about hotel industry

1. Royal Orchid Hotels
BY :HARNOOR SINGH , PUJIT ,PIYUSH KOLI

2. Introduction of the owner
Mr. Chender Baljee
• BORN : SHIMLA
• AGE : 68 YEARS OLD
• QULAFICATION : B.COM & MBA [IIMA]
• HE CHOOSE FAMILY BUSINESS INSTEAD OF
JOB

3. • This is a Real story of Mr. Chender Baljee ,who worked hard
for three decades to establish “Royal Orchid’ a 150 crore
Hospitality Business
• Certain factors are really not under our control and sheer bad
luck may strike again and again leading to repeated failure.
• Repeated bad luck, litigation, strikes, debt, 9/11, SARS all
these factors delayed Baljee’s IPO happening by 21 years.
• Enormous amount of patience we need to keep for success to
come in our life.

4. Chender Baljee’s Journey of
Business
• Initially Mr. Baljee joined his father’s business
at Shimla, but left that very soon.
• Then he started a restaurant called “Fascination”
in Shimla.
• He started his first hotel as “Harsha”.
• He took the risk to start the hotel business in off-
season period.
• He subsequently started two restaurants and a
bakery

5. Challenges
• “Harsha” was doing well, but “Fire in belly”
compelled Mr. Baljee to do something more. He tried
to file his company’s prospectus for an IPO.
Unfortunately at the same time the market crashed.
His restaurants closed due to some lease issue. The
hotel staff went on strike. He has to sell his bakery
unit to meet the cash needs.
• Subsequently, the lease of Harsha hotel expired and
Baljee had to take bank loan to buy it. Baljee then bid
for a land near airport and after facing lot of ups and
down, he built a 5 star hotel.

6. • Simultaneously on family front he has to struggle
hard in terms of money as his son went to US for
education. All such situations forced Baljee to
borrow more and more money.
• Fortunately, in 2001 the Royal Orchid hotel was
finally launched but this to followed with
misfortune in terms of shock of 9/11. This
affected occupancy of hotels. He had debt to repay
and at the same time his two sons studying
abroad.

7. Steps taken to overcome
challenges
• Careful money management and cost control
helped in recovery. Baljee did everything in
honest manner, he never defaulted on any
financial institution payment or salaries to
employees.
• Honesty and good relation and his track record
allowed him to get loans at lower interest rates.
• 2003 gave Baljee success and ‘Royal Orchid
Central’ got its birth.
• In 2004 Baljee won the contract of the hotel
METROPOLE.

8. Introduction of company
• By 2004 turnover of Baljee’s company was 15-16 crores.
• In March 2007 , Royal Orchid Revenues stood at 125
crores and PAT (Profit after Tax) at Rs. 35 crores
• Baljee’s 27 year old son Arjun (Hotel management graduate
from Combell) is handling an independent project – setting
up a budget hotel chain called ‘PEPPERMINT’.
• His Younger son Keshav (24 year old, graduate of Wharton
and ISB) looks after new projects and sources deals.
•

9. LESSON LEARNED
• Calculated risk
• Be focused
• Always be motivated
• BE optimistic
• Always be honest to yourself and
people around you .

10. Advice to Young Entrepreneurs:
• Follow your passion and success will follow.
• Learn the business you want to get into for a
couple of years.
• Be prepared to make sacrifices.
• Enjoy your business; this will take care of
everything.