1. C o v e r S t o r y
Global Destinations Annual 201216
What is your group’s current
scenario in India and your expan-
sion plans?
We are 12 years old in India. Our
journey started in December 1999 with
the opening of the Goa Marriott
Resort, and subsequently we opened three properties over three
years - the Renaissance Mumbai Hotel, Marriott Executive Apart-
ments and the famous JW Marriott in Mumbai. However, our real
growth spurt started about a couple of years ago. Starting late
2009, we opened nine hotels and now we have an inventory of
3,200 rooms in India, across five brands - JW Marriott, Marriott,
Marriott Executive Apartments, Renaissance, and Courtyard by
Marriott. We already have 15 properties spread across the coun-
try. By March 2013 5 more are scheduled to open. These are
Courtyard by Marriott Kochi, Courtyard By Marriott Bhopal,
Courtyard By Marriott Chakan, JW Marriott New Delhi Aerocity
and Bengaluru Marriott Hotel Whitefield. We already have
signed quite a few contracts and are looking forward to grow rap-
idly across the country. We have aggressive growth plans and as
of now everything is on schedule.
Another Courtyard By Marriott in Pune (Chakan). This
means you will be having four properties in Pune. Is it a good
strategy?
Pune has great potential and our existing three properties are
showing positive growth. There’s also a lot of investment in the
city and corporate demand is continuously growing. This does
justify our having four hotels. Also in the long run all four hotels
will complement each other instead of competing.
You seem to be focusing on the
Courtyard brand.
Yes that’s true. Nearly five years
after the first Courtyard by Marriott
hotel had been opened in Chennai,
the mid-sized hotel brand has
become one of the fastest growing
among the five brands that is oper-
ational under our banner in India.
The Courtyards that we have in
India are significantly better than
what we would have in North
America. Over here, the Couryard
by Marriott are full-service hotels
which is not the case in America.
But that doesn’t mean we are neglecting the luxurious brands.
The premium luxury Ritz Carlton brand will soon be opened for
the Indian market. This is coming up in Bangalore and no doubt
there will be more. Another obvious city for Ritz is Mumbai and
Delhi as an option. JW Marriott and Renaissance (which is a
brand on a par with Marriott) brands are also in the pipeline.
You plan to launch another budget hotel brand Fairfield in
the Indian market. Do you think you will have more focus on
the budget brands?
We see opportunities across the board. But, when our Fairfield
brand is launched it may end up becoming the fastest growing
brand in India. Again, because it falls in a little lower segment and
is much easier to build and also can go to a lot more places than
even the Courtyard.
How do you plan to grow the brands in India?
Each brand is a clear guideline. Renaissance is a lifestyle
brand; Marriott is largely for business travel while JW Marriott is
understated luxury. We spend a considerable amount of time
studying the market first. That has helped us in a big way. In India
our growth is primarily driven by our 4 star brand - Courtyard and
will continue to bring in maximum revenues and near future so
would Fairfields. We will have a clearly defined strategy for each
brand, and try and execute that as we go forward.
You have properties in key metropolitan capitals but what
about the other upcoming Tier-II and III cities?
Any hotel brand differentiates itself by its products, location
and its people. While our top end brands will focus mainly on
state capitals, we certainly have plans to expand into smaller
towns and satellite cities across the
country. The upcoming Courtyard
hotels are likely to come up in
places such as Hyderabad, Bilaspur,
Kochi, Guwahati, Raipur, Ludhi-
ana, Shillong, Jalandhar, Bhopal
and Amritsar. The Fairfield Inn
brand will be unveiled in Tier-II
and III cities.
As guests are becoming more
and more health and fitness con-
scious what steps is your group
taking for a better wellness and
fitness experience?
“The thread that ties all our 18 brands together
is the Marriott Rewards loyalty programme”
With position comes more work and responsibility. This is absolutely true in the case of
Rajeev Menon who is Area Vice-President for India, Malaysia, Maldives and
Australia and is always airborne visiting these countries and also coordinating with the
company's regional headquarters in Hong Kong. Catching him looked a difficult task and so
we finally settled down to do a tele-interview, spread across two sessions, with Rajeev
Menon who spoke elaboratly with Chandragupta Amritkar. Excerpts