Patience is a virtue – in service industry patience is the key, for anything that needs to be done effectively and efficiently; we all need to be patient, says Rohit Bajpai, General Manager, Courtyard by Marriott Siliguri. Excerpts.
Q. Give us a short background of your journey in this industry?
A. I was an alumnus of IHM Mumbai, being true to my name ‘Rohit’, I have a reservoir of inspired wisdom combined with inherited analytical ability which is thoroughly rewarding through expressions of spiritual leadership, business analysis, innovative marketing, artistic visions and scientific research based solutions.
I bring two decades of experience in hotel management and operations. I am competent and result-driven hotelier carrying over 20 years of functional managerial experience with a strong F&B backed career.
Through outgoing leadership, innovative staff management, honest handling in the development of friendly and respectful relationships, effective sales force administration, sales closing with vivid customer types, negotiation skills with a lot of initiative were used to solve problems efficiently and achieve the goals set at ITC Hotels in Mumbai, Bangalore & Hyderabad respectively; Shangri-La in New Delhi and Hilton and Radisson hotels in Goa and New Delhi.
My roles included pre-opening and brand conversion of hotels, opening of 3 hotels in a variety of roles; Pre-Opening General Manager, Pre-Opening Hotel Manager & Pre- Opening Restaurant Manager.
Q. What are some important lessons that you learnt from your experience?
A. Patience is a virtue: In service industry patience is the key, for anything that needs to be done effectively and efficiently; we all need to be patient. It is said that many problems or unforeseen events can be resolved if a person is patient. In fact, patience is important almost in all the aspects of life and at the same time patience evolves your behavior at the professional level.
Communication: Communication is a key in hospitality or service industry as it is a very fast- paced environment where one has to deal with multiple situation at a given point of time or frequently on a daily basis, hence it is always important for an individual to pass the accurate and relevant information to the concerned department or to the guest efficiently.
Never give up: Life is ever so fascinating, which gives wonderful opportunities and challenging situations at the same time. Hence, may it be an opportunity or the difficult of situations, one should seek perfection from its experience to execute or handle the situation diligently.
Q. What changes did you initiate after taking charge of Courtyard by Marriott Siliguri
as GM of the property?
A. Encourage or socialize the ideas: I listed to the people and appreciated the small ideas coming from the employees at different levels.
Engage with the people: I always prefer to interact with each and every colleague working at the hotel; this provides more confidence to the individual or the team as a whole which enables to express his/her or the team’s caliber on a consistent basis.
Regular meetings: Briefing is an integral part of team management where each one of us contributes to analyze the team’s progress and add values to overall growth of individual’s performance
Q. How do you keep the morale of your team running high especially during high
pressure moments?
A. Sometimes it is very difficult to talk to every team member personally, but I try to have maximum interaction individually, which motivates and inspire the team to take on any high pressure moments
Q. What revenue-enhancing strategies have you adopted at the property?
A. There are a number of strategies that we have adopted.
Hotel direct booking strategy and social media marketing: The aim of direct booking strategy is to maximize online direct booking as much as possible, as these booking provide direct revenue to the hotel which doesn’t involve any commission. In addition to that, we have our focus more on the social media marketing as people are spending larger amount of their time on social media, hence higher engagement on social media leading to higher business opportunities.
Revenue management strategy: We have highly motivated and experienced revenue team, working on innovative sales strategies to entice different business segments, which results in driving maximum revenue to the hotel.
Cross promotional strategy: We assess and participate in various events, business conferences and expeditions, which takes place in the local market or at the national/international level leveraging our global presence. Such opportunities result in maximum brand visibility, lead generation, influx of bookings and brand awareness.
Q. Have you noticed any latest trend in your state? Kindly throw some light on your plans for the year ahead, any special package or discount for B2B partners?
A. West Bengal is a land known for its vivid culture, festivals and cuisines. This opens enough doors for us to explore various need-based packages revolving around multiple festivals, the famous ‘Poila Boisakh’ and ‘Durgo Pujo’ to name a few.
