He was speaking 3rd edition of BW Hotelier Indian Hospitality Awards and Summit 2018 held at the Leela Ambience Gurugram, where a design and architecture forum was also held.

“THE FUTURE of hotels will be driven by communities. Hotels will be having a different set of communities. While the guests will be one of the communities, the hotel facility managers will be another such community. Housekeeping could be different (communities). A lot of reviews and ratings on them will move things ahead. So If we can digitise our travel desk and make the guest's rate photos and express his reviews of the content of which is he suggesting (as) that adds a lot of value Similarly, restaurants have different facility managers who can have opinions of a hotel. Moreover, there are many communities that are peripheral to the hotel which can be built on this family,” Kushal Agarwal,” Travel Enthusiast. Co-founder at Xoxoday. 

He was speaking 3rd edition of BW Hotelier Indian Hospitality Awards and Summit 2018 held at the Leela Ambience Gurugram, where a design and architecture forum was also held. The forum, which was moderated by Bikramjit Ray, Executive Editor, BW Hotelier, was also attended by other panellists like Nikhil Sharma, COO, Ginger Hotels; Nitin Nagrale, Vice President Materials at Foodlink Restaurants and Catering India and Founder & General Secretary HPMF; Zia Shiekh, CEO, Svenska Hotels; and Juna Banerjee, Executive Housekeeper, Executive Housekeeper-Pre Opening at ITC Hotels.

Shiekh on the panel commented, “A bunch of travellers who have stayed in our hotel have given us a fantastic feedback and keep coming back to us. This because they feel with trendy designs, our experience is different. It is not something which is like any other cookie cutter. Their entire experience is not just front end guest facing design. We started experiencing this as we started expanding, we will be doing a lot of leases. So anyone who wants to be a hotelier thinks I want the best of stuff but for guests facing but not what is out of the house. So what we have realised is it is not just about being modern, chic and trendy. De experience to guests, why should it be one particular experience?”

Sharma, stated, “A lot of thought has gone over the last two years in design. While Ginger is a cookie cutter product, we have tried to make it more relevant to the brand and to the consumer base in the last two years. The Indian consumer is very demanding nowadays irrespective of where he or she is staying.”

Banerji commented, “We are definitely a luxury hotel and a time period hotel. Maybe tomorrow if any design element changes, it has to reflect a part of the Mauryan dynasty. Over a period of time when you renovate a product, definitely, housekeepers are consulted to ensure spaces were utilized in the design element.”

Nagrale concluded, “It is actually a battlefield where designers have a different perspective, owners have a different perspective and I as a procurement person needs to evaluate all the requirements and also show that it is practical enough for the housekeeper and the chef or the floor managers to work on it.