Srinivas Srirangam, general manager, Novotel Imagica Khopoli shares how his property is emerging as an important MICE and destination wedding hotel, contributing significantly in positioning Khopoli as the newest tourism hub in Maharashtra By Sudipta Dev
Novotel Imagica Khopoli has just completed a year of operation and the property occupies an important place in positioning Khopoli as an emerging tourism destination in Maharashtra. Srinivas Srirangam, general manager, Novotel Imagica Khopoli, has much to be proud of with 85 per cent occupancy in the first year. “Since the beginning, every month 25 days out of 30, the hotel is sold out,” says Srirangam. While the weekends attract FITs, families and leisure guests, the weekdays see mostly corporate groups and MICE business.
Unique MICE hotel
A significant segment of the MICE crowd are based out of Mumbai. Though the hotel has hosted all India MICE groups, according to Srirangam, the contact points have been the offices in Mumbai or Pune. “We also did some very prestigious events, most of the leading corporates have used us either for team outings or conferences or annual meetings. Many of them have been doing events in city hotels for a long time or other hotels in Lonavala. They enjoy our property as we are part of the Adlabs Imagica theme park. The corporates get an opportunity to have unique evening events in the park also,” he mentions.
Team building activities for corporates are organised both outdoor and indoor, with the help of the property’s animation and activities team. “Rather then being a regular hotel for conferencing hotel there is focus on activities, within the hotel and the theme park. We also offer adventure activities like rafting and local siteseeing along with stay,” adds Srirangam. Whenever a MICE group comes, the concerned officials in the company sit with the activities manager and a package is designed for them with the activities.
Another popular feature is the high energy character parade which is the highpoint during breakfast. “We have lot of characters in the hotel. We had a SEBI conference, the average delegate age was over 40 years and I had never seen a bunch of people enjoying the character parade so much. It is like saying that there is a child in everybody and it comes out in these fun activities,” points out Srirangam, adding that with some corporates even if the average age is on the higher side, they really enjoy, even if the rides are a little scary for them in the park. “There is a fun element. Our slogan is ‘The fun never ends’,” he remarks. The hotel also has tieup with outdoor adventure activity companies.
Private character parades can also be customised for groups. “We entice corporates with unique experiences and many are repeat clients. The leisure groups comprising friends and families, occupy between 40 to 50 rooms. We do complete activities for them, from treasure hunts to dance to housie sessions.” As part of hotel activity feature there is a housie every evening, dance classes, painting class, yoga, fun games. There is also a gaming zone with billiards, table tennis, darts and other games. For FITs the unique experiences range from character birthday celebrations, movie under the stars for kids by the poolside, et al.
The average length of stay, both for corporates and leisure crowd has been two nights. The hotel gets a lot of walk-ins but the biggest source of booking is through its website, through travel agents and packages. The packages enable guests to buy online hotel stay and park tickets together. These packages are a high selling product. “We are engaged with the travel agents, they have been selling our hotel from day one. We organise FAM trips for them. We work along with them not just for FITs but also social groups and MICE business,” informs Srirangam.
Emergence of Khopoli
Lonavala has traditionally been a popular holiday destination, however Srirangam believes that the hotel and theme park being 25 km before Lonavala and nearer to Mumbai has made Khopoli a new destination. A new adventure park is coming up with Imagica, adding to the existing attractions of Aquamagica, Imagica, and the snow park. “As a hotel we add a lot of value to Khopoli. There are also a lot of families and FITs who just come and stay in the hotel and do not use the theme park,” he informs.
“Khopoli has got a lot of recognition. There are almost 280 mid-scale and large industries in Raigadh region, with a concentration around Khopoli,” says Srirangam, adding that going forward he sees more small hotels coming up. The hotel has also hosted many high profile weddings. The target is to get 25-30 weddings this year and 40 weddings in 2017. “Our aim is to make this a big wedding destination. There are many scenic locations in the park for hosting dinners, cocktail gatherings and pheras. In the evening it is very beautiful in the park,” he affirms.
Extensive facilities
The hotel has extensive banqueting spaces inside and outdoors. “We also have open land to erect large canopies and do events inside. Poolside is perfect for cocktail dinners. Currently 116 rooms are operational in the hotel. The inventory will almost double with the next phase opening up additional rooms, taking it to 287 rooms. It will then be the largest hotel in terms of rooms inventory in Lonavala and Alibagh region. “This will give us an edge in hosting large MICE/ wedding/ social groups together. It is not a regular hotel, from the welcome to stay experience, we have unique features and the location adds up,” states Srirangam. In terms of F&B there is the Square, the all day dining, the Nitro Bar, and a speciality restaurant is coming up.
While the catchment area for the hotel is Mumbai, Pune, along with Nashik and Gujarat to some extent , in recent months there have been increased arrivals from Delhi market for FITs and small groups.