By The Japanese, For The Japanese

When Delhi's newest hotel was commissioned with a rack rate of Rs 8,300, it stirred up interest in the neighbouring hotels. Called the Metropolitan Hotel Nikko, and marking the debut of the first Japanese hospitality chain in India, it is located close to the central business district of Connaught Place, a location already crowded through the presence of Inter-Continental, Le Meridien, The Park, and the fully renovated Imperial hotels. All four hotels, with tariffs of Rs 7,500, Rs 8,000, Rs 7,500 and Rs 7,310 respectively are priced lower than the Metropolitan Nikko. Clearly, it's hoping to survive the market through innovative marketing.

 

You couldn't be more right. "We're a personality hotel," says Shashi Vagale, president-operations of the 178-room hotel, "looking predominantly at the business traveler, and within that segment, our inevitable focus is the Japanese business segment." Inevitable because Nikko Hotels is a subsidiary of Japan Air Lines and has an identifiably Japanese `face'.

The Japanese personality of the hotel comes through loud and clear. "We're looking at training 70 per cent of our staff in speaking Japanese. Non-verbal communication vis-a-vis the way in which a bill or newspaper is presented to a guest will conform to the Japanese tradition of bowing, for example. Our telephone exchange too is from NEC, Japan, rather than AT&T or Alcatel. But that's the USP of Nikko: it's international in character but addresses the specific needs of a Japanese guest."

In that sense, Nikko's is the most focused positioning of all the hotels in the Connaught Place area. Most others are of the business-cum-leisure category. As a cynical travel agent put it, "When there's a slump in the tourist market, they position themselves as business hotels, and when there's a recession, they throw open their doors to tourists." Nikko hardly falls in that slot. Very clearly they're about to give sleepless nights to a slew of hotels across the city where Japanese business has been a steady 15 per cent of total volume. Says Vagale, "Everyone knows how the Japanese traveler yearns for a touch of home when he's abroad. All this while hotels have catered to that need by providing Japanese breakfasts and Japanese newspapers on demand." Now, Nikko could end up raking in the total Japanese _- and by extension Korean _ business from the other Delhi hotels.

Not that the other hotels are about to give in without a fight. Responds Vasudha Sondhi, area director sales & marketing, Meridien Hotels, "We've been in the market for 10 years during which time we've worked very hard to build up a reputation and clientele. We're not assuming that they'll desert us just because there's a new entrant in town." The Inter-Continental is equally emphatic. "Just because the recession of the last two years has resulted in a downswing doesn't mean that the future is bleak." As for the threat posed by Nikko: "There needs to be a correlation between rooms available and people using them."

With Nikko gearing up to open its signature restaurant Sacra as a showcase of royal kaizeki cuisine, the competition is all set to hang on to its share of the pie.