Jannat Kaur Waraich | Hospitality & Travel Influencer, Coach + Marketer | Founder at Grow | Indian Rural Tourism Promoter
/“The biggest challenge all the hospitality brands face today is how to stand out and be unique in this crowded market and also ensuring that digital marketing actually brings in conversions for them.”
Jannat Kaur is redefining hospitality careers for a new generation. With a foundation built at esteemed brands like Taj and Oberoi, she has seamlessly transitioned from hotelier to full-fledged hospitality and travel influencer, content creator, coach, and marketer. Passionate about shaping the industry's future, she dedicates her expertise to guiding aspiring hospitality professionals in crafting their dream careers and personal brands. Whether through insightful content or hands-on coaching, Kaur is on a mission to empower the next wave of industry leaders.
Tell us about your journey. How did it all start?
Since I was a Child I really enjoyed travelling to new places each holiday, staying at different properties and I overall really loved the hospitality and travel environment. When I was about to finish my schooling I had to decide my specialization for college and I thought of going ahead with hospitality; hotel management because first, since a child I really admired the environment and the profession and secondly I always thought that I’ll get to travel and work at the best heritage properties of India.
When I posted my 1st reel(Insta), I saw that many people engaged with my reel and wanted to know more about the hospitality industry as the majority of people were facing challenges in choosing this as their career path or either succeeding and sustaining themselves in the industry. So With the rise of queries and the problems I saw that people were facing I started to actively help and guide aspiring hoteliers and hospitality professionals to understand the reality and the vast opportunities available for them within the industry and I started to motivate them the right way to take the right path.
Through my work, I have been able to impact over 49+ million people, by making content, answering their doubts, providing 1 on 1 career guidance, group workshops and helping them realize their potential in hospitality.
Further, I have also authored a book that serves as a comprehensive guide to acing hospitality interviews and excelling in the industry. It is designed to empower students and all hospitality professionals with practical insights, leadership principles, and strategies to become ideal hospitality leaders.
E-guide: Tips to Ace your Hotel Interview
What inspired you to transition from hospitality operations to marketing and eventually launch Grow-
As I mentioned above, since childhood I really enjoyed travelling and taking photos of everywhere I went. I was in class 12 when my 1st photograph got published in Hindustan Times Newspaper which I took in Turkey and was a very big achievement for me to get a recognition by an esteemed company.
I was always wanting to do something creative like I used to spend a lot of time making impactful and good quality content, designing logos and several other brand assets and I also enjoyed writing a lot. So when I was in college I decided to take a shift towards the hospitality and travel marketing sector as it was something that I really liked to do plus it was something that went with my professional degree and was a lot in demand from the Post Covid times as the rise of new hospitality and travel ventures grew and requirements for branding, content creation and digital marketing also grew. Which therefore encouraged and motivated me to start Grow Hospitality Marketing, where we focus to provide guidance and support to make your brand the best and number one. Grow Hospitality Marketing Website
Having worked with leading brands like Taj and Oberoi, what key lessons did you take from those experiences into your own business
What I learnt from my experience, which I have been able to incorporate in my own business is that: Guest experience is first: even if we are logically right but the client doesnt agree to it just do it according to them to keep them satisfied and happy, I started to focus more on small details as that's what creates a major impact on the clients, I learnt the art of anticipating client needs which helped me get more repeat clients.
Secondly, I was able to develop my personal abilities, became a more confident person, a good problem solver and started to take decisions and lead teams wisely.
Thirdly, since the leading brands always focus on minimalism and presenting experiences besides just their property infrastructure, this is another thing that I learnt that selling an experience is what is more effective than simply selling your products through forced pushy sales.
Last but not the least, networking is like the heart to surviving in this industry or anywhere, be it employees, guests or vendors. I learnt how to make good connects and recall value with everyone as that's what has helped me get clients for my personal work and both of my ventures Grow and Rural.
Rural tourism is a growing trend. What motivated you to explore this space, and how do you see it evolving in India
I come from an agricultural background from Ramba a village in Karnal, Haryana and as a child I spent most of my days at the farm while playing with cows, running around in the wheat fields, enjoying a bath in the irrigation tank and going around on tractors.
I really enjoyed the Indian rural side plus fortunately since Covid the rise of travelling to remote destinations grew in India as everyone started to escape from the city suffocation and wanted to be at a place which was more relaxing, cleaner and fresher. So, when I reached college and it was time for us to write our 3rd year research paper, I decided to do a complete research on the Indian rural tourism as I always had the passion to promote and conserve the Indian rural tourism and make it the next travel destination of India plus with the rise of tourists travelling to remote locations and enhancement of facilities and transportation in the rural regions, I started my own passion project called Rural which focuses on bringing all types of Indian rural ventures to a global platform to make the world more aware about India in its raw form, as that is what India is known for.
What are the biggest challenges hospitality brands face in digital marketing today, and how does Grow help address them?
The biggest challenge all the hospitality brands face today is how to stand out and be unique in this crowded market and also ensuring that digital marketing actually brings in conversions for them.
Just having an online presence doesn't make a difference what makes a difference, which at Grow we specialize, do and focus on are: to start with we are a complete ROI (return on investment) focused hospitality and travel niche marketing agency which is updated with all the latest industry trends to ensure our clients rank number 1 in the industry and get actual revenue conversions, we focus on showcasing the brand’s USP which ensures that it leaves a lasting impact on the viewers and have a good recall value, we focus on keyword’s heavily so that your brand’s SEO game is strong and is always leading and visible and we also heavily do personalized campaigns post analysing the reports and data of the brand.
With social media constantly evolving, how do you stay ahead of trends and ensure hospitality brands remain relevant online ?
Social media is very dynamic, as soon as you get used to an algorithm the update is made. But to still stay relevant, brands must be flexible and adaptable and should focus on showing what the audience is looking for. Experimenting with all types of content styles relevant to your category is recommended to understand in the initial stages which content performs the best for you, frequent analysis of how the trending content is performing on other profiles is a must as it gives you an indication if you should go ahead with it or no for your brand, for each platform the strategy varies and the focus should be on promoting the unique points of the service or the product by giving a personalized touch.
As a marketer, how do you approach branding for boutique hotels versus large chain properties
Branding for both categories require completely different strategies as the guest expectations, positioning and target audience varies for both. While for a boutique property the focus would be on the brands uniqueness and theme for storytelling, influencer collabs would be a big thing, direct bookings would be encouraged with good offers, personalized services would be preferred while focussing on experiential and leisure tourists and the focus would be more on exclusivity and premium offerings.
Whereas, while we focus on branding for big chains a consistent tone for storytelling would be kept, focus would be kept on large scale campaigns and loyalty membership programs, help of CRM tools would be necessary to track the large database and their choices, corporate tie ups would be recommended for volume business and corporate clients would be a major focus.
What role does content creation play in a brand’s success, and what are the key elements of an effective storytelling strategy?
In today’s world, content creation has become a backbone for a brands success, but that doesn’t mean the use of any ai or general content but rather yes real guest or user generated content is what you need to get that attention. As it makes the brand appear more authentic and helps you bring in more loyal guests. But, while making content few things have to be kept in mind: First, the content should be made in a way which you as a viewer would love to watch and would attract you to visit that place, second it should show a strong experiential offer which is combined with shareable or a relatable content style, third, the content quality has to be really good as poor quality content people tend to scroll over and lastly keep the story less dramatic and more natural.
