Whether corporate, recreational or wellness, the club concept in hotels is a smart business strategy for ensuring steady revenue, attracting a loyal clientele and creating an exclusive brand identity for the property By Sudipta Dev
Hotel companies in India are increasingly understanding the advantages of engaging with corporates in the city and the local elite crowd by introducing the club concept through attractive membership benefits. While the corporate members look for business meetings/ conferencing venues, the families are happy with the usage of facilities like swimming pools, fitness centre, etc. From corporate lunches to Sunday brunches, F&B becomes a major factor for both these segments, with the hotel restaurants assured of a steady stream of guests. The fact that this revenue is not dependent on the rooms occupancy gives a fillip to the business even during the lean season.
Executive club
Currently while the Sphere is limited to the JW Mumbai Sahar and the Renaissance Mumbai Convention Centre, based on the feedback and response in Mumbai, it will be considered extending to other Marriott properties as well.
Recreational hub
Wellness focus
Two types of memberships are offered – spa membership and fitness membership. Azmat informs that in both memberships, the guest is allowed to use all facilities and attend wellness classes like yoga, fitness or aqua sessions. “Spa members have an edge over the fitness members as their package includes complimentary treatments, if they take membership for a year. They also get special discounts on various spa services. We strive to exceed the expectations of our guests through our bespoke and highly differentiated services,” states Azmat.
Revenue benefits
It is a known fact that a club significantly enhances the revenue of a property. If a property has the space then investing in a club has long term benefits. Gupta avers that a club is an independent property by itself and generates revenue by selling memberships. He reminds that a lot of hotels offer recreational facilities like gym, salon, spa in the hotel itself. However, there is no focus on these services since they do not contribute much to the hotel’s revenue. But an independent club offers a lot more than just the basic services. “Obviously, since you treat this as an individual property, your club members expect you to offer these services. But what this also does is it allows us to offer a whole range of services to our hotel guests. At the same time, business guests who attend workshops and conferences at the hotel do not really have the liberty of time to enjoy these club facilities. In such cases, we offer a ‘no-club access package’ which is priced lower. Thus it works out well for all our guests including the club members,” adds Gupta.
It is a win-win situation for both the property and the guests. While the hotel gets regular business from the guests, the latter are able to take advantage of the best available discounts as members. “Having club membership in the property has definitely worked out for us and brought more business by getting new customers where the revenue is already collected at the start of the membership. These customers in turn become my repeat customers as to avail the facilities which were entitled to them at the time of enrollment such as stay, F&B, swimming pool, spa, etc,” states Sahu, adding that this helps in giving a fixed business apart from their regular membership fees. For example, every guest visiting a restaurant will get the fixed discount which is availed to them for their membership, but rest amount is adding to the hotel’s profitability. “We also get regular events from our members celebrating special occasions or private parties and corporate events,” he adds.
Growing network
Not just the organised hotel sector, even standlone properties are today understanding the business advantage of having a club. Kamat Hotels plans to start similar club facilities within its network properties where all the properties have similar club plans available to their guests. “This will definitely help our corporate guests who constantly on the move to enjoy and experience same facilities at our other properties as well. Thus, it gives more weight age to the membership program,” says Sahu, adding that at The Orchid Mumbai, they are practicing a different concept such as ‘Orchid Rewards’; which earns guests petals (points) and which can be redeemed at any of the other group properties under the brand Kamat Hotels.
Guest demand is one of the factors for upgrading the facilities or adding new features. According to Gupta, Waterstones get a lot of requests for conferences as well as social events at the club. Consequenly, they launched a new banquet hall called ‘Moon Girl’ at the club to help them cater to a few more requests. “On a monthly basis, we try to organise some special workshops for the members. In the past few months, we had Bollywood dance workshops, yoga workshops, Zumba workshops etc. We are open to guest feedback and change our offering based on that,” he says, adding that there are no plans of replicating the model in any of their other properties as the club concept fits well for the Waterstones Hotel but may not do so for the other properties.
