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Deepak Manocha.

As Marriot opens its new Courtyard property in Pune, area vice president Rajeev Menon, general manager Deepak Manocha and owner of the property Atul Chordia outline how the hotel plans to succeed during difficult economic conditions.

MARRIOT HOTELS AREA VICE PRESIDENT
Associated for more than eight years with Marriot group, Rajeev Menon came to India two years ago and set up his base in Mumbai from where he controls four important regions —India, Pakistan, Maldives and Malaysia.

Menon is very actively involved with 24 new properties that Marriot will be launching between now and 2012. Recently the company opened its mid-market brand Courtyard by Marriot at Hinjewadi in Pune.

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“Hinjewadi is remained very viable business option from an international branded hotel point of view. There is no other hotel in this market and customers had to travel 16 km into Pune to stay. Pune like India is a decade long growth story, says Menon.

He says the city of Pune has become an important destination for many global business houses thanks to the completion of Pune express highway. “We are seeing big players like HSBC, Barclays and Volkswagen setting up shops here, some of them at Hinjwadi,” says Menon.

But the city is already facing an oversupply situation which has resulted into drop in average room rates for hotels.

“The rate we have opened the hotel with is Rs8500 which is part of our Marriot 10-year celebration. Customer can use Rs1500 in many which ways in food and beverage and other parts of the hotel. We have not seen price resistance at that level. It’s a well priced product for the market and we are very confident that it’s going to do well,” he says.

As India is witnessing growing demand for mid-market products, the brand Courtyard by default is seen to be perfect fit for the market. “You can say that but, for us, we have huge machinery that does lots of research and business analysis about market before entering. So I don’t think excellence is by default, you got to work on it.”

Given the India’s huge potential, a number of companies have started to look at the domestic market. “We realised that the demand trend is changing in India. So we launched a very extensive 10-year campaign which is targeted to various market segments,” he says.

Menon thinks they have a very structured approach towards the expansion in India. “We have gone to gateway cities and then expanded to secondary locations. Our focus is pan India and across our five brands. But Courtyard is just a natural fit in the most markets across the country.”

The company’s expansion has not suffered much due to the recession as lots of these hotels were planned almost three years ago. “So when the global recession came, we are closed to completion.”

He admits that about 10-15% of the project actually has not started and that can be pushed back a bit but other projects are happening on time.

COURTYARD PUNE GENERAL MANAGER
Deepak Manocha was part of the pre-opening team at the JW Marriot in Mumbai. Now Manocha has been entrusted with the responsibility to navigate the second Courtyard in India. But he takes charge at a time when the Pune market is facing oversupply.

“Yes, there are lots of talks about an oversupply in the market but we have to wait to see how many of them really see the light at the end of the day.”

He says the rates in the market has more or less stabilised. “We hope with our quality service, we will be able to have a good start and then build it up step by step.”