DK FlipBook-Magzter January 2019

HOSPITALITY / Olive Downtown
‘MY AIM IS TO MAKE THE HOTEL
THE MOST HAPPENING PLACE’
Anil G Nair, who recently took charge as the GM of Olive Downtown Kochi,
has already initiated a slew of measures to redefine customer experience
by deepthi g s
Located at the busy Kadavanthra
junction in Ernakulam,
the easily accessible Olive
Downtown, the five star luxury
hotel, offers great ambience and
food which has made the hotel very
popular among both the local people
and corporate clients. The newlyappointed
General Manager of the
Hotel, Anil G Nair, having years of
experience in the industry is all set
to implement some of his innovative
ideas to make Olive Downtown even
more attractive to the clients.
“I started off my career as an F&B
Manager and that being my forte,
immediately after joining I began setting
my priorities for the segment. I
plan to make this hotel the most happening
place and the management is
fully supportive of it,” he said.
The plush Arena Cafe on the
ground floor, which is a favourite
hangout of the visitors, enthrals
them with live band performances
these days, thanks to Anil’s love for
music. “Arena used to serve mostly
cake and sandwiches and, soon after
joining, I turned it into a ‘food zone’.
We have added a lot of new dishes to
the menu. The first thing I did was
to organise a ‘Steak and Sizzler’ food
fest, which was a big draw. The menu
had an array of really interesting
ANIL G NAIR
GM, OLIVE DOWNTOWN KOCHI
dishes and ‘pork ribs’ was a big hit!
We even extended the fest for a week.
Basically, the plan is to make Arena
Cafe a cool and happening spot by
organising some interesting event
every week. We have also started
serving drinks at Arena,” said Anil.
Anil points out that each of
their segment draws a different
crowd. The visitors to the Arena
Cafe mostly comprise people from
the business world. We have some
regular customers who spend two to
three hours here every day. Everything
from business meetings to
office work is done from here.”
Anil also wants to make their
bar, Blue Rock, the most popular
one in the city. “We have introduced
special ‘Ladies Day’, not ‘Ladies
Night’ which is what we usually see.
The ‘Ladies Day’ is from 10.30 am
to 10.30 pm twice a week. We call
it ‘Pink Wednesdays’ and ‘Rose Fridays’.
Walk into our bar on Saturday
nights and you get to see DJ Savio
performing.”
Alluding to the challenges he
may have to face, Anil said, “With
the introduction of online bookings,
I find the field getting more
competitive. As a result of the
unprecedented floods that ravaged
the State, the months of August and
September took a big hit. So now
all the hotels are trying to tap the
market intensely and somehow no
one wants to leave anything for the
other. Aggressive marketing is the
one thing I see these days. Another
challenge we have to face is the traffic
block caused by the Kochi Metro
work. But the one good thing that
I even consider as my USP is the
ample parking space the hotel has.
Moreover, new hotels are coming
up as well. But then, as far as I am
concerned, everyday is a challenge,”
he puts it lightly.
However, Anil feels there are
many positives. “We have an occupancy
of 80 per cent this month,
which is very good by industry
standards. On an average, we have
an occupancy of 74 per cent.”
Into his 23rd year in the hotel
industry, Anil started his career with
Avenue Regent Kochi. “Before joining
Olive Downtown, I was working
as the GM with Keys Malabar Gate
in Kozhikode,” said Anil, who has
also worked with PGS Vedanta at
Kochi.
January 2019 • Destination Kerala / 49