Resourceful resorts

Artistically designed candles float amidst the champa flowers at the entrance to the reception lobby at The Riverview — Chiplun. Each of the 37 spacious rooms in this leisure hotel has a colorful cuboid candle placed prominently on the desk and so too in the attached bathroom. Is electricity failure the bane of this resort in Ratnagiri district on the Bombay-Goa Highway? Their generators will not leave a guest pining for power, assures the management, clarifying that the prominently positioned can­dles are meant to draw the visitors’ attention to the new candle making business venture on their strategically located property atop a hill.

They averaged 60 percent occupancy in the first year since Reyaz Mama with his partner Kamal Bhatia bought over the property — The Gateway Riverview Lodge — Chiplun — from the Taj group in 2004. Their performance "is probably better by 20 percent than it has ever seen,” believes Mama. He attributes this success to his "very strong team, the handing over of the reins (by the Taj) in a very orderly manner, more hands-on management of the property, being very cost con­scious...”

Appreciating the infrastructure already in place like a beautiful swimming pool, Mama says, "We upped the services pro­vided at the property like installing a water filtration plant, new beds, quality furnishings, chairs, thatched roofs...small things which make a difference to the guests. If anyone had any problem, we have improved upon it so that guests today have very few things to complain about.”

Planning to expand The Riverview — Chiplun to a 70-80-room resort Mama notes, "It is our policy never to bribe. We’d rather pay the official amount, and wait patiently to get the job done. Bribing is a never ending process.”

The acquisition of two more hotels is in the pipeline, conveys Mama although he is reluctant to divulge further details since "few Indians are willing to sell their hotels.” The next generation expects the legacy will remain within the family, he explains. "Hotel licensing in India is more complicated than elsewhere,” says the savvy businessman who under the banner of Choice Hotels India, has been franchising three brands — Comfort Inn, Quality Inn and Clarion — to 28 hotels within the country. Choice Hotels International covers more than 5,000 hotels in 46 countries. Hotel Heritage in Byculla, once a popular venue for celebrations among community members, is now Comfort Inn Herit­age, Mama cites an example. In fact the success of his business venture Ratan Mama Consultants Private Limited gave him the confidence to venture further by setting up Chiplun Hotels Private Limited. Operating with a 50-member set-up, Ratan Mama Consultants are called upon to do financial feasibility studies, financial struc­turing, marketing feasibility for the hotel industry.

Running a hotel in India is a challenge for "each hotel is personal, with its distinct looks and facilities,” observes Mama. Additionally they "are run with a lot of staff as compared to the lean management abroad. Among new hotels though the staff/guest ratio is improving,” he has noticed. The workforce for The River­view — Chiplun approximates 70. The only other Parsi working with him is his chief financial controller Fred Mehta who had originally joined Reyaz’s father’s chartered accountancy firm Ratan Mama and Compa­ny.

Reyaz’s interest in this domain was imbibed from his father Ratan who "was passionate about the hotel industry,” initially working as auditor for Indian Hotels and subsequently serving on their board of directors. His father’s international partner Pannell Kerr Forster, having a large hotel consultancy business in England, where Reyaz spent 10 years, he was able to gain considerable insights in the business. On his return to India he realized that he found the hotel industry more interesting than his father’s firm which was subsequently sold off.

Reyaz’s mother Yasmine is the founder of the well known Casa Bambino nursery at Bhulabhai Desai Road in Bombay and his elder sister Dr Khur­sheed is a veterinarian in USA. Since his marriage in 1994 to his Brazilian wife Helena, Casa Bambino’s responsibil­ities are jointly shared by Yasmine and Helena. Their six-year-old son Kyrus studies at the Cathedral and John Connon School while two-year-old Rayan is receiving his first lessons at Casa Bambino.

Happy that Helena has got "more Parsi friends than I have,” Reyaz notes, "It is exceedingly important that the person you marry can adjust to the family... Even though I’m a navar, it’s Helena who encourages the boys to say their Zoroastrian prayers taught by my mother. She is very accepting by nature...” sporting a fravashi on the chain round her neck. "A person should marry who he/she wants to even if it happens to be out of the community,” he believes. Likewise on the subject of disposing one’s body, "each person should have the right to decide,” maintains Reyaz specifying how his father was cremated because he died abroad but would have opted for the Doongerwadi had he died here. He was particularly irked by the Roxan Shah controversy when her body was not permitted the last rites at Doongerwadi. Refusing to subscribe to the theory that outmarried men have the right but not outmarried women, Reyaz believes, "In a community people do have staunch views but they should allow others to do what they want...”

Missing "the entrepreneurship that once used to be the only strength of the community,” he notices, "the risk taking is absent. No one from the community has built a Hyatt Regency in the hotel industry... With high profile jobs being so lucrative, very few real entrepreneurs have emerged in the last five to 10 years. It’s the responsibility of large business houses to create the necessary environment with a corpus of around 50 crore rupees to induce upcoming businessmen. Earlier one out of five would make a lot of money and plough it back for community use.” As supplemented Mehta, "There is no wealth creation in the communi­ty. Wealth is getting dispersed.”

"Failure is not a problem... but failure because of stupid­ity is a problem,” is the credo of Reyaz whose educational foun­dation was laid at Casa Bambino after which he went to Cathedral School, Lawrence School in Sanawar, Himachal Pradesh, and subse­quent to his training in England did a professional course in Cornell. Enjoying water sports like swimming and sailing, Reyaz’s favorite holiday getaway is Goa. Serving on the committee of the Ripon Club, Reyaz looks forward to interacting with the community members every week or fortnight.

A view of the Vashishti river from The Riverview — Chiplun (below); one of the spacious double rooms; Reyaz Mama with (from left) Rayan, Helena and Kyrus

"To grow into a brand chain; to grow slowly, not in a hurry,” is his ambition. And supporting his ventures will be the rising number of satisfied guests like the young couple who were celebrating their first wedding anniversary at The River­view — Chiplun. As they shared their cake with the many unknown faces there they garnered a bouquet of greetings including one that wished them many such celebrations year after year at other such exotic resorts!

Chalo Chiplun