Oberoi hotel group
This is a collection of newspaper articles selected for the excellence of their content. |
Contents |
Background
Prachi Bhuchar , The gold standard “India Today” 21/8/2017
It may be hard to imagine the members of the Oberoi family as anything but wealthy. But, Mohan Singh Oberoi, the father of current chairman PRS Oberoi, did not have a fairytale childhood. He began his career as a desk clerk at the nondescript Cecil Hotel in Simla in 1920, earning Rs 50 per month. Within a few years, his hunger for learning and business acumen led him to a new job at the Carlton Hotel, working for an Englishman named Clarke. Clarke went on to become the owner of the Carlton, and offered MS Oberoi a partnership in 1930. In August 1934, he became the sole proprietor of the Clarke's Hotel in Delhi and Simla. As the story goes, he then told his daughter, "When you grow up, wherever you go, there will be an Oberoi Hotel." In 1948, he established East India Hotels, now known as EIH Ltd, whose first acquisition was the Oberoi Grand Hotel in Calcutta. Today, the company has over 35 luxury hotels in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Egypt, Australia and Hungary.
Oberoi hotel group
How Oberoi Group's uncompromising service excellence translates into netting big fish
By Moinak Mitra, ET Bureau | 14 Feb, 2014
In the dead of night, somewhere in the Arabian Sea, 15 miles off the Malabar coast, TM Salim's skiffs net prized red snappers, groupers, squids, cuttlefish, scallops and lobsters.
His catch lands up in the Kochi fish market for auction at 4.30 am, a fifth of which is flown out every day via a Jet Airways flight to Delhi airport, from where the freshly caught crustaceans make their way to the Oberoi Gurgaon's 50-cover Amaranta restaurant. It's the same arrangement Oberoi has with other shores — Surat, Chennai and Vishakhapatnam — as Amaranta lives by its promise of churning out world-class Indian coastal cuisine from 'the bay to the plate' in flat eight hours.
"Our promise is timed with the rising of the sun and so what is 4.30 am in the Arabian Sea, is 4 am in the Bay of Bengal....We've put in an entire supply chain to serve a small restaurant in the northern part of the country," says Oberoi President Kapil Chopra. Not yet a three-year-old, the Oberoi Gurgaon has already been voted 'World's Leading Luxury Hotel' in 2013 by the World Travel Awards for the second consecutive year. "We pretty much win an award a month," says David Mathews, General Manager of the Oberoi Gurgaon.
Plotting the Luxury Quotient
While such accolades demonstrate prowess in hospitality, it is the service excellence that is the killer app in every inch of the 9-acre property and its surrounding 7-acre Trident, the other brand from East India Hotels. "Our people and our guests are the two pivots of service excellence, which we can carry forth with an open, transparent and flat culture," claims Chief Operating Officer and Joint Managing Director of the Oberoi Group, Vikram Oberoi.
He would know since when he was the GM of the Oberoi Raj Vilas in Jaipur, he used to deliver luggage to the rooms and even clear the beds despite being the promoter's son. It's what he says is the group's dharma as enshrined in every employee's code of conduct.
As for the Oberoi Gurgaon, the rules of the game were very much laid down on the drawing board as the hotel was being planned. Trident Gurgaon is a 10-year-old property with a 90% year-to-date occupancy and skeptics felt that an Oberoi next to it would be a recipe for disaster. So the top management went into a huddle to dissect the tale of two cities—Delhi and Gurgaon. "We toyed with questions like what it is Delhi has that Gurgaon does not, and the answer was phenomenal parks and gardens," says Chopra.
A decision was taken to do a dense green patch that would become "the lungs of Gurgaon". The management went ahead with the idea despite land valuations hovering over Rs 80-100 crore an acre. Instead of monetizing those values, it was decided to have a built-up area of only 30%, with a 52% sylvan patch thrown in, and sizeable water bodies.
That perhaps settles why the driveway from the hotel gate to the lobby on the fifth floor feels like a chiaroscuro in broad daylight. The inverted architecture, sylvan surroundings and wide water bodies combine to give a sense of arrival to guests across 202 rooms of the hotel. The Oberoi Gurgaon has 18 BMW 7-Series sedans to wheel them in and is now in the process of making them wi-fi.
Though the Oberoi Group never does a brownfield as a matter of policy, the Oberoi Gurgaon is special. It is nearly after two decades that the group embarked on a city hotel project. In between, the group set up a clutch of celebrated resorts in Rajasthan. But the last city hotel the group built was way back in 1995, the Oberoi Bangalore.
That makes Gurgaon dear, particularly to Oberoi Group Chairman & CEO Prithviraj Singh (PRS) Oberoi, who must have visited the hotel at least a hundred times to make observations and alterations in its starstudded evolution with the triumvirate of height, light and space.
The Master's Strokes
With three inter-connected buildings—the main hotel, banqueting and retail—and separate entrance to the hotel and banqueting areas on Level 5, the architecture could well measure up to a pipe organ of the Baroque era. But the real eye-catcher is the world's largest outdoor vertical green wall spanning a surface area of 10,520 square feet, which stands 20 meters tall at the top of the lobby area on Level 5 as it gradually tapers to the ground. From the gate of the hotel to the lobby, two acres of dense foliage does give a great sense of arrival. But then PRS 'Bikki' Oberoi saw the wall in its concrete desolation.
Though the driveway patch already had 110 varieties of plants, Oberoi exclaimed from one of the rooms that he was also looking at one of the largest barren walls in Gurgaon. The team immediately got to work and set up 2,500 pots of plants across the wall. The art of detailing doesn't end there. The Cigar Lounge is a case in point. Its unique selling point countrywide is its personalized humidors with names of creme de la creme expat and Indian clients etched in ink.
While the management was deliberating on putting up artwork in the airducted room, Oberoi put his foot down and wanted reproductions of the monograms of the Indian cavalry he had in his farmhouse framed in the lounge. That extra gave a regal finish to the walls and a whiff of maturity. Like the green wall and the Cigar Lounge, the property is punctuated with the octogenarian Oberoi's astute observations. Chopra too has taken a leaf out of the master's book. A few years ago, the impeccable butlering service at the Raffles Singapore took Chopra's breath away.
So he met up with the General Manager of the hotel and asked him who trained his butlers. The answer was: Guild of Professional English Butlers in London, which also trained butlers for the royal family at Buckingham Palace. Chopra flew down a head butler from the institute to Oberoi Gurgaon for three weeks at a whopping 10,000-sterling pound, excluding airfare. "Now we've got manuals and he's coming back for a refresher round...you have to get the butler concept from where it originated, which is royalty," says Chopra.
Icing on the Cake
With 80:20 ratio of business to leisure guests, the Oberoi Gurgaon's average room rate stands out at Rs 15,500. This year, the management is expecting 65% occupancy, 15% over the previous year in sales, with a profit margin of Rs 45 crore. In a south-bound market, it all boils down to some hard-core targeted marketing and what Chopra calls "selling to the treetops". In effect, it is the rapport with the creme de la creme of society that drives revenues for such a premium destination. Now if CEOs or celebs stay at the suites and repeat their stay because of the experience, their entourage would have to occupy the other rooms. Clearly, that's a sizeable chunk of the income pie.
"Our suites drive our selling to the treetops strategy," says Chopra. With 600-odd staff and the minimum room size at 619 square feet, the hotel breathes 'experiential luxury'. Even in retail, global retailers like Canali, Burberry, Gucci, Bottega Veneta, among others, are chosen on the level of experience they can offer to guests in the hotel and how it can be tied up with their overall stay. Actually, Chopra refused Giorgio Armani as he didn't think "it had much of a future that would attract footfalls for us."
May be, Oberoi Gurgaon prefers its retailers to be top-class yet functional, with no bling attached. It is the same in the rooms that are devoid of iPad-operated frills or any gizmo mania. Even Amaranta's choice of TM Salim, a small fisherman in Kochi, instead of opting for high-ticket vendors with draggers that go for miles and days into the sea, is governed by fresh consumption and a no-frills approach to procurement. Arguably, there is an understated element, a muted opulence if you will, that punctuates every corner of the property. It is the fine balance that reminds every guest that while money talks, wealth does not. It listens.
Know Thy Guest
If you are a repeat guest with the Oberoi Gurgaon, a sheet of A4-size paper will be hung up virtually at every softboard in the back-office on the ground floor of the hotel bearing your picture and preferences. As CD was taking a stroll along one such staffers' alley, we noticed the recognizable mug of an ad heavyweight. So his name, designation, company and company profile were neatly laid out on the A4 sheet along with his visit details.
We learnt he was arriving that very night for a 3-night stay and this was his 51st visit to the hotel. Also, considerable information on the multifaceted adman could be gleaned from departmental comments in bullet points. The front office, for instance, highlighted he needs a 1 VGA laptop to television connecting wire every time in his room whenever he checks in, or the fact that he prefers a reflection pool view.
Again, the food & beverage department jotted down his preference for tea in a tall narrow mug instead of a broad cup as it gets cold faster. And the housekeeping observed he wants his cushions to be placed as he has a back problem, apart from a myriad other personal details that familiarized the hotel staff with the guest before arrival.
PRS Oberoi
A brief biography
Bachi Karkaria, Nov 15, 2023: The Times of India
Prithvi Raj Singh ‘Biki’ Oberoi inherited the mantle of Rai Bahadur Mohan Singh Oberoi. But it wasn’t his by birth. Tilak Raj Singh ‘Tikki’ was the indulged firstborn, but the father had astutely, if reluctantly, realised that faith was better reposed in the less flamboyant, more solid younger son.
Biki became chairman of East India Hotels in 2002, and stepped down as chairman emeritus in 2022. In his 50 years of de facto leadership, he acquired a formidable reputation for the spectacular — and apernickety eye for the speck. Luxury was his magnificent obsession — and the only way to burnish it was to bring to bear upon it his equally legendary attention to detail.
It came at a price — and blood pressure. There’s not a single GM who doesn’t have a story of ‘destroy to create’. “Mr Oberoi ordered the ripping off of all the tiles of the swimming pool at Vanyavilas, Ranthambore, because, as awhole, they didn’t create the right shade of blue.”
Details
‘In a large hotel, you become a room no.’
Biki Believed ‘Hotels Are Like Showbiz; You Have To Come Up With A New Act Every Time’
When the GM in charge of the gargantuan restoration of Simla’s The Cecil summoned the courage to ask PRS ‘Biki’ Oberoi what the budget was, he retorted, “A budget is not your concern. Your job is to create a guest experience beyond compare.”
The pressure didn’t stop with the completion of the hotel; if anything it got more demanding. Biki would walk into a room and know at a glance that the carpet had been ‘vigorously shampooed instead of being washed with a gentle detergent’. His rationale was, “Millions of rupees have gone into creating the brand, the restaurants, the clothes of the GM, the choice of silver. A sloppily placed comma could undermine it all.”
Textbook gurus might disparage this style as disempowering micro management. But The Boss’s own unwavering mantra was ‘The devil is in the details.’ This, like all his other beliefs, was to propitiate the industry’s only god, the guest. So no noisy baaraats with their ‘boisterous dancing and grooms on ghoda’; spa, health club and swimming pool exclusively for residents. No amount of influential heave-ho could get one in, even in New Delhi, which operates on Clout Nine.
He decided that his hotels were not going to be the big, boisterous kind with children tearing down the lobbies, lifts or restaurants. It knocked off a large chunk of customers, but that's the call he made.
He also concluded that right size matters. “From experience we've decided on smaller hotels. Resorts should be no more than 125 rooms. You don’t want a hundred people jostling in the pool, or not be able to get a reservation in the spa. City hotels should also remain between 200 and 300 rooms. Beyond that, you can’t maintain quality. In a large hotel you tend to become a room number,” he declared.
Biki Oberoi built his empire in a liberalised India very different from his father’s. But with freedom from the socialist chastity-belt came a new high of expectations, and the congenital compulsion to exceed them. He said, “It’s not the two-horse race of Rai Bahadur’s early days. Competition is a double-edged rapier affecting both the staff and the clients you can draw or lose.” Thus, while sharing insights for a sequel to his father’s biography, he provided one that’s universally applicable : “Hotels are like showbiz; you have to come up with a new act every time.” Arguably, Biki's most spectacular contribution was the Vilas brand, Rajvilas, Vanvilas, Amarvilas and his favourite Udaivilas. “We give fantasy bathrooms, often with their own walled gardens. We took a year to develop the right toiletries. There should be an eroticism to a resort suite; as soon as you enter, your mind should start dreaming about what you’re going to do where.” Their ‘wow’ quotient long predated the Insta diva.
The industry acknowledges the benchmarks he set, and the benefits he wrested from all arms of the government. Also the training: Oberoi staff are as routinely poached as eggs.
Biki came into the ring, donning not the wrestler’s pugnacity, but the suit of the matador. To understand where he took hoteliering, don’t go to his sharply cut business hotels or sybaritic resorts; go to nondescript Naila village outside Jaipur. Here he created Fort Prithviraj, his very private residence with very English drawing room, his favoured rosewood toilet seats, and liveried retinue serving gourmet canapes at the swimming pool. The gentleman hotelier, in a class of one with an inborn –-not pasted on -taste for fine cigars and shirts handstitched by gentlemen tailors of hoary repute. With a belief in correctness. With horses, dogs and his trophy-laden polo team. Biki redefined the legacy he inherited. His son Vikram and nephew Arjun have a bigger legend to live up to, and a more temperamental industry in which to do so.
Delhi
The Times of India, Jan 31 2016
Saurabh Sinha
Oberoi to take 2 years off for facelift
Before the Oberoi opened, the big names in Delhi hospitality included Imperial, Claridges, Ambassador and Maidens. [These were 5, 4 and 4 star hotels respectively. The Ashok was the first 5-star deluxe hotel in Delhi and outside Bombay; it was India’s second -star deluxe hotel after Taj, Bombay.] Once the Oberoi opened in 1965, it became the finest hotel ever in the capital and perhaps in the country . After that the Maurya came up in 1977, followed by the Taj Mansingh a couple of years later and Taj Palace around 1982 when the city played host to the Asian Games. The Oberoi used to command the highest tariff in the city till some years ago [in the first 10-15 years of the 20th century it has been Delhi’s second highest priced, after the Imperial] due to its prime position -overlooking the Delhi Golf Course on one side and Humayun's Tomb on the other -and exacting service standards. The capital's Oberoi was the first hotel to be built by the late M S Oberoi, who founded the group in 1934. The first two hotels that he had acquired, one each in Shimla and Kolkata, were existing properties. The iconic building on Dr Zakir Hussain Marg is one of India's first luxury hotels and has many other firsts to its credit. It was the first hotel in the country to offer 24-hour in-room dining service, butler service and round-theclock laundry service. “The Oberoi introduced the concept of a 24 hour coffee shop -Cafe Espresso -in 1965,“ said the EIH official. The property is an important contributor to the revenue generation of the Oberoi Group which currently operates 30 luxury hotels globally, two luxury Nile Cruisers and a motor vessel in the backwaters of Kerala under the luxury Oberoi brand. The group is also into flight catering, airport restaurants, travel and tour services, car rentals, project management and corporate air charters. Delhi Oberoi contributed Rs 186.9 crore to the group kitty in the financial year ended March 31, 2015, -accounting for 13.7% of the total revenue.The property's net worth on that date was Rs 134.4 crore, representing over 5% of the group's total net worth.
Renovation
The iconic Oberoi hotel -a landmark in the heart of Delhi was shut down for major renovation from April 12016. East India Hotels (EIH), the parent company of Oberoi Hotels, informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that the property is expected to reopen by April 1, 2018. “The building will undergo thorough renovation. Its guest rooms, public areas and `back of the house' will be completely renovated,“ said an EIH official. The group clarified that the existing structure wouldn't be razed to make way for a brand new building in its place. The Oberoi's planned twoyear closure is one of the longest renovation periods for a marquee hotel in the country .The Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai, which was attacked on November 26, 2008, reopened on October 15, 2010, after being restored at a cost of Rs 180 crore. The Imperial, Delhi's first luxury hotel which opened in 1936 on Queensway -now Janpath -was restored to its old glory around 2001.
