The crystal ball reveals

Nobody controls the future but at least being prepared helps. Keeping this thought in mind, Pranay Vakil and Shreenath Shastry of Knight Frank India gaze into the crystal ball to see what the future holds for India's hospitality industry. By Sayoni Bhaduri

Pranay Vakil Chairman Knight Frank India

The future is an intangible concept - difficult to pin down, yet it is always a good idea to be prepared for it. Indian economic growth has been and will be watched very carefully by the world. Thankfully, India's hospitality has always been defined by its service and that is something that will stay with it even in the future.

Pranay Vakil, chairman of Knight Frank, India, while comparing large scale hotels like MGM Grand in Las Vegas which has around 5,000 rooms with the same concept in India states, "It is large scale, but at the end of the day it is all mass produced, the vastness is such that even the room service can't cater to the constant needs of the property. However, what distinguishes them are their architectural exploits." This is how technology will lead hospitality constructions. "There are 200-room hotels in Singapore which are to be constructed over a period of nine months," Vakil states, giving an example.

"The rooms are fabricated away from the hotel site and are just installed later in the hotel skeleton. Unfortunately, even if the idea seems time efficient, one cannot run away from the fact that it will be mass produced and all the rooms will be mundane and similar." It is no doubt then that such a concept will never work for leisure-loving Indians, and neither will they be digested well by the outbound traveller.

Bring on the change

Shreenath Shastry National director for hospitality and leisure, Knight Frank India

Leisure and luxury remain the key to a successful hotel, and in India, there is no upper limit as to what can be done to achieve that. Ironically, the business traveller would rather pay for the efficiency than the luxury. "Corporates are in a constant hurry and there is no way they are going to lose out on profits just to indulge in luxuries," says Vakil. However, in both cases - luxury and business hotels, it is the value of service which finally leaves a mark on the guests' mind. And in the future this is where India will have an upper hand. Yet to achieve this, there are still a few miles to go.

"The staff to room ratio has always been higher in India than in countries abroad and this will remain so," explains Vakil. But what of the great human resource crunch that the Indian hospitality industry seems to be facing? It is not as bad as it seems, reveals Vakil. "It is interesting to note that average salaries in India are lesser than what the average is globally," he states. Service also becomes easy in India due to proficiency in English, and in addition, most hotel management institutes also make it a point to train young professionals in a foreign language.

So does the industry stand a chance with the constant room shortage? There are various factors which play an important role. For one, there are the ever-increasing land prices, which make the creation of more hotel rooms quite a challenge. Shreenath Shastry, national director for hospitality and leisure, Knight Frank India explains that at the base level there is a herd mentality.

"When there is a sudden demand in a region, everyone wants to build rooms, but by the time the rooms are built, the demand often converts into surplus. Nobody thinks ahead to build rooms in regions where the demand will increase in a few years time," he says. Thankfully there is hope with new destinations being discovered and resort hotels in India which were confined to few destinations earlier on have now chosen to look at newer pastures of development.

Such change within the industry affects the development within the hotel as well, leading to innovative concepts. The need to have a sense of style to exude the feeling of extra comfort and simultaneously the need to save time and yet have the best value on rooms is the reason for constant innovation. "Necessity is the mother of inventions," quips Vakil, hence the need to create unique concepts.

Vakil and Shastry trace one such concept being developed in UK. "The idea is developing a space that can be transformed into both a residential room and commercial office," elaborates Vakil. He is hopeful that a concept like this will be a big hit in Indian metros like Mumbai or Delhi, keeping in mind that the time spent on commuting from point A to point B takes more time than that required for the specified work involved. The use of collapsible, portable and user-friendly furniture is an obvious choice to provide more roominess. "Right now the focus mostly lies in developing a business centre within the hotel as a strong point," says Shastry.

It is all about better utilisation of space. In Tokyo, there are hotels which are the size of an office cubicle where there is just enough length for a bed and a common bathroom. This concept worked well in Japan due to the industrious lifestyle of the people there; however, here in India the concept would flop horribly. Together with the fast growing IT and technological advancements, the world has come closer to India than it ever was - a trend that will continue, and there is no denying that it has had its effect on the hospitality industry as well. Technology is now easily available, either on one's mobile or through WiFi; thus the international traveller has greater ease in keeping his business organised even if he is in different time zones.

Progressive intervention

However, for the kind of growth which will see the Indian hospitality industry reaching its pinnacle, intervention from the government is what is required and there is no running away from that fact. Vakil strongly believes that the growth of strong infrastructure has to be spread out beyond the SEZs and careful attention has to be paid to details like roads and railways.

Civil aviation has already taken a step ahead, the rest have to follow its lead. The steps required have been taken and now what remains is just the waiting and hoping for them to be completed on time.

Today the total inbound tourists in India number around five million, while it is 60 million in France and 16 million in Singapore. India as a whole has much more to offer a traveller than either of the two countries, which includes the basic needs and comforts that a traveller requires in the country.

Vakil points to an interesting law that can play a huge role in the development of infrastructure and hence hospitality. Of the 173 SEZs approved to come up within a period of three to four years within a minimum area of 100 acres, these new satellite cities with their pre-planned and provisioned for infrastructure should be a boon for the industry.

The problem with all major cities is that they have inherited their flaws and thus it is very difficult to reconstruct a full-grown city. In contrast, when creating new cities, proper planning, research and structuring will allow the city to rid itself of these flaws.

"Milton Caines in UK, situated 50 miles away from London has been well planned out and researched to the extent that it has made sure that there are footpaths along the way to the local school so that young children do not have to cross roads at any point of time," says Shastry.

However, in the end it is all about how one can deliver true experience. The hospitality industry stands for just that, and this is something that will not change even if the future takes us on a completely new growth path. n