Radisson Blu Udaipur Palace Resort & Spa provides a beautiful backdrop for weddings and events. Poonam Agarwal Nair, Regional Director of Sales, Radisson Blu Udaipur Palace Resort & Spa, talks about the business and wedding facilities available here
What kind of conferencing and banqueting facilities do you offer?
We have a plethora of indoor and outdoor banqueting options. Our grand ballroom offers 6000 sqft with a pre-function area of 2200 sqft and extended banquet garden of 4800 sqft. We have a boardroom and four more meeting rooms with varying capacity for 16 to 100 people. Besides this, we have two grand lawns, a roof top banquet called Dome, and a poolside. Another magnificent option is the Udaichowk, which overlooks the palace while being a royal backdrop to host wedding events.
What kind of specialised services do you offer for conferences and weddings?
We specialise as a wedding and MICE hotel, 60 per cent of our overall revenue is garnered through these two segments. Hence, we invest in taking care of the finest details to ensure a seamless event. We are a one-stop solution for weddings and conferences, right from the hotel booking, venues and functions finalisation, menus, theme décors, logistics, event handling, booking of artists for entertainment, booking of artists for mehndi, salon, spa, we do it all.
We have a specialised team of people who shadow the wedding client and guide them through the entire journey. We appoint personal butlers for the immediate family, bride and groom to ensure all last-minute running is taken care of and offer a stress-free experience. Likewise, for our conference right from hotel booking, conference planning, audio visuals, logistics, conference set up, organising of cocktails events, award ceremonies etc, we do it all.
How has the Occupancy, ARRs and RevPAR been for you in 2017?
The year 2017 has been a spectacular year, though the hotel has potential for more. However, overall it has been a good year with some great number of weddings and MICE movements from across all segments. We anticipate closing at nearly 75 per cent occupancy with a 15 per cent growth in ARR and 10 per cent growth in RevPAR. We have seen a good segment mix this year contributed by weddings, MICE, inbound and domestic agents, TPI’s etc.
What are your expectations from 2018?
We are a business hungry hotel and have been persistent in offering the best and upgrading the product and services with time. The hotel has undergone renovation this year and a fresh look has been imparted to our public areas, restaurants, ballroom, lobby and rooms.
A lot of refurbishment has been carried out to impart a more royal look and feel to the hotel. With this, we are all set to welcome 2018 and it already looks like an optimistic year with the increasing popularity of the city, the hotel, the influx has been huge from all segments.
How is Udaipur developing as a market for MICE as well as for hospitality? Is there any challenges, changes in governmental policies required?
Udaipur is a beautiful city, also described as the ‘Venice of the East’. A city which still preserves its rich heritage and tradition, the grand palatial structures give the feel of the ancient times. Owing to the serenity of the place and these attributes, a lot of tourism is attracted from all corners of the world. Its growing popularity as one of the preferred cities for destination weddings, fascinates clients not just from India, but, also from Gulf, Middle East, the UK, etc. Owing to proximity, a lot of MICE is attracted from Gujarat, Delhi, Jaipur and Mumbai. Even the flight connectivity from these cities has improved over last two years. Direct flights from other bigger cities like Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata etc. could add to the influx and demand of the city. Also, tax policies issued by the government should ensure focus on promoting tourism on a whole.
