India was offering new opportunities of growth and development to hotel companies in it’s burgeoning tourism and hospitality sector at the turn of the new millennium. The industry saw several new entrants, some home grown and other including international hotel companies making aggressive pitch for a bigger slice of the new opportunity. The financial crisis of 2007-2008 tested most of the resolves and many caved. There were, and are, yet others who gloriously weathered the challenges and have come on top. The making of Clarks Inn Group of Hotels sits right at the top of this illustrious league of extraordinary growth stories on India’s hospitality horizon.
Clarks Inn Group of Hotels ventured in the business of managing hotels in 2006 with the opening of Clarks Inn Suites Pacific Mall in Ghaziabad in Delhi NCR. The company had its share of challenges in the first few years with limited growth. But patience, perseverance and hard work began to pay in the latter half with Clarks Inn today managing a portfolio of 75 hotel properties, including 40 in operation, across 16 states in India and one hotel in the neighbouring Nepal.
What’s makes this debut singularly unique is the sheer size and scale and industry response that the company has been able to achieve in a short span of 10 years that few can boast of. This meteoric growth of Clarks Inn Group of Hotels is creating a buzz in the industry across the country. Whether it is the decades old company or a new kid on the block, the level of excitement among the hotel companies is equally high to learn and know more about the company and its approach to business.
The man on the mission who is scripting one of the most exciting hotel industry growth stories of the times is S N Srivastava, President & Co-founder along with his boss Anoop Kumar, Managing Director, Clarks Inn Group of Hotels and one of the promoters of Clarks Group of Hotels, one of the oldest hotel companies in India. The docile and soft-speaking and unlike most of his ilk, Srivastava, draws attention to the fact that his company was the fastest in reaching 50 hotel portfolio, and currently at over 75 properties he is eyeing to clock the 100 hotel milestone by the end of 2017!
In business for just over 10 years, but with a legacy that pre-dates India’s independence, the Clarks Inn Group of Hotels is probably emerging as the biggest success story on India’s hospitality landscape.
The Shrewd-vastava Factor
Srivastava had joined Clarks Awadh, Lucknow, way back in 1979-80 and worked his way up across departments. It was chance telephone call that he received in 2004 to manage one of the hotels being developed at Ghaziabad in Delhi NCR that changed the course of his career. A shrewd professional, man of clear understanding and sound judgment that he is, Srivastava was quick to spot an opportunity that can shape up into something big. He not only took this proposal to his boss and one of the promoters of Clarks Group of Hotel, Anoop Kumar, but also convinced him to take up the new challenge. That hotel opened door in 2006 and with that began the journey of Clarks Inn Group of Hotels.
So what brought such growth in just over ten years? Srivastava, says, “the consistent approach and out of the box thinking.” “When starting a venture you have to go through a plenty of obstructions. However, with measured and consistent approach you are bound to succeed. No obstruction can prevent you from reaching your goal,” he says in simple terms but resolutely nevertheless, a trait often masked behind his soft and docile demeanour.