Hotel President gets a makeover

The Taj group of hotels may pride itself over its "contemporary yet Indian" feel. However, the changes in Indian corporate sector in the last few years have forced the hospitality behemoth to introduce a series of changes in the way it does business.

The latest of the company's endeavours to survive among tougher competition are the changes it introduced to the 'President' Hotel "" one of the oldest in the 71-hotel line-up.

After keeping two of its floors closed for nearly three months, the hotel has just reopened its 38 guest rooms, but without the European curtains, room carpets, sofas or even a bathtub.

"We realised that the new business travellers do not have much time to roll about in a tub," said Jyoti Narang, chief operating officer for Taj business hotels, new division that takes care of the 23 hotels where business travellers make up for most of the guests.

The company has, over the nearly two-and-a-half years, involved about 2,500 guests in studies, interviews and experiments.

"While it was necessary to stay true to the Taj spirit of providing an Indian experience to its customers, we had to make sure that we are also up to the mark in providing what the new breed of business travellers needs," she said.

The new introductions include 32-inch LCD TVs, surround sound systems with a special port for hooking up to your personal music player, a notebook safe complete with a charger inside, wireless internet for laptops and hand-helds, standing glass-cabinet shower with 'massage heads' and the latest 'scientifically' designed chairs to keep that body-ache away.

"During our surveys, we found that 71 per cent of the respondents had facility to receive wireless internet on their laptops while no less than 93 per cent wanted an LCD TV which they could even hook up to their computer in the room," said Rohinton Commissariat, manager - sales and marketing, who oversaw the surveys.

But the makeover is not just about introducing new technology, as Rohinton found out to his surprise.

Amazingly, many of his customers voted overwhelmingly for Indian sensibilities over the five-star affliction for European aesthetics.

"For example, we have replaced carpet floors with wood or marble," said Narang, "because we found that in Indian weather, guests did not appreciate the stuffy feeling of carpeted floors. Another one was the colour scheme... whereas it is more or less accepted among five-star hotels to stick to the earthy European decor while doing up rooms, we found that guests responded much better to warmer Indian colours."

Other 'value-neutral' changes involved replacing the sofa with a single chair, giving customers the option of having feather, sponge or cotton pillows, introduction of brightly-done up restaurants and bars, better reading lights etc.

The President is among the seven business hotels currently undergoing renovation with the company taking up work on the other rooms during the summer. Taj has completed around 25 per cent of its renovation targets, with Bangalore division nearing completion.