Banqueting means business

The banqueting business in India has expanded its scope from mass catering for parties
to more personalised catering looking into specific needs of the guests. A major
contributor to the revenue of hotels today, the business promises great prospects to the
standalones too. By Nupur Singh

Banqueting, which was earlier primarily driven by food and beverage, has now evolved
into a fully fledged event management activity. With the MICE sector expanding, so has
the scope for banqueting. "The global market for MICE is worth US$ 500 billion and India
contributes to around five per cent to the total MICE market. But this is expected to
increase and reach 10 to 15 per cent by the year 2012. This shows that there is a great
scope for banqueting business in India, for standalones as well," explains Puneet Gupta,
MD, Tivoli Garden Hotel Resort. Banqueting has also become far more personalised
today, catering to the needs and requirements of different people.

An evolving business

Hotels with banquet facilities are proving to be a one stop shop for all needs. Banqueting
is also going the eco friendly way. "Corporates are opting for environmentally friendly
packages like the Green Meetings package that we have at Renaissance Mumbai where
local produce is the main focus along with recycled items." explains Gagandeep Singh,
director F&B, Renaissance Mumbai Hotel & Convention Centre.

From catering to the masses, banquets today are also providing a fine dining meal
experience. Interactive counters are being preferred over long buffet spreads.
International cuisine is also gaining prominence on the menus. For decoration, the trend
of hiring expert party decorators is catching up in a big way. Parties with special themes
are also gaining popularity. In most cases, the décor is kept minimal but elegant.
"Banquets are the lifelines of resorts and city clubs. Lighting, front and back-end
facilities, parking and better service play integral roles today. The business of banquets
is already growing at the rate of 15 to 20 per cent, with better technology and facilities
in place banquet facilities will be able to cater to large conventions too," explains Sushil
Mohta, MD, Merlin Group.

Other than hotels providing banqueting facilities, standalone banquets are also providing
accommodation facilities and are emerging as hotels, an example of this is Tivoli Garden
Resort and Hotels in New Delhi.

Getting it right

Setting up a banqueting facility requires a fine eye for details - location, infrastructure,
services and marketing, says Subhrajit Bardhan, executive assistance manager, Ista
Hotel, Hyderabad. The location must be easily accessible, well designed and constructed.
This should be supported with facilities for catering, décor, essential audio visual
requirement, speedy service, adequate parking space and technology. Right marketing
and advertisement to make sure that people are aware of the facilities is also an
important aspect in the banqueting business.
The clientele for banquets today is vast, the main ones are:

MICE -This consists of large scale catering to domestic and international business circuit
which opens a new genre of business activity. This is fast picking up in India.

Social events and gatherings - This has always been a key source of revenue for
banquets. Starting from wedding functions to private parties and celebrations to lifestyle
shows and exhibitions, social segment contributes significantly to the overall banquet
sales throughout the year.

Trends in banqueting:
Vivinn Kuraikose, director F&B, Courtyard By Marriott, Pune
Hinjewadi points out the key trends in banqueting:

Themes

 Setups to match company colours or logos

 Use fun for learning
 Setups to match theme of the meeting like converting
halls into cricket stadiums to create the required
atmosphere
 Themed tea coffee breaks like 'Juhu Chowpatty',
'back to school', food based themes like cupcakes,
muffins, fruits based themes like mango, orange

Food for thought:

 Health food for lunch

 Working lunches
 Box lunches
 Cuisines which are popular are Chinese, Japanese,
Italian, Indian

Standalone versus hotels

Within the clearly demarcated segment of standalone banquets and hotels, there are
pros and cons. Standalone banquets are growing at a steady rate as they offer cost
effective facilities. "The free standing banquets are doing fairly well today especially for
social functions as they have the capacity to cater to large audience" explains Ruchika
Mehta, director of communications, Shangri La, New Delhi.

Small scale weddings usually prefer stand alone banquet set ups. But for more elaborate
weddings covering three to four days, hotels are preferred to avoid hassles as they come
with a complete package including accommodation, F&B of international standards,
theme décor for all the ceremonies and even entertainment and spa packages. Banquets
at hotels are also a preferred choice for large conferences.

Standalone banquets need dedicated departments which look into the various aspects,
for example a dedicated events department. An expert says, "The business of stand
alone banquets still has to carve a niche for itself. Maintaining such large space over a
period of time, outside of wedding season would be a challenge. If they can manage to
sustain the business and provide world class services then chance of survival improves."

Catering is an important aspect of the banqueting business, whether for a stand alone
banqueting business or banqueting in five star hotels. People prefer a more personalised
touch to their food that they might find lacking in commercial five stars. This makes it
extremely important for stand-alone ventures to keep their catering arm very strong.
According to most experts, the caterer's kitchen staff is more competent than the chef of
a top class hotel, because even though both are skilled, the former remains authentic
while the latter tends to be commercialised. So while the hotel might gain an upper hand
in terms of presentation and service, in terms of the food the caterer emerges superior.
"Food is one area where stand-alone ventures can have an upper hand as compared to
five star hotels. As the catering service is improving enormously, the hotels will have to
innovate their catering aspects further," explains Satyen Jain, CEO, Pride Hotels.

Banquets: Revenue proposition for hotels

The share of banqueting in the total revenue of the hotel is considerable
today and most hotels offer banquet facilities. The share varies
depending on the size of the hotel. For example, in a small hotel, the
share of revenue through banqueting would be around 20 to 25 per
cent, while in a bigger hotel, the contribution could be 40 to 45 per
cent.

A few hotels share their revenue propositions:

"In a fairly complex city hotel, share of banqueting revenue to overall

F&B service could be nearly 45-50 per cent, which would in turn mean
20-25 per cent of the total hotel revenue. But in a much larger
convention and banqueting setup this figure would up to 35 per cent"

Manav Malhotra, director F&B, 

Park Hotel, Kolkata

"In our hotel it is around 40 per cent of total F&B sale."

Vivinn Kuraikose, director F&B, 

Courtyard By Marriott, Pune Hinjewadi

"In spite of being just a two year old player in the

Hyderabad hospitality industry, our banquet has managed
to do decent business and usually our banquet business
contributes to around 8-10 per cent of hotel's total
revenue."

Subhrajit Bardhan, 
executive assistant manager,
Ista Hotel, Hyderabad

"Banqueting contributes to a significant portion of the entire revenue of

a hotel. F&B accounts for about one-third of a hotel's overall revenues.
Total ancillary services in a five star hotel, which also include renting of
banquet halls, spas and night clubs, could constitute as much as 45 per
cent of a hotel's business."

Anmol Zutshi, banquet manager, 

The Ashok, New Delhi

"Banquets today decide the revenue of the hotel to a

large extent, banqueting spaces in a good location will
always bring good business. In our hotel banqueting
contributes 30 to 35 per cent to the total revenue and
F&B share in this is five to 10 per cent."

Satyen Jain, CEO, Pride Hotels

"Banqueting has always contributed a huge chunk to the

overall revenue for us. It contributes about
approximately 12-15 per cent towards the
 total hotel revenue and about 40-45 per cent towards the total F&B
revenue."

Gagandeep Singh, 
director F&B, 
Renaissance Mumbai Hotel & Convention Centre

"Banqueting share in the total revenue will be approx 60

per cent which will vary from hotel to hotel. In terms of
segment, the share will also vary."

Rajesh Khanna, 
operational head, 
The Metropolitan Hotel, New Delhi

Going the hi-tech way

Banqueting for conferences and meetings today is a substantial revenue generator for
the hotels, but is also extremely challenging. Today there are single software solutions
available for managing banquets. Amadeus Conference Management System is a
complete event and banqueting package. A single software solution enables managing
the entire event efficiently as it integrates the whole process of hiring conference rooms
and equipments to room bookings and catering services. Cenium is a solution developed
for the hospitality sector by Microsoft which provides a one-stop business solution in
many aspects of hospitality including conference and banqueting.

Use of technology helps ensure that the conference and banqueting business runs
smoothly providing a quick response to customer needs and fulfilling all aspects of event
and banqueting planning quickly and efficiently.

With online menus, themes and decoration options, it has become much easier to sell
the banquet facilities. Hotels have elaborate hi tech arrangements to facilitate
conferences and meetings. Upgraded acoustics which is the key requirement for any
event or meeting, proper audio/video facilities along with technical support and WIFI
facilities are installed for holding successful events. These endeavor to provide seam less
connectivity with the latest technology.

The Ista Hotel, Hyderabad provides its in-house audio video equipments which includes
drop down screens and projector, a well positioned business centre with all facilities
including WIFI. Effective acoustic sound systems have been the latest addition. Backed
by a full battery of conference services ITDC's Ashok Hotel has sound-proofed rooms,
eight-language simultaneous translation facilities, audio-visual aids, telex, fax and
secretarial services.

The growth curve

From just wedding and conferences, banquets today have moved to specialised
segments such as training, product launches, wine dinners, exhibitions, themed parties,
sit down dinners, board meetings, etc, each of which requires experts such as event
managers to handle them. The needs and demands of the customers have evolved
greatly over the years and banquets have moved on to cater to these changing
requirements.

People today are also looking for innovative ways of celebrating important events in their
life and the banqueting business has to ensure that it keep its customers happy. "Our
guests are well travelled, thus exposed to the best of the international offering. We have
to keep adapting ourselves to changing expectations to keep up with the latest trends,"
states Manav Malhotra, director F&B, The Park, Kolkata.

There is vast potential in the banqueting business today. What is required for a
successful business is innovation while keeping the personal touch intact. Banqueting
has an advantage to drive in volumes of business which leads to higher profitability. As
is the case with all businesses, banqueting also has its fair share of challenges. "Security
and company policies such as reduction in travel budgets for corporates pose a challenge
to the business. These need to be addressed to make it a success" surmises Pooja
Chhabra, director sales and marketing, Crowne Plaza, Gurgaon.