He is a complete hospitality professional who can undoubtedly be termed as the “opening expert” considering his active participation in the pre-opening teams of almost five hotels in the last decade. Mohammed Shoeb, Associate Vice President, Pride Plaza Hotel Aerocity, New Delhi, is a veteran in the industry with vast experience, acute business acumen and the perfect humane touch necessary to carve a niche in the field of hospitality. Here’s a look at his business journey in an exclusive chat with BOTT India.
Priyanka Saxena Ray
An IHM pass out who has gradually worked his way to the top and worked for every merit that has come his way, Mohammed Shoeb is a passionate hotelier, who doesn’t believe in tough times pulling him down. Starting his career as a mere Associate at Holiday Inn Crown Plaza New Delhi way back in 1988, Shoeb has been concomitant with numerous hospitality chains over the years – wearing different hats and adding more and more experience to his kitty.
Mohammed Shoeb has been a GM since 2005 and from 2005 to 2015 he has opened as many as five hotels – with different brands and at different locations. The first Hotel that he opened as a GM was with the ITC Welcom Group – the Fortune Murli Park in Vijayawada wherein he was also awarded the GM of the Year Award by the ITC Welcom Group for his performance. After a couple of years, he opened Four Points by Sheraton in Vishakhapatnam before moving on to the Accor Group in 2010 and opening the Novotel Varun Beach in Vishakhapatnam in 2011. He was the first Indian GM ever to be hired with the Novotel, brand of Accor Group. Moving on, he opened Novotel Chennai Sipcot IT Park in 2013 followed by ibis Sipcot in 2014 to finally moving back to the capital and joined Radisson Blu Dwarka New Delhi in July 2015.
“I was the GM of the Radisson Blu Dwarka New Delhi, which is a huge hotel. After being with them for almost 4 years, I finally moved to Pride Plaza Hotel Aerocity. My reasons for coming to Aerocity were plenty but my decision was mainly based on my relationship with Mr. S.P. Jain, who is the owner of the hotel. I had initially worked with The Pride Nagpur as the rooms division manager from 2000-2003 and had shared a good rapport with Mr. Jain. After all these years, he wanted me to return and take charge of his flagship property, which I think was the ultimate testament of my hard work and loyalty,” shares Shoeb.
Sharing his thoughts on how the hospitality industry across the world has been severely affected by the COVID-19, Shoeb ruefully admitted that the business at the Pride Plaza Aerocity has also been hugely impacted – almost 75% and the coming couple of months also look to be the same. “We have been hanging on to the business we get from pharma and medical industries as they have remained beneficial even during these challenging times. We keep getting some odd business from them still. But in the meantime, we have engaged our teams with online trainings – teaching them the SOPs of the new normal, even those who are sitting at home. Our staff who is in red and orange zones have been asked not to come to work and get the training at home only,” he enumerates.
Having said that however, Shoeb is hopeful that come September things will start to come back to what they were and another 4-5 months after that, everything might even become ‘normal’ again. “The year 2021 will be a great year for the hospitality industry. Infact, things might start to pick up from this winter season only. The domestic demand will pick up first – people are sick of being at home so when business will open – it will be better than before. Remember, every crisis has an opportunity. However, MICE and the big fat Indian weddings will take some time to bounce back. At Pride Plaza Aerocity we have well-trained staff and a great product to offer, which is at par with the hotels surrounding us. Our services and guest experiences have been great, perhaps that’s why we stand at No. 3 out of 1,295 hotels in Delhi/NCR in TripAdvisor rankings,” he concludes.
