‘I haven’t brought my sneakers and shorts’ can no longer be an excuse for Westin guests to skip their daily jog. The hotel brand has tied up with the running gear brand New Balance to launch a programme – Run Westin. Under this, the hotel, apart from giving out a printed route map to its guests for a “pleasant jog” around the property, it will also lend its guests a complete set of running gear for $5 (around Rs 250) per use.

Under the scheme, the hotel will lend running shoes, shorts and shirts – and also Capri pants and sports bras for women. This also includes a new pair of socks for guests to keep. Between uses, these clothes and shoes will undergo intense sterilisation.

Besides encouraging joggers, the idea is also to promote travelling light, says Shrikant Wakharkar, General Manager, Westin, Chennai.

The tall, glass-clad structure, which has come up on the busy Velachery area in south Chennai, is a brand from the Starwood stable. To be launched in the next couple of weeks, the hotel is positioned as an upper-end business class hotel.

This will add another 215 rooms to the already cluttered hospitality space in the city. “For now, Chennai is an over-supplied market. But, thanks to our location and the Westin brand’s equity, we are upbeat about our business,” says Wakharkar.

In the last couple of years, the city had seen the launch of half-a-dozen new five-star hotels with almost 2,000 rooms. This has taken the total rooms available in the city to a little over 4,000 at present. Since there is no matching growth in demand, the average occupancy level has come down to 60-65 per cent. However, Wakharkar says he would not subscribe to this theory. His argument is because of enough rooms, the city can now take more conferences and meetings, which will only propel demand for rooms.

He believes proximity to the city’s airport, IT Corridor, convention centre, and the huge banqueting space unveiled by the neighbouring ITC Grand Chola (hotel) would certainly drive occupancy levels in hotels in that pocket.

Talking about Westin’s brand identity, he said besides the patented ‘Heavenly Bed’, the brand’s focus on health with its ‘SuperFood’ offering would go a long way in attracting people.

ravikumar.r@thehindu.co.in

Published on March 26, 2013