Home / PEOPLE / Hospitality Trends / Dusit forecasts a successful Indian venture

Harsh Varma, Dusit Bird's man in charge of Indian growth

The first D2 outside Thailand is also scheduled to open in India (in New Delhi’s DIAL hospitality district); “That just shows the criticality and importance we show the Bird Group,” emphasises Varma.

Staffing will be done locally to a great extent, but the initial transfer of training and soft technology will come from Thailand. “It’s important we set this up very well from day one. Just because you were working with a large domestic or international chain does not mean you can fit into the Dusit environment, therefore, the mind shift will come through training and exposure” he says.

India and Thailand are both countries that have a tradition of hospitality and rich culture as their legacies. So will the Dusit offerings in India be uniquely Thai? “It will be uniquely Indo-Thai,” he corrects.

“It has to be – there is so much in those two cultures, and we have an opportunity to take both these cultures and traditions and combine them. And I’m at an advantage here between both these countries, because, while I’m proud to be Indian, I have lived for several years in Thailand,” he smiles.

The sobering issue of the worsening scenario of security raises its ugly head. Hotels are very soft targets, and, while in hospitality it is not exactly hospitable to conduct a stop-search on guests, it is very necessary to protect not only staff and customers, but also the investment.

Varma says in Thailand certain hotel chains have now imposed security measures, but not in an in-your-face manner, however, in India one faces different challenges, where one has to be public about having these systems in place, rather than be subtle and go wrong.

“No hotel in the world that can prepare itself for an eventuality like this. You cannot create yourself into a fortress. I am still trying to find a way where I can minimise the jolt,” he says.

Story continues below

Advertisement

COMMENT Comment on this article

Asked whether he would share his ideas for security measures with other hoteliers he says: “It’s conceptual at this stage; I have no hesitation in sharing when it’s crystallised and implemented, because then its public domain.”

He does believe that hotels should collaborate and integrate with each other. Certain services can be contracted and it is common in Thailand, and many parts of Europe and America, to outsource; for example, he says laundry, which is a huge investment, is outsourced in several hotels in Thailand and Indonesia.

“You have to keep evolving, and for that, there should be a synergy. Networking is very critical for any industry but especially so for hospitality,” says Varma.

We now move on to discussing the USP of the brand, and what Dusit brings to India, that isn’t already here. According to Varma, the Dusit Devarana brand itself speaks differently to different people, so it would be difficult to put a specific USP to it. “The investment that Dusit has made in its brand in the last 40 odd years is a learning curve. It has stood the test of time and created a niche for itself. There’s already so much here that it would be incorrect to say it’s a new offering, but what they bring to India will be enormously different from what exists here already.

I understand the strengths of Indian hospitality and the strengths the Dusit has created, and I begin to visualise what it will offer. I think what the other chains offer is terrific, but I’m saying ours will be better,” he says a trifle naughtily.

As to pricing levels for the hotel, he says pricing is related to what’s happening at the given time, for instance, there was a time when Delhi did Rs20,000 which then dipped to Rs12,000, in terms of average RevPAR. Varma is sanguine about this; “As we get close to opening, I would say I’d like to be the leader in RevPAR,” he says.

When asked to name the top five challenges he perceives in the Indian market, Varma chuckles and asks: “Only five?” and then gets down to business. The first, according to him would be, in this sea of manpower, to get the persons who suit both the Indian environment as well as the Dusit brand environment.

Secondly, the race to complete the project the way they need to, and on time - although the latter is a challenge for any project in the world, at the moment in New Delhi there is so much pressure on due to the Commonwealth Games he says, that all the contractors and suppliers are stretched, therefore, to open a hotel in this environment presents a different sort of challenge.

Third on his list is infrastructure, and the way it exists, although he sees a growth prognosis in Delhi. The fourth challenge he perceives is the continued availability of materials and resources, and lastly, would be the growth in the industry itself.

“There are many more hotels coming in; every new or existing brand will make its own proposition and profess to be the best, which is perfectly natural. We don’t pretend to take anything away from them, they have their own brand standards.

We all know the uniqueness of Thai hospitality, and nobody in India is a stranger to Indian culture and tradition; once we’re able to combine these two elements, we have a winning bet.

I don’t want to take away anything from the other companies, I think Indian hospitality is fabulous, but I think we will succeed in redefining how luxurious hospitality is looked at in India. The challenges are huge, but I love challenges.”

I take him up on that by asking him how he ranks the incoming Thai competition making a beeline for Indian shores; Amari and Anantara have both announced their plans for the market.
Varma sidesteps that one neatly by saying that the competition are good hospitality organisations.

“I always have a very healthy respect for my competitors; I learn from what they are doing and do it better. It’s all an opportunity - you see it as a threat only when you do not possess enough drive in you to meet the challenge. I think Dusit will emerge the winner,” he concludes confidently.