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Renuka Vijay Kumar, Editor.

In my conversations with hoteliers, I have come to gather there are many issues that bother today’s hotelier. While we continue to hope that optimism will prevail the fact remains that some issues still bother a traveller - global economic patterns and global terrorism being just two of them.

While many have taken a bit of a beating due to several reasons, the ones that are staying afloat are the ones who are willing to innovate and experiment.

Faced by these challenges, hoteliers are looking to alternatives and innovative solutions that will help them meet their targets, and contribute to the eroding bottom lines.

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Out of the box solutions are often the ones that offer the best ROI. One such innovative trend to streamline operations and increase efficiency is outsourcing.

Outsourcing operations that are manpower or infrastructure heavy like health clubs and laundry will let the hotel do what it does best – concentrate on its services and live up to and even beyond the needs and demands of its guests.

Another option is the timeshare model. Internationally, hotels have realised the benefits of having mixed-use models on their inventories. In this month’s cover story we explored the advantages a mixed-use model can offer to hoteliers in difficult times.

The concept of time shares has been around for a while, with chains such as Marriott, Starwood and Hilton embracing the model and have successfully diversified into the vacation ownership business. But it is discouraging to see Indian hoteliers’ scepticism towards this option.

India is a diverse country with huge domestic potential. The untapped potential of the domestic business and leisure travel segment can be maximised through such a concept.

And the increasing number of timeshare owner will only testify the fact how fast is the industry growing. The seed has been sown.

The growth of the timeshare concept must be accelerated now to maximise returns. We can only beat the lows by taking charge and adopting innovative means to stay on top.