Tejas Jose
General Manager, Renaissance Bengaluru Race Course Hotel
The domestic travel demand is soaring for two reasons; number one is the pent-up demand coming from when the nation had lock-downs. There’s only so much that situations can stop us from travelling, so when the curbs go, travel starts. Secondly, international travel is still very unclear with biobubbles, the spike in COVID cases in destination countries, vaccination prerequisites, etc., so travelling outside India is not easy. However, that desire and budget for travel still exist, and therefore we see a surge in ADRs in resort locations.
In the past few months, not just Renaissance Bengaluru Race Course Hotel, but most city hotels have seen a rise in staycations and work-cations, considering that most customers are tired of being largely holed up at home and a sense of being ‘trapped’ and a stay at a hotel is a micro-break, which helps re-energize.
Now, in 2022, I believe it’s still a wait-and-watch approach that customers have due to the new variant, Omicron, and the surrounding ambiguity. However, the situation will clear out sooner or later. I believe recovery is inevitable, and times are several signs across various markets globally and locally. I believe Omicron will be a speed hump on the road to recovery, but the road is open, the fuel tank is full, and we have our foot on the pedal!
At our hotel, most decisions are tactical due to the (continuing) unpredictable business environment. Still, even in the current business landscape, it’s crucial to keep the ear to the ground to understand guest expectations. I wish to stress the fact that the guests themselves have very transitionary expectations. For instance, from a few months ago, when most guests wore masks while at the hotel and were very disciplined about it, voluntarily, then gradually a large number of guests didn’t bother to wear one and perhaps couldn’t care less.
So, in this ‘new normal’ period, guests’ expectations are very dynamic and is a representation of the guest’s mindset, given the COVID numbers in the locality the hotel is in, where the guests come from, the news the guests read, cultural influences, etc. So, there’s no shortcut; the team needs to keep high levels of engagement with guests to assess, understand and see how we can make amends to our offering to ensure the hotel is aligned. The ‘moving goal post’ is the best description of how the current times need to be seen.