A thorough hospitality professional who decided to take the entrepreneurial plunge, Mehul Sharma, CEO & Founder, Signum Hotels & Resorts, is a man on a mission keen to up the hospitality game in India. The core vision of Signum Hotels and Resorts is to provide authentic experiences set in a background of comfortable and hidden luxury. The main focus is to offer affordable yet aspirational luxury where there is seamless integration with immersive inclusions. Here’s more on the journey of this hospitality veteran
Priyanka Saxena Ray
Please share with us a brief introduction about your background – how did you get into the field of hospitality education? Was it a conscious choice or an accidental entry?
My father was a Colonel in the Indian army so once I cleared my 12th, I had the options of NDA, Engineering and Hotels – I cleared all but chose to join the hospitality industry as hotels in India were booming at that time. Thus, I joined IHM Pusa and became the first generation hotelier in my family and I am quite happy about it.
What was your first Job (in which hotel and at what profile)?
My first job was as a management trainee wherein I got placed in my college with the Park Group of Hotels in front office, so I joined the Park Delhi and then moved on to work at the Park Kolkata.
How did you climb up the ladder?
I have primarily worked in TAJ ITC and Shangri-La and moved my way up from Operations to Sales for quicker growth. I have worked in all capacities from sales executive to heading a hotel.
Could you share with us details of some of the challenges you faced along the way?
Well, to be honest, I haven’t faced many challenges as I was always blessed with wonderful colleagues, bosses and subordinates and therefore I have enjoyed a very smooth professional and journey full of growth and development and learnings.
How did the idea of Signum Hotels come about? When and how did you conceptualize it?
This was in 2018. Actually, my first two businesses were in the fnb space, which took a huge capital until I realised that I should do what I am best at so we made a great team with industry stalwarts and started Signum Hotels and Resorts, which is a Latin word that means creating a mark. Thus, we launched this brand Signum and started taking hotels under Management agreements. Some of the properties that we manage today includes Camp Wild at Dhauj Bandh, Hotel Marigold, Jaipur, Woodville Palace Hotel, Shimla, Ferndale Apartments, Slough, Heathrow, Royal Imperio, Faridabad, The Peru Resorts, Dhanaulty and Zen Suites, Jasola
What Special changes would you now be implementing in light of the pandemic? How severely has your business been affected?
Well it has affected us as much as it has affected all others. However, the good part about it is that this time helped us in making our back-end very strong in terms of technology, food, central procurement, loyalty program, mobile app, green hotels, robotics, AI, etc. We are now getting extremely prudent of cost structure and enhancing our sales and distribution network. I believe guests want to stay in a place where the hotel does the thinking for them, offer fantastic spaces for them to relax, meet like-minded people and experience local cultures.
Do you have any new plans or policies or initiatives in the pipeline that you would be introducing in the near future?
Yes we will initiate a lot of CSR activities in future. Now since we have our own architect, we want to ensure that the hotels speak for the brand itself this is to ensure brand consistencies in terms of services /design. We would also like to explore possibilities for joint ventures and acquisitions and the only way to grow is to grow TOGETHER. We feel it is an open ground and we all should come together to help our fellow colleagues.
In this present COVID scenario, where people are scared to travel again, how is your company planning to address the trust and confidence issues amongst the consumers?
We have clearly listed down measures which we have taken in our hotels and this has gone to all our customers as newsletters – all our testimonials have been shared with our customers. Our top priority is ensuring that our team and staff feels safe and we are conducting a lot of sessions with team members who essentially are the front line warriors
Is there any more information that you would like to share with us?
We are on an expansion spree and would like to invite all standalone hotel owners to come work with us and to ensure they come out of this situation sooner than later.
