TRUE LEISURE

WITH OCCUPANCY RATES REACHING PRE-COVID LEVELS OF OVER 84%, KAVINDER SINGH MAINTAINS THAT INDIA HOLIDAYS AT CLUB MAHINDRA RESORTS

- VINITA BHATIA

COVID-19 proved to be a bane for the hospitality industry, with a majority of the players still trying to shrug off its after-effects. However, Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Ltd (MHRIL) has emerged relatively unscathed from this ordeal.

While the company’s business did take a battering in Q1 of this fiscal, the second quarter saw it register 30% occupancy, which rose to around 80% by end of Q3. In January 2021, the resort chain had reached pre-pandemic occupancy levels, touching 87% and was cruising around 84% in Feb.

Needless to say, Kavinder Singh, MD and CEO, MHRIL is a happy man, especially as these occupancy rates are averaged out across the company’s 70 resorts in India and overseas. Some properties even posted 100% occupancy; a feat few other hotels can lay claim to currently.

But then again, Singh maintains that MHRIL is not in competition with most hotels. According to him have the confidence have a well-furnished lobby, a well-stocked bar, a swimming pool and restaurants. This is apt for business travellers or people in transit.

However, when people take a vacation, they want to go to places where children can run with abandon, where the elderly can walk through leisurely pathways, and the entire family can participate in an array of activities that binds that together. And that is what MHRIL offers at its properties.

“Children can be left unsupervised at our resorts and participate in activities like pottery, water Zorbing or rappelling while their parents laze on a hammock or enjoy a spa treatment,” Singh noted. Most traditional hotels are unable to offer these experiences because they lack the leisure of space – something that MHRIL’s resorts have aplenty. That also explains why the company takes pride in calling itself a leisure vacation brand.