IMPERIAL ACCORDS ENVIRONMENT A TOP PRIORITY FOR BIZ

Showing its commitment towards the environmental sustainability, the Imperial Delhi has incorporated global best practices at all levels in management of energy efficiency, water management, eco-friendly amenities and garbage treatment amongst others. “We have always demonstrated a commitment to environment conservation while providing our guest the best quality services. We installed solar panels for heating water in guest rooms which is extremely efficient in saving electricity and gas. We installed a roti making machine over a year back which runs on electricity and LNG, resulting into a saving of 40 kilograms coal per day. We have also installed STP (Sewage treatment plant) that treats the waste water of hotel which is being used for bathrooms. Recently, we installed a garbage convertor which converts wet garbage and  organic waste into manure through chemical process that is used for gardening purpose,”  Vijay Wanchoo, Senior Vice President and General Manager, The Imperial New Delhi said.

Wanchoo also talked about some of the future green initiatives. “We are now working on removing plastics slowly. We have also invested Rs. 40 lakhs in setting of the chemical lab to ensure the best quality of food and hygiene. Moreover, we also want to convert the exhaust of the air conditioning system. We are trying to get some equipment that will inhale hot air of air conditioning which can be used to heat something,” he added.
 
Apart from the work done on the environmental front, the Imperial New Delhi is quite conscious about safety and security of its guests, especially woman travelers. “We introduced a concept called Eliza which is a single lady section with 12 rooms and we have some very special services for that. Only girls serve in these rooms. Even if a plumber goes, a girl will go along with him. A girl goes to pick up the lady at the airport, if the booking has been in advance. At the end of her stay, she will escort the lady back to wherever she wants go in the car,” he said and added that these rooms notch 100 percent occupancy throughout the year.

Talking about the performance of the hotel, Wanchoo said that the hotel receives 90 per cent of its guests from overseas markets, mainly from USA followed by the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Russia and Japan. “We have higher percentage of foreigners because we have a lineage of guests coming here for generations who will not go anywhere else. They keep coming back all the time. I have a guest who recently completed 100 visits. We have a huge bank of loyal customers – designers, dignitaries, stars, royalty who keep coming back to us,” he said.

However, Imperial is now also focusing on the domestic market. “There used to be business coming in from Mumbai but not much. We continue to do sales blitz in cities like Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai. We go there and meet 40 -50 companies and come back. I personally go to various embassies and top corporate houses. In the last four months, I met with 40 top level professionals and I am hopeful that we will increase our share in business from domestic market as well,” he revealed.

Imperial receives 65 per cent business from corporate and 35 per cent from leisure segment. “We are a business hotel but during winter we get a majority of leisure business. We get a lot of bulk bookings from US. We also have high profile clientele and recently had the British Prime Minister attend a conference at the Imperial,” he informed.

To further push its business from overseas markets, the Imperial has international sales representatives in some of the key markets. “We participate in international travel marts, be it luxury travel mart in Cannes, France or World Travel Mart at London or ITB in Berlin. We are now planning to attend travel shows in Russia,” he said.