Ever since news broke that the Ambassador was driving out of its Kolkata home into a Parisian garage, folks have been getting moony-eyed about the curvy model. Yet, much before Hindustan Motors sold it to Peugeot, the newly-opened hotel, Andaz Delhi, was picking up guests in the vintage car, jazzed up in jaunty red, blue, purple, and orange colours. I must admit, I was utterly charmed to be collected in an Amby, noisy as it was and suspect though its suspensions were. The Amby experience is part of the hotel’s theme of ‘401 reasons to fall in love with Delhi’. For two-and-a-half years now, all through the construction phase, its German general manager Heddo Siebs has been riding around Delhi in his Royal Enfield, trying to assimilate the quaint workings of this city. For, unlike most hotel chains that aspire to give you a standardised look and experience across countries, Andaz moulds itself to the city where it is situated. At Delhi, Siebs says he has taken localisation to an extreme. After all, standing as it is at the Aerocity next to 20 other top-grade hotels, it had to be boldly different.
The theme came about as there are 401 rooms in the hotel. In each room, there is a piece of art that gives the guest a tantalising reason to explore Delhi. In Room 373, for instance, there is a painting depicting Hauz Khas village, while in another room there is artwork made with the silver foil that coats Indian mithai. All the works of art are synchronised with a coffee-table book that is placed in each room, strategically open at the page that matches the room number. So the page that corresponds with the sweet foil artwork room will take you into a sweet shop in the narrow bylanes of the city. It’s detailing bordering on creative madness, but one that inspires.
From the moment you step into the hotel, certainly there is a unique andaz — or style — to it. For starters, you don’t walk into a lobby but a fluid lounge with a library, a coffee bar, and some flamboyant installations that depict Delhi in a state of evolution. You are greeted by staff who are casually dressed — no starchy uniforms as Andaz believes in personalised employee fashion.
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There is much to exclaim about — be it the Elephant Path that leads into the banqueting arena, designed on the off chance that a groom might arrive on a jumbo during a big fat Indian wedding. Or AnnaMaya, which is a food hall, with shelves selling artisanal products and carts piled with vegetables, where guests can dine as well as shop. What Hyatt is doing with its Andaz brand — positioned to attract millennials — is entrancing, but not unique. Rival Starwood (now merged with Marriott) is wooing millennials too with its funky chic brand W, which recently debuted in India with an opening in Goa. Be it Aloft, St Regis, Westin, or Element, all these Starwood brands have distinct quirky personalities of their own. As for localisation, InterContinental Hotels has done that with its upscale Hualuxe brand, a new offering designed especially for China, keeping in mind the country’s culture, heritage and etiquette. It’s no longer about price-point segmentation, but about catering to varied personalities.
So it is rather surprising that the Taj Group owned by the Tatas, which trod on this same path of segmentation a few years ago by creating brands such as Vivanta, positioned as unstuffy luxury aimed at a bon vivant personality, Gateway (crisp service for practical people) and Taj (timeless luxury), is now checking out of that approach. It is going back to a single-brand approach. Is that wise, one wonders.
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