‘Travel agents are like partners’
Apart from Gurgaon that has a cluster of hotels in every brand segment, the other areas of Haryana have been a sad story for hospitality development. The new five-star luxury hotel venture in Karnal is filling this void...
MEGHA PAUL Haryana-
based Jewels Group of Hotels’ Noor Mahal is the first five-star property in Haryana outside the NCR. The group is eyeing the unsaturated market for generating hospitality business in the region. Elaborating on the development, Manbeer Singh Choudhary, CMD, Jewels Group said, “Haryana has 20 districts, including Gurgaon. That said, there is not a single five- star hotel in other 19 districts. Hence, we decided to develop the first five-star property between Delhi and Chandigarh.”
According to Chaudhary, who is also the former president of FHRAI, the new five-star luxury hotel venture is making a difference in the state’s hospitality and travel scenario.
Going forward, the group is keen to work with a larger pool of travel agents and tour operators. Interestingly, a bulk of the group’s bookings is via the B2B segment. “The travel agents, along with the tour operators, are not only important partners for Noor Mahal, but are also our proud associates. The networking ratio is 60:40 (travel agent versus networking websites). The feedbacks provided by the guests through online rating platform sites are also an additional boost of revenue generation,” the CMD pointed out.
Jewels Group of Hotels is attracting corporate travellers from the area. “We are targetting export and import houses in Karnal and Panipat. Also, Karnal is the basmati bowl of the country. The oil refinery at Panipat is also in the vicinity. Hence, we get great numbers of corporate clients from the region,” Choudhary informed. The hotel is well-equipped to boost the MICE segment. It offers one entire floor for conventions. “With an area of 40,000 sq feet, we offer one of the biggest convention spaces in the five-star hotel category. We have three inter-connected halls. The largest one among them has an area of 18,500 sq feet,” he claimed.
The group has also positioned itself as a transit destination on the way to Himachal Pradesh. The Karnal- based firm has also developed a wellness centre with spa facilities. “We have launched a health club and spa. With this, the hotel has been developed as a weekend destination for families from nearby areas such as Delhi who can visit us for spa treatments over weekends,” he added.