Wellness in Hospitality - Interview with Amitabh Rai

“Going forward, [we] will have to constantly innovate and adapt; we cannot sit back and take things for granted.” - Amitabh Rai

As regions begin to return to some sort of normal, it is great to see a relatively robust recovery in the luxury segment. While demand for luxury hotels will always be there, there is still concern that there will be a small downsizing of the segment as more midscale hotels pop up with fresh and exciting offerings at attractive price points. Right now, the battle is to remain relevant, to shift quicker than the competition and secure the small remaining luxury market. And as the big luxury brands fight it out amongst each other, they are also contending with the small players who offer unique, intimate experiences and can change course much quicker than their larger counterparts. The next few years will be very interesting and gruelling indeed - it truly is survival of the fittest (and those who run a tight and strategic ship).

For my next interview, I spoke with Amitabh Rai, an experienced general manager operating in Bengaluru, India.? Amitabh is passionate about creating future leaders through his work, and he shares a sharp realism and optimism for the future of hospitality that I’ve seen in many of the general managers I’ve interviewed thus far.

Interview highlights:

1. Continued reduction of supply

There is no denying that hospitality has shrunk worldwide. The rapid expansion efforts that were taking place before the pandemic inadvertently caused the over-supply that the industry is currently grappling with. Though hoteliers are competing tooth and nail for the available market, the stark truth is that there is just not enough demand to go around. The likelihood of business travel to resurge when vaccines are readily available is very high, yet this also may not be enough to sustain the industry. For starters, businesses have evolved and adapted to remote working quite well and this has led to cost savings for them. Secondly, studies have shown that the majority of professionals, who did travel for work frequently, now given an opportunity, prefer to reduce their work-related travel. As such, the supply of hotel rooms will continue to decrease over time as more work is done virtually.

2. Wellness in midscale hotels

Before the pandemic, wellness offerings were almost exclusive to the luxury segment. This was largely due to the fact that wellness was interpreted as having state-of-the-art spa facilities and little else and the consumer segment investing in wellness as part of their lifestyle was niche. Now, the tide has shifted. The awareness and need to invest in one’s wellness has spread and this consumer segment has grown. This has led to a very high demand for wellness services in midscale hotels as well. Midscale hotels have the opportunity to step up and offer unique experiences that cater to the mind, body and spirit of their guests. The only challenge ahead would be to price these services correctly. Traditionally, an hour in a hotel spa cost almost as much as a night in a standard room. Going forward, this pricing model has to shift. Wellness, like the rest of the hospitality industry, also needs to pivot.

3. Continuous innovation

One of the most humbling lessons we learnt from the pandemic is that we must always invest in constant innovation. The complacency of hospitality over the years has also been partially responsible for the industry’s undoing during this pandemic. Contrast this with the mobile phone industry, which looks very different now than it did only a decade ago. Players in the mobile phone industry continuously pushed the boundaries of what they could achieve, even when they did not have to. Customers were not demanding higher quality cameras or smartwatches to go with their phones, and yet these things have become part of people’s lives now. However, the hospitality industry was comfortable with the traditional revenue models and the need for innovation was sidelined. There is a silver lining to this crisis: hotels are now evolving to alternative revenue streams and so we may yet experience seismic innovation in the industry.

The key takeaway for me in this interview was to stay dynamic. Keeping one’s finger on the pulse, constantly adapting especially in times of abundance is the key to surviving difficult times.?

I am immensely grateful to Amitabh for his priceless insights.

Thank you to everyone who has been following this series and engaging in the constructive discussions in the comments section. If you are a hotel general manager, hotel owner or investor and you are interested in being part of my Wellness in Hospitality interview series, direct message me here on LinkedIn. Please note responses may take a couple of days due to increased interest to put wellness at the core of hospitality.