Guests are concerned about their lifestyle and especially clean air now. It is important to keep up with the demands of our guests, at the same time, the stakeholders must understand the various technologies in the market, says Rahul Prabhakar, Chief Engineer, ITC Maurya, New Delhi.

AT THE BW Hotelier Smart Hotels Conclave & Expo 2018, the session themed ‘Keeping it cool. How important is Technology when it comes to air conditioning?’, was moderated by Bikramjit Ray, Managing Editor, BW Hotelier and the eminent panel consisted of Praveen Agrawal, DGM, Engineering Services, Lemontree Hotels; Manu Sharma, General Manager, Taj City Centre Gurgaon; Ramendra Pratap Singh, General Manager, Radisson Noida; Anil Kumar, Director of Engineering, The Imperial, New Delhi; Rahul Prabhakar, Chief Engineer, ITC Maurya, New Delhi; Nitin Nagrale, Founder & Gen Secy, HPMF. 

Here Nagrale talked about how the product should match the customer expectation. He also said that the buyers need to have the upgradable technology and they must be involved in making decisions. Talking about the air conditioning challenges Kumar said that it is important to maintain a balance between architecture and technology, the design and equipment used in a hotel like The Imperial New Delhi. In the case of a heritage building, it is imperative to implement new technologies in old hotels. The most important factor according to him is the architecture of the building and the weight of the machine. He mentioned that ongoing development in technology is important.

Prabhakar argued that customers are concerned more with clean air now. “It is important to keep up with the demands of the customers and the stakeholders must understand the various technologies in the market” he added.

Furthermore, Singh said that most hotels have treated fresh air. However, he mentioned that pollution inside the hotel is not a problem. Agrawal stated that Lemontree will not compromise on cost and their operating cost is also very low.