Projjwal Ghosh, Director of Sales & Marketing, Crowne Plaza Chennai Adyar Park, says it is important for hotels to stay up to date with industry news, practices and trends

From personalising marketing efforts to catering to individual guests’ preferences, social media marketing to reach potential guests, mobile optimisation and using user-generated content such as guest reviews and social media posts are some leading hospitality marketing trends for 2023 that Projjwal Ghosh, Director of Sales & Marketing, Crowne Plaza Chennai Adyar Park feels will rule the year. “Another new trend is the use of virtual and augmented reality to give potential guests a taste of what it’s like to stay at a hotel which can help to drive bookings. Artificial intelligence and chat-bots can be used to improve customer experience by providing quick and convenient answers to guests’ questions. To keep up with the latest trends, it is important for hotels to stay up to date with industry news and practices,” he suggests.

With the demand for travel returning swiftly, Ghosh says a pricing strategy’s purpose is to determine the price that will allow you to enhance returns while still attracting clients. “Pricing strategy, in my opinion, must examine your competitive strengths and weaknesses. To comprehend your clients’ unmet demands and the value you provide. The plan should be linked to the demands of your customers. One needs to examine costs and try to maintain breakeven point as low as possible,” says Ghosh who heads sales and marketing operations at one of the premier business hotels located in the heart of Chennai, around 12 km away from the international airport and in close proximity to business and financial hubs as well as cultural attractions.

The main sources of revenue for Crowne Plaza Chennai Adyar Park are overnight room rentals, F&B operations like on-site restaurants, bars, bakery, room service, meetings and events that take place in the banquet halls and spa and wellness services including salon. “Also, we have generated significant amount of revenues from various outdoor catering events in Chennai,” he informs.

The past and still ongoing wedding and festive season, shares Ghosh, has been very fruitful and rewarding for the hotel. “We’ve successfully hosted several private wedding-related events, catered to events at our patrons’ own destinations through our ‘Event On Wheels’ concept, and have even hosted various festive events for various patrons. It has been a busy and positive few months,” says Ghosh.

Talking about loyalty programmes, the DoSM says that Crowne Plaza Chennai Adyar Park has a very comprehensive rewards and loyalty programme. “As part of the IHG Hotels & Resorts, we are a part of the esteemed IHG One Rewards Club programme which allows our guests to collect points every time they stay in any IHG hotels & resorts and then they can use these points to avail more and more rewards with us at every level they pass and even redeem these points for complimentary nights in any participating IHG Hotels & Resorts across the globe,” he informs.

Ghosh opines that F&B and MICE are both very important for the property. “As an F&B driven hotel, Crowne Plaza Chennai Adyar Park has six outlets, including premium authentic South Indian cuisine speciality restaurant, Dakshin; an all-day-dining eatery, Cappuccino; a multi-cuisine buffet restaurant, The Residency, a split-level fine dining restaurant, On the Rocks; a bar for evening cocktails, The Westminster and a pub lounge called Gatsby. Selling F&B is always the primary source of revenue. The same is true for MICE, which includes a plethora of activities such as room operations and social events,” Ghosh says.

Apart from regularly watching the RevPAR to maintain ensure it is always healthy, Ghosh says they make better plans for room rates. “Rates must be determined by calculating the projected RevPAR using the profit percentage and measuring hotel performance and setting profitable room rates using RevPAR to assess the hotel’s performance. Similarly, increased occupancy and hotel RevPAR indicate that the hotel is functioning well,” he shares.

Crowne Plaza Chennai Adyar Park DoSM says the hospitality business in Chennai witnessed a major growth in 2022 with occupancy rates, ADRs and RevPAR rising by more than 20-25 per cent as compared to pre-pandemic days. “However, we are expecting a surge in travel in 2023 due to corporate and government events, weddings as also in the leisure segment,” concludes Ghosh.