Nikita Ramchandani
Senior Area Director of Operations - South Asia Marriott International
THE WEDDING BUSINESS GROWS
The wedding segment in India is lucrative, our visible commitment to the same has been through ‘Shaadi by Marriott'. It is our 360-degree approach on how we treat weddings. Destination weddings is the trend gaining traction. Among our hotels, for beach weddings, W Goa is very popular, for the castle-like theme, we have our newly-opened property JW Marriott Jaipur, for wedding in the hills, we have JW Marriott Mussoorie Walnut Grove Resort and Spa. Our hotel, Le Méridien Mahabaleshwar Resort & Spa does well for weddings, even JW Marriott Hotel New Delhi Aerocity, J W Marriott Pune and also JW Marriott Hotel Kolkata get a good number of wedding bookings. JW Marriott Mumbai Juhu and The St. Regis Mumbai are also doing well for weddings. We started “Shaadi by Marriott” to understand, elevate and customise the wedding experience. Since 2016, we have seen an increase in the revenue from weddings by about 40 per cent.
CUSTOMISATION, FLEXIBILITY AND SAFETY
We have moulded ourselves to become super flexible in acceding to specific requests. For example, if a family wants to bring in their own Maharaj for cooking for the wedding, we do accommodate him in our kitchens. With regard to our approach to weddings, we are very particular about dealing with those who come to find out about weddings in Marriott. They are met with by the General Manager and Director of Operations, themselves, to understand what matters to the guest most. In our city hotels attuned more for corporate events, we understand weddings are different. I don't think there are any major challenges in organising wedding events, rather the system is still in a state of evolution. Mantra remains flexibility and safety.
WHY MARRIOTT FOR WEDDINGS?
Among the other trends observed, we have seen that, in cities for bigger weddings, people like to have the pre-wedding events in different hotels. In the concept for weddings, a confluence of the traditional and modern continues. While the youngsters (couple to be married) have a greater say in the wedding arrangements than before, the final decisions are mostly taken by the family in unison. For people the status issue remains, level of affluence is generally seen as a reflection of the location chosen for the main wedding or reception. We recommend Marriott for your weddings as we work as an extension of your family and shall embrace your wedding as our own. We have the tools, resources and the bandwidth to support us in our endeavours.