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Jhunjhunwala ’ s 2020 decision to make all its restaurants and bars completely vegetarian .
“ He had a vision to make hotels more fun and treat food and beverage as best in class and not simply meeting the needs of resident guests ,” Levy says . “ He got his inspiration partially from rock stars and notably David Bowie with his ability to reinvent , adapt , change . He loves his tunes and makes it part of the package . He obviously designs hotels from the consumer side .”
Levy adds that it took a lot of courage to make all Ovolo hotels vegetarian . “ He ’ s not trying to be all to everyone . He ’ s helping to define who his customers will be .”
QUARANTINE IN HONG KONG While the hotels in Australia are doing well , according to Baswal , Hong Kong is a bit of a different story because of the strict COVID restrictions . Baswal says Ovolo reacted by being a pioneer in providing unique , personal services to travelers who were basically stranded in their hotel rooms . Personal exercise equipment , personal menus , flexible checkout dates and even do-it-yourself Negronis were first initiated by Ovolo and then picked up by its competitors . He does acknowledge that the market remains “ pretty turbulent at the moment .”
“ We actually looked at quarantine in a very different way and created a program for quarantine travelers by personalizing every guest ’ s day to the best of our ability with limited touch points ,” Baswal says . “ I ’ m proud to say that we ’ re number one , if not in the top three in this quality space . We ’ re very well known in Hong Kong to be the best quarantine experience available . We really focused on personalizing and ran a lot of initiatives , a lot of small integrated programs to keep everyone engaged , happy , and healthy over the period . It was very well accepted by the market . So , actually , we had a really good year .”
He acknowledged that Ovolo would rather be dealing with more transient and leisure travelers and relieve its staff of all the extra work required to keep COVID-stranded guests happy .
“ From the brand ’ s point of view , it ’ s a lot of trouble . The market is hard . And it ’ s a different kind of business . It ’ s hard for housekeeping . It ’ s hard for beverage . It ’ s very hard for the teams . But within the adversity of what we can control , I think we ’ ve done very well ,” he says .
THE FUTURE Levy sees Ovolo as a wellpositioned , lively and engaging lifestyle brand that pays particular attention to its food and beverage
Mamaka by Ovolo Hotels in Bali operation . He adds that the markets where it plans to expand are ideal for its clients in Australia and Hong Kong , who are frequent visitors to Singapore , Kuala Lumpur , Lombok , Phuket and Japan . As a result , Levy believes the brand has the potential to meet its aggressive growth plans .
“ They could double ( the number of hotels ) in the next three or four years and then probably again before a decade passes , but they would have to commit the requisite resources ,” Levy says . “ Also , it will be interesting to see how they evolve from being a hotel investor to being more of a third-party manager .”
Yes , Levy likes the progressive nature of the group – from creating their own brand for amenities , to going vegetarian and having a ‘ cool ’ ambiance and corporate social responsibility programs . “ I look at the financial implications of things like this and love to think about the food costs and retail opportunities ,” he says . “ So , yes , I do see significant potential for the group .”
20 hotelsmag . com September 2022