A national bloom

The Royal Orchid Hotels is not only making its presence felt across the country, but also internationally. Chander Baljee, its CMD, speaks about his vision for the company and the industry. By Gayatri Vijaykumar

Chander Baljee CMD Royal Orchid Hotels

Chander Baljee envisions his company to be the most preferred business hotel chain for the discerning traveller worldwide by the year 2020. Formed in 1973, the Royal Orchid Hotels started with its sole property - Hotel Harsha - in Bengaluru. Now, the group is looking at opening hotels in various metros around the country by 2010. By the year 2020, Baljee expects to have multiple hotels in each of the 36 cities in India and in all gateway cities around the world.

To achieve this, Royal Orchid Hotels has embarked on an aggressive expansion spree. Speaking about his vision for Royal Orchid, Baljee says, "Our first goal is to achieve pan-India presence by 2010, and we are well on course towards achieving that. We expect to grow into metros and tier II cities soon. We opted for an IPO in 2006 and have tied up with world-class partners and investors who are constantly cheering us to get better every day. Today, we have invested heavily in building up our back-end services because we anticipate that such investment will help us compete with international chains."

The group will also mark its presence internationally with its resort in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania by 2010. This, Baljee says, will be the first of many projects abroad.

Baljee is also looking at possible diversification options like developing his own hotels or extending to other sectors like cruise and airlines. "Finally, we could get into serviced offices and condo hotels. But we see ourselves as a hotel operator first and everything else later," he explains.

Vision for the industry

Baljee feels India will mature significantly by the year 2020, especially where growth of tier 2 and 3 cities is concerned. "These cities will consequently see a boom in the hospitality sector. We see other segments besides business hotels also doing well - leisure options like heritage sites, eco-tourism and beach tourism. By then a proper national road network will facilitate the creation of highway motel chains," he adds.

Technology will also play a more important role. "We foresee hotels that will accurately track and predict guest requirements and wants. This will lead to greater guest customisation," Baljee says. Clean and green technology will also become a necessity and Baljee expects heavy use of technology to control energy costs, predicting green buildings to become the norm than exceptions. "By 2020, I expect it will be mandatory for hotels to use technology to control energy and water wastage," he adds.

Addressing another evergreen issue - attrition - he says that many like Royal Orchid have their own hotel management institute to tackle this problem. "However, by 2020, we expect the average ratio of employees to rooms to come down dramatically reducing reliance on staff. But there will always be retention issues when it comes to excellent employees," says Baljee.

He also believes that motels will become huge in India with the growing national highway network. Nevertheless, whether it is hotels or motels, Baljee would want to see homegrown chains become recognised world leaders.

Baljee would also like to see the hospitality industry well-segmented by 2020. "Currently there are very few segments in the industry. A maturing market will enable focused brand positioning and targeting," he explains.

Achieving this vision

In order to achieve the required recognition, Baljee advices chains to train their staff, think big and partner with the best. According to him, an entrepreneur must think global in order to achieve this vision. For segmentation, the industry needs to have a clear idea of its brand offerings and tailor them according to each segment they target. "I expect this to happen more or less automatically as the supply of hotel rooms starts to exceed demand in a few years," explains Baljee.

In the end, he says, we need to constantly train ourselves to be the best in world and make sure we choose the right avenues to grow. Luckily, opportunities in India are immense and one can expect a good run of growth.