Ajay Mehtani
Dynamic Pricing, Perishability, Decoupling in India’s Service Industry
Ajay Mehtani | October 20, 2020
By Ajay Mehtani We have heard these words often enough while discussing pricing, revenue management and demand management in our industry. We try and analyze our current approach and what the future may entail in case we wish our hotels to improve yields. In some of our previous articles we discussed the need for the hotels sector to measure revenues per square foot as an industry benchmark for total revenue management. In this article we are initiating a discussion about pricing power & revenue management. Airlines have been leading on dynamic pricing in the services sector The aviation industry has the most advanced dynamic p...
The Onus Lies With Us – Rebuilding Trust to Get Back Guests to Eat & Stay With Us!
Ajay Mehtani | September 21, 2020
By Ajay Mehtani, Dipti Mohan After a prolonged lockdown, our industry is gradually picking up the threads and rekindling operations with one of the immediate tasks being rebuilding guest confidence and trust. This is easier said than done as the guests are more cautious than ever and are watching closely! No amount of third-party certification will get you a repeat purchase if the guest does not feel ‘safe’ within your premises. You may have the most attractive offers, best revenue management practices, the best food and the best of everything else, however, if the guests don’t feel ‘safe’ then you have offered your hard-to-ge...
Improving Hotel ROI – Thinking Out of Box From Design to Operations
Ajay Mehtani | August 31, 2020
By Ajay Mehtani As an industry there is a need to make hotels more viable. The pandemic has taught us to rethink in this direction and develop hotel assets that can drive higher ROI. It can only be done when we look at making changes from Design to Operations. Ideally, we should make changes to the industry status, compliance cost and interest cost, however, as these are policy matters, we cannot do much ourselves. Meanwhile, cost of construction, cost of operations i.e. the largest expenses related to utilities and manpower, are aspects that can be controlled by the hotel investors, brands and operating teams effectively. Below are a f...
Why Professional Asset Management Adds Value to Hotel Investors?
Ajay Mehtani | August 24, 2020
By Ajay Mehtani & Dipti Mohan The role of a professional Asset Manager has traditionally been underplayed in India, even though the expertise brought in by a quality Asset Manager can yield great results for Investors. This is already a proven fact in several mature markets where Hotel Investors extensively use their services. The role of the Asset Manager has become even more crucial in the current times of uncharted waters. How do professional Asset Managers add value to Hotel Investors? Asset Managers work with owners to maximize the asset value and potential by optimizing operational efficiencies to deliver better ROI. ...
Marketing in Uncharted Waters – The COVID Era
Ajay Mehtani | May 22, 2020
By Ajay Mehtani It’s a tough world, a difficult & unprecedented situation as the hospitality sector is on a standstill globally! So, should Marketing Spends be put on hold during this time? Should we all go home and hope to return when demand picks? No. There is no denying the fact that this pandemic has affected all aspects of our lives and changed the way we conduct our businesses. The Marketing teams also need to embrace this change to make their content and messaging relevant for the current scenario. Some of the factors that the Marketing, Revenue & Sales Teams should consider during these unprecedented times include: ...
Will Ancillary Revenues Become Primary Revenues in the COVID Era?
Ajay Mehtani | May 6, 2020
By Ajay Mehtani HVS ANAROCK spoke about ancillary revenues in early 2019 and the concept of focusing on Revenue Per Square Feet at our HOPE conference again in Bengaluru in August last year – thus, initiating a dialogue with the industry on the concepts of Total Revenue Management. When the times are good, Ancillary Revenues seem very small and we let the opportunity pass by, as the effort does not add up to the return! Yes, any new product or innovation starts small. For instance, let’s take the example of the food delivery industry. Frost & Sullivan estimated the global food delivery industry to be worth $82 billion in terms o...
Hotel Operations in the COVID Era
Ajay Mehtani | April 16, 2020
By Ajay Mehtani and Dipti Mohan Social distancing has become a norm in today’s COVID-19 world and hotels need to re-evaluate and update their SOPs to adapt to this change. HVS has prepared this document to help hoteliers in the planning process regarding the formulation of SOPs on how to operate their hotels once the lockdown has been lifted. We strongly recommend that hotels always follow the guidelines provided by the Health Department and the state and central Government, including guidelines on maintaining records etc. based on local authority requirements, to formulate their SOPs. The first step is to make a Guest Booklet or C...
