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When you hold a party at a luxury hotel, you surely don’t want it to feel like a homely affair. Or do you? If it is a richly appointed mansion that you have in mind, then perhaps you wouldn’t have a problem telling your guests, “Please feel at home.” And that’s what Hyatt Regency Delhi plans for you.
“There are many people who would like to impart that feel of home to their events,” says Aseem Kapoor, general manager of the hotel. He is talking about the hotel’s new event space, called The Mansion, which as the name suggest is built around the concept of a high-end home, only on a hugely larger scale. An oval glass menagerie with a plush carpet in pastel hues, a scintillation of russet glows for a chandelier and a ceiling lined with acoustic fibre to absorb noise, of course, isn’t your idea of home. But as Kapoor explains, the facility mimics a home, right from a hallway adorned with objets d’art and a sea-urchin of a chandelier to a plush, but familiar, washroom, a kitchen in the vicinity and cozy nooks.
The Mansion — which can be a conference room, banquet hall or a ballroom — stands out for many defining features. The glass walls around the Oval Room — the main 16,000 square feet area — bathe the spacious expanse in daylight. The fine copper mesh on the glass slabs reduces the sun’s glare, while imparting a bronze sheen in the evening sun. The filigree-like chandelier is complemented by recessed mood lighting that can change colours to suit the theme of the event, say from a darkish red hue that aids cocktail conversations to a warm yellow during dinner.
The home aspect lies in the array of open-show kitchens on the left of the oval space. Have a party at The Mansion and you will not subject your invitees to queues in front of the ubiquitous bain-maries laden with food carted in from the Hyatt’s restaurants. There, right in front of your guests, the hotel’s chefs will turn out multi-cuisine specialities from Peking duck to penne all’arrabbiata to Chaap Taazdar. Lined by beautiful white and black marble from China, the kitchens are fitted with spiffy Marrone cooking suites and wood-fired and duck ovens from Australia. A wooden wall separates the kitchen area from the event space and prevents wafts of sizzling kebabs from reaching the conference delegates or revellers. This wall withdraws fully to open up the kitchen area at chow time.
Unlike in most five-star banquet halls, The Mansion has thoughtfully set aside a room, designated the vedi, for marriage functions that require the sacred fire to be lit. It is fitted with a special exhaust system. There the bride and groom may circumscribe the matrimonial flame without fear of setting off the smoke alarms or disrupting the air conditioning.
The Mansion will open for customers from July. In addition, by the end of the year, the complex will have seven smaller meeting rooms on a floor above the Oval Room. These rooms, collectively called the Living Room, will facilitate more intimate gatherings and can be accessed through what is now the Indian restaurant Aangan, which will be closed down.
The menu you choose will pretty much determine the cost of your “homely” gathering at The Mansion. However, an indicative minimum would be Rs 4,500 per person. Also, the hotel will not recommend The Mansion to you if your guest list does not have at least 400 people on it. The Oval Room can host around 400 people for a sit-down banquet and up to 650 people for a reception. If needed the existing ballrooms, which lie adjacent to The Mansion, can be opened up to accommodate another 500 people.
Much thought has gone into giving Hyatt Regency’s new facility domestic contours. In time perhaps, as Kapoor hopes, The Mansion will endear itself to party and event organisers as a home away from home.
