OYO Hotels & Homes has increased its presence in the UK to over 100 hotels across 25 major cities and towns, including London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Blackpool and Torquay.
According to the company, its UK business, which is less than a year-old, has tripled its portfolio in the past three months.
Tafel has previously worked at seafood restaurants in Abu Dhabi for the past two decades.
Speaking of his appointment Tafel said: “With an array of top-quality ingredients so readily available, it's a chef's dream to be located in Abu Dhabi. From the fabulous fresh fish and produce in the local souks to the prime local meats sourced from all around the world, it’s a pleasure to serve at the forefront of worldwide hospitality, and my aim is treat every single diner as royalty.”
JA Resorts & Hotels have appointed four people to leadership positions in its F&B department as it gears up to open 10 new F&B concepts in 2019.
Olivier Belliard has joined JA The Resort as director of culinary. The French national has experience working in Michelin starred concepts in his homeland as well as stints in Mauritius, Egypt, Thailand, and the USA.
Kyra Bommelje, a Dutch national who has worked at the company for over four years. She has been appointed cluster director of food and beverage
Devid di Benimeo and Petra Humphers. Di Benimeo and Humphers will be the cluster executive chef and cluster director of food and beverage respectively
The coming year will mark several significant new openings for Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, the world’s leading luxury hospitality company, with the debut of nine new hotels and resorts around the world, plus the continued expansion of its residential portfolio.
• Four Seasons Astir Palace Hotel Athens
• Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences Bangkok at Chao Phraya River
• Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences Bengaluru at Embassy ONE
• Four Seasons Resort and Residences Los Cabos at Costa Palmas
• Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences Madrid
• Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences Montreal
• Four Seasons Resort and Residences Napa Valley
• Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences One Dalton Street, Boston
• Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia at Comcast Center
Additional future projects recently announced include hotels, resorts and residences in Dalian, China; Makkah, Saudi Arabia; Hanoi, Vietnam; and Caye Chapel, Belize.
The Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL), South Asia’s largest hospitality company has today announced the launch of a scholarship in partnership with the ESSEC Business School in France as part of its continued commitment to bolstering learning and development for its employees. As part of the initiative two deserving IHCL employees each year would be sponsored for a 21 month long fully paid MSc in Hospitality Management at the ESSEC Campus in Paris. This initiative is launched for a three year period and may be renewed further.
Speaking on the initiative, Mr. Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, IHCL said, “We have always believed in creating a strong talent pipeline by enabling and empowering our employees with the best of learning and development initiatives. Our collaboration with ESSEC Business School is a vital step in that direction and in line with our vision to create future leaders for the global hospitality industry in general and build a talent pipeline for IHCL in particular”.
A pioneer of business-related learning since 1907, ESSEC is rated amongst the top business schools in the world.
Professor Peter O’Connor, Academic Director, Essec Business School said, “We are delighted to collaborate with a prestigious company such as The Indian Hotels (IHCL) for the initiative, which brings in a fitting blend of Indian hospitality and international standards of excellence. We look forward to a brilliant partnership aligned with ESSEC’s mission to respond to the challenges of the future.”
The program is a mix of rigorous academics and hands-on field experience which includes various areas such as E-Commerce, Real Estate & Development, Entrepreneurship and Luxury Services Management. Besides the full tuition fees, IHCL would also cover the accommodation and living expenses for the two selected employees.
Editor: Tell us about your journey. How did it all start?
January 2003, was the year when my journey as a Hotelier began with The Trident in Jaipur as a F&B Associate. It has been 17 years now and have been fortunate to work with some great Indian & International Brands in the Country. A Hotel Management Graduate, from Oriental School in Kerala, my journey took me to 7 different states of India: Rajasthan, Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi NCR, Tamil Nadu & West Bengal; and considerable years of my experience has been with Hyatt.
My Managerial role started in 2007 with Le Meridien in Jaipur, as a Restaurant Manager, to lead the Coffee Shop, Bar & The Indian Specialty. To further deepen my knowledge in F&B, I took the role of Banquet Manager with The Leela Kempinski in Kovalam, in 2008.
In 2010, my First Pre-Opening assignment knocked my door, for Hyatt Regency in Pune, as Events & Conference Assistant Manager. 2 years later, in 2012, came my second Pre-Opening assignment with Hyatt, to launch Hyatt Place Brand in India, in the City of Ruins, Hampi.
Pre-Opening assignments was something which I started enjoying and came in 2014 was my Third assignment, for opening of second Hyatt Place in Udyog Vihar, Gurugram Delhi NCR, as an Assistant General Manager. To broaden my knowledge in Hotels, I switched roles and headed the Rooms, Human Resource and Engineering functions of the Hotel.
My love for Pre-Opening Hotels is never ending, and hence now I am in my Fourth Pre-Opening Assignment, and my First stint with Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), to open a Beautiful and Smart Holiday Inn Express Hotel, opposite the Kolkata International Airport, which will make the Future Travelers #morethanready and focuses on Simple Smart Travel.
Editor: What do you think it takes to succeed in this industry?
Everyone has their own definition to success. If one has to be successful, then one has to keep adding value; to yourself, your guests and your stakeholders.
Editor: What are the attributes you look for while selecting or hiring? If someone wants to work with you, what should they do?
I look for morals and values; the person is made of. I look for the value addition that a person can do in my team, create balance and foster teamwork. One has to be real and be true to themselves, to work with me.
Editor: What according to you can trainees do while they are training at hotels to make it a win-win for them & the hotel/unit?
Hotel Exposure Trainings are extremely important, and I can only recommend that all Hotel Management students should spend equal amount of time in all the departments. It’s too early to make up a mind even before the start of internship, that which department they want to spend maximum time in. It eventually burns them out. This is the only time you get to work in all areas, so why not make best use of it.
Editor: What are some of the trends you see impacting the hospitality industry?
Environmental Sustainability and the fight to reduce Carbon Footprints, is on the rise like never before. This is going to be big game changer in Hospitality, as the impact can be immediately seen on your bottom line.
While all the Hotels are moving into this direction, this can be evidently visible in the newly built upcoming hotels, which are now focused on using natural resources by creating efficient designs to reduce. Holiday Inn Express Kolkata Airport is one of the newly designed hotels of IHG, which makes great usage of natural lights by having large windows at lobby and even back of the house areas. IHG has taken Environmental sustainability to higher levels by making Carbon Reduction as one of our Core KPI’s.
Editor: Tech is now an enabler for great hospitality. Can you share with us some of the tech that goes into creating your guest experience?
We have always looked at Technology for providing great guest experiences. At IHG we have been looking at creating value for our Stakeholders and Owners as well. We use cloud based technology platform, IHG Concerto, which is seamless combination of our Guest Reservations System and Price Optimization Software. This continue to strengthen our enterprise and enhance revenue delivery system.
To further strengthen our guest experience, our WiFi Guest network, IHG Connect, is providing seamless connectivity. In future, a guest would have the ability to stream content on in-room smart TV’s.
Editor: Two things you would like to change in the industry.
1. I would look at ways on how we can remove Sugar sachets from Café’s & Restaurants. A sugar sachet has a huge impact in environment which we don’t see, as it easily misses the eye. Every sugar sachet, in addition to paper, also has a plastic layer inside to prevent it from moisture. This needs to go out, just like the plastic straws. If we can have Salt & Pepper in crusher, why not Sugar.
2. Remove the concept of Sunday Brunches from Cafés &Restaurants. While it is an important part of F&B Business, however if someone has to do a research on this subject, the kind of food waste that we generate in just on one Sunday is huge. We are wasting resources way too fast.
Holiday Inn Express Kolkata Airport - PreOpening
Editor: What can we expect from your hotel in the coming year?
In my current assignment, my Hotel, Holiday Inn Express Kolkata is in its Pre-Opening stages. It’s a smartly designed 125 Keys property, nestled in the centre of a 4 acres of beautiful landscape and just 800 metres of walking distance from the Boarding Gate of Kolkata International Airport.
The plan is to establish this property as an Airport Hotel, which will be used by Transit travellers moving in and out of Kolkata, and also as a great Business Hotel to the likings of all our Corporate Guests, with us being only 15 minutes from the IT Hub of Rajarhat and 20 minutes from Sector V.
The Hotel also features our All Day Dining Café, Great Room, serving light bites and beverages. In coming months, we foresee Great Room, operating like an Airport Lounge. It will be a quick stopover for all our Transit guests to take a quick bite or have candid farewell meetings before a final goodbye, as Wi-Fi is always Free and Boarding gates are just a 5 minutes’ drive or 10 minutes’ walk, whatever a Guests chooses to prefer.
Gurugram-based food delivery and restaurant discovery platform Zomato has taken the next-generation tech leap with its first successful attempt at food delivery via Drone.
The test, which was conducted using a hybrid drone, had a fusion of rotary wing and fixed wings on a single drone. Zomato claims that the test drone was successfully and seamlessly able to cover a distance of 5 kms, in about 10 minutes, with a peak speed of 80 kmph, carrying a payload of 5 kgs.
Jiggs Kalra, also known as the "Czar of Indian Cuisine" was a pioneering food columnist and author, gastronome and food consultant. In a career spanning close to Five decades.
He was instrumental in introducing Indian cuisine to the international audience as well as setting standards of the same. Inducted in the International Food & Beverage Gourmet Hall of Fame (making him the first Asian to be inducted in this highly prestigious society), he had numerous awards and accolades, both national and international, to his credit.
Anoop HA receiving the award from Mr. Brendan Toomey, Vice President HR Asia Pacific
Hilton 2018 India HR and Learning Meet was conducted on 23 d and 24th of April 2019 at Conrad Bengaluru. It was attended by the Senior Human Resource Leadership team of Singapore and New Delhi Office as well as the HR and Learning department heads of various hotels of India.
DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Bangalore won the award for Excellence in Employee engagement in the award ceremony held on the evening of 23 rd April 2019. The award was a recognition of our commitment as a hotel to keep our team members engaged and committed at work. The two day meet was a great opportunity for us to interact and network with HR Leaders of Hilton from different parts of the country. The meet also provided an opportunity for exchange of ideas on best HR practices being followed by hotels across the country.
Hilton India and Singapore HR leadership also briefed us on the HR Priorities of Hilton in India for the year 2019 and the road map forward. The two day meet was an enriching session for all of us involved as we got an opportunity to learn and interact with leading industry veterans.
Upsouth, Pune’s popular South Indian destination has recently launched its 8th outlet in Undri, Pune. With market loving brands such asbonsouth and Billionsmiles Catering, today Billion Smiles has come up with numerous Upsouth outlets, serving entire Bangalore and Pune with its authentic South Indian fusion dishes. Other than Undri, the brand’s outlets have been successfully operating inseven other locations in Pune namely Viman Nagar, Pune Airport, Wanowarie, Aundh, Wakad, Chandini Chowk and Phoenix Market City.
Known for its famous South Indian fusion signature dishes such as the South Indian Burger - Uthly, Malabari Parota sandwich, Sabudana Cheese Vada, Mango Moksha, Healthy Super Grain Paratha, etc., the brand plans to position itself as India’s best South Indian Fusion restaurant.With great offers, value pricing, dynamic interiors with lightning-speed service in hygienic and LIVE Kitchen atmosphere, Upsouth is an ideal self-service and sit-down restaurant. The outlet’s menu also offers universal favorites like –varieties of Idli and Dosa, Medu Wada, Uthappam, Filter Coffee, Paddu and many more.
Commenting on the launch, Kumar Gaurav, Vice President, Billionsmiles Hospitality Pvt Ltd., says, “We decided to come up in Undri, after the huge success of the 2 new outlets that were recently launched in Chandani Chowk and Wanowarie.Undri is a perfect target market for us due to the mix of bachelors, IT professionals, students and families living in this area. “
“Keeping pace with modern world, Upsouth redefines the experience of Indian and South Indian Cuisine for you with an upbeat and contemporary touch. We offer healthy, delicious, fresh and wholesome Indian and South Indian vegetarian food in a modern format. The dishes are priced very competitively with the average spends per person ranging between Rs.80-90 only”, comments Corporate Executive
Chef - Manu R Nair
Address: Upsouth, City Centre, Undri, Pune, Maharashtra 411060
Ph No. 098455 98258
Hyatt to Expand Luxury Portfolio in Asia Pacific with 21 New Hotels by 2020
Hyatt Hotels Corporation announced that 21 new luxury hotels and resorts are planned to open in Asia Pacific by the end of 2020, fueling Hyatt’s brand expansion in the region. This expansion is comprised of seven Park Hyatt branded properties, six hotels each under the Grand Hyatt and Andaz brands and two Alila branded resorts, boosting Hyatt’s luxury portfolio in the region by more than 25%.
Travelodge Plans 17 New Hotels For 2019
Travelodge is planning to open another 17 new hotels across the UK in 2019, which it said would create more than 350 additional jobs. The new hotels, costing around £115 million, will be developed by third party investors, it said. They will grow Travelodge's hotel network to 595 in the UK, Spain and Ireland.
High Street Hospitality to launch two new hotels in the north east
Newcastle-based High Street Hospitality has announced plans for two new hotels in the north east of England.
New World Hotels & Resorts launch with first property in Malaysia
Rosewood’s Hong Kong-based arm New World Hotels & Resorts can lay claim to having opened their inaugural hotel, the New World Hotel Petaling Jaya in the Malaysian city of Petaling Jaya, right outside Kuala Lumpur.
Hyatt has selected Mia Kyricos as senior vice president, global head of wellbeing, underscoring Hyatt’s commitment to care for people so they can be their best. Kyricos will report to Mark Vondrasek, Hyatt’s chief commercial officer.
“As a pioneer in the business of wellbeing, Mia is uniquely qualified to further define Hyatt’s wellbeing efforts across all 14 brands to ensure colleagues, guests and customers can be their best”
“Hyatt’s dedication to implementing wellbeing practices throughout all facets of the organization demonstrates just one of the ways Hyatt continues to lead the way in the hospitality industry,” said Kyricos. “This is the first time I’ve seen a company of its kind establish a cohesive position on wellbeing that fully encompasses all parts of the organization. I am excited to join such a forward-thinking leadership team to help meaningfully implement innovative wellbeing strategies for Hyatt’s colleagues, guests and members of the communities in which Hyatt hotels operate around the world.”
Most recently, Kyricos served as President and CEO of Kyricos & Associates LLC, a boutique advisory firm providing guidance to wellness-driven hospitality, tourism and healthy lifestyle companies. Prior to that, she was chief brand officer at Spafinder Wellness, Inc., where she co-founded the “Wellness Travel Awards” program which was previously issued annually across 40 countries at the World Travel Market. She also held leadership roles at Core Performance, the workplace wellness division of EXOS, and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide where she created six international spa brands and signature wellness experiences. Kyricos holds a master’s degree in hospitality administration from Cornell University and sits on the advisory boards of the Global Wellness Summit, Wellness for Cancer and The University of California Irvine. She also chairs the Wellness Communities Initiative on behalf of the Global Wellness Institute, a non-profit 501(c)(3) educational foundation that she helped to found.
Singapore-based Capitaland Limited’s wholly owned serviced residence business unit, The Ascott Limited (“Ascott”), has opened two new Citadines Properties in Vietnam, the 548-unit Citadines Blue Cove Danang and the 229-unit Citadines Regency Saigon. As Vietnam’s largest serviced residence and Ascott’s debut in Danang, Citadines Blue Cove Danang is located by the Han River in the scenic Son Tra peninsular, within a 15 minutes’ drive from Danang International Airport.
Furnished with a mix of studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments overlooking the Danang Bay, facilities at the property include a restaurant, a rooftop infinity pool, fitness centre, spa, more than 462 square metres of meeting space and children’s playroom. Citadines Regency Saigon is Ascott’s fifth property in Ho Chi Minh City and is located in District 3, a prime business and residential district of the city. Offering classic rooms, studios and one-bedroom apartments, other facilities include a restaurant, a café, an outdoor swimming pool, fitness centre, children’s wading pool, sauna room, and launderette. Ascott currently has a total of 21 properties offering approximately 4,700 units across seven cities in Vietnam. In the next three years, Ascott is scheduled to add more than 2,000 units across nine properties in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Danang, Halong City and Binh Duong province.
Hong Kong-based private equity firm Gaw Capital Partners (“Gaw Capital”) has announced that it has, through its European Hospitality Fund I managed by GCP Hospitality (“GCP”), acquired a 50% stake in Spanish boutique hotel brand, Hospes Hotel Group (“Hospes”) in a joint-venture with Spain-based investment firm, Omega Capital (“Omega”). Hospes’ total asset is valued at EUR125 million with ten properties in prime locations across Spain.
Through the deal, Gaw Capital and GCP will leverage Hospes’ reputation in Spain and look to expand their presence in Europe, especially in tourist areas and strategic cities within Spain and Southern Europe. Hospes’ luxury boutique hotels are situated in close proximity to some of Spain’s most prominent historical sites and feature facilities such as bars and restaurants, wellness centres and luxury spas. The acquisition marks Gaw Capital’s second overseas hospitality investment in a month, after the investment manager agreed to pay AUD157 million for a hospitality-office complex in Melbourne, Australia on 2 July 2018.
Hello, World!
Interstate Hotels & Resorts has expanded its footprint. The management company recently opened four new hotels in Europe and a regional office in Amsterdam. Interstate Hotels & Resorts’ Borealis properties to recently open include the Hotel Indigo The Hague in the Netherlands, which sits opposite the royal Noordeinde Palace; Aparthotel Adagio Amsterdam City South, part of greater Amsterdam; the Hampton by Hilton Antwerp Central Station in Belgium; and the Holiday Inn Express Amsterdam City Hall. Interstate also assumed management of the newly opened The Alexander, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Yervan, an upper-upscale property in Armenia’s capital city. (Interstate joined forces with Borealis Hotel Group earlier in the year.)
Banarsidas Chandiwala Institute of Hotel Management and Catering Technology, in an effort to inculcate best practices for the twentieth batch 2018-22, conducted an Orientation Program on the first day of Academic Session.
The Orientation took place at the college auditorium where all the students, parents and the faculty members were present. In his welcome address, Dr. Bhupesh Kumar, Director, BCIHMCT, said, “Welcome to the Hospitality Industry, a fast-growing industry in the international market. By associating yourself with BCIHMCT you have actually stepped into a professional milieu that will make realize your dreams.” He went on to explain the expectations Industry has from hotel management students.
Mr. Ramesh Takulia, Cosultant, Learning & Development at Taj Hotels Resorts Palaces and Safaris was the Chief Guest at the ceremony. Mr. Takulia in his speech explained students the four areas hoteliers look for while hiring candidates. First is commitment and dedication as we deal with people who are not ordinary. They are widely traveled, highly successful and cannot tolerate inefficiency. Second is being formal and professional. Being formal means being in
accordance to traditions and etiquette. A professional is someone who follows procedure, has some level of expertise and takes pride in his/her work. Third point is how you look and how do you sound. Your attire, grooming, posture, confidence facial expression and smile should create
a positive impact. The fifth habit that should be cultivated is the sum total of all, to have polished behavior, polite attitude and service orientation. You must be elegantly outgoing, social and lastly he informed this profession is based on extreme levels of trust.
Dr. Sarah Hussain, Academic Head, BCIHMCT in her speech spoke to students and parents
about the mentoring system being followed in college. She gave a brief overview of attendance, grooming and academics. A vote of thanks was later given by her.
Tree Plantation was one of the activities conducted where saplings were planted by first year students along with their mentor faculty in different areas in and around college campus. In this environment friendly practice, every group would look after their sapling for the next few years of their college life. BCIHMCT has set an example to other colleges in India in having a green start to a new academic session.
Portugal footballer Cristiano Ronaldo left a US$23,200 tip at a Greek hotel during a holiday, according to media reports.
Ronaldo stayed at the Costa Navarino resort, shortly after his team got knocked out of the World Cup.
“The 10 employees, who had been tasked with providing services to Ronaldo’s family and to keep them away from the paparazzi, each received €2,000,” the Greek online sports magazine SPORtime reported.
The footballer also asked for the tip to be split between the hotel staff.
On the first day of B2B interactions at the Rajasthan Domestic Travel Mart (RDTM) 2018, Rajasthan’s luxury train, Palace on Wheels (POW) struck an important deal. It has booked a pax of 51 passengers, the cost of which will be Rs 1.55 crores. This was informed by the Chief General Manager, POW, Pradeep Bohra.
The booking has been done by Travelogy India. The promoter Santosh was also present on the occasion. Vice president of Federation of Hospitality and Tourism of Rajasthan (FHTR), Khalid Khan said that such an important deal augers well for the RDTM. A number of Department of Tourism and FHTR officials were also present on the occasion.
The exhibition of RDTM 2018 was inaugurated on Saturday by ribbon cutting by the principal secretary, tourism, Government of Rajasthan, Kuldeep Ranka and President of FHTR, Bhim Singh at the BM Birla Auditorium.
Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) on Thursday said it is expecting to accelerate its growth to 30% in the next few years on the back of positive industry sentiment and expansion.
"We intend to significantly increase our footprint in India, driven by '3R' (restructure, reengineer, and reimagine) strategy and achieve our aspiration of doubling the room keys and expanding the operating margin by 800 bps over the next five years," N Chandrasekharan, Chairman, IHCL told shareholders at the company's AGM here.
"Our journey of growth has already commenced, marked by the sharpening of Taj, Vivanta and Ginger brands as well as launch of a new collection called 'SeleQtions'," he added.
Chandrasekharan said IHCL will also take initiatives to work together with other Tata companies.
"The company is growing at a rate of 8-10%, which we plan to increase to 30% in the next few years," he added.
The country's favourable demographics, with a large and growing middle class coupled with rising income levels and spending patterns have been triggers for growth, which remain extremely favourable to the company, he said.
Chandrasekharan said the travel and tourism sector is expected to grow at 6.9% per annum, on healthy growth in the aviation industry and robust government-led initiatives aimed at stimulating the sector, including promoting the expansion of e-visa scheme. Moreover, the hospitality sector has been witnessing growth in the recent years.
"As a cumulative result of all these factors, demand growth in the hotel industry has been clearly outpacing that of supply, leading to a surge in occupancies and RevPARs," he added.
The company is looking forward to open eight new hotels this year, he added.
IHCL, he said, has turned profitable for the first time in six years, recording INR 101 crore profit with a total revenue of INR 4,165 crore.
The company's overall consolidated debt has also been reduced to around INR 2,400 crore from a peak of INR 5,800 crore, he added.
(Source: moneycontrol)
Marriott International Inc plans to remove disposable plastic straws and stirrers from its 6,500 hotels and resorts worldwide by July 2019.
The Maryland-based company, which said it could eliminate 1 billion straws and a quarter of a billion stirrers a year, said it would provide alternatives, for example paper straws, to customers upon request.
“Removing plastic straws is one of the simplest ways our guests can contribute to plastic reduction when staying with us – something they are increasingly concerned about and are already doing in their own homes,” Arne Sorenson, president and CEO of Marriott International, said in a statement.
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