Exfoliating their way to profits

Hotel chains jump the spa bandwagon to offer guests de-stressing and enhancement treatments.

The Taj chain will have a spa in every hotel, the Park group has launched one in Chennai and Delhi will follow, the Oberoi group has spas at its premium leisure and business properties "" and now ITC-Welcomgroup has jumped the bandwagon to announce its first major spa in Agra.

The recently renovated Mughal Sheraton in the city is adding a 25,000 sq ft spa "" "the largest in north India", according to ITC's division chief executive, hotels, Nakul Anand "" and this will set the standards for spas across the chain. "Spas are now a way of reality in hotels," confirms Anand.

"Earlier, our hotels had health clubs and gyms, but today's business traveller wants de-stressing methods, so we will have spas across all hotels in our chain."

Unlike the other chains, ITC Welcomgroup is using an overseas spa consultant to set standards, and architect Pradeep Sachdeva to design the spaces, but will manage the spa on its own.

"We have a spa at (the Sonar Bangla Sheraton & Towers) in Kolkata that we've been running with great success, and don't see why we cannot run them in our other hotels too," Anand says.

Other hotels, however, seem to prefer to outsource their spa needs. The Taj group had tied up with Jiva spas two years ago, and has successfully launched the facility at its palace hotels in Gwalior, Udaipur and Jodhpur, "and work on completing it is in progress in Jaipur", confirms Sakshi Dureja Kohli, director of PR, Taj Hotels-Delhi. Jiva has also been introduced in Mumbai, and in Delhi, one of the two Taj hotels should have a Jiva spa by next year, says Kohli.

The Oberoi group had tied up with Banyan Tree for managing its spas in 2001, primarily for its luxe Vilas properties in Jaipur, Agra and Udaipur, but has since extended the facility for its premier business hotels in the city.

Banyan Tree, meanwhile, spotting an opportunity in the Indian market for its products, has entered into an agreement for managing the spas for the Leela group of hotels.

In New Delhi, one of the most-talked about spas has been the under-progress facility at the Imperial Hotel, though it has been considerably delayed. Which just might mean that the Imperial's loss could be its competitors' gain.