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ProfileHotel Business Review

By Swarnendu Biswas

Keys Hotels is a brand of Berggruen Hotels, which is in turn funded by the New York-based proprietary

fund named Berggruen Holdings. The hotel chain, which has presence in India since 2006, is on an ambitious expansion spree.

“We began our operations in 2006 and currently Keys Hotels runs 21 hotels with 1903 rooms, across 17 cities in India,” informed Anshu Sarin, the Chief Executive Officer, Berggruen Hotels Pvt. Ltd. Keys Hotels is the only hotel brand by Berggruen Hotels. Over the years, Keys Hotels has been on an aggressive growth trajectory with addition of several leisure, business, and mid-market budget hotels. 

Here it deserves a mention that Keys Hotels operates in three segments. They are Keys Prima Hotels, Keys Hotels, and Keys Lite Hotels. These three hospitality chains cater to different market segments. “Keys Prima Hotels is our premium offering, whose highlights are top-notch amenities and family-friendly staff. Keys Hotels, the flagship brand of the chain, is placed in the mid-market range, and is targeted primarily towards the business travellers and the hotels within this segment are centrally placed in the city, thereby saving time for the guests when

they are commuting within the given city. Keys Lite Hotels is the economy stay option for our on the move but budget conscious guests who require a quick hop-in and hop-off stay arrangement,” elaborated Anshu. Complimentary Wi-Fi and breakfast are offered across all these three hotel segments.

Expanding Portfolio“At this point, we are focused on becoming a dominant mid-market player within the Indian hospitality industry. Berggruen Hotels is on an aggressive growth trajectory, and is expanding

its presence in India via the asset light strategy,” informed Anshu, on whose shoulders lies the heavy responsibility of continually finding new keys for unlocking the secrets of the enduring success of this massive hospitality enterprise, amidst a fast changing environment characterised by chaotic competition.

Keys recently launched four new hotels in Calicut, Visakhapatnam, Manali and Jaipur. In the year ahead, they plan to open 7-8 hotels under management contracts. “We plan to add 2-3 Keys Prima Hotels, 6-7 Keys

Exploring the Keys to Success

Keys Hotel Whitefield, Bangalore – Unlock Bar

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Hotels, and 4-5 Keys Lite Hotels in the next 12-24 months,” aired Anshu. Presently, the focus of the group’s expansion strategy is through management contracts and not through owned hotels. The hotel chain wants to grow its network by offering management services to operating hotels or under development hotel projects. 

“This year, we have launched four new hotels namely, Keys Hotel Vishakhapatnam, Keys Hotel Malabar Gate in Calicut, Keys Lite Om Niwas in Jaipur, and Keys Lite Apple Nest, Manali, thereby strengthening our presence in both south and north India,” asserted the eminent hotelier, while talking about the group’s expansion plans in the Indian hospitality industry. She also informed that Keys Hotels is coming to Port Blair in the first half of 2017. “We will soon be announcing our foray into new destinations,” she averred optimistically.

Strengthening REVPARBesides strengthening the portfolio, another important objective of Berggruen Hotels for the Indian hospitality industry in the next five years, according to Anshu, is to strengthen the REVPAR of all hotels within the ambit of Keys Hotels.

“The robust optimised cost model of Keys Hotels will contribute positively to our bottom lines in the near future and with effective distribution and revenue management, in the backdrop of evolving macro market conditions and smarter ways to engage with our guests, we are confident that we will build an even more healthy REVPAR trajectory,” asserted the business savvy lady.

Service is the Key According to Anshu, impeccable service to the guests with a human touch is the hallmark of Berggruen Hotels. “We have already introduced an internal engagement programme named Own Your Guest, which essentially entails that our teams across India are trained and motivated to walk that extra mile to provide a delightful experience to our guests,” she offered.

According to the website of Keys Hotels, Keys Hotels also offer the opportunity to customise packages for events with

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competitive rates, suitable locations, latest facilities and equipment, favourable spaces, appetising food and beverages, which together is expected to greatly facilitate the success of the event. 

Especially, in this digital age with a more than active social media, guest satisfaction with personal touch and harnessing the power of social networking are more crucial to the hospitality business than ever. According to her, nowadays guests have become more demanding than ever as now they are exposed to a plethora of competitive offerings. Now they also have more power to correctly rate a service through the huge flow of information available online. “In these times, the best way to stay ahead of clutter of competition for the hotels is to give best possible experience to the guests,” observed Anshu, who has close to twenty years of rich experience in the hospitality and aviation industries.

Strongly believing that a happy guest brings in more guests, she stated that “Listening to the ‘Voice of Guest’ is not just a fancy board room jargon in our case but a part of our routine.” The hospitality chain is also intelligently harnessing the power of social media to market the brands within its ambit. “In the digital platform, we are working very closely with the review portals such as TripAdvisor and HolidayIQ, which gives us interesting consumer insights and knowledge on trends apart from the guest feedbacks,” proffered the dynamic hospitality industry professional.

Beyond the Metros Anshu said that the expansion plans of Keys Hotels include not only metros and other tier-I cities but also tier-II and tier-III cities. “There are a number of tier-II and tier-III cities in the country that are successful centres of economic growth. The government has brought many of these cities under its Smart Cities Mission. In the coming years, these cities will emerge as attractive destinations for the Indian hotel industry because of government investments in connectivity and technology infrastructure,” she opined.

“This will in turn make business and leisure travel to these tier-II and tier-III cities of the country easier, faster and less expensive and will also encourage the hotel industry to set up base in these cities,” she added further. “For instance,

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Keys has launched new hotels in tier-II markets, such as Vizag, Calicut and Jaipur, to capitalise on the benefits that these cities have to offer,” she stated to substantiate her point.

The Macro Trends The interesting discussion, which she thoroughly dominated through her superior knowledge and intellect, gradually meandered to the macro-economic issues. I asked the charming lady that besides room rents, which other segment of the Indian hospitality industry had maximum revenue earning potential at present, to which she rather predictably and diplomatically stated that “MICE is a promising segment to watch out for.”

She also rightly pointed out that tourists and travellers in India were evolving towards being experiential. Nowadays there are a sizeable number of tourists and travellers who want not just a conventional holiday but a series of memorable and uncommon experiences from their holiday, and their numbers in India are large enough to be reckoned as a market force. “More and more travellers are now showing an inclination towards unique and personal experiences that they can take back with them,” Anshu stated.

In order to translate this growing experiential mindset of travellers into revenues, she believes that “hotels can be innovative by offering their guests customised products and services, be it in the area of food and beverages, leisure and entertainment, self-pampering activities or in the business and wellness.”

Anshu is very much hopeful of a promising growth for the Indian hospitality industry in the near future, but in the same breath she stated the

industry was taking a very positive shift towards asset light model. “The asset light model will continue to be the preferred choice of business model for hoteliers operating in India,” she asserted.

While talking about the prevailing and evolving trends in the Indian hospitality industry, as expected, she viewed technology as an important facilitator of growth for the industry in today’s times. “Today’s guests are highly tech-savvy and require speed and personalisation in everything. Whether it is seamless booking, differentiated stay options, quick access to the guest reservation team or a quick review of the hotel, technology greatly facilitates to give the desired guest experience,” she pointed out.

According to her, another emerging trend among tourists in India which can influence the Indian tourism and hospitality industry is the rising incidences of last minute trips. “Last-minute trips are on the rise; the short local getaway and mini-vacations will continue to trend, whether they be leisure or business travel,” she informed.

Challenges and Opportunities While talking of challenges for the industry, Anshu focused on the shortage of quality human resource. “Paucity of trained human resource is one of the biggest challenges for the Indian hotel industry. At Keys Hotels, we heavily invest in training and believe that our employees are our key brand ambassadors,” she maintained.

“Lack of adequate infrastructure, high hotel development costs and project overrun are some of the other reasons which are hindering the growth of the Indian hospitality industry,” she aired.

However, the indomitable lady doesn’t believe in getting bogged down by impediments. “Notwithstanding these external factors, the hoteliers in India can grow and develop through robust distribution, through significant and sustained investment in technology, through offering better and personalised customer experiences, ensuring better operability at their hospitality property or properties, through data sourcing and by making other intelligent use of technology to make informed decisions, and through sustained talent sourcing, retention and development” she advised pragmatically. n

Anshu Sarin