-2013. An IAS ofﬁcer of the 1979 batch Rajasthan
cadre, Panwar was also the Director Tourism with the Rajasthan
Government. He is one of the pioneers in modernising the ‘Palace
on Wheels’ and introducing a number of schemes in tourism sec-
tor in the state. Dr. Panwar had initiated many novel
initiatives in ITDC during his stint as Managing
Director. ITDC signed a MoU with Hindustan Salts to develop
theme destination around salt lakes in Rajasthan during his
tenure. The public sector corporation also announced its foray into
travel and hospitality education by setting up a global tourism
and hospitality university in Haryana.
Pictures: Simran Kaur
43 COUNTRIES ON INDIA’S VoA RADAR
(L-R) Parvez Dewan, Dr Lalit Panwar, Dr Mahesh Sharma, Rajnath Singh, Anil Goswami, Subhash Goyal and Pronab Sarkar
H
istory was made on November 27 as the decision
to guarantee Tourist Visa-on-Arrival (VoA) facility,
enabled by Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), for
43 countries was rolled out by Home Minister Rajnath Singh
and Minister of State for Tourism and Culture (Independent
Charge) Dr. Mahesh Sharma, in Delhi.
The ministers were joined on stage by Tourism Secretary
Dr. Lalit Panwar, Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Anil
Goswami, former Tourism Secretary Parvez Dewan, IATO
President Subhash Goyal and IATO Secretary Pronab Sarkar.
All arrangements, including the software for the system,
are now ready and would become operational at nine
international airports - Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata,
Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and
10
December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
Goa. “It’s a major decision of the Government of India. It
conveys the message of how important the sector is and
it augurs well for the industry. It is a paradigm shift for
the tourism industry and it’ll take the number of foreign
tourists coming to India to greater heights. Depending
upon how it is received, we’ll request the government to
increase this from 43 to many more countries,”
said Dr. Panwar.
In order to get a VoA, one would need to apply on the
designated website along with the required fees (US$
60). They would be granted an ETA within 72 hours. The
tourists will need to enter India within 30 days from the
date of approval of ETA and will be valid for 30 days stay
in India from the date of arrival.
SECRETARY’S MESSAGE
Dear fellow members,
T
Vivek Nair
Hony. Secretary
In the next
4/5 years new hotel
development would
start taking place,
with the introduction
of the new 5:25
Project Financing
Scheme being
eligible for Hotel
projects of
over `200 crores
with long term loans
of 15 years or more
12
December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
he implementation of Tourist Visa
on Arrival enabled by Electronic
Travel Authorisation (ETA) Scheme,
which has been announced by
the Hon’ble Minister of Home
Affairs, Mr. Rajnath Singh and
Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Hon’ble Minister
of State (I/C) for Tourism, Culture and
Civil Aviation on November 27, 2014, and
applicable to 43 countries, would indeed
be a game changer for tourism. This long
felt need would enable tourists to make
decisions at a short notice to visit India and
would, therefore, increase in manifold, the
Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) to India starting winter season 2014-2015 itself.
over `200 crore with long term loans of 15
years or more and at reduced rates of
interest like Airport, Roads etc.
However, the decision not to include tourists
form the U.K. under the scheme would be
a strong deterrent as that country is the
second largest source market for India. We
fully recognise the security and other aspects
involved, but if there could be a way to
modify the qualifying criteria for the eligibility of the facility, genuine tourists would
be able to avail the facility. The Federation
has already taken up this important matter
with the Ministry of External Affairs and the
Ministry of Tourism, Government of India
PSection 10(23G) of the Finance Act which
was deleted by the Finance Minister in
the year 2006.
It is also heartening to know that
Mr. Nipendra Mishra, Principal Secretary,
to the Hon’ble Prime Minister has continued
to chair the meetings of the Inter Ministerial
Coordination Committee on Tourism subsectors and that various outstanding issues
to promote tourism would continue to be
persuaded by this important committee.
We look forward to increase in tourism, both
from tourist and business segments, as a
result of the new economic reforms being
put in place by the Government. We are
conﬁdent that in a short period of time the
hotel industry will come out of its slowdown
and the present over-supply of guest rooms
in cities like Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Pune would soon be eased and in
the next 4/5 years new hotel development
would start taking place, with the introduction of the new 5:25 Project Financing
Scheme being eligible for Hotel projects of
The Federation met Mr. Shaktikanta Das,
Secretary Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Govt.
of India and the following recommendations
were given in the Pre-budget Memorandum:
PWeighted deduction for hotels under
Section 35AD which is “one” at the present for hotels has been increased to “one
and a half” time in other sectors. Hence,
given the importance to the tourism
sector a deduction of one and a half time
should be given to hotel projects also.
PApproval for selected term Lending Justiﬁcations to introduce hospital infrastructure bonds to attract foreign funding for
hotel projects.
PEligibility to avail of the 5:25 Scheme
announced by the RBI vide circular dated
15 July 2014, wherein projects in infrastructure and core industries can avail
long term debt ﬁnancing with ﬂexible
structuring.
PAlso hotels to avail of take-out ﬁnancing
so that External Commercial Borrowings
(ECBs) can replace their Indian Rupee
Debt as per the RBI vide its notiﬁcation
dated July 22, 2010, permits take-out
ﬁnancing arrangement trough ECB, under
the approval route, for reﬁnancing of
Rupee loans availed of from domestic
banks by companies in the seaport and
airport, roads (including bridges) and
power sectors.
Wishing you and your family a very happy
and prosperous New Year!
With warm regards,
Vivek Nair
Honorary Secretary
FHRAI DESK
HRAEI REACHES OUT TO HOTELIERS IN SIKKIM
T. S. Walia, President, FHRAI and Sudesh Poddar, President HRAEI, relaxing in the lobby of the hotel on arrival in Gangtok along with members of the travelling team
(L to R) Sudesh Poddar, President, HRAEI, T.S.Walia, President, FHRAI, Pranav Singh, Hony. Secy, HRAEI and Souvagya Mohapatra, MD, Mayfair Lagoon,
Bhubaneswar at the Committee Meeting
G
angtok was selected as the venue for the 3rd Managing Committee meeting of Hotel & Restaurant
Association of Eastern India (HRAEI) with the idea
of mixing business with holidaying and relaxation and
the Managing Committee members, with their spouses,
responded enthusiastically to this proposal.
HRAEI
In order to interact one to one with the hoteliers of the 13
states of Eastern India, the Managing Committee of HRAEI
decided to ﬂag off its new initiative with Sikkim. Accordingly, the 3rd Managing Committee meeting of HRAEI was
organised at the Mayfair Spa Resort & Casino, Gangtok on
November 27, 2014 followed by cocktails and dinner.
14
Prominent hoteliers of Sikkim, Commissioner Industries,
Govt. of Sikkim, Finance Secretary, Govt. of Sikkim and
a large team of Managing Committee members, with
their spouses, attended this meeting. President, Hotel &
Restaurant Association of Sikkim, Mrs Prema Lamtha’s
December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
main query, as expected, was on recovery of capital subsidy
claims under the NEIIPP 2007 scheme of the government
of India. The President of HRAEI, Mr.Sudesh Poddar, assured
everyone present that the association was pursuing the
matter aggressively with the concerned authorities both
at the centre and state levels for expeditious settlement
of all pending claims of investors in the north-east region.
Mr. TS Walia, President FHRAI informed the hoteliers that
he has taken up the subsidy matter in the inter-ministerial
conclave held at New Delhi on 12-13 November 2014.
Explaining the priorities of HRAEI in the current year, Mr.
Pranav Singh, Hony. Secretary, HRAEI said; “We have
decided to promote and strengthen HRAEI and to make its
voice loud and effective so that it can play a seminal role in
supporting the growth of hospitality and tourism sector in
our country in general and eastern region in particular. For
this, it is imperative to involve our fraternity members more
actively and inculcate brotherhood among our members.”
FHRAI DESK
HRANI DELIBERATES UNREASONABLE
NOTIFICATION OF SERVICE CHARGE
(L-R- Sitting) Renu Thapliyal, Secretary General; Bharat Aggarwal, Treasurer; Luv Malhotra, President; Garish Oberoi, Hony Secretary and R.D. Anand &
Arun Dang, Hony. Jt. Secretary at the MC Meeting
T
HRANI
he meeting of Managing Committee of HRANI was recently held in New Delhi. Matters concerning the hospitality industry were deliberated by the Committee.
The notiﬁcation issued by Excise and Taxation Department,
Union Territory, Chandigarh with regard to prohibiting
hotels /restaurants to levy Service Charge in Chandigarh
was addressed. The legal opinion sorted on the subject
was discussed by the Committee and it was decided to
challenge the notiﬁcation in Punjab and Haryana High
Court after submission of representation to the
16
December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
Government. The Committee also deliberated the issue with
regard to 3- Star and above category hotels categorised
under Red Category Industry by Central Pollution Control
Board resulting into stringent rules, compliance monitoring
regime and exorbitant consent fee by all state Pollution
Boards. It was decided to represent the same in
coordination with FHRAI with Ministry of Environment and
Forest and Central Pollution Control Board including
Ministry of Tourism. The meeting was preceded by a visit to
the renovated ofﬁce of HRANI.
FHRAI DESK
NATIONAL GREEN TRIBUNAL
T
he Committee constituted by the National Green Tribunal vide order dated
25.09.2013 has ﬁled its ﬁnal report before the Tribunal in compliance of NGT
Order dated 19.09.2014 after giving a copy to the Counsel appearing for the
other side as well as the respondents including Hotel & Restaurant
Association of Northern India (HRANI). The matter came up for hearing on
November 18, 2014 and the Tribunal directed all the respondents to ﬁle response,
if any, before the next date of hearing i.e. December 17, 2014.
HRANI
Mr. Luv Malhotra President, HRANI and Mr. S.M. Shervani, Chairman, Legal Sub –
Committee, HRANI including other members of Legal Committee Sandeep Anand
Goyle and Garish Oberoi convened an urgent meeting on November 22, 2014 for
ﬁnalising the Association’s response in regard to the Final Report. The Committee
has decided to ﬁle a comprehensive response after collating all the suggestions
with expert opinion from the Association’s counsel before the Tribunal.
HRAWI OPPOSES BAN ON LIVE ORCHESTRA
BY DAMAN ADMINISTRATION
T
HRAWI
he ofﬁce of Deputy Collector of Daman has recently
issued a circular revoking permit for live orchestras in
hotels, bars and restaurants. The reason for the ban has
been cited as a way of preventing Daman from becoming a
hub for prostitution and other illegal activities. The Hotel and
Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI), terming
the move as arbitrary, without basis and effectively harmful
for tourism, has opposed the ban.
18
“The administration claims that there may be cases of prostitution and illegal activities taking place under the pretext of
live orchestras. But this is baseless and merely presumptive.
Concluding that all live orchestras are indulging in such practices is arbitrary and sets a bad precedent. Many hotels and
restaurants that have heavily invested both capital and time
for setting up infrastructures are now in a soup on account of
this ban,” said Mr. Bharat Malkani, President, HRAWI.
“Hoteliers and restaurateurs are in a ﬁx. They invest in businesses and projects based on stable Government policies. Every enterprise is built around projected returns on investment.
December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
But if policies are changed arbitrarily, they will not be able
to plan for the future. In speciﬁc relation to this ban, many
hoteliers had invested in artist promotion and popularising
the concept of live orchestra. With this immediate ban, not
only the enterprises will begin to incur losses immediately but
also tourism as a whole will be hampered. With New Years
eve just a month away, a sudden jerk in the mechanism of
hospitality will certainly be a cause for tourists to withdraw
their visits and/or stays from here to other places, eventually
resulting into deﬁcit in revenues for the state’s coffers as
well,” he added.
“We stand by the administration for its stance against illegal
activities under the disguise of live performances.
The law should be vigilant and should take action against
erring establishments who bring a bad name to the region
and tarnish the reputation of tourism in the state. However at
the same time, we request the administration to look at the
ﬂip side of the decision and reconsider banning all the
establishments from conducting business ethically,”
concludes Mr. Malkani.
FHRAI DESK
HRAWI ORGANISES SEMINAR FOR
TAX AWARENESS
(R-L) Sheel V. Bhanushali, Dilip Kothari and Govind Gopaldas Goyal
A
s part of the initiatives taken for the beneﬁt and
awareness of hoteliers and restaurateurs, the
Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India
(HRAWI) had organised special seminars to understand
the impact of VAT, luxury tax and service tax on various
activities of hotels and restaurants. The seminars will be
organised for Food Business Operators (FBOs) in various
cities of the western region including Mumbai, Pune, Bhopal, Ahmedabad, Goa and others in the coming months.
The ﬁrst seminar held at The Ambassador hotel, Mumbai,
received an overwhelming response from the FBOs. The
session on VAT and Luxury Tax was addressed by Govind
Goyal, a well-known chartered accountant and Sheel Bhanushali spoke on matters related to Service Tax.
Govind Gopaldas Goyal
HRAWI
“The hospitality industry is presently gripped by several
harsh policies and; direct and indirect taxation that is
hurting the sector. It is very important for everyone in this
industry to be abreast of changes taking place from time
to time. For this, the association has and will continue to
organise such seminars in the interest of our members,”
said Mr. Bharat Malkani, President, HRAWI.
Amar Bafna
20
December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
Delegates at Seminar
NEWS UPDATES
NEW FACES IN THE MINISTRY OF TOURISM
Picture: Simran Kaur
Dr. Mahesh Sharma,
Minister of State
Tourism & Culture (I/C)
and MoS Civil Aviation
Dr. Mahesh Sharma
has taken over as
the Minister of State
Tourism & Culture
(Independent Charge)
and MoS Civil Aviation.
Dr. Sharma has replaced
Shripad Yesso Naik, who
will now be handling
AAYUSH (I/C) and
Health & Family Welfare.
A doctor by profession,
Dr. Sharma holds an
MBBS degree and is also the Chairman and
Managing Director of Kailash Healthcare Limited.
RAILWAY ROADMAP FOR 50-70 MEGA
PROJECTS IN 60 DAYS
Picture: Simran Kaur
RAILWAYS
Suman Billa, has
joined as the Joint
Secretary, Ministry
of Tourism (MOT),
Government of
India. Before this
he was Secretary
of Tourism,
Government of
Kerala. He is a 1996
batch IAS ofﬁcer
and has studied
at the Madras
Christian College,
Jawaharlal Nehru
University, Delhi and
has been a British
Chevening Gurukul Scholar at the London School
of Economics.
Picture: Simran Kaur
MOT
T
he Ministry of Railways is in the midst
completing an exercise for preparing an
exhaustive roadmap for execution of between
50-70 mega railways projects in the next ﬁve
years through PPP model for which necessary
consultation process would be ﬁnalised in the next
60-days. Addressing a PHD Rail Infrastructure
Summit-2014 under aegis of PHD Chamber of
Commerce and Industry in Delhi, Minister of
State for Railways, Manoj Sinha unveiled that the
identiﬁed projects would be shortly put on the
website of the Ministry of Railways with all
22
December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
details and deadlines for their commissioning to
attract wider participation of investors for their
timely execution.
Sinha also said that the future successive budget
of the railways would be prepared to serve the
government’s intention of executing mega railways
projects under its ﬁve-year agenda plan and to
push the consultation process so that the execution
is not delayed at any cost and cost escalations
arising out of normal delays in such projects are
prevented for good.
NEWS UPDATES
PREMIER INN MUMBAI WORLI TO DEBUT IN
2018 WITH 350 KEYS
ENTRY
A
s part of their international marketing plan, Premier Inn,
UK’s biggest hotel chain, announces its ﬁrst property in
Mumbai. This edition will mark the debut of Premier Inn
hotels in Mumbai, catering to the vibrant city’s mid-scale market
segment. Premier Inn Mumbai Worli, which will feature 350
rooms, is strategically located in
the Lower Parel district, between
the Central Business District,
Santacruz Airport and the North
Mumbai Business Districts.
Aly Shariff, Senior Vice President,
Operations (Asia), said “We are
extremely proud to be a setting up a property in Mumbai. This property is
essential to Premier Inn’s growth strategy and fulﬁls our objective of entering
the mid-scale hotel market of Mumbai. We are offering a unique product,
which is perfectly designed to host business travellers as well as families. The
property is scheduled to open in 2018 and we look forward to welcoming
guests to the Premier Inn experience.”
ACCOR LAUNCHES UPSCALE
GRAND MERCURE IN GOA
O
wned by the Shrem Group and
managed by Accor India, with
OPENING
121 keys the hotel is being called
Grand Mercure Goa Shrem Resort. The
getaway is situated on the calm and
inviting corner of Candolim road and is only 40 minutes
from the airport by car.
Nitan Chhatwal, MD, Shrem Group, said, “We are
delighted to be associated with the Grand Mercure
brand in India, and are conﬁdent of Grand Mercure Goa
Shrem Resort being a preferred choice for travelers. With
this association, we plan to bring the best of hospitality
to leisure and business travelers to the region”.
Manish Dayya, General Manager, Grand Mercure Goa
Shrem Resort, said, “Our aim at the Grand Mercure
Goa Shrem Resort is to create a memorable
experience for all our guests. The resort has been
designed as an upscale escape for families and couples
offering solitude, comfort and a well-deserved holiday
slumber! With unique dining concepts on offer, the
resort strives to delight guests’ palate with an array
of ﬂavours”.
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December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
NEWS UPDATES
LOYALTY
‘YOUR WORLD REWARDS’
S
tarwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:
HOT) and Emirates Airline are announcing a
new partnership providing reciprocal beneﬁts to
Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) and Emirates Skywards
members. The program, Your World Rewards, began on
Nov. 19 and allows SPG and Skywards elite members
who register for the program, to elevate their earnings
and beneﬁts when they ﬂy with Emirates or stay with
SPG Participating Hotels.
With Your World Rewards, SPG and Emirates
Skywards members will now earn in the air, on the
ground and around the world. Whether on business
or leisure, registered SPG and Emirates Skywards
members will enjoy the best in travel from take-off to
check-out with rich beneﬁts, personal service and
extensive access around the world through this
partnership of two loyalty programs. Elite SPG and
Emirates Skywards members will receive exclusive
rewards of each loyalty program. Skywards Gold
and Platinum members will have the opportunity to
upgrade their hotel experience, receiving exclusive
beneﬁts including access to SPG elite check-in, 4:00
p.m. late check-out and complimentary in-room
Internet access.
LAUNCH
SAROVAR PORTICO DEBUTS IN JALANDHAR
industrial and commercial activity. Sarovar Portico
will add to the charm of the hospitality sector in the
region by offering best services and facilities.”
Sharing details on Sarovar’s expansion plans in
Punjab, Bakaya stated that, “Jalandhar is the
largest developed and cleanest city of Punjab state.
Looking at the rate of rapid industrialisation in
Jalandhar, we plan to open Park Plaza very soon
here. Also, to cater the massive tourist footfall in
Amritsar, the group is looking forward to come up
with Sarovar Portico in 2016.”
S
arovar Hotels have opened Sarovar Portico in
Jalandhar with 42 Rooms and Suites. This will
be the sixth property of the Sarovar Group
in Punjab including Chandigarh. Located near
BSF Chowk, G.T Road, Sarovar Portico-a unit of
Armani Buildcon, ensures comfort for both business
and leisure travellers. The hotel promises to offer
unmatched contemporary services and facilities
in Jalandhar.
Ajay K Bakaya, Executive Director, Sarovar Hotels
said, “In recent years, Jalandhar has seen rapid
urbanisation and has developed into a centre of
HOUSEKEEPING
TRENDS
Today hotels are dealing with well travelled and
experienced guests. Many are from homes with the best of
living conditions. The pressure is on housekeeping staff to
go a step further, making the ‘home away from home’ more
perfect. We try to gage the competitive edge from Executive
Housekeepers of well run hotels.
Kanchan Nath
26
December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
3LF&RXUWHV\6RÀWHO0XPEDL%.&
COVER STORY
Pictures on this page: Simran Kaur
Garima Nagpal
Executive Housekeeper
The Imperial, New Delhi
BUDDY SYSTEM
FOR ASSOCIATES
Housekeeping Special
HOUSEKEEPING MANTRA
28
Be prepared, there is nothing that
a guest can throw at you which
you are not in a position to deal
with. Take quick actions, take a
decision immediately and do not
delay asking for afﬁrmations. You
are the best judge. Be ﬁrm, the
guest is not always right! Instances
abound of petty theft and grand
larceny in hotel rooms.
MATTRESSES, PILLOWS &
TURNDOWN SERVICE
We use mattresses from Sealy a well
known brand internationally. The
length and breadth depends on the
size of the bed! Ours are 72” X 84”.
Housekeeping
has evolved into
becoming tech-savvy
even if compared to
six years ago
The thickness is the main factor
and we have an eight inches thick
mattress. They are reversible, ﬁrm
and not too hard or soft. Our pillows
are polyﬁll, anti allergenic with a
high thread count covering.
December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
SPICK AND SPAN ROOMS
Each room is physcally
checked by the ﬂoor
manager before clearing it
to front ofﬁce. We use the
opera system for managing
the room inventory with
front ofﬁce. Housekeeping has evolved into being
quite tech- savvy even if
compared to six years ago!
Mobile phones are used to
stay in contact and maintenance orders/communications are done through
tele-conversations only.
The average supervisor
now needs to be literate
and hands on to keep
a proper control of the
operations.
STAFF TRAINING PROGRAMMES
New associates are placed on
a buddy system i.e. an older
experienced one trains the new
entrant on the job. Classes are also
held for them in the foundation
modules. Operating procedures are
taught thorough skill training in
class rooms and one to one lectures.
General training is carried out by
the training dept. Re-training is
done yearly and each employee has
to attend a minimum number of
classes. Daily Brieﬁngs keep staff
updated on current changes in the
hotel and in touch with business
trends. Visual impact through
dynamic notice boards keep the
interest levels high and positive
strokes abound through reading out
of guest letters of appreciation.
GREEN PRACTICES
We have introduced recycled bags
for laundry/ dry-cleaning and
newspapers by using the drinking
water plastic bottles generated in
the hotel to be converted to yarn
and woven to our specs. Chemicals
used in laundry are non polluting
and further all waste is treated by
in house STP plant and recycled for
watering in the lawns.
MAKE LIFE
‘MAGNIFIQUE’ FOR
OUR GUEST
HOUSEKEEPING MANTRA
Our Housekeeping mantra at Soﬁtel
Mumbai BKC is “To magnify the 5
senses (Sight, Touch, Taste, Smell,
and Hearing) right from the lobby
and rooms, to the restaurants and
spa… to make life Magniﬁque for
our guest”.
BED & BATH LINEN TRENDS
High quality linen is mandatory
for any 5 star hotels. 100 per cent
Egyptian cotton with a 400TC has
been a trend for all Luxury hotels.
This sensorial approach to touch
extends itself into the bath room
with Yves Delorme bath towels.
MATTRESSES, PILLOWS & TURNDOWN SERVICE
The unique ‘My Bed’ concept,
exclusively designed for Soﬁtel,
is the perfect example of Soﬁtel’s
attention to ultimate comfort. My
Bed is a perfect combination of a
mattress (by Epeda), a featherbed
onto which comfortable pillows
(feather down as well as Hypoallergic polyﬁll) and ﬂuffy duvet, are
placed. Being light weight, these
materials are easy to handle while
changing linen as well as turndown
service, and is user-friendly and
manageable, especially by
female ambassadors. The
size of the Soﬁtel My Bed
mattress is 180cm X 200cm.
SPICK AND SPAN ROOMS
WITH TECH-SAVVY
HOUSEKEEPING
Every room is cleaned
on a daily basis by the
Housekeeping ambassador
in charge of the ﬂoor. Before
every guest arrival, a quick
preventive check is done to
make sure the room is defect
free. As soon as a room is
cleaned by the ambassador,
they enter a code from the
individual room phone
and update the status saying
‘cleaned’. Moreover, the
supervisors have to make sure
it is re-checked and the room
status is changed from “clean” to
“inspected.” This shows that the
room is ready for the guest to arrive.
PUBLIC SPACES &
THE LOBBY AREA
Public areas should be absolutely
impeccable and sparkling for it
to look appealing and inviting. In
order to appeal to all ﬁve senses,
the housekeeping team also
ensures that all public areas have a
signature scent that exudes French
elegance and is subtle and not too
overpowering. Floral arrangements
are also placed in strategic areas to
draw attention from the guests.
STAFF TRAINING PROGRAMMES
Shop ﬂoor training is a must in
housekeeping. It covers practical
training and eye for detailing. Team
building exercises (games, yoga,
etc) once a week is a great way of
motivation for the team.
GREEN HOUSEKEEPING
We have a ‘Plant 21’ program in
housekeeping, which is supported
by our guests staying at Soﬁtel. It
is a program where guests have a
choice not to get their linen and
towel changed on a daily basis.
Apart from this we use bamboo
plants in the rooms instead of using
Shilpa Kosambia
Executive Housekeeper
Soﬁtel Mumbai BKC
To magnify 5 senses
(Sight, Touch, Taste,
Smell, and Hearing)
beginning from the
lobby and rooms,
to the restaurants
and spa
ﬂowers, thereby using minimal
ﬂoral arrangements that need to be
changed on a daily basis. We sanitize
and recycle our used soaps and give
it to charity.
Housekeeping Special
COVER STORY
COVER STORY
Sweta Bhaduri
Executive Housekeeper
The Peerless Inn, Kolkata
GIVE SERVICE FROM
YOUR HEART
HOUSEKEEPING MANTRA
Our Mantra - We play our part with
dignity and pride giving all service
from heart.
BED & BATH LINEN TRENDS
Housekeeping Special
Bed linen - 300 TC Satin stripe (700
to 1700 GMS with lifespan of 120
wash) Bath linen - 575 GSM with
lifespan of 150 wash
30
Size : Double - 72’’x78’’x8’’,
Single - 78’’x36’’x8’’ Turndown
service helps to keep proper shape
of the mattress corners where
bed has envelope fold and looks
Eagle eye test of
each Supervisor is
done quarterly to
verify and improve on
their eye for details
MATTRESSES, PILLOWS
Mattress: Make Springwel.
Speciﬁcation - Bonel spring mattress
made of ﬁre resistance fabric with
polypropylene mesh as insulator.
neat. Pillows: Make Reliance.
Speciﬁcation - Recron750 GSM
Hollow conjugated siliconized ﬁbre.
Size 20’’x30’’.
CLEANING CARPETS, RUGS &
CURTAINS
We regularly use vacuum machine
to remove dust. Spotting is done
as and when required. Periodical
shampoo is done with dry foam
which gives a fresh look and
provides higher longevity of the
carpet. Fabric freshener is used on
curtains and washed periodically.
Cocoon steamer is used to give a
fresh look to the curtains. The carpet
shampoo service is outsourced.
New equipment added to laundry
includes Flat bed press/Flat
work ironer/Foam ﬁnisher &
Dry cleaning machine.
December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
SPICK AND SPAN ROOMS
All guests’ rooms are checked by
the Supervisors physically before
releasing. Some of the released
rooms are checked at random
by other Departmental HODs for
their observations and subsequent
rectiﬁcations are done before guests’
checks in. Eagle eye test of each
Supervisor is done quarterly to verify
and improve on their eye for details.
Hotel audit is done by Executive
Housekeeper and GM.
PMS Enterprise version 4.1 from
IDS Enterprise is used where colour
coding helps to maintain inventory
of clean and unclean rooms. After
three rings on control desk phone, it
gets automatically transferred to the
Executive Housekeepers mobile. This
helps to track all guest calls.
STAFF TRAINING PROGRAMMES
We provide, on the job training. We
also provide audio visual training Display/ Team bonding slides/videos
to motivate the team members. We
have the eagle eye test, ﬁre ﬁghting
training and weekly appraisal
GREEN PRACTICES
“Greener Planet” card along with
“Water Conservation” card placed
in all the guest rooms to maximise
reuse of bed/bath linen in guest
rooms. Re use of laundry bag/news
paper bag and computerised reports
to minimise usage of papers.
COVER STORY
duvet with cover and towels with
high GSM are used in compliance
with latest market standards.
To enhance the beauty of the
guestroom cushions and shams
along with bed throw and towel
arts is placed on the bed is highly
praised by our valuable guests.
MATTRESSES, PILLOWS &
TURNDOWN SERVICE
Gaurav Sharma
Executive Housekeeper
Jaypee Residency Manor
Mussoorie
SUCCESS BY
TOGETHERNESS
HOUSEKEEPING MANTRA
Our housekeeping mantra is to
achieve ‘Success by togetherness’,
by which we ensure all the given
tasks are completed scrupulously,
adhering to the hotel SOP’s.
Housekeeping Special
BED & BATH LINEN TRENDS
32
We keep our rooms clean, crisp and
neat with no fuss, premium quality
bed sheets, pillows with covers,
December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
We have single bed (L - 6.5 ft X W
– 4.5 ft) and king size bed (6.5 ft X
6.5 ft) pocket spring mattresses in
guest rooms, as the name suggests
it minimizes the movement that is
created when a guest toss or turn
or get in and out of the bed during
night, it gives a serious impact on
the quality of great night sleep. The
big size of the mattress ensures that
the guest have complete relaxation.
We use different varieties of pillow
in guest rooms. Polyester ﬁbreﬁll
pillow, feather pillow, latex foam
pillow, memory foam contoured
pillow, memory foam back/leg
cushion, pure cotton pillow, bolster,
baby pillow.
SPICK AND SPAN ROOMS
We follow three tier (room boy,
supervisor and executive) checking
system, room boys make a room
as per the approved checklist,
ﬂoor supervisors then check a
guestroom thoroughly as per the
supervisor checklist and make the
room ﬂawless after attending all
the housekeeping and engineering
points. Before arrivals, an executive
also vouch the room anticipating
the guest needs. OPERA is software
that helps to maintain the room’s
inventory and today we are able to
Before arrival, an
executive checks the
room anticipating the
guest’s needs
maintain guest history (know their
likes and dislikes, birthdays and
anniversaries, valuable feedbacks)
help us to be proactive by fulﬁlling
all the needs in advance, during his
next visit.
GREEN PRACTICES
Green chemicals are used for cleaning like Crew, Stride, Glance and
Good sense. Herbal chemicals are
used for pest control. An environment tent card is placed in rooms
and bathroom for guest awareness
to help us save water.
All the discard linen is recycled as
dusters and mops. STP treated water
is used for irrigation.
COVER STORY
crisp white bedding of high thread
count and pillows with individual
tags of ‘soft & ﬁrm’ that offer guests
to choose their desired type of
pillow. Hand painted bold bed linen
designs and metallic shade throwover concept has recently entered
the market which gives a pastel
shaded room a bright makeover and
a fun look.
MATTRESSES, PILLOWS &
TURNDOWN SERVICE
Sumeet Goyal
Executive Housekeeper
Holiday Inn New Delhi
International Airport
EYE FOR DETAIL
HOUSEKEEPING MANTRA
We believe in genuine hospitality
and innovative comfort. Three
key words ‘’Eye for Detail’’ is the
mantra for good housekeeping.
Guest experience for housekeeping
starts even before he/she enters
the hotel premises. Hence area and
responsibility increases accordingly.
BED & BATH LINEN TRENDS
We follow the Holiday Inn Hallmark
and deliver guest with a great bath
and bed experience. The beds have
34
December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
Holiday Inn New Delhi International
Airport follows its international
standards and has mattresses of top
brand which have been approved
by IHG. Our mattresses have the
Posture Springing System, which is
made of one continuous coil to give
an interlinked system so that the
body’s weight is spread throughout
the mattress. Our mattresses are
ﬁre retardant as per international
standards and have a pillow top for
added comfort.
The mattresses also have an
anti-dust- mite fabric and Joma
wool that has cooling properties
and absorbs extra moisture. Sizes
of same for king are 1810mm x
2030mm x 270mm whereas twin is
of 1050mm x 2030mm x 270mm.
We use goose feather pillows with
individual tags of ‘soft & ﬁrm’
that offer guests to choose their
desired type of pillow. The hotel
also provides a pillow menu with
ﬁve types of pillows on request for
guests.
Since we are an Airport hotel, the
length of stay of a guest is very
small. We do not wish to disturb
our guest by knocking on the door
time and again for various services
we have to offer. Hence we offer
Turndown services to VIP and Suite
rooms only, however a turndown
service is given if requested by a
guest. The guests are happy as they
can relax without being disturbed
and they are fresh to catch their
next ﬂight.
The re-launch has
improved quality and
service levels, and
drive consistency,
creating a new, more
contemporary brand
image for the hotel
SPICK AND SPAN ROOMS WITH
TECH-SAVVY HOUSEKEEPING
The re-launch has improved quality
and service levels, and drive
team we have to ‘’Catch people
doing right things’’. Everyone
feels motivated when they are
appreciated for their efforts and
hard work. Training also plays an
important role in motivation.
Sometimes, reassignment, rotation,
or transfer of a discontented
party will restore a workgroup’s
motivation level. All this combined
with recognition, training, planning
and communication helps at a
certain level to stop attrition.
GREEN HOUSEKEEPING
consistency, creating a new, more
contemporary brand image for the
hotel. We use I-Clean which is a step
by step guidance set up by IHG for
all its hotels. The core components
of I-Clean are: Firstly “One and Only
Way” cleaning system - speciﬁes
the sequence, methods, tools and
chemicals for cleaning each and
every guestroom. Secondly, Audit
/ retraining process - provides a
structured way to audit cleaned
guestrooms and collect data to
ensure that the cleaning process
is being followed correctly and
guestrooms are of a high standard
of cleanliness.
STAFF TRAINING PROGRAMMES
Human tendency is to point out
wrong things, to get it corrected,
that’s ﬁne but to motivate the
Chemicals used in our property
are all eco-friendly. Optimum use
of resources is also one of the
greatest contributions to green
practices. We follow 3 R concept
of Waste management; Reduce
Reuse Recycle. Recycling of linen,
use of bio-degradable products
where ever possible like garbage
bag, laundry bag are few
examples of green practices at
our property.
Housekeeping Special
COVER STORY
COVER STORY
cent terry cotton and treated to be
skin friendly. The increase in GSM
(grams per sq metre) automatically
increases the softness of bath linen
which in itself is a symbol of luxury.
MATTRESSES, PILLOWS & TURNDOWN SERVICE
Vishal Sapra
Director Rooms
Hyatt Regency Gurgaon
HOME AWAY
FROM HOME
HOUSEKEEPING MANTRA
In line with our Hyatt standards, our
guests’ needs and preferences are
extremely important to us and we
always aim to incorporate the same
in our services. We make our guests
feel at ‘home away from home’.
Housekeeping Special
BED & BATH LINEN TRENDS
36
Our bed linen is made up of 60
per cent cotton and 40 per cent
polyester which makes it very
smooth and is gentle on the skin.
We also have an entire range of
“feather free” set of pillows for
guests who have feathers or related
allergies. Bath linen again is made
of extra coil and cozy 100 per
December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
We use “Restonic” mattresses
of size 72”*78. For pillows we
use three types – soft, hard and
anti-allergic. With the exception of
anti-allergic pillows, these are all
made of duck down feathers which
is extremely popular with elite and
frequent travellers.
SPICK AND SPAN ROOMS WITH
TECH-SAVVY HOUSEKEEPING
To ensure that rooms offered to our
guests are as per Hyatt standards
each time, we have a two level check
process. After the room is prepared
for arrival by Room Associates, it
gets checked by Assistant Manager
for hygiene and all Hyatt standards.
We use Property Management
System (Opera) for maintaining
the inventory of status of the
rooms. Triton /Hot Sauce which
are Guest requests Management
software’s, also act as a medium
to maintain communication with
allied departments for requests,
maintenances and other guest
related issues.
PUBLIC SPACES & THE LOBBY AREA
We train our people to have
attention for detail and ensure that
all public areas are kept spic and
span at all times. Whether it is the
After the room is
prepared for arrival
by Room Associates,
it is checked by the
Assistant Manager
for hygiene and all
Hyatt standards
placement of furniture, ﬂowers or
other artefacts, everything has to
have an impeccable appearance at
all times.
STAFF TRAINING PROGRAMMES
There are daily, weekly and monthly
training programs conducted for the
team to enhance their knowledge,
skills, team spirit and bonding within
the team. Daily training includes
on job trainings. We also conduct
classroom sessions and webinars for
advanced trainings.
GREEN HOUSEKEEPING
Green house practices are an integral
part of our housekeeping. We are
taking small but sure steps towards
the same. Things like drip irrigation,
use of organic fertilisers and soil
amendments, usage of treated STP
water for irrigation, linen reuse and
environment friendly tents cards in
the rooms to promote green practices
through guests and of course,
recycling stationery and papers for
admin use.
COVER STORY
BED & BATH LINEN TRENDS
Tux Hospitality delivers guests with
great bath and bed experience. The
beds have crisp white bedding and
pillows with individual tags of ‘soft
and ﬁrm’ that offer guests to choose
their desired type of pillow. We also
have special pillow menu where we
provide around 20 options. We also
provide variety of mattresses like
hard/soft/smooth/orthopaedic for
our guest’s who have orthopaedic
problem.
MATTRESSES, PILLOWS
Anish Srivastava
Operations Manager
Mosaic Hotels, Noida
We are in process of upgrading to
Sealy Spring Mattress based on
posturepedic technology which is of
the thickness of around 8 inch
only improved the hygiene but also
improved the quality of work. We
have a property management system
where one can automate changes
in the housekeeping status of the
rooms from dirty to clean or
vice-versa with the help. We also
have software that sends out
messages to the housekeeping
supervisor on shift, when a guest
makes any request for a certain
service, such as towels or room
Our housekeeping
philosophy is Luxury
with Responsibility
HOUSEKEEPING IS
THE BACKBONE OF
HOTEL OPERATIONS
Housekeeping Special
HOUSEKEEPING MANTRA
38
The Housekeeping department is the
backbone of Hotel operations. The
mantra of Housekeeping is to been
passionate, persistent and has a keen
eye for details. Guest experiences for
housekeeping start even before he/
she enters the hotel premises. Hence
area and responsibility increases
accordingly. Keeping the guest at
the heart of whatever we do and
delivering clean and comfortable
rooms consistently every time our
guest stays with us our philosophy.
Our mantra is to make the
housekeeping experiences special for
customers, so they come time
and again.
December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
and 10 inches. Other speciﬁcations
can be changed as per size of
the bed.
SPICK AND SPAN ROOMS
New tools and equipment have
helped a great deal in improving
the productivity of a housekeeping
staff. Using of micro ﬁbre has not
cleaning, etc. If the guest request is
not met on time, then the request
elevates to a higher authority.
Such features help reduce efforts
on repetitive tasks and reduce the
chances for errors.
GREEN PRACTICES
Sustainability has become the
latest trend. It encompasses energy
efﬁcient lighting to water saving
bathroom hotels. In our hotel we
use eco friendly linen. This linen
has a longer life and greater
absorbency. For a longer operation
these eco friendly linen reduces the
laundry operation cost and linen
cost. We also rigorously follow
water reuse and ozone system in
laundry sanitation. We also use
reusable laundry bags instead of the
standard paper or plastic bags. Our
housekeeping philosophy is Luxury
with Responsibility.
COVER STORY
a comforter. On the contrary, the
usage of a sparklingly clean white
duvet cover with think embroidered
edges, still win the race and are
used in resorts and hotels globally.
The simple, elegant and ﬁnished
look is preferred over any other style
of bedding, as compared to colourful
bed runners, bed- throws and pillow
shams with patterned throw pillows.
MATTRESSES, PILLOWS
Preeti Thakur
Executive Housekeeper
Kempinski Ambience
Hotel Delhi
CLEAN AS YOU GO
Housekeeping Special
HOUSEKEEPING MANTRA
40
Primarily, it is housekeeping that
keeps an organisation alive and
is one of the major criteria for
choosing to visit any venue. At
Kempinski Ambience, we believe
in ‘clean as you go’ mantra
where cleanliness is everyone’s
responsibility in a hotel (operation
and non-operation team members).
Our team appreciates that
each team member in the hotel
contributes towards it either by
driving the initiative or by seeking
support from Housekeeping directly.
BED & BATH LINEN TRENDS
Many hotels have started offering
thicker linen to showcase luxury.
In a few cases, guests are offered
triple-sheeting where a third sheet
is placed on the bed instead of
In our hotel, we use Slumberland
Pocketed Posture Spring Mattresses
(200cm W x 210cm L x 23cm H) for
King beds whereas the size reduces
to 110cm W x 210cm L x 23cm H
for Twin beds. The specialty of these
mattresses is the unique pocketed
posture springing system it provides
for extra comfort to the body. Our
beds also have a layer of mattress
topper on the regular mattress for
extra cushioning. The bedding in our
hotel is from a German manufacturer, Muhldorfer. We offer a Comforter
Menu for the guests to choose from
the available range of bedding and
pillows. The menu also gives you
a choice of eight pillows to
choose from.
SPICK AND SPAN ROOMS
The Housekeeping Supervisor
ensures that each room has
been cleaned complying with the
standards. Thereafter, the room
status is uploaded on the system
that can be referred to at a click
of the mouse. In addition, we use
softwares like Opera for room
inventory and Hot SoS for service
optimisation. Opera plays a strong
role in identifying global preferences
that can be shared with hotels
worldwide at a touch of a button.
This has eased the process of
communication thereby making it
highly efﬁcient and prompt. Hot SoS
helps save time, manage productivity
and control delays. The Front Ofﬁce
Manager, Evelyn Keane adds that
Opera also manages Reservations,
Revenue, Front Ofﬁce as well Rooms
Management. We work diligently
to make rooms available for guest’s
arrival and make available room
Primarily, it is
housekeeping that
keeps an hotel
organisation alive
for inspection as well at the same
time. Advanced PMS helps Front
Ofﬁce identify and allocate a clean
vacant room (by colour coding and
abbreviations). This way, the Front
Ofﬁce personnel issues a room key
without involving Housekeeping.
STAFF TRAINING PROGRAMMES
Housekeeping Executives and
Managers go through the ‘Train the
Trainer’ programme and Time To
Talk Together (TTTT). Hotels devise
and follow a training calendar for
the coming months based on our
observations about individual’s
performance. A new training software
has been introduced, Lobster Ink,
that has multiple video lessons
covering all aspects of Housekeeping.
This is followed by an online test by
the attendee which then paves way
to a practical assessment based on
the training topic.
GREEN PRACTICES
Servicing rooms in natural light is
an initiative we have taken during
summers this year and we will be
witnessing the ﬁrst winter season
with the same. Secondly, we have
started practicing to keep laundry
operational on alternate days during
moderate or low occupancy. This helps
us in saving the HLP cost and the
chemical usage too.
December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
COVER STORY
Uday Singh
Executive Housekeeper
Shangri-La’s-Eros Hotel
New Delhi
SUPPORTING YOUR
COLLEAGUES
HOUSEKEEPING MANTRA
Housekeeping Special
The two main mantras for good
Housekeeping are ‘eye for detail’
and ‘supporting your colleagues’.
The guest experience for
housekeeping starts when he/she
enters the hotel premises and ends
when the guest leaves the hotel
guests.
42
BED & BATH LINEN TRENDS
We are using 100 per cent combed
cotton bed sheet with 300 and 800
thread count which makes the bed
extra crisp and gives white shiny
look. The bath linen currently in use
is light in weight and made up of
100 per cent combed cotton terry.
The bathrobe is also soft and light
in weight. It is made up of poly
cotton wafﬂe for outside layer and
combed terry cotton for inner layer.
This linen can easily be cleaned in
the laundry without using any hard
chemical treatment.
MATTRESSES, PILLOWS & TURNDOWN SERVICE
The mattress which we are using is
non ﬂip pocketed coil mattresses.
It has cloth handles on both side
of the mattress so that mattress
can be easily lifted and moved.
December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
It has certiﬁed spring steel wire
grade three tempered coil springs
for better support. Thickness of the
mattress is around 25 cm. It has 4
inch thick ﬁrm sitting edge which
gives the guest more comfort.
The type of pillow we use in the
bedroom is feather pillow and the
brand is comfy living.
OPERA helps us to
know about guest
history, their last visit,
and their preferences
SPICK AND SPAN ROOMS WITH
TECH-SAVVY HOUSEKEEPING
As hotels operate on a 24 hour
clock the wastage of resources is
a lot more in comparison to the
other segments. Hence it is very
important for every hotel to head
towards the green movement and
educate their staff and guests
about the necessity of the three
key words – reduce, reuse and
recycle. We have taken measures
towards being a “Green and Ecofriendly hotel”. We use eco-friendly
chemicals which are not harmful
for the environment, the trolley
covers used for cleaning guest
rooms are made from discarded
curtains.
Each and every room is checked
twice after the room cleaning.
First the room attendant checks
the room properly and makes sure
that everything is done properly.
The second check is done by the
supervisor and he makes sure the
room is spic and span. We are using
internationally renowned software
called OPERA which helps us to
maintain the inventory of clean
and dirty rooms. It also helps us to
know about guest history, their last
visit, their preferences, their time of
arrival and departure.
GREEN PRACTICES
OPINION
Presidents of
Regional Associations of
FHRAI, share their
viewpoints on how
2014 has been for
Indian hospitality. They
tell us about the main
challenges that the
hoteliers faced in 2014.
They also deliberate on
their agenda and
expectations from 2015.
,
4
1
0
2
T
C
E
P
S
O
RETR
AGENDA 2015
RETROSPECT 2014
The year 2014 has been
another bad year for the
Indian hospitality industry. While business has
been heavily affected,
costs have gone up. We
have seen for the ﬁrst
time in so many years,
hotels either shut down
or put up for sale.
Bharat Malkani
President, HRAWI
The main challenges
that the industry
has faced are: Reduction of Foreign Arrivals in India.
Given the fact that Indian hotels are the highest
taxed in the region (in comparison to Singapore, Malayasia, Sri Lanka and Thailand) we have lost another
year to our smaller neighbors. A simple illustration
is that 23 million Indians travelled abroad but only
7.5 million foreigners visited India! It shows that
even Indian tourists ﬁnd it cheaper to holiday out of
the country instead of in India. The Foreign Arrivals
number is also not accurate, since half of these are
Indians settled abroad that are coming home to visit
44
December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
friends and family. In the past few decades India has
produced engineers, doctors and various industry experts for the global market. Many of these have taken
a foreign passport and are treated as foreigners when
they visit India. However, these ‘tourists’ normally do
not stay at hotels or visit too many tourist resorts but
spend time with their families and as such should not
be classiﬁed as tourists.
Input costs have gone up dramatically but revenues
have gone down. Many hotels are therefore operating
in losses. Inﬂation over the last few years have been
in double digit and coupled with reduced travellers
movement, hotels are suffering.
There seems to be no cohesive Tourism policy in
place that is promoting development of our country’s
potential. In various places there are new policies being announced that curtail tourism. Daman
administration has recently put a blanket ban on
orchestras. Mumbai Municipal Corporation has hiked
the property tax on hotels as much as 300 per cent!
In mountainous areas, hotels with swimming pools
have been brought under the RED tag by the Ministry
of Environment.
OPINION
AGENDA, EXPECTATIONS,
DEVELOPMENTS 2015
We expect that the representation made by the FHRAI
is looked upon seriously by the Indian Government. The
time has come to make India a preferred tourist destination. The FHRAI is a professional body made up of top
quality hospitality professionals. Its members have spent
a lifetime in giving services to tourists and they know
the pulse of this industry. The challenges are the same
as before. We continue to decline and promote our
neighboring countries for better tourism experiences. As
Indians we should consider it a shame that a city state
like Dubai gets more tourists that India! If we cannot fathom the meaning of this statistics then there is
something seriously wrong with the way we are
running this industry.
RETROSPECT 2014
2014 started as 2013
ended. Hospitality
Industry continued to go
through pain. The General
Elections were the main
focus of the UPA led Government and therefore
Hospitality continued to
be on the back burner.
However, Electronic Visas
and Visa on Arrival were
announced but not impleLuv Malhotra
mented during UPA. PolitPresident, HRANI
ical uncertainty continued
to plague any decision
making by the previous government which showed in
the GDP of the country falling to below ﬁve per cent for
two consecutive quarters. Investor sentiment was at an
all time low for two decades which was reﬂected in the
FDI inﬂows into the country.
Financing for Hotel Developers and Investors has been
a big challenge this past year. The declining numbers
(Average Rates and Proﬁtability) have put the industry
on the negative list of many banks and those that are
lending are doing so at high costs. The fear of declining
numbers leading to (Non Performing Assets) NPAs in the
books of banks is one of the main reasons for the same.
The increase in Hotel Rooms Supply was matched by the
increase in Room Demand in 2014. However, it came
with the added pressure on Average Rates which further
fell across the country barring cities like Kolkotta and
Goa. Inﬂation had its impact on all hotels and airlines
and most have continued to be in the red.
Although there were (and still are) many negative
issues relating to the Hospitality Industry in 2014 the
announcement of the results of the General Election
in May gave the Industry a sense of great optimism in
46
December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
the latter half of the year. The Narendra Modi led BJP
Party got a clear mandate. The newly appointed Prime
Minister spoke of his 5 Ts (which included Tourism) for
the future of country. No Government (in my time in
the industry at least) has ever spoken about Tourism as
one of their main focus. This (along with the other Ts)
suggests that India is poised for a massive growth over
the next few years which shall reﬂect in the Hospitality
numbers over the next few years. Although the current
numbers are not reﬂective of the same the sense is
that next year will be the start of a new dawn for the
Hospitality Industry.
AGENDA, EXPECTATIONS,
DEVELOPMENTS 2015
Electronic Visa within two days is a game changer and
we look forward to the numbers from there. It shall help
Travel and Tour Operators to do last minute sales which
shall be a big boost across the country.
Highly anticipated Budget in 2015: Considering
the enthusiastic way the Prime Minister has spoken
about Tourism in India and on his tours abroad the
expectation of the Industry is at an all time high. As
tourism is going to get a boost from E Visas and Visa on
Arrival and a return of conﬁdence in India from global
investors we expect a shortage of rooms within the next
few years. Further, as it takes around 36/48 months to
build a hotel in India (aside from clearances) if there
should be any beneﬁts to be given to Hoteliers it shall
be in the next budget.
Banks and NPAs: As banks (both Government and
Private) come closer towards March 31st 2015 they will
be closely looking at the hotel companies as the current
results have not been positive. If they continue with the
negative approach towards them expectation is for a
few of them to become NPAs. This shall further create a
lack of ﬁnancing from backs and a limited growth in the
supply of hotel rooms over the next few years.
Reduction in Inﬂation leading to a reduction in
interest costs: With inﬂation coming down and this
being the benchmark indicator for keeping interest rates
high there is a high expectation for base rates to be
cut before the upcoming Budget session. This will ease
the burden on all Industries especially the Hospitality
Industry.
Quicker response over negative media coverage on India: India has been getting bad press over
the last two years whether it is related to corruption,
women’s safety or investor sentiment. In all cases there
has been an extremely delayed response or none at all
in some cases. The new government must give quicker
responses. Focus on MICE, The Incredible India Campaign must have a subsection on MICE. India currently
is not seen as a MICE destination.
OPINION
RETROSPECT 2014
The hospitality industry
this year is showing signs
of recovery with hotels
reporting an improvement
in Room Occupancy in the
third quarter of the
calendar year. Average
Room Occupancy rate in
the quarter ended
September, traditionally
the lowest period of
business for hotels in the
Syama Raju
year, showed a marginal
President, SIHRA
increase of less than 3 per
cent over the year-ago
period., Hotel Occupancies also registered a minor
increase of under 2 per cent over the same period in the
last year as per statistics available .
The change of government at the Centre has improved
the business sentiment.
There is a slow but steady revival in the sector.
Thrust in Business travel because of some improved
economic interest in the country. Part of the positive
sentiment came from discounted room rates.
Some aspects that need to be looked at include:
Non- Inclusion of minimum project cost of rupees
50 crore in the Reserve Bank of India’s Infrastructure
Lending List. The non- rationalisation of tax structure
leading to multiplicity and double tax incidence.
The non- liberalisation and simpliﬁcation of
application processes for licenses and permits.
Impractical and unrealistic regulations on pollution
control, ﬁre license and bar license etc delayed
investor interest because of the global
economic situation.
AGENDA, EXPECTATIONS,
DEVELOPMENTS 2015
Presently, the demand is available because of heavy
discounting on hotel room rates. Some standalone
hotels still continue to struggle. While industry
expects some improvement in their business, any
signiﬁcant development in overall business
activities in the country will depend on measures
announced in the next Union budget. Increase in
disposable incomes and the growing middle class,
better infrastructure growth, government policy with
tourism as a key focus sector. There is also
an increased competition with the industry of
the SAARC regions.
INTERVIEW
WE WANT TO PARTNER
WITH THE GOVERNMENT
Bringing about a paradigm shift in the way associations generally
function, Bharat Malkani, President, HRAWI, wants to work in
partnership with the Government so that both parties are happy
and the customer still wins.
Hazel Jain
Bharat Malkani
President, HRAWI
WHAT ARE YOUR PRIORITIES
AS THE NEW PRESIDENT?
I want the members to have a higher level of interaction among each
other. Members who live in tier-II
and III cities may or may not have
access to the latest technologies,
they may not understand the value
of social media for their business,
and they may not know how to
use it. For instance, they
may have a hotel in the
middle of a cotton farm
but may not know how
to promote this USP. We
therefore have a number
of training conferences
coming up to bring
members up-to-date
with the changes happening in the industry.
I also want to increase
our membership base by
25 per cent this year.
Classiﬁcation should
not be a function of
a Ministry, it should
be a function of the
industry
Another thing that I feel very
passionate about is the environment and I want to involve all
our members in becoming more
environment-friendly. We are in the
least polluting of all industries but
we do produce a lot of garbage,
most of which is bio-waste. We want
to encourage members to convert
as much as of this garbage into
manure/fertilisers.
We have planned training seminars
all across India and have identiﬁed
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December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
two NGOs who work in this area for
this. This will come at a nominal cost
for all members that will include
the cost of hosting the team. We
will also undertake a Food Safety &
Standards Authority of India (FSSAI)
training for our members across
India.
WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON THE
INDUSTRY’S CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM?
Classiﬁcation should not be a
function of a ministry; it should be
a function of the industry. The standards should be set by the association and it should ensure that its
members comply. Our regional tourism directors are busy doing classiﬁcation and are therefore unable
to do other things. The classiﬁcation
process in India is transparent but
we don’t think it’s rightly structured.
We don’t think that the classiﬁcation guidelines currently used by
the Ministry of Tourism reﬂect the
current state of our industry.
WHERE DOES INDIA FIGURE
IN THE ENTIRE TAX GAMUT?
All hotels are paying luxury tax but
we don’t provide luxury. The cut off
is `500-800 but its difﬁcult to ﬁnd
a decent hotel at that rate in any
city. We would rather move to the
Goods & Service Tax (GST) regime.
Our recent tax survey that we did
gave us some perspective. Paris
charges one-two per cent, London
is under four per cent; New York
is ﬁve per cent. You go next door
to Malaysia, Bangkok or Sri Lanka
and it’s under ﬁve per cent. We are
paying 17.5 per cent! We are very
high even when compared to other
international cities based on the
purchase parity.
WHAT IS THE STATUS ON
THE PROPERTY TAX?
Property taxes are unbelievably
disconnected with reality. The
municipality is giving us bills and
the hotels have managed to get a
stay order from Bombay High Court
and they are paying 50 per cent of
the differential amount which is still
pretty high. And this process continues. After the election, we will have
new people in place and maybe we
will have a different point of view.
HOW DO YOU PLAN TO APPROACH THE GOVERNMENT
WITH THESE ISSUES?
We have drafted seven points
targeting each issue and proposed
solutions for each of them. We
will not ask the government for
subsidy, instead we will offer them
higher revenue in taxes and greater
revenue in terms of Forex Earnings
in exchange of better reforms and
regulations for the industry. If they
agree, we will share certain
methodologies with them, certain
regulations that need to be agreed
upon by both sides. We want to
partner with the Government in the
growth of India. It’s not them against
us anymore. This is a paradigm shift
in the approach that Associations
have usually taken. We are no longer
only asking for reforms, we are
willing to give as well. As the single
largest employment agency that
includes blue-collar workers as well,
we have the ability to lift a lot of
people; we can set up hotels in the
middle of nowhere.
INTERVIEW
GOVT SHOULD SETTLE
CLAIMS UNDER NEIIPP, 2007
Sudesh Poddar, President, Hotels and Restaurant Association
of Eastern India (HRAEI) and Honarary Treasurer, FHRAI tells us
about his agenda, priorities and effort to bring focus on the
Eastern region hoteliers.
Sudesh Poddar
President HRAEI
What are your priorities as
the new president?
As President, HRAEI my topmost
priority would be to approach the
West Bengal Government to reduce
the number of dry days in the state.
West Bengal has the highest number
of dry days in a year as compared to
other states in eastern India.
The other priority would be to
request the Government to settle
and pay claims of hoteliers in
respect of capital investment subsidy
under North East Industrial and
Investment Promotion Policy (NEIIPP)
2007. I also wish
to approach state
Governments of
eastern India for
levy of uniform
luxury tax on room
rent and uniform
VAT on food sale.
My priority is to
approach the West
Bengal Government
to reduce the
number of dry days
in the state
What are
you doing to
promote the
hoteliers from
the Eastern region?
The NEIIPP 2007 which offers 30 per
cent subsidy on capital investment is
valid until 2017. I would urge entrepreneurs intending to enter into the
hospitality sector to take this opportunity and avail the facilities. In Eastern India many tourist destinations
are not well connected by road. I
50
December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
would approach the Government to
improve road infrastructure in places
like North Bengal, Darjeeling, Gangtok, Kaziranga in Assam, Tawang in
Arunachal Pradesh and Shillong in
Meghalaya. I would also request the
Government to operate helicopter
services in these destinations from
the nearest airport so that hospitality sector gets a boost.
What will be your approach
to increase the membership
of HRAEI?
to know that West Bengal has one
of the highest numbers of dry days
in the country. Sales get adversely
affected on dry days and are a big
deterrent for tourists and tourism. I,
would, therefore, appeal to the Government of West Bengal to restrict
dry days to January 26 (Republic
Day), August 15 (Independence
Day), October 2 (Gandhi Jayanti) and
election and counting days only. This
will be a win-win formula for the bar
and restaurant owners, Government
and tourists.
We have already started working
aggressively on this score. This year
we are planning to convene a Managing Committee meeting in each
state of the east one after another.
What are you doing to
collaborate with and
improve Government run
hotels and guest houses?
In these meetings, we would invite
local hoteliers of that region and
interact with them one on one to
understand their problems and
difﬁculties faced by them in the
running of their businesses and try
to solve them collectively issue-wise.
With this aim, we have scheduled
our next two meetings at Gangtok
on November 27 and Darjeeling on
November 29 where we have invited
all hoteliers of the region. This is
the best and most effective way of
increasing membership of the association.
What are your priorities
for improving the business
of restaurants and bars in
West Bengal?
Frequent dry days, have killed the
business of bars and restaurants in
West Bengal and is a vexatious and
burning issue. You will be surprised
The Government is expected to
run the state, its administration,
and is not expected to run and
manage guest houses, lodges and
hotels. The ofﬁce bearers of HRAEI
had met the Tourism Minister and
Tourism Secretary of West Bengal
with a request to give out all its
properties to private entrepreneurs
on PPP model wherein the quality
of state-run lodges, guest houses
and hotels would take a 180-degree turn for the better.
How has been the year
2014 for Indian hospitality
Industry as a whole?
The current year has not been
favourable for the hospitality
industry. The market has been
facing a slump. Business has seen
a downward trend. The average
room rent is on the decline and the
occupancy percentile has also seen
a fall.
GUEST COLUMN
CLEAN INDIA
INITIATIVE
“Most of life’s lessons are simple. We complicate them to sound knowledgeable.
Finally, we fail and return to simple answers.” Anonymous
Niranjan Khatri
Former GM
Environment
Initiatives, ITC Ho
Hotels
T
he announcement, by the Prime Minister,
Shri Narendra Modi, of making ‘Clean
India’ a priority agenda, has brought
back the public debate on something that has
concerned the country’s citizens for a long time.
‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan’, is a clarion call
targeting year 2019 when hopefully, India will
be a clean country - a much needed and laudable effort required, if India wants a larger share
of the tourism footfalls in the region.
India loses 6 per cent of its GDP on account of
poor sanitation facilities in the country. Considering that our current GDP is one trillion dollars,
this is a large sum of money to lose out on for
want of basic cleanliness in a resource constrained nation such as ours.
As per the WHO & UNICEF Program on Drinking
Water and Sanitation Report, National Family
Welfare Survey; 67 per cent of rural households have no toilets, 78 per cent of sewage is
dumped in rivers, and 6000 tonnes of plastic
waste is littered on a daily basis. Roughly 600
million Indians defecate in the open. Even
poorer countries have a better record. This lack
of toilets, leads to malnourished children, on
account of open defecation, tainted water, poor
absorption of nutrients, bacteria and intestinal
worms. Fewer toilets lead to more disease. Good
sanitation can however boost per capita income
by 6000 crores a year.
The above data reﬂects sanitation alone. In
addition, we have challenges of waste management covering a large spectrum of different
kinds of waste: wet, liquid, gaseous and often
the untouched topic of the mining burden. This
waste stream is not on the radar screen of the
media because of the remoteness of mining
areas.
According to the Ministry of Environment and
Forest, India generates 150,000 tonnes of
domestic waste every day of which only 13 per
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December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
cent is treated. How do we address the vast
quantum of waste generated every day, so that
India remains a clean, vibrant and healthy country with a thriving population?
If these principles are applied, then it will be
possible to clean up the country’s waste as
Principles of Waste Management
J
Do not create waste as far as possible: it is
unfortunate that people have stopped carrying
cloth bags when shopping. In the bargain
each one comes back with innumerable plastic
bags which litter the entire country and harm
cows, birds and other creatures. As per one
of the leading newspapers, 200 cows in Delhi
are being operated upon to remove 50 kgs of
plastic from their stomachs. If we revere the
cow, then should we not bring about this basic
change in our attitudes and carry cloth bags
vis-à-vis the convenience of plastic bags? It is
important to educate the vast population of the
intergenerational negative consequences of
plastics.
J
Reduce wherever possible: while buying
vegetables the leaves can be left in the mandi/
market, so that the same is not disposed of at
the residential level, only to be collected and
dumped at the land ﬁll sites of a few cities.
Aggregation of vegetable leaves at source
can be deployed for manure making, or gas
generation through the bio- methanation
process.
J
Cook potatoes along with their jackets, chop
apples with the skin for fruit salad, dry orange
peel for pickling - some very simple examples
which we seem to be forgetting .
J
Use whatever is possible: To extend the
example of vegetable plants, many such
leaves/parts of a plant can be eaten-for
example the leaves of the drumstick tree and
the stem of the banana plant, are used to
make delicacies in the southern states of India.
GUEST COLUMN
housing of waste is another difﬁcult challenge in a
country with a density of 470 persons per sq km visà-vis China with a population density of 140 persons
per sq km.
In my view, being frugal is the need of the day to
handle waste and not by allocating costly scarce
urban land for practices which we have followed
for thousands of years, but have forgotten in the
onslaught of modernisation and globalisation.
As a country, we have to move away from the linear
production process, to a circular one. In a linear production process we extract, produce, use and then
throw the waste which ends up being an eye sore in
the landﬁll sites. On the other hand, in a circular
process, the so called waste is redeployed productively. We have still not fully realised that the
residual value of waste can be creatively deployed
for another use, probably another industry. Good examples are the use of ﬂy ash and slag in the cement
industry as well as the use of discarded paper in
paper manufacturing.
Spent cooking oil can also be converted into biodiesel for operating vehicles, as is the practice in London
and some cities in Sweden. Two billion tonnes of
agri-waste has the potential of being converted into
power for rural use - this is still to be tapped on a
grand scale.
Co- processing of plastic and old tyres has commenced in the cement industry for the purpose
of incineration. While a lot of waste is informally
recycled, the time has come to develop clusters
where the waste of one can be a resource for
another. Due to many reasons, this concept is
difﬁcult to implement, hence attempts should be
made to have complementary industries in a particular geographical region, for co processing. For
example if power plants can be located near the
mines, the ﬂy ash of the power plant can be used
to ﬁll the abandoned mines and reclaim the land
for natural regeneration. In the bargain we will
reduce the transport intensity of coal which
is carried to great distances by railways with an
embedded hidden subsidy.
In the sanitation domain for public toilets, we
need to breakdown the subject into three
segments:
Hardware: Considering the huge numbers of
toilets required, we will need different materials
depending on the ﬁve agro climatic conditions
and its impact on natural resources.
GUEST COLUMN
Software: How are we going to handle the waste
for productive purposes in farming through use of the
waterless pan design- a product called eco san is already
in use in the State of Kerala.
PDepending on the size of the hotel set up, run clean
toilets which can be gradually handed over to locals
to run as a means of livelihood. Tourists do not mind
paying for a clean service facility.
The pan design lends itself to segregation of urine and
faeces. While the urine can be used for farming, the faeces can be composted. Needless to mention, introduction of attitude shifts and developing systems which are
clean and user friendly need to be introduced.
PDesign the toilets such that they have natural ventilation and lighting and good views.
“Heartware”: It is of paramount importance that
the people who work in this ﬁeld are given dignity and
respect as opposed to the caste system of the country
which keeps them ostracised for performing cleaning
services.
The tourism industry by virtue of its diverse internal skills
has a great role to play in lending its hands in training
people with dignity.
A hotel group that I am familiar with
started the ‘Andaman & Nicobar Tourism Guild’ in Port Blair consisting of
hoteliers, boat operators and transport
providers. In the island, sight-seeing
takes tourists to different islands. The
food packets, carried by them for the
day’s picnic, were left back on the
islands resulting in huge amounts of
garbage on islands which were pristine
and clean.
Similarly, ‘The Basant Lok Jagriti Association’ was
started in Vasant Vihar in 1993 to clean up the complex
which was in a state of disarray. Staff were recruited
and given uniforms, shoes and the complex was cleaned
and cleared of all debris and garbage. Dust bins with the
message “Thank you for not littering” were placed
all over the complex but were ignored by many due to
the lackadaisical civic sense which pervades the country.
WHAT ARE THE STEPS THAT THE
TOURISM INDUSTRY CAN TAKE THAT CAN
BE GEOGRAPHICALLY DISPERSED ACROSS
THE COUNTRY?
PLearn to engage with locals and sensitise them to
adopt best practices for their own long term health
and business interest.
December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
PDevelop a nice patch around this facility with ﬂowering plants/ shrubs or even fruit trees to make the
place attractive. Hopefully, the ambience will create
good habits over a period of time.
PUse solar devices to lift water to overhead tanks for
washing purposes, or provide a charging facility for
solar lights and mobiles. The idea is to try and weave
new revenue earning opportunities
that have not been thought of before.
While a lot of waste
is informally recycled,
we have still not
fully realised that
the residual value of
waste can be creatively
deployed for another
use, probably another
industry
The Guild trained boat operators to
inform tourists that litter was to be
taken back to the boat, something
invariably resisted by most tourists.
Instead of getting into a confrontation,
the boat operator would refrain from
starting the engine of the boat until the best practice
was complied with!
54
PLook at the opportunity of urinals only for men, but
also consider unisex toilets where there is space /
other constraints not foreseen.
The role of the government: Just
as extended producer responsibility
has been implemented for car batteries with a small price embedded in
the cost of product for recovery and
responsible reuse of the same .This
concept of product stewardship needs
to be extended to host of other products to make Swachh Bharat a reality
in the shortest span of time.
A regulatory nudge will result in industries to think through their current
practices in driving out waste from
their production processes through
innovative ways that they have not
thought of due to lax regulatory regime in most developing countries.
One foresees principles of bio mimicry taking roots on a
grand scale, leading to elimination of land ﬁll sites, which
can be converted into city forests, for cities which are
choking with its excessive wasteful consumption of poorly
priced natural resources.Mahatma Gandhi’s dream would
be realised if different stakeholders attempt their own
experiments in a country with ﬁve diverse agri climatic
conditions dove tailed with the diversity of thinking and
visualising a vibrant India.
“Chalo Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan shuru kare”
(The views expressed in this article are of the
author, Niranjan Khatri, Founder iSambhav and
the Former General Manager, Environment
Initiatives of ITC hotels)
REPORT
INDIA HOTEL REVIEW REPORT
India Hotel Review Report-Q3 2014 has been provided to us by STR Global and Horwath HTL.
STR Global are industry leading data providers, they help
provide provide conﬁdential, reliable, accurate and actionable data to assist in strategic and operational decisions.
Horwath HTL is the global hospitality consulting brand of
Crowe Horwath International. Crowe Horwath HTL
Consultants Pvt. Ltd. is a member of Crowe Horwath
International; an international network of independent
accounting and consulting ﬁrms with 650 ofﬁces in about
109 countries – ranked 9th globally. Horwath HTL practices in 48 countries – Asia Paciﬁc, North and South America,
Europe, CIS countries and Africa.The consulting experience
of their team covers 94 Indian cities, towns and destinations and 20 international destinations.
Q3 2014 has been positive, consistent with the wider
optimism reﬂected in business and public sentiment since
the new government was elected.
The extent of improvement has been sufﬁcient to wipe
out the loss (at all-India level) seen in the ﬁrst half of the
year; YTD numbers 1 Jan to 30 Sep reﬂect a nominal +0.1
per cent RevPAR gain, while YTD numbers up to 30 June
showed -1.9 per cent RevPAR decline. The extent of change
is particularly important as Q3 occurs in late summer, and is
traditionally the softest business period of the year.
That this quarter has made a sizeable difference portends
positively for those who have conﬁdence in the future; the
industry now needs to gather courage and implement
rate improvements.
56
December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
All-India level numbers are:
Occupancy
ADR (`)
RevPAR (`)
YTD Sep 14
58.2%
5,537
3,223
YTD Sep 13
56.4%
5,705
3,220
Q3 14
56.5%
5,118
2,894
Q3 13
53.2%
5,185
2,756
Some key highlights for Q3 14, compared to Q3 13 for
ten key markets (taking Delhi NCR as a whole)
s+OLKATAISTHEONLYCITYREPORTINGOCCUPANCYDECLINEOF
-3.3 pts; Hyderabad gained +9 pts; Ahmedabad +7.9 pts;
Chennai +7.5 pts; Mumbai, Pune and Goa gained
occupancy by over +5 pts.
s!$2DECLINECONTINUEDWITHSOFTCONTRACTEDRATES
hurting hotels. Ahmedabad and Goa grew well;
Kolkata and Jaipur grew modestly; Mumbai and Bengaluru grew nominally. Chennai and Delhi NCR hurt the
most, while Hyderabad appears on path to arrest
ADR decline.
s)N2EV0!2TERMS+OLKATAISTHEONLYCITYTHATDECLINED
Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru gained nominally. Ahmedabad
grew +23.4 per cent (a relief to the supply yet on the
way); Hyderabad and Goa by +17 per cent; Mumbai
+9.7 per cent and Chennai +6.1 per cent.
The signiﬁcant impact of Q3 14, on YTD results for 2014,
are reﬂected in the chart below; we compare the RevPAR
percentage change for YTD 14, H1 14 and Q3 14, over
corresponding periods for 2013:
REPORT
The key features are:
s1RESULTSFOR'URGAONAND!HMEDABADHAVE
converted H1 RevPAR decline into a positive RevPAR
change on YTD basis.
s1PERFORMANCEFOR-UMBAI(YDERABADAND'OA
has enhanced the positive RevPAR change in H1.
s)NALLOTHERMARKETS1PERFORMANCEHASREDUCED
the extent of RevPAR decline that occurred in H1 14.
Kolkata (-10.3 per cent) and New Delhi (-6.7 per cent)
with a RevPAR decline on YTD basis, clearly have their
challenges. New Delhi at least has a supply surge cause
and will beneﬁt from business growth in Gurgaon; Kolkata
has a demand decline trend which is worrisome,
particularly as substantial new supply is underway.
Room Rates
Room rates remain the biggest concern, with India
dramatically swinging from overly expensive to cheap
(exceedingly cheap, in our opinion) in the last six years.
The chart below shows ADR for YTD 14:
58
December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
Comments on YTD 14 Room Rates
s-UMBAIISTHEONLYCITYWHICHCROSSES`7,000.
s'OAAND$ELHI.#2AREABOVE`6,000.
s#HENNAIJUSTABOUTMAKESTHE`5,000 level and
clearly is under-selling itself, with undue pain to
owners and operators alike.
s*AIPURISSTEADYBUTNEEDSCONlDENCEINITSOWN
ability to retain demand; rates will then grow to
levels commensurate with the products.
s0UNEHASSTRUGGLEDONRATESANDNEEDSTO
re-think why it is under-estimating its value.
The rate pain is now somewhat self-inﬂicted. It is
time to get onto the front-foot and play the drive,
rather than keep going on the back-foot to play
the cut shot.
Products&Services
PRODUCTS & SERVICES
60
Save Energy with Smart Panels
¢ Schneider Electric has launched
the Smart Panel concept to ensure
sustainable energy savings in
buildings, such as public and
commercial ofﬁces, modern retail
premises, hospitals and hotels
apart from industrial setups. Based
upon Schneider Electric’s energy
management principle of ‘measure,
connect, and save’, Smart Panel
is a simple-to-deploy plug and
play solution contributing towards
addressing the urgent need to curb
energy costs and meet norms for green
buildings.
Shrinivas Chebbi, Vice President –
India and SAARC, EcoBuildings and
Partner Projects, Schneider Electric,
said: “In recent months, power
blackouts have occurred frequently
in many parts of India. While the
Government devises long-term
measures to address the situation,
we believe all stakeholders should consider it their
individual responsibility to address the situation at the
ground level. With buildings accounting for almost
40 per cent of energy use in most countries, there is
immense potential for improvement in their energy
efﬁciency. The owners and occupants of buildings will
beneﬁt from long-term energy and ﬁnancial savings
through Smart Panels.”
Ara Bath Collection from Delta Faucet
December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
¢ Delta Faucet introduces a
contemporary collection of faucets,
showers and accessories for the bath
with its new AraTM product suite.
Inﬂuenced by the angular silhouettes
featured on modern l architecture, the
Ara collection boasts a crisp rectangular
shape with a slim proﬁle.
Founded by Masco Corporation in
1954 with the introduction of the
single-handle faucet, Delta Faucet
Company, offers an extensive line of
commercial products, incorporating style
and innovation into faucets and ﬂush
valves. Entering the fast growing Indian
bathroom and kitchen ﬁttings sector
in 2012, the company offers the Delta
and Brizo branded products to the
Indian consumer.
PRODUCTS & SERVICES
Clean any Load with
Electrolux Dishwasher
¢ Elegant stainless steel dishwashers like the
ESI6700RAX by Electrolux, save quite a bit of time
and water in any kitchen, as its efﬁciency means it
uses up to a third less water than hand washing.
It’s also extremely quiet, with an operational noise
of 47 decibels, adding to its unobtrusiveness. With
the RealLife dishwasher, there’s no need to think
twice about which pan or dish to use. You can cook
sophisticated meals and use dishes of any size or
shape, secure in the knowledge that each item will be
simple to load and thoroughly cleaned. The RealLife
Cleaning system has a unique FlexiSpray arm with
double rotation and TopShower jets to ensure the water
reaches even the most awkward areas, and Aquasave
minimises water consumption. For a dishwasher that
ﬁts into your plans, use the new TimeSaver function.
You can use it to cut the length of the cycle time so that
your dishes are ready to put away – or to use again – at
the time that suits you. With this extra freedom, you can
really take back control of your time.
RESTAURANT REVIEW
ROOFTOP DESTINATION
KYLIN
Saurabh Khanijio, Owner, Kylin Sky Bar
a restaurateur for a decade, is the man
behind Kylin in Vasant Kunj, followed by
its spread in the Ambience Mall, rest of
Delhi and now, unto Chandigarh’s Elante
Mall. He tells FHRAI Magazine more
about the Restaurant business.
QWhen was the restau-
rant started and how has
the growth been so far?
Kylin Sky Bar and Kylin Premier
opened in Ambience Mall, Vasant
Kunj about ﬁve years ago. We
have enjoyed, in the initial years,
great footfalls from the mall, the
advantage of having a mall-based
and rooftop split venue and now,
a brand new menu that truly sets
the tone for the next few years. For
this upgradation, we have brought
on board Chef Manu Mohindra,
owner of the hospitality consultant
team, ‘Under One Roof’ to deﬁne
the new pparameters of our gguests’
62
palate, a new
menu where the
restaurant ﬂoor
is typically for
the malls new
crowd while the
rooftops menu
and style drive it
like a unique destination.
QWhat kind of special
dishes do you have on
your menu?
The special thing about this menu
is the way we have created it.
For the Sky Bar, given that its
a rooftop experience
with a greater lounge
feel about it, we
have got traditional
warmers on the
menu such as dim
sums, yakitoris and
clay pots and then we
have lounge based
convenient food
such as the
sushi, bowl
meals and bar
bite starters
from the OriSaurabh Khanijio
Owner Kylin Sky Bar
December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
ent - all of it is comfy, no
spill with great taste.
For the restaurant
level, we have got a
fun yet hearty menu,
specials from the live
teppan and for both
ﬂoors, the chef can also
come to your table to cook
live and make you part of Kylins
food creation experience.
QKindly elaborate on
your specialised chefbased service.
The chef-based service can be
witnessed at the live teppan stations where we have a special
menu that can be cooked on
the teppanyaki, then we have
the cook at your table where
the chef can make delicacies
such as drunken ﬁsh, tofu
parcels and even Thai curry
meatballs. One of our
dessert highlights - grilled
banana with
rum, caramel
and chocolate sauce,
is also
RESTAURANT REVIEW
The restaurateur
cannot just sit back
after creating a great
experience; he also
needs to aggressively
push sales
done in front of your eyes because
part of the taste experience is also
to see how it comes together.
QWhat is the main
challenge for a restaurant in a shopping area
in comparison to a stand
alone one outside?
In a mall, if the mall enjoys great
footfalls, then it translates into automatic revenue for the restaurant and
that is one of the biggest beneﬁts
- with niche brands in the mall such
as Heel and Buckle, Thomas Pink
and PVR Directors Cut, we enjoy
getting a lot of their crowd which
ﬁts into our experience. However,
at no point do the malls in India
enjoy the kind of footfalls you would
see in Singapore, Thailand or Dubai
which means that a restaurateur
cannot just sit back after creating a
great experience; he also needs to
aggressively push sales.
QWho are your target
clients and what are you
doing to encourage repeat
visitors?
We have two types of target
clients - the malls shopping crowd,
whom we would like should take
a break at the restaurant ﬂoor
and enjoy great food, live cooking
and a chic relaxed experience at
prices that don¹t burn a hole in their
pocket. And then, a young yet niche
crowd for the rooftop which has a
higher spend and for whom, the
Sky Bar is a destination regardless
of whether they shop in this
mall or not.
EVENTS
MARRIOTT INDIA
CELEBRATES GOLF
SAROVAR CELEBRATES
CHILDREN’S DAY
G
olf is a sport for connoisseurs of ﬁner nuance and taste.
Reinstating its afﬁliation with the sport, JW Marriott New
Delhi Aerocity hosted an exclusive evening in the presence of
their distinguished guests and top customers.
Present at the occasion, ace golfer Shiv Kapur said, “I am
happy to be associated with Marriott and celebrate golf as a
sport with this exclusive event.” Speaking on the occasion,
Rajeev Menon, Area Vice President, South Asia for Marriott
International said “It has been a pleasure being associated with
him and we take immense pride in having the country’s most
sought-after professional associated with our brand and to
promote the game on our turf.”
T
he employees of Sarovar Hotels celebrated
Children’s Day with great enthusiasm and
zeal with the children of Ashray Bhawan-an NGO
in Badauli village in Faridabad. The celebration
was in alignment with Sarovar Group’s mission
to contribute positively to the community and
environment. Eight Sarovar hotels contributed for
the noble cause - Sarovar Portico Naraina, New
Delhi; The Muse Sarovar Portico, New Delhi; The
Ashtan Sarovar Portico, New Delhi; Park Plaza,
Faridabad; Express Sarovar Portico, Faridabad;
Sarovar Premiere, Gurgaon; Park Inn, Gurgaon;
Sarovar Portico Vaishali, Ghaziabad. 36 employees
of the group celebrated this special day with
children by distributing eatables and soft drinks.
ON THE SPANISH GASTRONOMY TRAIL
J
aypee Hotels launch Spanish Food Festival in partnership
with the Spanish Embassy. Spread across a month, the
festival will be held at the three properties: Jaypee Vasant
Continental, Vasant Vihar, Jaypee Siddharth, Rajendra Place and
Jaypee Greens Golf & Spa Resort, Greater Noida.
Manju Sharma, Director, Jaypee Hotels said, “The festival
marks our endeavour to promote relations between the two
cultures and countries, while also providing our guests a
platform to gain new insight and knowledge into Spanish
cuisine, culture and heritage.”
Speaking on the occasion H.E Gustavo De Aristegui,
Spanish Ambassador said “We are overwhelmed to be
associated with Jaypee Hotels for bringing our food and culture
here. There has always been a connect between India and Spain
over various platforms, this initiative is to boost the same.”
64
December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
EVENTS
SHAHEED SANGEET SAMMAAN
T
wenty Five of India’s most talented musicians, came
together to perform a musical tribute to the heroes that
gave their lives on 26/11 terror attacks. On Friday, November
26, 2014, outside
Chhatrapati
Shivaji Terminus
the melodious
sounds of a sitar,
mridangam, ﬂute,
tabla and a plethora
of other classical
instruments were
heard. This musical
performance was
one of three that
took place in the
day, the second
‘FESTIVE DELIGHTS’
FROM COSTA COFFEE
occurring at about 3 pm at Marine Drive and the third at
5:30 pm outside the Taj Mahal Palace. All three performances
paid tribute to the lives taken on the night of the November
26th, six years to the day. The musical ﬂash performance was
done in collaboration with Qyuki – A Multi Channel Network
promoted by Shekhar Kapur, Samir Bangara and AR Rahman.
The event saw several accomplished musicians namely
Purbayan Chatterjee, Fazal Qureshi, Rakesh Chaurasia,
Dilshad Khan, Deepak Pandit, Sridhar Parthasarathy, Imran
Khan, Siraj Khan, Bharat Raj, Manu Raj, Shridhar Jujjar and
Unmesha Athavale among others perform a 7 minute classical
homage to Mumbai’s heroes. Indian classical music is a
symbol of permanence of India’s unity and unconquerable
spirit. The objective was to use music to transcend all borders
and inspire the nation with the valour and optimism of the
citizens and protectors of Mumbai.
SPANISH SUNDAY
BRUNCHES AT SEVILLA
C
osta Coffee is all set to celebrate the spirit of
festivity across outlets in the city with a range of
desserts and drinks for the festive period leading up
to Christmas and New Year. Costa ‘Festive Delights’
includes luxuriant desserts and drinks. Costa’s festive
dessert range includes the brand new Cherry Almond
Mufﬁn and all new Salted Caramel Chocolate Log.
Costa’s festive drinks range includes Hot Spiced
Apple, Salted Caramel Latte and Sticky Toffee Latte’
T
he Claridges, New Delhi introduces Sunday brunches at its
newly renovated Mediterranean restaurant Sevilla. Sevilla
with its newly launched menus put forward an exquisite
Mediterranean cuisine. Live Pasta and Risotto counters and a
selection of cured meats and cheese stations are only few of
the delectable offerings. The Josper oven, one of its kind in the
city promises a culinary delight with offerings like the milk fed
Australian lamb chops, Chilean sea bass and kalamata olive
stuffed ricotta cheese steak to name a few.
The extensive dessert spread with over 13 much loved
sweets include Blueberry Pannacotta, Cannocini, Winter
Berries Tart, Crème Brule and Raspberry and mascarpone
cream cheese tart.
APPOINTMENTS
NEW
FACES
appointments
VIJAYAN GANGADHARAN
FIROZ JAGARIA
DC VASHISHTH
General Manager
Four Points by Sheraton Pune
Hotel Manager
ibis Bengaluru City Centre
General Manager
Tarika’s Jungal Retreat
Vijayan Gangadharan has
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General Manager at the Four Points
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product marketing, product managing,
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conventions and training. Prior to
this, he was the Executive Assistant
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previous stints include, Director of
Food and Beverage in Grand Hyatt
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achieved record outstanding audit
scores for more than a year. He also
served as Food & Beverage Manager
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appointed as the Hotel
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him over a decade of experience
in the hospitality industry and was
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entrusted with spearheading and
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overall hotel management, driving
hotel performance and ensuring
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hospitality veteran, Jangaria has a long
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Ananda in the Himalayas, has appointed Kirit Thacker as Head of Yoga, Ananda in the
Himalayas. Having completed a Master’s degree in Yoga from Bihar Yoga Bharati, the World’s
ÀUVW<RJD8QLYHUVLW\.LULW7KDFNHUKDVEHHQWHDFKLQJ\RJDVLQFHDQGKDVOHGPDQ\FDPSV
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DQGPLQGWRHQKDQFHSK\VLFDOPHQWDODQGVSLULWXDOZHOOEHLQJ+HLVRQHRIWKHPRVWVRXJKWDIWHU
yoga teachers in India and his profound skills and deep insights have earned him tremendous
respect from his peers and fellow yogis.
L
KIRIT THACKER
Head of Yoga
Ananda in the Himalayas
66
December 2014 I www.fhrai.com I
DC Vashishth joined as General
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Vashishth comes with an extensive
experience in the hospitality industry.
+HKDVZRUNHGLQWKHÀHOGRIDFDGHPLFV
as well as hospitality. After completing a
diploma in hotel management catering
and nutrition, he has worked with ITDC,
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Hospitalities, IHM Meerut as Professor and
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functioning of operations.
APPOINTMENTS
JENS PETER CORDER
SHUBHAM CHANDRA
MAYURI GHOSH
General Manager
Shangri-La Hotel, Bengaluru
Area Director, Sales and Marketing
Hyatt Hotels in Bangalore, Chennai,
Hampi, Kathmandu and Kolkata
General Manager Sales,
(Corporate office), New Delhi
Lords Hotels and Resorts
Corder, an Australian national,
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RIH[SHULHQFH+HKDVEHHQKROGLQJ
executive hotel management positions
for over eight years across different
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Hong Kong, China and now in India.
With a strong vision complementing his
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and operational success.
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Hyatt Hotels in Bangalore, Chennai,
Hampi, Kathmandu and Kolkata.
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and sales in the Hospitality industry. In
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support and strategic oversight to Park
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Hampi, Kathmadu and Kolkata across
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SRIJAN VADHERA
Hotel’s Resident Manager.
Shangri-La Hotel, Bengaluru
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closely with the hotel’s General Manager
to oversee the rooms and food and
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operational departments, including
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of experience in hospitality industry,
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experience includes hotel groups like
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others.
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appointed as General Manager
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hospitality industry with specialisation
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her good sales pitch qualities, she
has proven credentials and has left
a mark at each organisation she
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Management graduate from Women’s
Polytechnic, New Delhi.
RITESH KUMAR CHOUDHARY
GAGAN SHARMA
Director of Food and Beverage
JW Marriott Mumbai
Accommodations Manager
Country Inn & Suites by Carlson,
Goa Panjim
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Choudhary as the Director of Food
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of experience in delivering and
sustaining revenue targets in the hotel
industry and is adept at planning,
supervising and managing food
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record of planning and implementing
effective control measures to
reduce operating costs of the unit.
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and Hotel Administration, and a Post
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Management.
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Accomodations Manager for
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a total experience of more than
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Metropolitan Nikko New Delhi, The
Claridges etc. He is a Commerce
Graduate, with diploma in Computer
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two years Diploma in Japanese
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RNI No. DELENG/2000/1230
Posting Date 15-21 (Every Month)
Postal Reg. No. DL-(C)-01/1294/2012-2014 at MBC-1
Date of Publication 12-12-2014