In a fireside chat between Bikramjit Ray, Executive Editor of BW Hotelier and Patu Keswani, Chairman and MD of LemonTree Hotels at the Indian Hospitality Awards and Summit 2017 at the Leela Ambience Gurugram, Keswani mentioned how the LemonTree chain of hotels, is ahead the competition when in comparison with OYO Rooms or AirBnB or many other hotel service for that matter. He mentioned that it caters to rooms with high efficiency in comparison with OYO Rooms and AirBnB, which is yet to succeed in India.
Although, India has many operational challenges when compared for running in India, Keswani mentioned in many regards the government stands as an adversary. Many a times in the the gov-ernments officials stand as a roadblock in the growth of the hospitality industry. However, the Le-monTree chain of hotels being present in almost 24 cities, have strong local relations which them a competition advantage.
The LemonTree Hotels also have unique staffing policy, both in the application of ratio and diversity. When it comes to ratio, LemonTree is designed to achieve cost efficiency. For instance, every room in LemonTree has a built-in bed, and not purchased from outside sources. It is typically much smaller than a mattress which gives it a look of a floating bed. They also intend to give lesser square feet per room, by maintaining space efficiency and giving out more rooms to the market.
When it comes to diversity, the MD of the LemonTree Hotels mentioned that diversity began by recruiting only two people who confronted a problem in dialect in 2007. In India, 230 Mn people by the virtue of their birth in rural areas do not get education and as a result of which do not get employment. He also said that 70 Mn to 100 Mn people in India has some form of disability.
Patu shared the story of a woman who broke down saying that her son could not get married for he was unable to find a job. A social status of a man was focused on the perspective of his job. The illiterate class in India face a similar problem, many of whom even sleep at the construction site. At present, the hotel chain functionally trains such individuals to keep them as a part of their workforce.
Under the supervision of Patu Keswani, LemonTree is looking at becoming the largest chain of hotels in India.
