With a strong f&b background and vast experience of being actively involved in opening restaurants and hotels, Sandeep Joshi, General Manager, Radisson Blu Plaza Hyderabad Banjara Hills, believes in turning challenges into opportunities. Having introduced some policies that help staff maintain the work-life balance, Sandeep has been instrumental in bringing down the attrition rate and keeping a loyal team in place. We are happy to feature him in our GM Special Series.
Priyanka Saxena Ray
Please share with us a brief introduction about your background? How did you get into the field of hospitality education?
Born and brought up in Delhi, I belong to a family of doctors and academicians. Inheriting values from a highly literate working class, the passion to excellence was inbuilt. From being a science student at the Cambridge School, New Delhi, I switched over to Hotel Management after school. I completed my Hotel Management from IHM Chennai in 1994 and have been working in the hospitality industry ever since. Sensing that financial acumen will be an added arsenal in our profession, I completed my B.Com degree from Delhi University simultaneously. Being raised in the capital visit to city luxury hotels were part of childhood memories. The fascination towards the charm and the grace of the hoteliers attracted me to this profession and became an obvious choice after school.
Please share with us details of your first Job?
I started my career in 1994 in F&B service department with the Park Royal Delhi, (SPHC Group) later rebranded as Intercontinental Eros as Restaurant Supervisor and the journey from then has been worthwhile. Over the years, I have opened and operated various famous restaurants, such as, Singh Sahib with the late veteran Jiggs Kalra. This was followed with successful operations of Float, the biggest Irish pub in the country; Blue Elephant, International Thai restaurant chain at Intercontinental The Grand New Delhi and many more.
How did you climb up the ladder? How many hotels have you worked with and in what capacities?
My career spans over 25 years in the industry with last 12 years in the position of General Manager. A passionate individual with strong business acumen and a complete Fitness freak is what describes me the best. In these years of experience in luxury hotel chains in India, I understand what goes in making a brand. I have worked with both International and Indian companies across the country including Park Royal, InterContinental, Carlson, ITC’s hotels group and Radisson Hotel Group.
With InterContinental Hotels I gained 12 years of rich F&B experience in both the properties in Delhi. I got my first assignment as General Manager with Park Plaza Gurgaon in 2007 from where I moved to ITC Group of hotels and successfully opened two flagship hotels of FPHL under ITC group of hotels. One of my most cherished assignments was successful restoration and opening of The Savoy Welcomhotel, Mussoorie.
Could you share with us details of some of the challenges you faced along the way?
In early part of my career I was handling the biggest revenue churning outlets in the country. Handling pubs in luxury hotel with a capacity of 1500 persons was tough and required very high level of managerial skills. The working hours were odd and long, disturbing work life balance. It was tough but it was gratifying to see the learning and exposure to the best in the industry.
In my current role, the main challenge lies in the shrinking bottom lines in the industry. Inflation with slow trend in occupancy growth in the industry is making us all rethink on hotel operations. Leveraging expenses with business trend and optimizing every revenue source are the best way to tackle such challenges.
How long have you been attached with the current Hotel (or chain)? How has your experience with the property been?
This is my second stint with Radisson Hotel Group in the role of General Manager. I arrived in Hyderabad city in 2016 to manage this beautiful property – Radisson Blu Plaza Banjara Hills and a lot seems to have changed since then. Coming from Delhi, which is much fast paced city in comparison it was easier to adapt to the ongoing double digit growth in the city.
Hyderabad offers good work life balance and is a historic city because of its heritage, culture and people. The property is centrally situated in the famous and posh locales of Banjara Hills. Inspite of being located in the city centre, the hotel gives feeling of a resort culture due to its landscape and design. The property is beautifully designed and is inspired by the taste and style of the owning board, though I must confess that Hyderabad is a tough market compared to metros of Delhi and Mumbai.
What Special changes / touches have you added to the property? How have you ensured that your Hotel stays ahead of the competition?
One of the foremost role has been to promote the Radisson Blu Plaza brand and be the “Market Leader” in the competitive set. We have developed innovative means for capturing new streams of revenue through collaboration and have also increased our association with leading associations and corporate houses to get the bigger share of the pie. Constant improvisation in people, product and process has created loyalty factor among our patrons and also won us award for the Best Luxury business hotel in South West Asia by World Luxury Awards 2018.
Do you have any new plans or policies or initiatives in the pipeline that you would be introducing in the near future?
Yes the brand itself is going through lot of excitement with introduction of new features and technology – 2019 is meant for that! I’ve repeatedly mentioned in forums and pointed out that nearly 2/3rd of our guests prefer direct bookings. We are working towards increasing direct bookings on our hotel website. We try and engage more with our guests, understand their needs and purpose of visiting the hotel, and try upselling other facilities at the hotel. The best part of gaining direct bookings is that you save a significant part on OTA commission and in turn, you earn a long-term loyalty of your guests. We also have plans to start working and look differently at our digital marketing. We try to reach out to our guests from different mediums.
How do you handle the increasing attrition rate facing the hospitality industry in India?
We have been instrumental in setting up a very employee friendly work culture at the hotel. ‘Only happy employees can make happy guests’ is a philosophy that we believe really works. Thanks to the employee focussed HR policies and friendly work culture at RHG, we have one of the lowest attrition rates compared to our competitors. We take the pride in developing our talents and understanding the needs and aspirations of the millennials. A small act of giving ‘Six offs’ in a month with flexi-timings to work have made the work culture very attractive at our work place.
