Every picture tells a story and every story tells of a place. Hotel developers are ever-more cognizant about what story will their hotel tell or will the story include their hotel. Technology has transformed how travelers, businessmen and hoteliers alike view the welcome experience at hotels and will continue to do so. However, through all the ebb and flow of the industry, there has remained one constant, the ambiance of the hotel.
A house of remarkable architectural beauty along with streamlined furnishings and synced-up tech, hoteliers are embracing everything-trending to build a hotel that redefines luxury. Their aim is not just to not distinguish themselves, but to create unique, personalized experiences to their customers.
Plenty of hotels boast of their picturesque location, a technological leap, and firmly grounding to the concept of personalized customer experience but only a few can quite match the situation of The Metropolitan Hotel & Spa (THE MET). There are a million different directions that anyone’s eyes can wander to, in this hotel, all thanks to the contemporary design, fabulous sculpture and unique artworks peppered throughout the hotel and a warm and welcoming hotel staff.
A Living Archive
THE MET is a fine blend of style and substance. It welcomes guests to a fresh atmosphere with vivid, minimalist, urban, stylish designs, and lets them slip into smoothest place with warm and thoughtful service. It’s dazzling vista, brilliant design, excellent service, and delightful cuisine never under-delivers on sights and sophisticated atmosphere.
This hotel is strategically and centrally located on Bangla Sahib Road, Connaught Place, which is New Delhi’s premier business and shopping district. Delhi is pronounced as the cultural capital with spectacular architecture of temples, monuments and an amalgamation of different cultures that is a product of a 5000 years old history. THE MET being an urban oasis, with its luxurious ambiance, curates and infuses this flavor in its various offers related to F&B, rooms, art, and shopping.
The promise at THE MET is to make each of its guest’s stay, a memorable one and it has all the ingredients of a perfect luxury hotel. The guests are welcomed into Deluxe Rooms, Club Rooms, and Suites that offer world-class luxury, comfort, personalized services, and all the modern amenities. One of the major attractions of this hotel is its distinctive dining and award-winning experiences. To the global gourmet, it offers the award-winning Sakura, India’s first authentic Japanese restaurant, Chutney, Bar + Tandoor, offering diners an indigenous fusion of pan-Indian cuisine, Zing, the all-day restaurant; that features an international platter set to tantalize the taste buds, and Zing GourMET Shop to entice sweet tooth with delectable offerings.
While spas and fitness spaces are often small rooms tucked away in far corners of hotel properties, THE MET innovated its approach towards the millennial guests and tourists, who are more focused on their health and are expecting innovative wellness options. The hotel’s neoVeda Spa is a haven of peace and tranquility set in a contemporary ambiance.
Conceptualized around the philosophies of advanced Ayurveda, this spa showcases the modern translation of ancient Indian knowledge of life and well-being. Additionally, it also hosts a gym built on a plush 7000 sq. ft. area and offers an array of classic and modern treatments, massages, scrubs, wraps, facials, baths, foot, and hand care, to let one have a lavish spa retreat for inner well-being.
To further make the stay of guests comfortable, THE MET also has an outdoor swimming pool surrounded by lush green landscaping, which is also an ideal place to relax and revive your mind, body and soak the warm embrace of the sun.
THE MET also has art gallery for art lovers, Art Spice. And a Fashion and Lifestyle store, Craft House. Here, one can browse through the rich and mystical heritage of India. Craft House involves guests in luscious shopping and provides them with a holistic shopping experience. Apart from the above, THE MET keeps curating different events and promotions to lure guests and exceed guest expectations.
The Facilitator of this Luxury
When it comes to offering guests a sumptuous hotel experience, Vipul Gupta has a marked advantage. As the Executive Director of The Metropolitan Hotel & Spa, he has the benefit of offering a splendid hotel experience. Vipul, as a member of the Board, is a mentor and a guiding force to his team, tasked with the overall management of the hotel by providing Operational insight and input into the strategy and business planning.
Converged into Perfection
This luxury brand in the heart of the capital city offers a unique and extraordinary experience. In this era of personalization, the guest of any hotel must have a personal and customized experience. While THE MET has a plethora of services to offer it believes that satisfied employees can successfully lay the foundation of personalized services for its customers.
It also believes that a friendly atmosphere encourages two-way communication, which is very important for the growth of any hotel. To achieve its goal of excellent customer experience, THE MET first offers its employees a pleasant environment to work.
Hence, it makes the working atmosphere as friendlier as possible and avoids negativity to crop in anyways. It closely works upon an individual’s growth and conducts proper training to new recruits so that they could be an asset to the Hotel and retain existing staff and updating them with new techniques and motivating them to help each other and work as a team. The hotel establishes trust and instills faith within its employees that they can overcome any problem with proper knowledge of the Hotel be it Service, Production, Front Office or Back-end work.
“One should be ready with alternatives in case you think you will not be able to fulfill guests’ requirements,” asserts Mr. Gupta.
“We always practice the customer is what matters, you need to cater to what they want, keep your customers returning and welcome them back.”
Enhancing Responsible Luxury
To build something modern, often means making a bold visual statement or to offer something truly special. And THE MET is one of the few spots on the planet that brings together luxury with that extra wow factor. Keeping aside all its lavishing features, the hotel has taken an incredibly bold step towards waste management and energy saving.
THE MET has the EcoMet program inspired by both Ancient Vedic and Modern Science and even certified with ISO14001:2004, an Environment Management System Certification given by an internationally recognized certification body. It has implemented policies, procedures, systems, and equipment based on three R’s; reduce, reuse and recycle.
A well-known Singapore based interior design firm integrated the hotel’s environment protection endeavor and conceptualized the designs that are not only modern and contemporary but also doubles up to create a green oasis. For example, lights are based on energy conservation, usage of Eco-friendly heat-reflective lighter colors, light color marble and granite and reflective triple glazed large windows for blocking sun entering the area.
All the restaurant interiors are built on recycled and Eco-friendly wood with ample natural lighting. The hotel also has inbuilt automated taps, enhanced flushing system to prevent unwanted flushing of water, enhanced sewage treatment plant to even recycle wastewater, and the latest drinking water treatment plant (Reverse Osmosis) that destroys all micro-organisms.
THE MET has not only made efforts to conserve water and energy, but also has carefully looked at proper Waste Management. It has taken various measures to reduce the waste being generated, not to add excessive load in the waste stream of city and separation of bio-degradable and non-biodegradable wastes. It has also planted trees in the vicinity and emphasizes a lot on horticulture within the Hotel.
To properly shape the program, THE MET has reinvented its ‘Official Mantras’ to take ‘Concern For Our Environment’ as one of the Mantra to let employees contribute with dedication and even spread the message to friends and family. THE MET in the most effective manner and believes in providing Luxury with Conscience. It is not bleeding the resources and is consciously promoting Responsible Luxury to guests without comprising on their unparalleled experience at this Five-star deluxe Hotel.
Ahead of the Curve
Mr. Gupta believes that there is a big opportunity for a stand-alone luxury hotel in the current marketplace. Stand-alone luxury hotels thrive currently and are even outperforming chain luxury hotels in results. Millennial, the golden market segment everyone has been raving about, also seems to appreciate more authentic and original personalized experiences over a cookie-cutter, off the shelves type of product.
He further adds that the modern consumer is much more conscious of what he/she appreciates and wants. The consumer is not looking for a standardized industrialized product. He/she is looking for a fun time at a nice place and the industry is catching on.
These increasing savvy travelers come with heightened expectations. Guests today not only crave an experience that wows them, but expect it, and these expectations are being manifested in THE MET’s continued effort to offer the best-in-class services.
At THE MET, innovation and up-gradation are always an on-going process. As per the guest’s needs and demands, it keeps adding facilities, technologies, and services to exceed guest satisfaction at every step. To keep employees abreast of the latest trends as already discussed, it also follows a monthly training schedule and imparts them with the knowledge to serve our guest better.
“We also have a greater scope of creativity and identity instead of adhering to standardized brand guidelines that lack local relevance. Less bureaucracy, flexibility over strategy, pricing, marketing, more attention to the guest experience and unique initiatives strive us to surpass all the competition,” concludes Mr. Gupta.
