THIS ARTICLE IS POWERED BY
-B Swaminathan
Enhancing the customer experience, keeping profits and tackling the digital waves are the key challenges of the hoteliers in Udaipur. As many as 30 hoteliers across Udaipur and surrounding regions joined together to express their views in an event organized by KitchenHerald.com.
Rupam Sarkar, General Secretary of the United Hoteliers of Udaipur, kick-started the session by introducing the association and its activities. “We formed the community for the wellbeing of the fraternity and we look forward to increase our base through various training and ensuring livelihood for everyone in the industry”, he said.
The event had presentations from the two industry leading brands, viz. JK Masale and Blue Star India. Lakhan Brhambhatt, HORECA Manager, JK Masale, Jaipur spoke on the history of JK Masale and how they have a reach in the Rajasthan market. He also addressed the questions asked by various participants on how their product can enhance the customer experience through taste.
The second session was handled by Blue Star India. The team spoke in large about the various product ranges of Blue Star India and their value chain in the entire hospitality sector.
The discussion was around various topics which are trending in the market. However, most of the hoteliers expressed views on how the market had evolved post COVID. “The customers are expecting many things at better rates. Today, consumer experience is the need of the hour. Many consumers have lot of options and to impress them, we need to innovate”, said a participant who also added that in the coming days, more innovation around the customer is needed. On the disruptions around the job market post COVID, a participant raised concerns where many staff left the job to move out of the industry.
On the other hand there were discussions around the ways organizations can cut costs. Asked if providing breakfasts at free of cost could be a viable solution, many disagreed as they felt that it would create more chaos in the market if that becomes the USP for one.
Another one main concern everyone raised were the quality of the standards of the educational institutions. “Many institutions do not aim at producing quality standard of people. As many professors themselves do not aim at bringing quality students ended up with not meeting up what is expected in the market”, one participant raised concern.
Reviews:When the discussion turned around the reviews, many shared their various experiences. While few had a fellow hotelier behaving weird as a guest in other hotel, many also expressed their growing concerns with the social media trends. “We need to create a mechanism to address this issue. This menace is growing and this trend is likely to increase. The hoteliers need to come up with a counter-operative mechanism to tackle the ‘digital war’ waged against them”, a participant said. Some hoteliers also shared how they felt embarrassed when someone films them even while casually talking. “When someone purposely tries to film us with the only intention on a note to publicly shame us, we should also do our best to replicate the same not to shame them but to protect us with a proof”, a hotelier shared who had started this as a practice.
Post the discussion, representatives from JK Masale and BlueStar India spoke on how their product can enhance their customer experience, in line to whatever had been discussed in the event.
The event was concluded with the finishing note from UB Srivastava, President of the association.
