Redefining luxury

As he now looks northwards, CGH Earth's Dominic recalls how luxury was redefined during his journey

Life usually refuses to go the way you planned it. Out of Loyola college in Chennai and working for A.F. Ferguson’s in Mumbai, Jose Dominic had his life charted out. The West beckoned and he was set to leave for Dubai or the United States with his wife in tow to make a career for himself in consulting and tax advisory.

 
But life had other plans. The eldest of five brothers, a sudden illness of his father’s forced Dominic to come back to Cochin (now Kochi) in 1977-78 to take charge of the family business (his siblings were still studying). Dominic’s father – who was a feudal farmer – had set up the Casino restaurant and added 30 rooms to make it into a full fledged hotel on Willingdon island.
 
The Bangaram Island Adventure
 
It was business as usual till the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi (1987) went to Lakshwadeep’s Bangaram island for a holiday. Post his trip there, the government decided to privatize the only resort on the island.
 
Although all the big boys of the industry had decided to bid, Dominic also decided to give it a shot. He didn’t think he had much of a chance (against the Oberois, Taj, Leela and other large groups) but the advertisement asking for expression of interest said that all those who expressed interest would be taken across to the island by helicopter. “Reaching Bangaram in those days could take weeks by ship. The fact that those who expressed interest would be ferried by chopper decided it for me”, says he.
 
Dominic – like most others - couldn’t quite believe what he saw. The island was spectacular - virgin to the extent that it looked like no human had stepped there before. White sandy beaches, wild greenery – nature at its pristine best.  
 
The government property was pretty run down and barring the few cottages renovated for the Gandhi family visit, it was largely unlivable. A senior government officer accompanying them casually asked the interested parties what they would do with the property and many of them came up with suggestions that would cost several crores of investment.
 
At the time (1988), even Rs 1 crore was not a sum Dominic could conceive of - let alone raise comfortably - so he knew he had to come up with a proposal that could be implemented in lakhs. So he took a big gamble and said he’d re-commission the hotel in three months and would keep it as close to nature as possible. “I promised to make minimum changes, play around as little as possible with the natural surroundings and yet offer something that would be a marked improvement over what was on offer”, said he. Most of the bigger boys said they would need time to do a feasibility study – grander plans with large sums of money, time, granite and marble.
 
Call it a reflection of the simplicity of the times but it was Dominic’s proposal that struck home. His simple proposal won the bid for the country’s first island resort at Bangaram for 25 years.
 
Back in Delhi, the then tourism secretary S.K. Mishra was aghast that an unknown group had been given the contract and he was convinced it would fail. To make sure that the government’s neck was not on the line and nobody said that the government has not put in enough safeguards, he put the strictest ecological conditions – about carrying capacity, how much water could be used, waste disposal and so on. In a way that turned out to be the biggest blessing for the project and it set the tone for the Casino group for the future.
 
Dominic had given a commitment that the hotel would reopen the day the Agatti airport started functioning – three months from the time he won the bid so he was working against time. To make it happen, Casino group took the biggest loan it had  ever taken – Rs 25 lakh from Indian Bank (given by the bank more on trust than anything else; he didn’t even have a project report to offer).
 
On 18^th December, 1988, the hotel opened and the advertised features were the absence of “telephone, television, newspapers, air conditioning, hot water, room service, multi cuisine restaurant” and present was “nature in its most pristine form”. “Although at the time all this came more as a measure of protection, not as a new business idea. From this grew the business idea,” says he.
 
When they had to price the hotel, they found their clientele were mostly people coming from overseas (choosing Bangaram over Maldives), staying a night at the Oberoi in Mumbai, taking an Avro flight from Mumbai to Cochin and spending one night at Cochin, then taking the Vayudoot flight from Cochin to Agatti the next day and finally reaching the resort by boat. Most of the people stayed in Mumbai at the Oberoi Towers (newly opened in 1986) and paid US $ 180 for it. So, they decided to price themselves at US $ 180 a night. “If the clients could pay that much en-route, they could pay it for the final destination. That was our logic”, says he.
 

Everyone – the travel trade and agents in particular – were aghast. The Oberoi was after all the Oberoi and Casino was an unknown group. Moreover, they were offering glitter, marble, chandeliers, the works – a virtual palace - while they were offering mud and thatch. How could they price themselves on a par?

But the gamble paid off. Visitors – a largely foreign clientele - who came to the Bangaram island resort in fact left feedback that they should not change a thing but were free to double the price if they liked!
 
The rest as they say is history. By 2009, the resort sold at US $ 450 a night but it was hard to get a room. From only Vayudoot at some point, Kingfisher, Air India and for a while NEPC came in with aircraft. From a drought of seats, it became a flood and the Bangaram Island resort was a rocking hot spot. The Casino group soon paid off its loan and ran the resort successfully for 20 years.
 
Bangaram Shows The Way
 
Bangaram taught Dominic one thing : luxury has a new definition -  it’s not ostentation but the experience that matters. “The new learning was our biggest gain”. With that in 1991, they set up Spice Village in Thekkady – a tribal village in a spice garden - with the same principles : indigenous, maintaining the local architecture, no television or air conditioning and in harmony with nature. Staff wore lungis. In 1991, to build 37 rooms cost Rs 1.2 crore. The Spice village became an extraordinary success in a very short time. It was the first resort investment in Kerala outside the government and outside the big cities. In fact when villagers in the Thekaddy region saw how successful Spice village was, many me-too products came up and also became immensely successful.
 
That gave Dominic the confidence that this new thinking was the way to go. At around the same time, many locals (the Gulf boom was paying out) were breaking down their old, heritage houses and building concrete, mosaic and modern (albeit uglier) structures for themselves. Dominic spotted an opportunity and he bought up the old houses at a throw away price (barely Rs 2-3 lakh per house). He transported around 40 houses to the backwaters and in 1993 set up Coconut Lagoon - an assembly of old Tharawad houses of Kerala - including a house that belonged to the first Communist chief minister of the state EMS Namboodripal. The principles of Bangaram were maintained in the new property : preservation of local architecture, harmony with the local environment and community and as close to nature as possible.
 
1994 was the year of the Surat plague and tourism – both into India and Kerala – from overseas took a sharp beating. But it was the year that “India discovered India”. Liberalisation had happened and some disposable income had come into the hands of the Indians. “Normally by December the foreigners would have booked up all the rooms. But now these were going empty”. Discounts to lure local tourists were offered and Coconut Lagoon became an extraordinary success – even among the Indians.
 
From there, Dominic continued his expansion slowly – with the same principles guiding him - within the state (he now has 19 properties in Kerala and a few in Tamil Nadu). Over a period of time he added house boats, Marari beach resort (fishing village style), the colonial themed Brunton Boatyard in Fort Kochi (opened in 2000) and the most recent addition Wayanad Wild.
 
Around 2004, the group decided the name “Casino” made no sense anymore. “Neither are we a casino, nor do we want to be one”. Moreover, on the Internet, those who wanted a casino were disappointed and those who didn’t were put off. The group wanted to change the name to Earth – to represent its core values and philosophy but was advised that it needed a pre-fix. That’s where CGH (Casino group hotels) Earth came about – although Dominic argues that CGH in his mind stands for clean, green and healthy.
 
In 2004, a Palakkad princess who owned a palace invited Dominic to take up her property that was “falling on their head” and asked him to refurbish and run it. But she had three conditions. One, no one had ever eaten meat in their house. Nor had alcohol ever been drunk within its walls and moreover even when Lord Willingdon had visited, her grandfather had to request him to take off his shoes as leather was not acceptable. What kind of hotel bars meat, wine and shoes ! The Casino group head thought about it, took the palace on lease and converted it to an Ayurveda hotel – again an experience.
 
In some sense, Dominic says the growth of their group is closely linked with the rise of Kerala’s own evolution as God’s Own Country. Both Kerala and his properties are more geared for the “alert, independent traveller” – one who is concerned with the impact of his travel - than the “sun, surf and sand” traveler – the latter accounting for 90 per cent of the population of travellers worldwide. The good news is that the first category is growing.
 

As he now eyes states more to the north, it is Madhya Pradesh with its rich tribal culture that has caught his attention. That’s where the CGH Earth group is likely to leave its first mark outside its home state. A new journey is on the cards.

By 2009, the resort sold at $450 a night and despite the high price-point, it was hard to get a room. From a drought of airlines going to the island, it became a flood and the Bangaram Island resort was a rocking hot spot