After lockdown lull, staycation rush has hotel registers ringing

Not everyone is headed to the Himalayas for a break. A weekend at an NCR hotel will do just fine too.
A staycation rush is seeing check-in registers fill up fast again at hotels, which have otherwise struggled for guests for months.
The past two weeks have been encouraging for hotels, surpassing even their own expectations as they expected travellers to return much later this time, particularly after the harrowing second wave. Several hotels for business travellers that had seen a big drop in numbers recently are also seeing a revival as leisure destinations.
The easing of lockdown restrictions, steady drop in Covid cases and bottled-up yearning to travel have all come together to bring this silver lining to the hospitality industry.
Rahul Puri, GM at The Westin Gurgaon and The Westin Sohna Resort and Spa, said 85% of guests at his Gurgaon property would be corporate travellers. But this has changed now, to weekend staycations and leisure. Puri said domestic travel and staycation trends were showing promising recovery, with a week-on-week 25-30% growth in leisure guests coming into the hotel. “We have already started witnessing an upswing in staycations both at the hotel and the resort. There is pent-up demand and people do want to get away. Both the hotel and the resort have already touched full occupancy over the weekend,” he said.
Vishal Singh, GM of Hyatt Regency Gurgaon, told TOI that unlike last year, the pick-up this time has been very swift. “Occupancy touches 50% over the weekends,” he said. He added that other areas that have seen good recovery are dine-in at the hotel’s restaurant Kitchen District and wedding celebrations.
Permission to hold wedding functions has also helped. Varun Chhibber, GM, The Leela Ambience Gurugram Hotel & Residences, said since wedding functions are restricted to 50 people, he has noticed many people who otherwise could not afford a five-star property opting for his hotel. “Celebrations and social functions are driving the business. Almost all the guests are from NCR. Our weekend occupancy has reached 80% while food and beverage sales are also picking up faster than expected,” he said.
A major boost to hotels has come from food sales since they reopened their outlets. Popular weekend brunch destinations, like threesixtyonedegrees at The Oberoi, Spectra at The Leela Ambience and Latest Recipe at Le Meridien, have been buzzing over the last two weekends. Social media posts detailing sanitisation protocols and vaccination status of staff have added to customer confidence as well.
Surinder Singh, GM, Taj City Centre Gurugram, they have seen an encouraging response, especially over the weekends. “It is good to see that diners have started to trickle in. The reopening of Thai Pavilion has been very well received by our guests. Private dining experiences are being chosen for milestone occasions,” he said. Singh added that the number of weddings has gone up. “They have become a more intimate affair in line with the new norms and physical distancing,” he said.
Some Delhi hotels, too, are benefiting from the staycations. The Lodhi has been sold out for the last few weekends and seen impressive occupancy on weekdays as well. “Weekends have been extremely busy with guests coming in from NCR cities,” Saurabh Khurana, executive assistant manager at The Lodhi said, adding that rooms with pools, eateries within the hotel and a vast open space at the property have been a huge draw.
Ankush Nijhawan, MD of Nijhawan Group and CEO of Travel Boutique Online, observed that while all hotels may not be back to pre-Covid levels, for most, business has definitely picked up. To beat the heat and humidity of the past few days, many residents of NCR also headed out to Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh, a trend that he predicted will continue for the next few weeks.