24 hours Room service Banquets and Conferences Banqueting: An impressive 7600 sq. ft.

rectangular shaped column free ballroom with rich classic dcor, is the perfect setting for a world-class symposium, product launch, banquet or corporate meeting. The function room can accommodate up to 400 guests in a theatre style seating arrangement and is divisible into 3 separate function rooms each with their own exclusive pre function areas. The hotel also has a host of conference rooms and meeting rooms to seat from 6 to 20 guests Meeting Room Dimensions

Hi-Tech Board Room (20 seater , Level 1)

Length / Width / Height 30ft /13ft /9ft Area 400 sq ft

Bombay Chambers ( 12 seater , Lobby Level)

Length/Width/Height 19ft /17ft /11ft Area- 323 sq ft

Point of View Meeting Room (14 Seater , 30th Floor)

Length/Width/Height 25ft /15ft /15ft Area 375 sq ft

Point of View Meeting room (6 Seater , 30th Floor)

Length/Width/Height 15ft/ 15ft/ 9ft Area 225 sq ft Kaya Kalp The Spa An exclusive floor offering you wide range of therapeutic massages, spa, sauna, beauty parlor, salon, gym and an Indoor pool for your relaxation and your rejuvenation. Separate Ladies and Men sections provide complete privacy to both. The Indoor infinity pool provides complete sense of luxury at home feel. Spa Treatments: Includes an entire beauty center with an extensive array of treatments performed in the privacy of three individual treatment rooms under the guidance of specialized personnel

2 Ayurvedic treatments: Ayur (life) and Veda (knowledge) signifies the knowledge to a long and healthy life. One of the branches of Ayurveda is massages for body rejuvenation, treatment and healing. These massages are offered to guests on traditional massage Patti (beds) with specialized Ayurvedic oils by highly qualified masseurs

Health Club Other facilities: Separate mens and womens change room areas including steam rooms and Jacuzzis, fully-equipped unisex gymnasium Gymnasium: In the gym we use top-of-the-line range of Techno gym equipment. All workout machines as well as a full range of free weights are available. Swimming Pool: For exclusive access of resident guests the hotel has a 2100 sq ft outdoor swimming pool. For purposes of safety the depth is a maximum of 4.83 feet.

Security Measure Undertaken Security measures in place are: Crash barriers CCTV system (IP based) Elevator Access control Entry points access control Photo pass system Explosive detectors Hand held / door frame metal detectors Baggage screening X-Ray One entry and exit point under continuous surveillance.

Environment, Health and Safety Fire and Life Safety: Micro processor driven smoke detection system for early detection of fire. Fire Hydrant system, sprinkler systems and water monitors across the hotel to aid fire fighting.

3 One full Refuge Floor and two part Refuge Floors are created in the Guest residential block to ensure maximum safety. This requirement is fully keeping with the safety norms. Guest Floor smoke evacuation, fresh air make-up and fire staircase pressurization system ensure smoke-free passage during evacuation of Guests. 228 Fire rated doors in all strategic exists to ensure adequate fire compartmentalization and Fire Damper in HVAC system. Public address system in Guest rooms, Public areas and all employee areas facilitate communication to the Guests and team members about Fire status. Beam detector for early earthquake warning. The unique elevator access system provides security and privacy to all in-house Guests Security monitoring Up coming Boom Management for basement car park. Under car surveillance system. CCTVs in all Public areas, Guest Corridors and Back areas. CO2 sensors in the Car Park area in the basement. General Managers Surveillance system.

ITC Grand Centrals commitment towards sustainability

Extensive use of fly ash bricks in civil works. Effluent treatment plan (ETP) for treating all types of effluents. Treated water used for gardening, makeup water for cooling towers and in flushing system. Rain water harvesting system to increase the ground water table. Green Banqueting Food waste from the hotel is composted into organic manure with the help of the Organic Waste Converter. The manure is used for gardening purposes. Zero waste practice followed through recycling of garbage and releasing pollution free effluents into external drainage system. Have planted more than 300 saplings and 1000 more to be planted. In process of establishing CDM Carbon Development Mechanism Health and Safety: ITC Grand Central is 14001 & 22000:2005 certified.

Awards and Recognition:

National Tourism Award 2007-08 for facilities provided to physically challenged guests. Hewitt best employers in India- 2009 CNBC Awaaz Travel Award- 2009 for Best Business Hotel The Miele Food Guide 2009- Kebabs & Kurries voted as Asias one of finest restaurant. Greentech Safety Award 2009 Indias best companies to work for- 2009 The NCPEDP- Shell Helen Keller Award- 2008 Times Food Guide 2008 Award Kebabs & Kurries awarded Best Restaurant of the year Greentech Safety Award 2008 Greentech Environment Excellence Gold Award 2008

About Revenue management: Revenue Management, also known as yield management, is a process for capacity-constrained industries to maximize profitability by allocating The right inventory to the right customers at the right price. RM concepts are pertinent to virtually everything that is sellable in advance, transient, capacity constrained, allows discrimination among market segments has inconsistent demand patterns and low marginal servicing cost. Airline Industries, Hotels, Television Broadcasters, Theaters, Car Rental Agencies, Hospitals, Telecommunications are only some of the industries where RM techniques have been successfully utilized. Revenue gains of 2-8% due to RM are frequently reported; most of this goes to the bottom line leading to profit increase of 50-100%. RM works on the fundamental concepts of market segmentation and price discrimination. Purchase regulations and refund requirements help to segment the market. For example, higher fares may be fully or partially refundable and purchasable at all times whereas lower fares are non-refundable and must be purchased a number of days in advance. Price-sensitive customers are willing to put up with the lower flexibility & have lesser assessment for service while those who have higher assessment for the service are willing to pay more. In airlines and

5 hotels, business travelers constitute price-insensitive market segment and leisure travelers form the price-sensitive market segment. Price discrimination helps the hotel to achieve objective of increasing revenues in two ways. By charging premium prices to the less price sensitive market segments, the industry can extract greater revenue; at the same time charging discounted prices to a price sensitive market segment results in increased consumption of the service that offsets the price reduction. Occasionally, a time element is added to the pricing of a service. Demand is managed by elevating prices during intensive demand and offering discounts during moderate demand. Types of discount vary among industries. In the hotels, discounts are offered for early bookings, including typically group bookings, as well as travel during off-peak days and seasons.

Market segmentation (micro level) Every organization which sells something has to identify its customer base and segregate them according to their spending pattern and many other dynamics. Special services are to be given to customer whom we want to retain. Services may include reduction in prices, inclusion of amenities such as breakfast, lunch, dinner etc. The type of clientele a hotel gets for its rooms is classified according to various parameters such as: 1) The length of their stay. 2) The medium of booking 3) The no of rooms booked, etc. The types of clientele identified by hotels generally are: FIT- (Free individual Traveler) 1) Retail: Those bookings which are done from channels such as the reservations, GDS & websites fall in this segment. The rates that are offered to them are non-negotiated. The guests who fall in this category have paid bar based rates. 2) Packages: Those bookings which has other amenities of the hotels bundled with the lump sum amount that is procured from the guest falls in this category. E.g.: For a price of INR 25000/- the guest is offered a room for 2 days & special spa services and heavy discount on food & beverages etc.

Corporate 1) Contracted: These are bookings which are contracted well in advance. Generally big corporate houses are targeted. They are given special highly discounted rates but on a guaranteed volume. These rates are called CVGR Corporate Volume Guaranteed Rate. 2) Long Staying Guest: These are guests who come in for a stay for a longer duration of time. Special rates are also given to them. 3) Bulk: The bookings which consist of booking of several rooms at once are called as bulk bookings. They are also offered discounts on room rates and sometimes on the food and beverages also, depending upon the contracts. 4) Complementary: Those rooms which are given for no charge to certain guests fall in this category. 5) In- house: The rooms which are in use by the employees of the hotel fall under this category. After identification of the potential client specially catered rates are offered to him, this helps in retaining the customer and prevent them from going to the competition.

Competitors: Taj Mahal Towers & Palace 565 rooms Positioning: heritage hotel & best service and product standards in whole of Mumbai Oberois Nariman point 287 rooms Positioning: Oberois project an Upscale swanky image, Using premium pricing with low occupancy rate. This maximizes the ARR. Trident tower Nariman point 547 rooms Positioning & strategy: upscale business hotel, and follow a yield route, maximizing occupancy by keeping the rates low. (Possible way they achieve maximum occupancy is through corporate bookings and discounted rates for FITs) Vivanta by Taj 300 rooms Positioning: Exquisite business hotel Banking in on the reputation of TAJ MAHAL Palace, Mumbai.

Four Seasons, Worli: Positioning: Four seasons project itself as a business hotel for the young professionals. The rates are bit on the higher side and also the amenities provided by them appeal mostly to the 25-40 yr professionals.

Demand Forecasting (Literature) After segmenting the market and defining the price structure for each segment, other essentials of RM come in to play. Demand forecasting is first of these essentials. Demand is forecasted with the help of historical data of demand patterns for the particular service. Usually, demand exhibits definite patterns such as trends and cycles. For example demand may vary by time of day, day of week or season of year. These demand patterns can be used to predict the potential future demand in each market segment. In hotel industry, little information is available for millions of customers. Hence they use statistical techniques for demand forecasting. It would be best to determine the demand forecast using a multi-functional approach. The inputs from sales and marketing, finance, and production should be considered. The final demand forecast is the consensus of all participating managers. You may also want to put up a Sales and Operations Planning group composed of representatives from the different departments that will be tasked to prepare the demand forecast. Determination of the demand forecasts is done through the following steps: Determine the use of the forecast Select the items to be forecast Determine the time horizon of the forecast Select the forecasting model(s) Gather the data Make the forecast Validate and implement results

The time horizon of the forecast is classified as follows:

Description Short-range Duration

Forecast Horizon Medium-range Long-range More than 2 years

Usually less than 3 3 months to 2 months, maximum of years 1 year Sales and production planning, budgeting

Applicability Job scheduling, worker assignments

New product development, facilities planning

How is demand forecast determined? There are two approaches to determine demand forecast (1) the qualitative approach, (2) the quantitative approach. The comparison of these two approaches is shown below:

Description Applicability

Qualitative Approach Used when situation is vague & little data exist (e.g., new products and technologies)

Quantitative Approach Used when situation is stable & historical data exist (e.g. existing products, current technology)

Considerations Involves intuition and experience Techniques Jury of executive opinion Sales force composite Delphi method Consumer market survey

Involves mathematical techniques Time series models Causal models

Qualitative Forecasting Methods Your company may wish to try any of the qualitative forecasting methods below if you do not have historical data on your products' sales. Qualitative Method Jury of executive opinion Sales force composite Description The opinions of a small group of high-level managers are pooled and together they estimate demand. The group uses their managerial experience, and in some cases, combines the results of statistical models. Each salesperson (for example for a territorial coverage) is asked to project their sales. Since the salesperson is the one closest to the marketplace, he has the capacity to know what the customer wants. These projections are then combined at the municipal, provincial and regional levels. A panel of experts is identified where an expert could be a decision maker, an ordinary employee, or an industry expert. Each of them will be asked individually for their estimate of the demand. An iterative process is conducted until the experts have reached a consensus.

Delphi method

Quantitative Forecasting Methods There are two forecasting models here (1) the time series model and (2) the causal model. A time series is a set of evenly spaced numerical data and is obtained by observing responses at regular time periods. In the time series model, the forecast is based only on past values and assumes that factors that influence the past, the present and the future sales of your products will continue. On the other hand, the causal model uses a mathematical technique known as the regression analysis that relates a dependent variable (for example, demand) to an independent variable (for example, price, advertisement, etc.) in the form of a linear equation. The regression analysis is done via SPSS software.

10

The time series forecasting methods are described below:

Time Series Forecasting Method Nave Approach

Description

Assumes that demand in the next period is the same as demand in most recent period; demand pattern may not always be that stable For example: If July sales were 50, then Augusts sales will also be 50

Moving Averages MA is a series of arithmetic means and is used if little or (MA) no trend is present in the data; provides an overall impression of data over time A simple moving average uses average demand for a fixed sequence of periods and is good for stable demand with no pronounced behavioral patterns. Equation: F 4 = [D 1 + D2 + D3] / 4 F Forecast, D Demand, No. Period A weighted moving average adjusts the moving average method to reflect fluctuations more closely by assigning weights to the most recent data, meaning, that the older data is usually less important. The weights are based on intuition and lie between 0 and 1 for a total of 1.0 Equation:

11

WMA 4 = (W) (D3) + (W) (D2) + (W) (D1) WMA Weighted moving average, W Weight, D Demand, No. Period

Exponential Smoothing

The exponential smoothing is an averaging method that reacts more strongly to recent changes in demand by assigning a smoothing constant to the most recent data more strongly; useful if recent changes in data are the results of actual change (e.g., seasonal pattern) instead of just random fluctuations F t + 1 = a D t + (1 - a ) F t Where F t + 1 = the forecast for the next period D t = actual demand in the present period F t = the previously determined forecast for the present period A = a weighting factor referred to as the smoothing constant

Time Series Decomposition

The time series decomposition adjusts the seasonality by multiplying the normal forecast by a seasonal factor

A revenue manager chooses a combination of the above methods upon his/her discretion. Sometimes the quantitative methods do not add up to the expectations and the intuition of the revenue manager, there the decision is wholly based on the qualitative methods. This happens generally in the case where forecasting has to be done for a short time span.

12

Inventory Allocation The next step is to allocate inventory amongst the market segments. As stated earlier, industry such as hospitality, sell their inventory at premium and concession prices. Typically price-sensitive customers book early while the demand for premium inventory arrives late. Therefore the hotels, which practice RM, need to set a booking limit to restrict maximum amount of inventory to be sold at concession price. If this limit is set too high, the hotel may suffer an opportunity loss by being forced to turn away some of their premium customers; if it is too low, some inventory may remain unsold. One way of defining the booking limit is based on the expected marginal revenue generated from selling an additional unit of inventory. Hotels define the floor price, which is the lowest adequate price for next additional unit to be sold. This floor price is derived by using value of the expected marginal revenue of the last unit of inventory. The sale is acceptable as long as requested price is above expected marginal revenue floor price.

Overbooking Another important element of the revenue management is the use of overbooking when there is a chance that a customer may not appear. Capacity-constrained industries overbook to redeem for customer cancellations and no-shows. For this reason, it is obligatory to forecast cancellations and no-shows. Insufficient overbooking results in unsold inventory; on the other hand excessive overbooking results in penalty cost which includes both the financial remuneration given to bumped customers and the prospective loss of future revenue due to customer dissatisfaction. The optimal level of overbooking is where the anticipated cost of overbooking for the next unit to be sold is equal to the expected marginal revenue from that unit. Revenue management is a process that can significantly increase revenues of capacity-constrained Hotel through better inventory management and pricing. By using RM concepts, the hotel can protect premium inventory for sale at higher prices, stimulate market growth by offering discounts and minimize wastage of perishable inventory.

13

Tools used in revenue management For a manager to effective & an informed decision he/she needs to have proper statistics presented in a proper so as to interpret them properly. For the same reason revenue management has certain tools with the help of which the manager takes an informed decision. They are as follows: Daily Market Segment A market segment report is something which is generated by the PMS (Property management software/system). It is generated on daily basis and also on month closings and year endings. It gives us the summary of the No. of rooms used by each segment, the revenue generated by them and the percentage share of each segment. This report tells us which are the segments which are doing the best business and which are lagging behind so as to focus more on them. A snapshot has been provided below:

V.I. Report V.I. (value index) report is the comparing measure for the productivity of the various competition hotels. As different hotels have different number of rooms this measure helps bring the hotels on a same level. The V.I. is calculated from the RevPAR (Revenue per available room). From the absolute value index the growth over the last is calculated and the hotel having the maximum growth is rank 1, then rank 2 and so on. This is a very important tool in terms for knowing where we stand and where do we need to be. A snap shot of the Value index report is given below:

14

Rate Engine: It is another very important tool in revenue management. This excel template let us decide the BARs for the whole fiscal year. It is a grid having all the packages and room types on the Y-axis and the cells to select the BAR on the X-axis according to the respective dates. It is a very complex calculation sheet where in you can come to know the booking pace also which come to it via linked sheets of the market segment report from the property management system. The whole sheet gives the revenue manager an overview of all the future dates, the rate, the occupancy, the packages, and also the status of the different room types. A simplex rate engine format is given below.

15

16 Pricing To sell any product, it must be priced appropriately. Pricing of the product is the most important part of revenue management. If the product is not priced ideally then it would not sell or it would not give out the yield it is suppose to give out. Hence very complex calculations and various parameters have to be taken into consideration while pricing of the room. The hotel rooms are priced according to the market pricing unlike other products which are priced generally on cost plus pricing. It is found effective that before setting a base price for each day, to develop a pricing grid. Such a hotel pricing matrix is an essential revenue tool. Every hotel should have the tools to sell expensive or cheap when needed. Such tools are called price or BAR levels. In the pricing matrix you can include various BAR levels to offer at different levels of demand. Below is an example of a simplex hotel rate grid:

When putting together the pricing matrix take the following criteria into account: To Build the pricing points (BAR levels) as per expected level demand (High to distressed for each season) Use a maximum of 12 BAR levels Check the price compression from one BAR level to the next one To determine what prices each BAR level should have a detailed study of at what rates the hotel sells the most by channels, month and rate types. This it is very difficult to miss out on any rate levels.

17

Rack Rate BAR1 BAR2 BAR3 BAR4 BAR5 BAR6 BAR7 BAR8 BAR9 BAR10

Highest rate

Lowest rate

For example: If we take a look at the past production per rate level below, we will notice that the hotel had a high production of room nights at BAR 6. It might be effective to move earlier to BAR 5 and sell at a slightly higher price, or if the demand does not sustain such pricing to implement a BAR of 85.00 to capture some of that demand.

We should also try to convert some of the demand for BAR 2 at 130.00. Some clear yielding opportunities that can only be analyzed if you work with BAR levels, instead of simply changing the rate in your PMS. Below an example of a channel price production analysis for the GDS, in which we can see clearly that BAR 6 overproduced. This is yet another yield opportunity for the hotel.

18

Example of past production GDS sales

Studying the hotels historical pick-up for various demand levels, it is helpful to develop a more advanced pricing grid for a hotel, and get a real powerful revenue management tool.

19

20 Pricing strategies adopted by the hotel Early Bird Pricing: Rates are generally kept lower to attract the pre planned price conscious traveler. Time is of essence here. The earlier anyone books the more the discount he/she gets. Not all rooms are available for such discounts. Objective: To increase occupancy and attract the pre planning traveler. Itc has an advance 14 day and an advance 21 day booking period. ROH: Run Of House- when we are sitting on a high base occupancy level, then all or some categories of rooms are closed down for sell. The hotel declares a flat price for accommodation, which is generally on the higher side of the ADR. At this rate rooms are allocated to the booker. He or she may end up with a base category room or even get a jr. suite at the same rate. This can be done due to the fact that we at that time hold the leverage to bargain greater than the customer. Objective: occupancy being high, the effort here would be to increase the RevPAR by skimming the market for high payers. Price Bundling: The price of the product includes the product itself and an supporting product of a lower value. It is done to increase the value of the money which the customer is paying. Generally the breakfast package or the airport pickup and drop charges are bundled. This not only gives a greater value proposition for the guest but also help build up sales of peripheral services. Differential pricing: At the time of high occupancy season (winter) the difference between the room categories was observed as rs 2000 between the base and the second category room, and 4000 between the second and the top category room. As the demand is higher, the main aim of the hotel is to maximizes its per room income (RevPAR). In summer time, the difference between the base category and the second category room is Rs1500/- and the difference between the second and the top category room was maintained at Rs2500/-. This was done to give the customer a choice, with a very less difference the customers mindset always goes towards the higher category room. And this can be converted into surety with the aid of a influencing sales team. Promotional pricing: This style of pricing is adopted by the hotel to promote its main inventory sales. Promotional offers like extended stay packages are available. Currently to cope up with slow demand period of the summers an extended stay package is being introduced. (3rd night free packages).

21 Psychological pricing: This style of pricing gives the customer a perception of him/her spending less whereas he is paying the same amount. This way the spending goes up without giving the effect of too much spending to the customer. Eg: Rs.11750 or Rs.11250 & 9699 etc. here the amount to expected from the customer is 12000 & 10000, but since the amount seen by the customer is in 11000 & 9000 bracket hence he/she is less reluctant to pay for it. Apart from pricing strategies the hotel also uses different channels of cooking to bring in revenue. Maintenance and proper positioning of the hotel in these channels is also very important.

Observed Strategies: 17th March, executive club rooms (base category) are closed down for the dates of 28 to 2nd April, Inspite of the same rooms being available. Only key account bookings and group booking which are to be booked on a higher rate will be accepted rest other bookings will be denied. All the channels for EC except opera are closed. This is done because we do not want to overbook on EC where in at later stage well have to upgrade the guest to a higher category room for the same rate. At this point we want to sell the higher category room at raised prices as to cash in on this opportunity.

22nd March The rates between second and the third category room has been increased by Rs.1000/-. Now the difference between both the room category is Rs.3000/-. This has been done so as to differentiate between both the rooms even more. There could have been an shifting of takers of the higher category room to the lower category room. Also there can be an increase in rise of the takers of the higher category rooms. Hence, to take advantage of such situation the rates have been increased Special Events: Cricket World Cup finalsApril 1st and 2nd are high business days. Most of south Bombay hotels have been sold out and they have creamed out on the last few bookings. Our current rates as on 16-march for 1st & 2nd are min 10000/- . Now our strategy will be increase the rates and cash in on the booking those will be coming from south Bombay

22 Channels OTA: Online travel agents- one of the main sources of inflow of booking is through the online booking agencies. The hotel needs to chalk out a contract with such entities for a per room commission type deal. This channel is mainly important because of its penetration into the market. Voice: this is the actual face to face or telephonic way of getting in bookings. Major part is played by the front office and the sales department. It is a very powerful way of increasing sales. Due to the personal nature of the interactions bonds are made which in turn leads to repeat business. Brand websites: This is the hotels very own brand website & also the parent companys site, it works as an online information centre for the hotel. And also because one can also book through the website it acts as a source of booking. GDS: Global distribution system- It is an online central reservation system via which travel agents having an IATA (International association of travel agents) account can book the rooms of the hotel. Social Media: Fan pages on social networking sites also act as a channel for hotel room booking.

The above mentioned channels are categorized as Internet media and actual personal sales. Internet marketing will have the OTAs (Online Travel Agents), Brand Websites, GDS & the social Media). All the necessary strategies and knowledge about all the channels of income and booking have been mentioned in the further report.

23 Institutional Sales & Reservations: An Important part of earning revenue is how to sell the product. The revenue of the hotel greatly depends on the skill set of the sales executives. The following report has been compiled after observing the sales executives on actual sales calls. Job description: Sales executives maximize the sales of a company's goods or services in many different settings. Their role helps to ensure the commercial success of a diverse range of companies in Mumbai and other markets. This can involve working with high profile brands and products. They are also involved with identifying new markets and business opportunities. Sales executives are responsible for increasing and developing sales in areas including: Corporate room bookings Non corporate bulk bookings Conferences

Duties and Responsibilities: Typical work activities will depend on the market/setting. In addition, specific responsibilities will vary according to level of seniority (client contact, for example, will increase with experience). Typical activities may include: Maintaining relationships with existing customers through regular review visits; Visiting potential customers to demonstrate products and gain new markets; Acting as a contact between a company and its existing and potential markets; Contacting clients by phone to negotiate terms of an agreement and conclude sales; Gathering market and customer information; Staffing trade exhibitions and demonstrations; Negotiating variations in price, delivery and specifications with managers; Advising on forthcoming product developments and discussing special promotions; Visiting retail and wholesale outlets; Checking inventory of rooms on sale; Recording sales and order information and sending copies to the sales office; Reviewing own sales performance;

24

Gaining a clear understanding of customers' businesses and requirements; Making accurate, rapid cost calculations; Feeding future buying trends back to employers.

An Insight into territory building Any executive when they are enrolled into a sales team they have to start from scratch, unless they were already an established salesperson. They all need to follow the following four steps so as to yield high returns. Step 1- Territory mapping This is a process which involves scouting of the assigned territory. The locations of the buildings and the number of offices and the names of the company in those buildings are acquired. Step 2- Cold Calling The database of the companies has to be short listed according to the maximum or minimum potential any company has. These companies are then approached for business and then their actual potential is found out. Step 3- Growth If a positive reply is received then it is supported by framing a fixed rate of booking for that company for the respective business season. This rate is decided by keeping in mind the volume the corporate is guaranteeing. Step 4- Relationship building One the onset of a single business case, the executives start their relationship building with the respective companies and their key decision makers related to the hotel booking. The detailed process has been explained later. How Sales Techniques Work:The foundations of most modern sales techniques lie in five stages of action. These began in the 1950's and include: 1. Attention: You have to get the attention of your prospect through some advertising or prospecting method.

25 2. Interest: Build their interest by using an emotional appeal such as how good they will look to their boss when they make this deal that will save the company thousands of rupees! 3. Desire: Build their desire for your product by showing them its features and letting them sample it. 4. Conviction: Increase their desire for your product by statistically proving the worth of your product. Compare it to its competitors. Use testimonials from happy customers. 5. Action: Encourage the prospect to act. This is your closing. Ask for the order. If they object, address their objections. There are then many variations of closing techniques that can help get the business.

There is a plethora of closing techniques that range from hard sell to soft sell and everything in-between. Some of these include: A Direct Close: Simply asking for the order when you are sure your prospect is ready. A Deal/Concession Close: Using this closing technique gives the prospect the feeling that they are making a smart choice and saving money (or getting more value). Use it with phrases like "Book today and I can add this other amenity for only 10% more." A Time-Driven Close: This one works well with statements like, "prices are going up next week, so you should go ahead a let me place your order today." Many more closing techniques exist, but we're going to focus on one of the more successful techniques for building a large and loyal customer base. That focus is, once again, Relationship Selling Relationship Selling: It costs more than five times as much to get a new customer as it does to keep an existing customer? That in it should help you understand the value of building a relationship with your customers and turning them into both repeat buyers and spokespeople for your company. Word of mouth referrals are still one of the best ways to make new sales. If Joe tells Ed he got a great deal from Joanna at XYZ Company, then Ed is more likely to go to Joanna and also buy (or at least be receptive if Joanna calls him to set up an appointment.) Relationship selling is all about building a friendship or relationship with your prospects and listening to their needs. Once you've built that relationship, shown you care, and earned their trust, you are on the road to

26 making them a customer. Knowing their needs and finding out their secret fears (for example... your client may confide to you, "If I can't make this project work within budget, my boss will probably replace me!") can help you find solutions for them that are exactly on-target with their needs and build an even stronger relationship. With a relationship in place, working out details is a breeze. Those details become obstacles if you don't have the existing relationship. As a client, some of the best experiences with sales people are with those who honestly listened to the needs, and showed an interest in more than just the business. Coming in with a low pressure, open, and honest approach will win business. The clients didn't mind setting up appointments for the executives visits. They looked forward to them. It was low pressure and friendly. The company received good service, good prices, and everyone was happy. The executives would react quickly if the client had problems or emergency needs. This ensures, when competitors called, the client would quickly tell them that they were happy with their current vendor - even if they may have given them a better price! That's part of the power of relationship selling! Most people react negatively to high pressure sales. In relationship selling, high pressure is not typically part of the equation, simply because it's hard to have a friendly relationship with a client who feels pressured by you. In relationship selling, you become a form of support for your clients. Your services or products become something they depend on, and the more you can suit their needs and make their jobs easier, the better they will respond to additional sales offers. You'll also find that relationship selling benefits companies that offer products in very competitive markets - particularly if there isn't a lot of difference between products! Part of relationship selling involves maintaining regular contact. If the executive neglects a client who has trust in your integrity as a person and as a salesperson, that client may finally be forced to turn to the competitor. (Who has probably been calling regularly to get their business?) So, the executive should make sure that he/she not only builds the relationship, but keep regular contact and keep all channels of communication open. Make available several methods of contact for any type of emergency need. Otherwise, in an emergency, the client was forced to contact that persistent competitor and discovered that, "Hey, he/she's a nice person too! And their product is maybe even a little better! "So, the lesson is, to make sure to maintain contact and be always accessible to clients, or you may find yourself having to replace them! A new sales technique that has recently surfaced involves spending significant sales time only with those prospects who offer the highest probability of a sale (Pareto Analysis: The top 20% of the companies who yield 80% of the revenue). Arriving at that determination involves asking pointed questions and letting the prospect do the majority of the talking. The approach is to focus only on prospects who need your product, want you product, and can afford your product. Rather than using the effort

27 trying to turn a low probability prospect into a high probability prospect, you focus your efforts entirely on the high probability group. Determining who is of high probability is done through a series of questions that require positive answers. If at any point, you don't get the answer you need, you end the meeting, thank the person, and leave. You don't waste your time and/or your proposal department's time on putting together a proposal that you know won't be accepted. Now, just because the prospect states that they are not interested, doesn't mean you pack your bags and leave. If they've answered all other questions with the right answers then you can continue the line of questioning until you determine without doubt that they will buy. This means you never ask for the order. If you've done the questioning (interview) session right then when it is completed you and the prospect have come to a meeting of the minds and the logical next step is that they will place an order. Your series of questions has eliminated any objections (or else you have already said goodbye and left!). Rather than trying to manipulate the prospect and get them to do something they don't want to do, you are letting them come to the decision that it is the right thing to do. You are laying the foundation for a mutually beneficial basis for doing business. Basic Sales Tips and Techniques: Today there are more types of sales styles and techniques than you can shake a stick at. So how do you know what works and what doesn't? It really boils down to what works for you and what works for your product. Think about your target market and their perceptions about your product type. Do they know they need it and simply have to choose from the various brands on the market? Or, do they have no idea how much the product would help them be more productive? Do they even know about your product? Will the sales call be an education for them - or you? Think through these things before determining what methods might work for your product or service. It goes without saying that a sales method that works for office supplies won't work for management consulting services. Although they are both targeting a similar market, the knowledge and understanding of your prospects will be much different. They have to be educated about how much they can benefit from consulting services, whereas, they already know they have to have binders to put their reports in, or paper for their copiers. So, even though there are many sales methods, the choices are narrowed as you think about your market and what their needs are, as well as what their expectations may be. With that said, let's just go over some things that were observed. These tips are basic guidelines that most any sales person can benefit from.

28

Listening to the emotional side of the prospect or client: Emotions are tied into almost everything we do even if we don't realize it. The client may mention off-hand that they are really stressed-out about a particular project they are working on (even if it doesn't relate to what you're selling them). Make a note of this and see if there is anything you can do to assist them. You may have another client who had a similar dilemma and found a good solution. Make those connections and help where ever you can. You'll be rewarded with loyalty from all of your clients. Focus on the prospect or client's needs: The executive may be tempted to sell the client their top-of-the-line inventory when they really only need the mid-line rooms. By selling them more than they need, the executive may be cutting off future relations with them. Once they realize (and they will eventually) that they don't need most of what he/she has sold them, they'll feel bitter and resentful for wasting their money and not looking out for their best interest. They'll see the executive as a "salesperson" and not as a resource. Use of language that focuses on the prospect or client: Using "you" and "yours," or "you'll find..." rather than "I think" or "Let me tell you about," brings your message a little closer to home and may grab their attention more quickly. Helping the prospect to see the bottom line: If it is known that your product can help clients save money, or increase profitability, then make sure they understand that. Your product may have an edge in that it includes features that save time. Time is money as the saying goes and if you can save time you can often sell your product. Find out the prospect's priorities: You can save yourself a lot of wasted time and effort by simply knowing how important your product and its benefits are to your prospect. If you've listened to them and determined the need, but still aren't getting anywhere, find out if there are other elements of their business that are taking priority and pushing your sale aside. If you know they have to implement a program before they can spend time considering (or funds purchasing) your product then you can schedule a call back at a later date that may stand a better chance of getting some attention. To do this you have to ask the questions because the information is not always volunteered. (Again, the key is focusing on the needs of your prospect, and having an open relationship already in place.) Know your prospect: Find out as much as you possibly can about your prospect before your appointment. This will not only help you anticipate their needs ahead of time, but will also show them you've done your homework and have an interest in their business other than just selling your product. When talking with them, let them do most of the talking. People usually love talking about their businesses and its successes. For example, you

29 might bring up the fact that you saw they won an award at a regional meeting then let them proceed to fill you in on the details. You might also compliment them on the efficiency of their production system or the quality of their products. This will also open the door to more conversation and the opportunity to learn more about their needs and how your product will fit those needs. Focus on why they should buy - not their objections: The idea here is that while you are building up the benefits associated with using your product, they will be minimizing their resistance to it. By focusing on what you know the prospect likes, you are building up the importance of the positive and reducing the importance of the negatives. Sell the benefits - not the product: In most cases, you're not selling a product; you're selling the benefits the product will produce. In other words, you're not selling digital phones; you're selling the ability to communicate from anywhere. You are selling freedom to leave the confines of the office and still be accessible. You're selling the ability to have a more flexible work schedule. You're selling peace of mind for long trips. You're selling security. Get to the emotional or financial benefits and you're on to something! Never rush the sale or the customer: Remember the section about building a relationship with your customers? This is a very important step. It helps give the prospect the right perception of you and your company. Rushing them instead of letting them come to their own decision to buy can create hostilities that can't be overturned. It can make the difference between getting the sale and creating a loyal customer, and having to start over with another prospect. In the competitive climate of many markets, you definitely don't want to risk losing a qualified prospect who you know needs your product. Know your products, as well as the market - be a RESOURCE: In order to be seen as a valuable resource for your clients, you have to demonstrate that you not only know and understand your products and the market, but can assist them in making good decisions and provide them with tools to improve their business. If you don't have these skills and knowledge, get them. You'll be rewarded over and over by loyal clients who trust your opinions and advice, and buy from you frequently. Follow through with promises: If you do nothing else, do this. Always follow through with what you say you are going to do. If you say you'll send a quote by Friday - DO IT! If you say you'll check with someone else in your company about an issue that's come up - DO IT! Don't forget. Use the technology available to you (even if it's a sticky note on your dash board!) and make sure you follow through with your promises. There is no surer way to lose the faith of a prospect (or existing client) than to forget to do something you tell them you will do. If something comes up that

30 forces you to have to delay, call them and give them a heads up. They may have a meeting arranged to present the information you're supplying them with, and if they don't have it you'll both look bad. Focus on your client's success: Not to beat a dead horse, but there is tremendous value in being a resource for your client. If you can help them to succeed then they are more likely to help you succeed. Be a coach for your clients (at least in your areas of expertise). You have the unique perspective of seeing how many different businesses operate. Gather this knowledge and share it with your clients or prospects. Make sure they understand that you want to see them succeed, not just sell your products. Use explanations rather than excuses: If you do have to explain to a customer why there is a problem with their query, their rooms, their service, etc. Explain why the problem is there in the first place, rather than using an excuse. For example, if you provide health care services and you're having difficulty meeting the scheduling needs of the customer, you might it explain it like this, "With this being a particularly bad allergy season we have had more emergency calls due to asthma (or whatever the case may be) and these patients can't wait for a scheduled appointment. Our staff is behind schedule, but we are addressing the problem now by bringing in temporary help for these critical need times. So we should be able to schedule your service on 'x' date." Understanding the problem may help alleviate some of their frustration. Verbalizing the cause may also keep you more aware of the potential problems so you can be more prepared the next time around.

31

E MARKETING E Marketing An introduction E marketing is undoubtedly the most significant addition to the marketing mans lexicon lately. Simply put, E Marketing is a type of marketing that achieves its objectives via the medium of electronic communication technology such as email, e books, database & mobile phones. It is often also used interchangeably with the word Online Marketing. However, strictly speaking, Online Marketing is a more specific term that limits the channels used just to the internet; unlike E marketing which covers a wider array of channels. E marketing is technically defined by Dave Chaffey as: Applying Digital technologies which form online channels (Web, e-mail, databases, plus mobile/wireless) to contribute to marketing activities aimed at achieving profitable acquisition and retention of customers (within a multi-channel buying process and customer lifecycle) through improving our customer knowledge (of their profiles, behaviour, value and loyalty drivers), then delivering integrated targeted communications and online services that match their individual needs. E Marketing & Hotels E Marketing, some believe is the fast changing face of hotel marketing. Recent research pegs the electronic distribution of hotel rooms now as a $15 billion marketplace making E marketing a serious avenue now for hotel marketers across the globe. More and more people are turning to the internet to look for hotels options record shows that in 2009 more than 16% of all profits in the hospitality industry came from the Internet. That figure is also expected to climb up to 24% in two years time, where hotel bookings will be solely made online. This proves that the Internet is without a doubt the fastest growing source of hotel room reservations. In the changing landscape of interaction between hotels & its guests, it does not matter whether your hotel is a five star or three star hotel or a simple cozy bed and breakfast. It is the content of the website, search engine position and link affiliations, which is critical in the selection and reservation process used by the future guests. Marketing hotels online offers hoteliers several advantages, the most significant is using the most powerful marketing tool ever created the internet. It also offers the hospitality industry the opportunity to win back their consumers by offering them an alternative to the traditional method of obtaining hotel accommodations, which often put off potential customers.

32 Regardless of your destination, Netherlands, Austria, United Kingdom, Italy or Spain, hotels are easily found online. This method made booking accommodations easier and less daunting, thus enticing more consumers and in the marketing world that can easily be translated as more profits. Moreover, hotel marketing online also presents a fertile ground for the very essence of marketing that was missing in traditional hotel marketing direct sales effort. Having direct sales contact with your consumers through online marketing offers several benefits to hoteliers. This include being in total control of Internet exposure. Success stories of Hotel E Marketing in developed countries With the growing importance of E Marketing, BIC has identified four hotel marketers for "E-Marketer of the Year" recognition. The four are: The Peninsula Hotel New York; Hilton Back Bay, Boston; the Sheraton Suites Orlando Airport; and The Savoy Hotel Group, London. Each of the award recipients has demonstrated a special e-marketing strength or discipline. The 241-room Peninsula Hotel earned the attention of the E-Marketer Award committee for its smart manipulation of the oldest form of electronic marketing - the GDS systems - which account for 30-40% of all hotel bookings and represent greater commercial value than all Internet transactions combined. The Peninsula retains all of its negotiated rates within its GDS channels and runs GDS advertising campaigns during need periods, directly targeting its key customers to promote special rates or negotiated rates. The 385-room Back Bay Hilton Hotel has leveraged the e-marketing leadership of the Hilton Hotels chain by maximizing programs such as "Hilton Values" and "Hilton Savers." Hotel sales executives proactively call on leading travel agent and corporate booking producers they identify in their BIC Intelligence reports. In addition, the hotel links with the other Boston-area Hilton Hotel Web sites for cross-selling; and created a direct link with the Boston Symphony Web site, which produced a significant number of room nights in just three months. The 150-room Sheraton Suites Orlando Airport holds daily yield management meetings to keep track of its rate performance against its competitive set. The hotel "religiously" uses PHASER Complete Access and Intelligence reports to benchmark their performance versus competitors. The Savoy Group is recognized for having doubled its GDS bookings over the past two years, thereby significantly increasing its revenues

33 from electronic commerce. Additionally, after The Savoy Group installed an enhanced and customized new booking engine from Amadeus and made booking the Savoy, a 237-room luxury property in London a more customer friendly experience, online bookings increased 294%. The Savoy Hotel Group applies its e-marketing savvy to the other four U.K. hotels in its group as well: Claridge's, The Connaught, The Berkeley and The Lygon Arms For hotels in developed countries, GDS bookings get updated on the Central Reservation System automatically due to the use of advanced version of software. In India, many five star deluxe hotels including Grand central work on offline basis. In Grand central, all bookings made through GDS come to Starlink, the property management tool. A print of reservation is taken which had to be uploaded on the hotels Central Reservation System manually.

34 DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM Distribution System is the manner in which hospitality companies bring their products to market. It varies from traditional road-side hotel signs to modern computer networks the information provided is the basis of travel decisions made by the customers. The travel business -and every other portion of its distribution chain, including suppliers, intermediaries and customers -is experiencing intense competition for the dissemination of information (including price and availability). The entire $200 billion travel and leisure industry worldwide is experiencing new technologies and emerging distribution models. TYPES/COMPONENTS OF DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM Distribution System involves the channel used to distribute hotel inventory to the end customers which can be broadly classified into two categories. TRADITIONAL DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS It involves distribution of hotel inventory via call center/reservation office where reservations are made through phone; fax or email.This method is inefficient and expensive, especially in light of the current economic situation. Focusing only on traditional distribution channels will result in lower occupancy rates, and higher distribution and operational costs. ELETRONIC DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS The travel marketplace is a global arena where millions of buyers (travel agents and the public) and sellers (hotels, airlines, car rental companies, etc.) work together to exchange travel services. Among the shelves on which buyers search for travel services are worlds global distribution systems and the Internet distribution systems. These systems have become electronic supermarkets linking buyers to sellers and allowing reservations to be made quickly and easily. Nowadays, more travel is sold over the Internet than any other consumer product...

35 GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM WHAT IS GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM Global Distribution system is a reservation system used by travel agencies to book reservations for their customers. It is an electronic distribution infrastructure facilitating B2B electronic commerce i.e. from the GDS companies to the travel agencies providing access to various hotels, airlines and car rental companies. It is the backbone of the Internet Travel Distribution System by making their rich databases of travel service information available to web sites. In other words, GDS is a technology provider serving the marketing, sales, and distribution needs of the worlds travel and tourism industries.Four Major GDS systems include Amedeus, Galileo, Sabre and World Span and regional GDS like Abacus. HISTORY OF GDS The history of the Global Distribution System began in 1953 with a chance meeting between American Airlines President C.R. Smith and R. Blair Smith, a senior sales representative for R LTD , on an American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to New York. Their conversation about the travel industry sparked the idea of a data processing system that would create a complete airline seat reservation keeping track of flight schedules, availability, and prices and make all the data instantly available electronically to any agent, at any place. Six years later, American Airlines and R LTD jointly announced their plans to develop a Semi-Automatic Business Research Environment better known as Sabre. The revolutionary system was the first real-time business application of computer technology. It enabled American Airlines to leapfrog from handwritten passenger reservations information in the 1950s to an automated system. In 1964, it became the largest, private real-time data processing system saving 30% of American Airlines Investment on Staff alone. The Sabre system was installed in a travel agency for the first time in 1976, triggering the wave of travel automation as prior to this a lot of time was wasted by travel agents manually entering reservations. In the 35 years since the inception of GDS ,it has grown to serve a worldwide clientele who use nearly 500,000 access points. They have expanded from listing only air flights to presenting the full array of travel services IMPORTANCE/ADVANTAGES OF GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

The expanded global reach to travel agencies across the world 24x7 availability and distribution capabilities across all major regions access to hotel, condominium, rental car, and airline availability all under one system as a result saves time

36

Most common booking mechanism for negotiated corporate rates as hotels have a set ID for the Corporates which can be used by their inhouse travel agencies to view corporate rates. Little maintenance effort required information provided to the central reservation system for your hotel chain or Representation Company is copied automatically to all four of the GDS. Easy to operate GDS powered websites. Easy to install and flexible GDS reservation softwares

These features lead to extensive use of GDS by travel agents and GDS Powered Websites by end-users HOTEL GDS CONNECTIVITY LEVELS Four Hotel Access Levels are available starting from simplest to most advanced Standard Access: It sends bookings via teletype, and the hotel or representative company returns confirmation numbers via teletype or by updating the PNR directly which takes around 24-48 hours. It does not have any indicator on the Hotel Display Screen. Complete Access: It sends bookings via high speed communication lines, and returns confirmation numbers and other data in just a few seconds. It is indicated by a /. Complete Access Plus: information and make system, ensuring last booking, and access to It gives users seamless connectivity, letting them get bookings from the hotel provider's own reservation room availability, full validation when viewing and negotiated rates. It is indicated by +

Dynamic Access: It provides real time links to providers rates and availability information right from the initial multi-property shopping screen as data can be viewed directly from the hotels reservation system. It is indicated by ! MODEL ON WHICH GDS OPERATES Guest goes to Travel Agent who in turn uses GDS as booking engine to book room nights in the desired hotel after accepting some form of guarantee say credit card... The system generates a booking message to the hotel chain and depending upon the access level the hotel returns the confirmation number. The guest makes payment at the hotel at the time of check-out. The hotel then processes commission through Pegasus or Wizcom which are leading global provider of hotel reservations-related services and technology. The commission is then sent to travel agents.

37

MAIN GDS SCREEN Given below is a snapshot of one of the GDS flagship browser-based reservations product Amadeus Vista on which reservations are made by Travel Agencies. Amadeus Vista is a browser-based front-office system, offering a fully graphical interface to travel agents along with access to the Internet, email, desktop faxing, travel related content and on-line training. The product uses the latest Internet technology enabling agents to work freely at all times of the day, with no concerns about traffic levels on the public internet. Being totally browser based, there is no installation required and users benefit from automatic upgrades whenever applicable. Amadeus Vista is the designed to make travel agencies more productive and profitable.

38

MODES OF OPERATING THE GDS RESERVATION TOOL Cryptic Mode/Command Line User Interface: This involves the use of traditional style commands with complex, hard to learn entries Graphical User Interface: This involves use of mouse (point and click). Graphical version is more user-friendly and powerful. For a variety of reasons, lots of travel agents are committed to using the cryptic command formats on which they were trained and with which they feel they can be most productive. They feel its more of a hassle to move a mouse or tab through boxes [than use cryptic commands] MULTI- PROPERTY DISPLAY ON THE GDS SCREEN Multi- Property Display shows availability for all hotels in a given city location and date range. Hotels are displayed in a non-biased order. Given below is first page of Multi- Property Display on the Amadeus Screen when Travel Agent enters command to search for all hotels in Mumbai for the dates 6th June to 7th June2011.

39

IN CCU ALL AREAS MO 06JUN11-07JUN11 *SGL* ** TJ-TAJ MAHAL OFFERS 15% COMM TILL 30SEP ON CONSORTIA ** AND ALL PROMOTIONAL RATES / TO BOOK HLCCU/CO-TJ AR TR CUR 1 UZ!TRIDENT NARIMAN PT S T USD ! 95.00-180.00 2 TA!GUEST HOUSE AT MUMBAI (C) D T 3 UZ!HOTEL HOUSEZ 43 4 HY!TRIDENT 5 RD!THE FFT-A RADISSON RESORT 6 TJ+TAJMAHAL 7 QI!QUALITY INN GOLDEN PARK 8 DS!THE PARK MORE (C) ! ! =! =! D D T USD 85.00-125.00 T INR 5500.00-14500.00 N L USD 85.00-85.00 S R USD 115.00-325.00 D T S T USD 99.00-400.00

Interpretation of each term of Multi- Property Display is provided below: IN CCU - This stands for Country (India) and City (mumbai) Code. ALL AREAS - This implies that there is no locational preference or point of reference given by travel agencies. Hence hotels in all areas of Mumbai will be displayed. TU 06JUN06-07JUN10 This is the date range given while searching for hotels. TU stands for Tuesday 6th June, the day of arrival. *SGL*- This denotes occupancy- Single or double. Accordingly room rates are displayed.
** TJ-TAJ MAHAL OFFERS 15% COMM TILL 30SEP ON CONSORTIA ** AND ALL PROMOTIONAL RATES / TO BOOK HLCCU/CO-TJ

This indicates the display message given by Taj Mahal. Direct Command to book Taj Hotel is also indicated. AR- This stands for areas which are of various types- D-Downtown, AAirport, N-North, W-West, E-East, S-South. TR- This stands for transport type. CUR- This stands for currency type.

40

4 HY!TRIDENT MUMBAI

=!

INR 5500.00-14500.00

4 stands for the serial number followed by chain code (HY), dynamic access level (!), name of the hotel (TRIDENT MUMBAI), BAR Code (=)i.e. the best available rates, downtown area (D), Taxi(T) as transport available , Indian Rupee (INR) as currency in which rate is available and Rate Range (5500.0014500.00)

SINGLE- PROPERTY DISPLAY ON THE GDS SCREEN This displays availability, rooms and rates for a specific property. To display single property availability, HA (Hotel Availability) Command and line reference numbers are used from the Hotel Multi-Property Display.

**** SHERATON **** IN CCU TU 06JUN10-07JUN10 *SGL* SI!ITC HTL GRAND CENTRAL SHERATON CCU463 R TAXI USD WELCOME TO SHERATON HOTELS AND RESORTS WORLDWIDE 1)160.00 1Q BED: BEST AVAILABLE RATE B1QQR1 4 NON-SMOKING EXECUTIVE: BUFFET BREAKFAST: WIRELESS INTERNET/FEE: HIGH SPEED INTERNET 2)200.00 1K BED: BEST AVAILABLE RATE D1KQR1 4 TOWERS LEVEL NON-SMOKING: ROUNDTRIP AIRPORT TRANSFERS: BUFFET BREAKFAST: EVE DRINKS/HORS 3)155.00 1Q BED: BEST AVAILABLE RATE A1QQR1 4 EXECUTIVE CLUB: BUFFET BREAKFAST: WIRELESS INTERNET/FEE: HIGH SPEED INTERNET CONNECTION 4)200.00 1K BED: BEST AVAILABLE RATE C1KQR1 4 TOWERS LEVEL: ROUNDTRIP AIRPORT TRANSFERS: BUFFET BREAKFAST: EVE DRINKS/HORS D OEUVRES

Interpretation of each term of Multi- Property Display is provided below: Name of the chain is mentioned at the top followed by code, date range and occupancy. SI!ITC HTL GRAND CENTRAL SHERATON CCU463 R TAXI This indicates the chain code (SI), access level which is name, property code (CCU463), area code (R), currency(USD). 1)160.00 B1QQR1 Country and City USD dynamic(!), hotel transport (taxi),

1Q BED: BEST AVAILABLE RATE 4 NON-SMOKING EXECUTIVE: BUFFET BREAKFAST WIRELESS INTERNET/FEE: HIGH SPEED INTERNET

41 Actual rate ($160) is followed by bed type (1Q) and rate category (Best Available Rate) B1Q is the hotel room type code. The first character (B) indicates the room category. B stands for moderate room with bath. The second character (1) indicates the number of beds in the room, The third character (Q) indicates bed type. Q stands for Queen Bed. QR1 is the code for rate category. 4 stands for hold time of 4 PM i.e. booking stands cancelled if the guest does not turn up by 4PM. This is followed by room description and services included. Room Category codes vary from A to W. For example A (=Superior Room with Bath), B (=Moderate Room with Bath), C (=Standard Room with Bath), D(=Minimum Room with Bath ). Similarly there are various bed type codes; the most common ones being K (=King), Q(=Queen), T(=Twin) and so on. DIRECT USERS OF GDS It is important to note that GDS can ONLY be used by travel agents to make bookings. End Customers cannot make bookings directly through GDS as GDS software and reservation tools are provided only to travel agencies. But GDS powered travel websites (like Sabre powered Travelocity.com) which are interfaced directly to the GDS can be used by end customers to make bookings. PROPERTY REGISTRATION ON THE GDS First time hotel property registration is done at the Hotel Chain Level An individual hotel automatically participates in the GDS as part of their membership in a hotel chain or representation company. This base level involvement provides the display of available room types and the rates for those rooms, for any date(s) in the coming 12 months, and a display of an extensive description of the hotel. First time hotel property registration with Amadeus costs INR 5000. Renewal Charges have to be paid every year. Procedure to Update Property Description on the GDS To revise or update property on the GDS, the hotel has to approach the point of contact i.e. the local GDS office with the updated information. This is sent to the Countrys head office where the information gets uploaded free of cost. Do Hotel rates differ across GDS? Room Rates vary across GDS and across travel agencies within the GDS. Travel Agencies have an ID which they use for checking room availability and rates on the GDS. These IDs are also available with the hotels which set separate rates for certain travel agencies which are enlisted with them. For

42 example, suppose CarlsonWagonLit Travel (enlisted with Grand central) using Galileo as its booking engine checks Grand centrals room rate on the Galileo using its ID. It starts from $209 as against $130 on Galileo. This hiked up rate is due to inclusion of commission. Incase the Customer and Travel Agent are located in the same city, the customer might pay travel agent who in turn makes payment to the Hotel after deducting its commission. Else, the guest makes payment to the hotel directly which in turn pays commission to travel agents on monthly basis. But in all cases Guarantee is required to take care of No-shows and last minute cancellations, penalty is charged. Similarly room rates may vary across third party websites depending upon the markup charged by Online Travel Agents. Similarly, Grand central has a set ID and password for certain Companies say Dell Computers. This could be used in their in house travel agencies or outside travel agencies to avail of the Corporate Rates. Do Travel Agents prefer one hotel over the other registered on GDS? Yes. Travel Agents try to sell room nights of that hotel which offers them highest commission. Other factors taken into consideration are rate range, access levels and hotel chain preference or locational preference given by customers. Can Hotels advertise on GDS? Hotels can advertise on GDS about important announcements, promotional rates, seasonal packages in the form of Display Messages which are destination-specific, point-of-sale advertising messages. City specific advertising about weather messages can also be done on travel agent weather display screens. Broadcast Messages are those which are displayed in the travel agents' urgent queue, where they receive vital info in order to perform their day-to-day jobs How GDS market themselves? GDS have local offices throughout the world. They visit travel agents located in their cities through sales teams. Promotion is done by hosting parties, fetes, cricket matches for the agents. MAJOR PLAYERS OF GDS AMADEUS Amadeus was founded in 1987 by Air France, Iberia, Lufthansa, and SAS (no longer a shareholder). It is a leading global distribution system and technology provider serving the marketing, sales, and distribution needs of the worlds travel and tourism industries. Its comprehensive data network

43 and database serve more than 57,000 travel agency locations and more than 10,500 airline sales offices in around 200 markets worldwide. The system can also provide access to approximately 58,000 hotels and 50 car rental companies serving around 24,000 locations, as well as other provider groups, including ferry, rail, cruise, insurance, and tour operators. Amadeus occupies first position in terms of travel agency locations but it occupies third position in terms of share of booking; Sabre and Galileo occupying first two positions. Having acquired e-Travel, Inc. from Oracle Corporation in July of 2001, Amadeus now has a new business unit dedicated to delivering solutions to ecommerce players worldwide. The e-Travel solutions integrate all components of a managed travel program into a single Internet-based service that enables travelers to book air, car, hotel, and rail services, all within corporate guideline. It has a range of front office products such as Amadeus Vista, Amadeus Pro Tempo (AMADEUS PC-based, graphical frontend solution) etc. Amadeus has a front end website called Amadeus.net. GALILEO INTERNATIONAL Galileo International was founded in 1993 by 11 major North American and European airlines: Aer Lingus, Air Canada, Alitalia, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Olympic Airlines, Swissair, TAP Air Portugal, United Airlines, and US Airways. It is a major player in the GDS business throughout the world: North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia/Pacific region. Its core business is providing electronic global distribution services for the travel industry through its computerized reservation systems, leading-edge products and innovative Internet-based solutions. In October of 2001, Cendant Corporation acquired Galileo International for approximately $1.8 billion in common stock and cash. Currently, the company is represented in 116 countries, and serves travel agencies at approximately 45,000 locations. Other travel suppliers include 500 airlines, 227 hotel companies, 33 car rental companies, and 368 tour operators. Galileos competitive strengths include market share, well-balanced and global presence, relationships with diverse groups of travel vendors, technologically advanced information systems, highly skilled personnel, and a stable product line. Compared to other GDS companies, Galileo is a cautious follower when it comes to technology. Galileos primary weakness, its singular focus on the distribution side of the business, is also its perceived strength. Galileo offers various solutions to travel agents in the form of Galileo FocalPoint, the flagship booking and reservation tool that provides access to the Galileo content, and enables transactions. TravelGalileo.com which establishes an instant internet presence for an agency by providing direct access to the Galileo database of air, car and hotel features, Access to comprehensive set of travel services, Satellite Ticket Printing (With STP

44 technology, the travel agency can fire a command for printing a ticket from its office, and the ticket gets printed at the corporate implant's location immediately) and many more.

SABRE SABRE is a global leader in information technology for the travel industry. Headquartered in Texas, the company has more than 7,000 employees worldwide. Sabre connects more than 60,000 travel agency locations around the world, providing content from approximately 400 airlines, 55,000 hotel properties, 52 car rental companies, 9 cruise lines, 33 railroads, and 229 tour operators. For more than 40 years, Sabre has been developing innovations and transforming the business of travel. From the original Sabre computer reservations system in the 1960s, to advanced airline yield management systems in the 1980s, to leading travel web sites today, Sabre technology has traveled through time and it provides innovative products in the form of Travelocity.com (The world's most popular online travel site which offers innovative technologies that help consumers find the best air, car, hotel, and vacation reservation),Sabre Travel Network (The worlds largest electronic network serving travel agencies, travel suppliers, corporations and government agencies), Sabre Airlines Solution (The most comprehensive set of solutions and services to optimize operations and reduce costs for airlines, airports and government agencies). Sabres competitive strengths include market position, global reach, stable product line, diversification of revenue streams, and intellectual capital. WORLDSPAN Founded February 7, 1990, Worldspan was originally owned by affiliates of Delta Air Lines, Inc., Northwest Airlines, and Trans World Airlines, Inc. It is currently owned by affiliates of Delta Air Lines, Inc. (40%), Northwest Airlines (34%), and American Airlines, Inc. (26%). The Worldspan reservations system provides nearly 21,000 travel agencies and other users worldwide with travel data and booking capabilities for hundreds of the world's leading travel supplier services. Worldspan connects approximately 421 airlines, 210 hotel companies, 40 car rental companies, 39 tour and vacation operators, and 44 special travel service suppliers. Worldspan is the market leader in e-commerce for the travel industry, processing more than 50 percent of all online travel agency bookings. The company maintains world headquarters in Atlanta. Orbitz LLC was launched on the Internet, using Worldspan as its Internet Booking Engine, and in 2002, the launch of Worldspan ePricingSM made Worldspan the first GDS to introduce a revolutionary new multi-server-based technology, offering an unprecedented selection of pricing options to all of Worldspans customers.

45

PEGASUS Dallas-based Pegasus Solutions, Inc.is a leading global provider of hotel reservations-related services and technology. Founded in 1989, Pegasus customers include a majority of the worlds travel agencies and more than 50,000 hotel properties around the globe. Pegasus services include central reservation systems, electronic distribution services, commission processing and payment services, property management systems, and marketing representation services. The companys representation services, including Utell by Pegasus and Unirez by Pegasus, are used by more than 7,300 member hotels in 140 countries, making Pegasus the hotel industrys largest third-party marketing and reservations provider

46 INTERNET DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM Internet Distribution System is the front end booking engine which is not restricted to travel agents only. It can be used by end customers to make bookings. Internet Distribution System, like the GDSs, requires several types of information in order to sell lodging availability, rates and product description. . In some cases, they link to existing sources of this information and need not be manually maintained by on-property staff. This is true of web sites for which data is provided by or powered by the hotel chain. In other cases Internet Distribution System repeats data maintained in another system or site with its consent. Example is Travelocity and its redisplay of Sabres hotel and travel services data. In other words, travelocity.com is a GDS (Sabre) powered portal. TYPES OF INTERNET DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM Brand Sites Brand Site is the Hotels Own Website or Hotel Chains Website which provides all relevant information about the hotel such as information related to Business, Dining, Conference and Leisure, Online Reservations, Loyalty Programmes, Special Offers, Feedback form etc. Guests can directly make online reservations on brand websites by providing credit card guarantee and makes payment to the hotel directly upon check out. For example, the brand site for Grand central is www.itcwelcomgroup.in Retail Sites Retail Site is any third party website providing product/service related prices and availability information. Retail Sites for hotel include all online travel sites providing details of flight availability, hotels, car rentals etc. In order to get listed and to feature on the Retail Sites, Hotels get into a contract with the sites. Hotel determines the rate and usually absorbs any additional costs involved to distribute (commissions, transaction fees, etc.). The Gross Sell Rate that the consumer sees is equal to the Retail Rate determined by the hotel. Revenue sources for these sites are fees charged on a contractual or sale basis from sellers of products and services. They get commission on every reservation made. They also charge advertisement fee for the hotels/ airline companies which advertise on these sites. Hotel Visibility is transparent i.e. hotel name is shown directly to the buyer. Merchant Sites Merchant sites are also third party websites providing product/service related prices and availability information. They include all include all online travel sites providing details of flight availability, hotels, car rentals etc. It differs from the Retail Sites in terms of type of rate offered by the hotel to the distributor or site. Hotel negotiates a net

47 rate with the merchant, and there are usually no other costs to the hotel to distribute .The Sell Rate that the consumer sees is made up of Net Rate + Merchant Mark-up. For example, Travelocity.com is a third party website having both retail portion and merchant portion. Opaque Sites Opaque Sites are those sites where hotel name not shown but usually indicated by a star rating. It is based on auction i.e. buyer offers a rate that is then accepted (or not) by the site/distributor. The hotel is displayed only after the payment is made. For Example, Priceline.com is an opaque site with Name Your Own Price Option where exact hotel is shown immediately after purchase. Hotel is generally either a national hotel chain or a preferred independent hotel partner. Hotels are non-refundable, non-transferable and non-changeable even if the reservation is not used DISTRIBUTION MODEL FOR INTERNET DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM It represents the business model used by the site or distributor in terms of the rate offered to a consumer. It is mainly of three types: Consumer Priced: Buyer sees predetermined rate which includes retail/merchant rate + distribution costs/markup. Auction: It represents consumer bid in which where hotel name not shown but usually indicated by a star rating. Packages: One price is fixed for a package that includes hotel, air, car, and/or tour components. PROCEDURE FOR FEATURING OF HOTELS ON THE INTERNET DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM Just like Property Registration has to be done for each GDS separately, similarly to feature on travel website, it is necessary to enter into contract with that website. Third Party Websites are GDS Powered Portals does not mean that if a Hotel Property is registered on a GDS, it will automatically feature on the website which is powered by that GDS. For Example, both Travelocity.com and hotels.com are Sabre Powered Websites. Grand central features on Travelocity.com but not on Hotels.com as it has not entered into any contract with Hotels.com. To enter into contract, the hotel writes to its headquarters which in turn gets into contract with the website and makes payment for getting listed. The third party website sends invoice to the specific hotel which in turn is send to hotel headquarters.

48 MARKETING STRATEGIES GRAND CENTRAL CURRENT E-MARKETING STRATEGY OF GRAND CENTRAL Revenue Management Strategy: Starlink is the revenue management tool used in the Sales office to maximize yields in room segment by controlled room merchandising. This tool has four functions namely: 1) To set rates according to different rate plans 2) To update rates 3) Status Control i.e. to open and close room categories Whatever rates are set or updated on Starlink automatically features on all GDS and Third Party Websites. Same is true for room categories. During peak seasons when there is increase in demand, the sales team reacts to high demand by closing certain rate plans and low rated room categories. This results in increase in revenue more than proportionately compared to room nights and hence rise in ARR. During off season when demand is low, the sales team reacts to low demand early by opening base category room types and off season room rates. This results in increase in revenue less than proportionately compared to room nights and hence fall in ARR since the focus is to capture more room nights at a lower rate. Website related Strategy: An effective website needs to have search engine visibility, descriptive content and conversion focused design. The brand website for Grand central is http://www.itcwelcomgroup.in/ the single website for all Welcomgroup of Hotels. It gives details about how to make Online Reservations, Loyalty Programmes, Special Offers and Feedback form. Information related to Business, Dining, Conference and Leisure is provided in general for all Welcomgroup hotels and in particular for Grand central. Visual Representation is provided in the form of Slide Show of hotel photographs.

Starwood Hotels offer Best Rate Guarantee i.e. Guests will always get the best available rate on the website of any of Starwood hotels including Grand central. This means that if customers find a lower published rate on the GDS or third party websites or elsewhere prior to, or within 24 hours of, booking their room, they can simply submit a Best Rate Guarantee Claim (available online also) to the hotel and the hotel honors the lower rate. Also, an additional 10% discount or 2,000 Starpoints is guaranteed. Starwood Hotels website is available in 5 different languages namely English, French, German, Spanish and Chinese to cater to customers globally. This means that details of Grand central (being under the Sheraton Umbrella which is a part of Starwood) also features in different languages in this website by default.

49 GDS related Strategy (Based on Property Description in Amadeus and Galileo): Amadeus Property Description for Hotels is divided into various subcategories namely location, rates, category, extra charges, policy, guarantee, deposit, minimum, and maximum length of stay, room facilities, dining, meeting facilities, travel agent commission, frequent stay guests programmes, transportation, safety and other measures. Galileo Property Description also has similar subheadings though order is different. It is not possible for Travel Agents to go through entire property description of all the hotels. They usually check location, rates, extra charges, policy, guarantee and deposit.

Grand central does not advertise in any of the four GDS in the form of Broadcast Message, Display Message etc. Primary Local Point of Interest has only two locations in the property description of Grand central in Amadeus and GalileoAirport and Indian Museum. Other attractions/ historical monuments of Mumbai, their distance and direction from Grand central should be included such as Victoria terminus, Nehru Planetarium, Breach Candy Hospital, Worli sea Link, KEM hospital, Haji Ali, Mahalaxmi Race course, Gateway of India. This would help when the travel agents searches for hotel based on point of reference specified by the Traveller. List of Awards won by Grand central could be included in the Category Section. Minimum and Maximum Length of Stay should not be explicitly mentioned and should not be watertight. Trident and Park Hotel Property Description say Minimum Length of Stay may be required seasonally. And Oberoi Grand does not require minimum stay. Regarding Family Plan, Grand central should mention maximum number of children who can stay free in parents room. Also family plan related to single parent traveling with children should be included. In other words, maximum number of people per room should be specified. Grand central should specify whether extended stay option or less than one stay option would be available on request or not. Maximum Number of rooms that can be booked under one name may also be specified as a part of general policy.

Third Party Websites Related Strategy: Grand central features on various websites like Expedia.com,Travelocity.com & Travelguru.com etc. Some Observations related to how ITC features in these websites along with changes and recommendations will be covered in the Retail Details and Comparison Strategy Section.

50 DIFFERENT RATE PLANS AND ROOM CATEGORIES AVAILABLE Grand central has the following room categories available on PRS NET namely Executive Club, Executive Club Non-Smoking, Towers King, Towers Non-King, ITC One King, President Suite and Queen Suite. Out of these, generally the first four categories are displayed on the GDS and travel websites. These include the base category rooms which the hotel wants to sell the most. Higher Category of rooms such as Suites are generally not included since some GDS and travel websites have an option of selecting hotels by the maximum rate they are willing to pay. As a result, the hotel might not be displayed as its rate may fall out of maximum rate customers are willing to pay. Various rate plans available on the Starlink namely Best Available Rate (generally the rate which is displayed on GDS and third party websites and is uniform throughout), Best Rate Guarantee, Different Corporate Rates (10 companies may be having same rate),Corporate Specific Rate( R LTD may have a lower rate than Microsoft). Travel Agent Discount Rates, CarlsonWagonLit Travel Rates, RACK Rates , Internet rate and various other rates. These rates change twice a year and is divided into two seasons Season1 (1st April-30st September) and Season2 (1st Oct 31st march) Room Rates vary across GDS and across travel agencies within the GDS. Travel Agencies have an ID which they use for checking room availability and rates on the GDS. These IDs are also available with the hotels which set separate rates for certain travel agencies which are enlisted with them. For example, suppose CarlsonWagonLit Travel (enlisted with Grand central) using Galileo as its booking engine checks Grand centrals room rate on the Galileo using its ID. It starts from $209 as against $130 on Galileo. This hiked up rate is due to inclusion of commission. Incase the Customer and Travel Agent are located in the same city, the customer might pay travel agent who in turn makes payment to the Hotel after deducting its commission. Else, the guest makes payment to the hotel directly which in turn pays commission to travel agents on monthly basis. But in all cases Guarantee is required to take care of No-shows and last minute cancellations, penalty is charged. Simlarly room rates may vary across third party websites depending upon the markup charged by Online Travel Agents. Similarly, Grand central has a set ID and password for certain Companies say Dell Computers. This could be used in their in-house travel agencies or outside travel agencies to avail of the Corporate Rates. Hotels can also price- point Non-Smoking Rooms of a particular room category at a higher rate as guests are always willing to pay premium for Non-Smoking Rooms. For Example, Executive Club Non-Smoking Room is available at a higher price of $135 compared to Executive Club Room priced at $130.

51 ONGOING PROMOTIONAL SCHEMES WelcomBreaks

WelcomBreaks

3rd Night Free Promotional Rate 1 May 15 July 21999

Not Applicable

Summer Rate 16 July '11 30th Sept '11 19999

Short Break Mini Break

11999

Culinary Break

33999

25999

Kaya Kalp Spa Break

39999

31999

Inclusions: Room & B/fast for 2 adults and up to 2 children (under 12 years), 20% discount on Food & Beverages, Spa & Salon services (where available) Room & Bfast for 2 adults & up to 2 children (under 12 yrs), 20% discount on F&B, Spa & Salon (where available), 1 buffet lunch for up to 2 adults & 2 children (under 12 yrs) Room & Bfast for 2 adults & up to 2 children (under 12 yrs), 20% discount on F&B, Spa & Salon services (where available), 2 major meals at any restaurant for up to 2 adults & 2 children (under 12 yrs), 1 glass of house wine/soft beverage per person with meal, Chef's special amenity, Kitchens of India hamper (4 packets - 1 Dal, 1 Veg, 1 Non Veg, 1 Biryani OR Sweet) KOI 4 Packets Hamper to consist of 1 Dal, 1 Veg, 1 Non Veg, 1 Biryani OR 1 Sweet. Veg guests to be given only Veg packets Room & Bfast for 2 adults and 2 children (under 12 years) 20% Disc on F&B, Spa & Salon services (where available), One 40 min Hand & Nail Care Treatment OR Hair & Scalp Care Treatment, per person, One 40 Min Revitalizing Body Treatment, per person & One 60 Min Kaya Kalp Signature Massage, per person

Short Break

Mini Break

Culinary Break

Kaya Kalp Spa Break

52

53 COMPETITORS STRATEGY WEBSITE RELATED STRATEGY Taj Mahal Palace The Taj Mahal palace Mumbai has a fairly decent home page. Simple yet elegant. The website is designed accordingly to the hotels brand positioning. The website features Tajs loyalty programs too. Taj Hotels also promotes their TAJ HOLIDAYS packages via individual hotel home pages. Trident Trident Features a really swanky website. Theres a slideshow of all the scenic pictures from various trident hotels Pan India. Links to various Fan pages on social networking sites like Facebook, twitter, flickr & YouTube are also given. Vivanta by Taj Vivantas webpage projects a very cosmopolitan image keeping in line with the positing of the hotel. The maximum emphasis is given on work & Play mindset, various leisure packages are clubbed with business packages. The website features purple color, which appeals mostly to young professionals. Oberoi Oberoi website includes information on reservations, special offers, spas, meetings, corporate information, news and Oberoi Cruises. GDS RELATED STRATEGY (BASED ON PROPERTY DESCRIPTION IN AMADEUS AND GALILEO): Taj Mahal Palace Taj Mahal advertises on Amadeus and Galileo in the form of Display Message about the commission it is offering to the travel agents. It has extensively covered various points of reference in their Property Description. It also requires minimum one nights deposit in listed currency after initial credit card guarantee. Accepted forms of guarantee include credit card and authorized agents IATA Number. Children pay adult rates according to Taj Mahals Family Plan. Oberoi Oberoi Property Description has also mentioned various points of reference, their distance and direction. Its family plan has been covered in detail stating

54 that Only one child under 12 years can stay in the parents room without being charged. Separate room @ 50% discount would be provided in case of two children less than 12 years, separate plan for single parents with children etc. Also, its terms of deposit includes one night room charge at the time of booking without any restrictions on minimum stay. Trident nariman point General Policy of Trident Nariman point Property Description mentions maximum three adults can stay in one room. Family Policy indicates free stay for children less than 12 years. Credit Card Guarantee is required at the time of booking. Vivanta by Taj Vivanta By Taj - Property Description covers various points of reference, their distance and direction. THIRD PARTY WEBSITE RELATED STRATEGY Details about how the Competitor Hotels feature on the third party website and on which websites they feature will be covered in the Retail Details and Comparison Strategy Section.

Range of Price Points in which Grand central and Competitors Play

Own Website Rate

Third Party Website Rates

Grand central

USD225800 (includin g breakfast and transfers in some cases)

USD 180-340 (Amadeus.net, Travelocity.com, Expedia.com)

GDS Rate range (from Property Descriptio n of Amadeus and Galileo) USD180250(G), USD180250(A)

Different Rate Plans Available

Room Categories

Best Rate Guarantee, Corporate Rates,Weekend Rates,Employe e Hot Rates, Travel Agent Discount etc

Executive Club, EC NomSmoking, Towers, ITC One

55

Taj Mahal

USD200700 (includin g breakfast and one way transfers) USD 210-500

INR 11000- 35000 (Amadeus.net) USD 200700(expedia.com)

INR 1100035000

BAR Rate, Early bird offer, Last Minute rate, weekend rate.

Superior room, deluxe sea view, city view, suites celebration s

Oberoi

USD 210-410 (Amadeus.net) USD 210410(Travelocity.com , Expedia.com)

USD 210410

Oberoi Special Rate, Corporate Rate, Rack Rate, suite offer

Trident

USD 290-465 (BAR)

USD 200-465 (Amadeus.net) USD 99-400 (Travelocity.com) USD 200-465 (Expedia.com)

USD 200400

Vivant a

USD 120-400

USD 130-350 (Amadeus.net) USD 130-350 (Travelocity.com), USD 99171( Expedia.com)

USD130400 (G), USD 120350(A)

Luxury room, premiere ocean view room, city view room, executive suite Best Available Premiere rate, rack rate room ocean & Best view, city available rate view, with breakfast trident special suite, deluxe sea view room . BAR Rate, Last Deluxe Minute Offers, allure, Early bird rates deluxe delight, premium temptation.

56

Ongoing Promotions Trident Weekend getaways and variety of Trident goods and services such as dining, golf fees, spa services. Trident also promotes its privileged customer loyalty program on its websites Trident with its business travel plus program offers tailored packages for the business travelers.

Taj Mahal palace Taj Mahal promotes its Taj Inner circle program for its frequent visitors. A loyalty program for the bookers and the partnering firms is also present on the website. Taj also promotes its Stay a bit longer for it international hotels in new York, Boston and San Francisco. It also showcases its day spa offers. Vivanta by Taj Vivanta has an array of promotional offers featured on their websites. Early bird, extended stay, Dream meal, weekend special rate & the business special plan are some of them. Oberoi Various special offers such as Oberoi Exotic Vacations, honeymoon, Spa retreats, Himalayan Adventure etc.

GENERAL E-MARKETING ALTERNATIVES FOR GRAND CENTRAL (How to convert lookers into bookers?)

Incase no fee/commission is paid by Grand central to Starwood for every booking made through Starwoodhotels.com, Grand central should create a hyperlink in its website by the name available in different languages, directing it to the place where Grand central appears on the Starwood Hotels website (www.itcwelcomgroup.in). Incase fees has to be paid to Starwood, Foreign Languages translation of Grand centrals own website will help in enhancing its worldwide presence. Room Tariff should be available in diverse currencies apart from INR and USD. This could be done using a drop down box having diverse currency details or a currency converter beside the room rates.

57

Research indicates that 60% of all travelers on the Internet use search engines when they want to book room nights and 66% check rates from at least three sites or more before going ahead with the booking. With Search Engine Optimization (SEO) through proper choice of keywords it can be ensured that travelers see Grand centrals own website, rather than a competitor or third party, when they search for accommodations in Five Star Deluxe Hotels of Mumbai in Google or other search engines. Hence it is essential to effectively integrate popular search keywords which will attract potential bookers to your hotels website and integrate those words into the website copy to ensure maximum search engine visibility. Pay-Per-Click advertising such as Google Adword helps to target hotels own website to people actively searching for its products and services on major Internet sites and search engines. Advertisers only pay when users click through to their site. ITC Grand central should feature in the sponsored link for Google Adword where it can create its own ads and choose keywords to match the ads to audience The property description is frequently the only resource a travel agent reads prior to recommending a hotel to a client. Suggestions related to Updates of Property Description have already been covered. All latest news related to Grand central (the most recent being the awards won by its restaurants etc) should be included in the Press column of itcwelcomgroup website and Grand centrals own web page. Birthday and Anniversary vouchers which would include free dining at any of the Starwood Hotels worldwide along with latest promotion schemes prevailing at that time should be mailed to frequent guests. ITC Grand central should also have a quarterly online magazine which should be send on email to frequent guests. Linking Strategy can be adopted by encouraging popular and reputed websites, National Directories like USAtoday.coms Hotel Directory, high-ranking local and national sites, Portals like tripadvisor.com, City Chamber of Commerce etc. to link to Grand centrals website to improve its search rankings. E-mail Marketing Campaigns, including Holiday e-mail cards and enewsletters, will help to drive traffic to the website and build a relationship with recipients

58

INTELLIGENCE REPORT INTRODUCTION (WHAT THIS REPORT IS ALL ABOUT?) Intelligence Report measures booking performance, market penetration and distribution within the GDS channel for a hotel and its competitive set. Data for this report originates from all major GDS (Galileo, Sabre, Worldspan and Amadeus) and GDS Powered Websites (Travelocity.com, travelnow.com etc.) A business intelligence company aggregates, processes and analyzes the information and presents it to us in a clear, concise format. This report is available on a monthly basis with historical views of the previous month, year-to-date and multi-month trending. COVER Brief Description This sheet is the content page showing various sections of the report. Name of Subscriber Hotel, the period for which report is published, business ID and transaction ID is mentioned. GM SUMMARY Brief Description The GM Summary gives a quick overview of the Subscriber Hotels Performance using key Performance Measures and Agency Activity (which includes Largest Opportunities and Best Supporters for the Subscriber) for both current month and year to date. The parameters are displayed in terms of bar chart, line diagram and numerical format for easy understanding. Figures Highlighted in red indicate the underperforming areas for the Subscriber Hotel. MEANING AND CALCULATION OF EACH TERM Performance Measures This section provides snapshot of the data given in Performance Summary Section of the report. The bar graph on the top left section depicts the relative performance of Subscriber Hotel with respect to competitors in terms of Market Penetration Revenue from all GDS taken together. Rank for each Competitor separately is not shown for confidential purpose. The table shows Market Penetration (Revenue), Market Penetration Growth and Revenue Opportunity for Current Month and YTD for Subscriber Hotel.

59 Market Penetration (Revenue Index) The description and calculation of this statistic has been explained elaborately in the Performance Summary 1 Section of this report. The data for Market Penetration (Revenue Index) for the current month and Year to Date has been taken from the column on the extreme right on the Performance Summary1 sheet. Market Penetration less than 100% is highlighted in red which indicates underperformance. Market Penetration Growth It indicates the increase or decrease in Market Penetration versus the same period of the previous year. Red Numbers within brackets indicate decrease in Market Penetration compared to the same month/YTD of the previous year.

Market Penetration (Revenue) Growth for Subscriber Hotel for April 2011 = [(Market Penetration (Revenue) for April 2011- Market Penetration (Revenue) for April 2010)/ Market Penetration (Revenue) for April 2010] * 100.
Market Penetration (Revenue) for YTD is calculated in a similar manner. Revenue Opportunity in USD The description and calculation of this statistic has been explained elaborately in the Performance Summary 3 Section of this report. The data for Revenue Opportunity for the current month and Year to Date has been taken from the Trend Statistics column of the Performance Summary3 sheet. Revenue Opportunity below fair share is highlighted in red which indicates underperformance. The line diagram on the extreme right provides a visual representation of increase/ decrease in Market Penetration Revenue compared to the same Month/YTD of last year. Upward Sloping Line indicates better performance and downward sloping line shows underperformance of the Subscriber Hotel. Agency Activity This section provides a snapshot of the data contained in the Distribution Summary of the report. It has been divided into three subsections namely Largest Opportunities, Agencies Booking into Hotel and Best Supporters.

Your Largest Opportunities: It represents ten travel agencies that are top performers for the Competitive Set and low performers for the Subscriber Hotel. The Agency name, Subscriber Hotels Market Penetration for that Agency and Agency Total Revenue generated among the Subscriber and Competitive Set together. More details about an Agency can be seen by clicking on the Agency Name provided Macros is enabled. The agencies have been arranged in decreasing order of Total Revenue generated. Data for Market Penetration and Agency Total Revenue can be calculated using information given in the DS Agencies Sheet using the formulas as shown below.

60

Market Penetration (Revenue): Market Penetration Revenue of Subscriber for a particular agency for current month say April 2011= [Subscribers Revenue for that Agency for April 2011 / (Subscribers Fair Share* (Subscribers Revenue for that Agency for April 2011 + Competitive Set Revenue for that Agency for April 2011))] *100.
Market Penetration Revenue Total is calculated in similar manner taking into account Subscribers and Competitive Set Total Revenue for all ten agencies together.

Agency Total Revenue in USD: Agency Total Revenue for a particular Agency for say April 2011= Subscribers Revenue for that Agency for April 2011 + Competitive Set Revenue for that Agency for April 2011
Total of Agency Total revenue is the summation of Agency Revenue for the ten Travel Agencies. Agencies booking into Hotel This section gives the number of different agencies that booked Subscriber Hotel and Competitive Set for current month and Year to Date. Your Best Supporters This section gives the details of Market Penetration and Agency Total Revenue for the top five travel agencies that provided maximum bookings for the Subscriber Hotel. The agencies have been arranged in decreasing order of Total Revenue generated. Calculations for Market Penetration and Agency Total Revenue have been shown in Your Largest Opportunities Section.

61 PERFORMANCE SUMMARY Performance Summary shows the booking contribution and impact of each GDS. It has three subsections focusing on different aspects of ITC Hotels overall performance in the Electronic Distribution Channels. PERFORMANCE SUMMARY 1 (PS1) Brief Description This Potion shows the Subscriber and Competitive Sets Monthly and Year to Date data for Actual bookings, Room Nights, Revenue in USD, Variance vs. last year (in Room Nights, Revenue, Market Penetration Revenue), Market Share (in Room Nights and Revenue), Market Penetration (in room nights and revenue) from the four major Global Distribution Systems Amadeus, Galileo(including Apollo) , Sabre (including Abacus, Axess, Infini) and World Span and all four taken together. Meaning and Calculation of Each Term Subscriber: Subscriber is the hotel for which the report has been generated. In other words subscriber is the hotel which demands the report from Business Intelligence company in return for payment made to them. In this case the Subscriber/ User is ITC Hotel Grand central Sheraton and Towers. Competitive Set: Competitive Set is the customized list of hotels as defined by the Subscriber/User. Competitive Set can have a minimum of four and maximum of twenty properties. Competitive Set for future reports can be changed at the discretion of the Subscriber. This happens when a new hotel comes up in the same star category as the Subscriber Hotel. Say if a new 5 Star Deluxe Hotel comes up in Mumbai, it would be advisable for Grand central to include this hotel in the Competitive Set. Also, Competitive Set for historical reports can be changed as long as a Property is added and another Property is deleted to protect the confidentiality of each hotels data. In this case the Competitive Set includes all four Five Star Deluxe Hotels in MumbaiTrident, Taj Mahal, Oberoi Grand, Park Hotel. Monthly Data: Monthly Data is the data available for that month for which the Intelligence Report is generated. The detail of the month is provided on the cover page and the subsequent sheets on the upper right hand corner. Year to Date Data: Year to Date Data is the data available up to that particular month of the year for which the report has been generated including all preceding months of that year. For Example : In case of Intelligence Report for the month of August 2010, Year to Date figures would include Eight Months i.e. January 2010, February 2010..,July 2010, August 2010.

62 Actual Bookings: This data is originates from the BIC Partners namely Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre and Worldspan. It is supplied to the BIC which aggregates, processes and analyses the information before presenting it in the report. Actual Bookings represent Net Bookings based on day of arrival i.e. bookings net of cancellations made through the GDS. Bookings cancelled outside the channel, no shows etc. do not reflect in the report. Room Nights: Room Nights indicate the number of nights booked in the hotel for each room reservation. This data originates from the BIC Partners. Revenue in USD: This indicates the total revenue generated in USD from each of the four GDS depending on the number of bookings made. NOTE: Actual Bookings, Room Nights and Revenue in USD have been generated from the external data sources ( i.e. GDS Powered Sites and Travel Agents taken together) for which calculations cannot be shown in the Intelligence Report. All other calculations are shown within rectangular boxes. Variance VS Last Year: Variance represents change versus the same period during the previous year. This statistic is calculated on room nights, revenue and market penetration revenue. Room Nights: Variance in Room Nights represents change in room versus the same period during the previous year. Red Numbers Brackets indicate decrease in room nights compared to same period previous year. This requires immediate attention. A through analysis decrease in room nights should be conducted. nights within of the of this

Variance in Room Nights of Subscriber (ITC Hotel) for a particular Global Distribution System say Amadeus for a particular month say April 2011= Room Nights of Subscriber (ITC Hotel) for Amadeus in April 2011 minus Room Nights of Subscriber (ITC Hotel) for Amadeus in April 2010.
Variance for Competitive Set Total and Year to Date is calculated in a similar manner. Revenue in USD: Variance in Revenue in USD represents change in Revenue in USD versus the same period during the previous year. Red Numbers within Brackets indicate decrease in revenue compared to same period of the previous year. A through analysis of this decrease in revenue should be conducted to find out reasons for fall.

Variance in Revenue in USD of Competitive Set Total (Trident, Park Hotel,Taj Mahal, Oberoi Grand) for a particular GDS say Galileo for YTD up to April 2011= Revenue in USD of Competitive Set Total for Galileo for YTD up to April 2011 minus Revenue in USD of Competitive Set Total for Galileo for YTD up to April 2010.

63

Market Penetration Revenue: Variance in Market Penetration Revenue represents change (in points) in Market Penetration Revenue in USD versus the same period during the previous year. Red Numbers within Brackets indicate decrease in Market Penetration Revenue compared to same period of the previous year. This demands immediate attention.

Fair Share: Fair Share represents the percentage of inventory share for the subscriber hotel based on total available rooms inventory as loaded in the Global Distribution System. All Comparisons are made using fair share as the base.

Fair Share of Subscriber= Subscriber Hotel Available Rooms / (Subscriber Hotel Available Rooms + Competitive Set Total Available Rooms) E.g. Fair Share of ITC Hotel= 239/ (239+ (235+ 229+ 213+ 149)) = 22.4% Fair Share of Trident= 235/ (239+ (235+ 229+ 213+ 149)) = 22.1%
Total Rooms and Fair Share for Subscriber and Each of the Four Competitors is shown in the KP (Key Parameters) Sheet. Market Share: Market Share represents subscriber hotels percentage of business obtained versus its competitive set. This statistic is calculated on both room nights and revenue. Numbers highlighted in red indicate Market Share of Subscriber is less than fair share. Immediate Action should be taken to correct this situation. Market Share higher than Fair Share indicates that the Hotel is performing better than expected and doing business better than its competitors. Steps should be taken to preserve this situation. Room Nights: Market Share in room nights for Subscriber for a particular GDS for YTD up to April 2011 is the ratio of subscribers room nights for that GDS for YTD up to April 2011 to the sum of subscriber and competitive set room nights for that GDS for YTD up to April 2011.

If room nights of Subscriber 0, then Market Share of Subscriber in Room Nights for Sabre for YTD up to April 2011 = Subscribers Room Nights for Sabre for YTD up to April 2011/ (Subscribers Room Nights for Sabre for YTD up to April 2011 + Competitive Set Total Room Nights for Sabre for YTD up to April 2011) If room nights of Subscriber = 0 Then Market Share of Subscriber in Room Nights = 0 If room nights of Competitive Set 0,

64

Then Market Share of Competitive Set in Room Nights for Sabre for YTD up to April 2011 = Competitive Set Room Nights for Sabre for YTD up to April 2011/ (Subscribers Room Nights for Sabre for YTD up to April 2011 + Competitive Set Total Room Nights for Sabre for YTD up to April 2011) If room nights of Competitive Set = 0, Then Market Share of Competitive Set in Room Nights = 0.
Revenue: Market Share in revenue for Subscriber for a particular GDS for YTD up to April 2011 is the ratio of subscribers revenue for that GDS for YTD up to April 2011 to the sum of subscriber and competitive set revenue for that GDS for YTD up to April 2011.

If revenue of Subscriber 0, then Market Share of Subscriber in Revenue for Sabre for YTD up to April 2011 = Subscribers Revenue for Sabre for YTD up to April 2011/ (Subscribers Revenue for Sabre for YTD up to April 2011 + Competitive Set Total Revenue for Sabre for YTD up to April 2011) If revenue of Subscriber = 0, Then Market Share of Subscriber in Revenue = 0. If revenue of Competitive Set 0, Then Market Share of Competitive Set in Revenue for Sabre for YTD up to April 2011 = Competitive Set Revenue for Sabre for YTD up to April 2011/ (Subscribers Revenue for Sabre for YTD up to April 2011 + Competitive Set Total Revenue for Sabre for YTD up to April 2011) If Revenue of Competitive Set = 0, Then Market Share of Competitive Set in Revenue = 0.

Market Penetration: Market Penetration provides the Subscriber Hotel with an interpretation of market share by normalizing the measure based on the hotels size. A Market Penetration of 100% means the hotel is receiving exactly their fair share of the measure in question. It is the ratio of market share to fair share. This statistic is calculated on room nights and revenue. Room Nights: Market Penetration in room nights is the ratio of market share in room nights to fair share .Market Penetration less than 100% indicates that the Subscriber is receiving less than its fair share of room nights. These numbers are highlighted in red. This requires attention.

If Fair Share of Subscriber 0,

65

then Market Penetration in room nights for Subscriber for a particular GDS say Amadeus for April 2011= Market Share in room nights for Subscriber for Amadeus for April 2011 / Fair Share for Subscriber (=22.4%) If Fair Share of Subscriber=0, then Market Penetration in room nights for Subscriber= 0. Market Penetration in room nights for Competitive Set Total for a particular GDS say Amadeus for April 2011= Market Share in room nights for Competitive Set for Amadeus for April 2011 / (1-Fair Share for Subscriber (=22.4%))

Revenue: Market Penetration in revenue is the ratio of market share in revenue to fair share. Market Penetration less than 100% indicates that the Subscriber is receiving less than its fair share of room nights and hence revenue. These numbers are highlighted in red require immediate attention.

If Fair Share of Subscriber 0, then Market Penetration in revenue for Subscriber for a particular GDS say Amadeus for April 2011= Market Share in revenue for Subscriber for Amadeus for April 2011 / Fair Share for Subscriber (=22.4%) If Fair Share of Subscriber=0, then Market Penetration in room nights for Subscriber= 0. Market Penetration in revenue for Competitive Ste Total for a particular GDS say Amadeus for April 2011= Market Share in revenue for Competitive Set for Amadeus for April 2011 / (1-Fair Share for Subscriber (=22.4%))
Rank: Ranking is a relative performance measures of how subscriber hotel is placed vis-a-v the Competitive Set. Rank is provided for each GDS separately, for all GDS combined together and for each month and YTD. ALL- Particular Month and YTD: This data is the sum total for all the GDS taken together for the specified month and YTD separately.

9.1

PERFORMANCE SUMMARY 2 (PS2)

66

Brief Description This Portion shows the Subscriber and Competitive Sets Monthly data of absolute and growth figures for Length of Stay, , Average Room Rate, Electronic RevPAR and Contribution to Room Nights from the four major Global Distribution Systems Amadeus, Galileo(including Apollo) , Sabre (including Abacus, Axess, Infini) and World Span and all four taken together. YTD statistics are shown for sum total of all GDS and not for each GDS separately. Meaning and Calculation of Each Term Length of Stay: It shows the average number of nights booked for each room reservation.

If total number of rooms of Subscriber Hotel 0, then Length of Stay for Subscriber Hotel for a particular GDS say Worldspan for April 2011= Room Nights for Subscriber Hotel for WorldSpan for April 2011 / Bookings for Subscriber Hotel for WorldSpan for April 2011 If total number of rooms of Subscriber Hotel= 0, then Length of Stay for Subscriber Hotel =0.
Length of Stay for Competitive Set Total, for all other GDS and for different months and YTD is calculated in a similar manner. Length of Stay Growth: It indicates the increase or decrease in length of stay versus the same period of the previous year. Red Numbers within brackets indicate decrease in length of the stay compared to the same month/YTD of the previous year.

Length of Stay Growth for Subscriber Hotel for Amadeus for April 2011 = [(Length of Stay for Subscriber Hotel for Amadeus for April 2011- Length of Stay for Subscriber Hotel for Amadeus for April 2010)/ Length of Stay for Subscriber Hotel for Amadeus for April 2010] * 100.
Length of Stay Growth for Competitive Set Total, for all other GDS and for different months and YTD is calculated in a similar manner. Average Room Rate in USD: It is the ratio of revenue to rooms sold. Higher revenue with lower room nights indicates higher ARR. Conversely, if number of rooms sold is higher compared to the corresponding revenue generated, ARR is lower.

67

If Room Nights of Subscriber Hotel 0, Average Room Rate of Subscriber Hotel for Amadeus for YTD up to April 2011= Revenue of Subscriber Hotel for Amadeus for YTD up to April 2011 / Room Nights of Subscriber Hotel for Amadeus for YTD up to April 2011 If Room Nights of Subscriber Hotel = 0, then Average Room Rate of Subscriber Hotel= 0.
Average Room Rate for Competitive Set Total, for all other GDS and for different months and YTD can be calculated in a similar manner. Room Rate Growth: It indicates the increase or decrease in room rate versus the same period of the previous year. Red Numbers within brackets indicate decrease in room rate compared to the same month/YTD of the previous year.

Room Rate Growth for Subscriber Hotel for Amadeus for April 2011 = [(ARR for Subscriber Hotel for Amadeus for April 2011- ARR for Subscriber Hotel for Amadeus for April 2010)/ ARR for Subscriber Hotel for Amadeus for April 2010] * 100.
Room Rate Growth for Competitive Set Total, for all other GDS and for different months and YTD is calculated in a similar manner. Electronic RevPAR in USD: Electronic Rev Per Available Room represents total room revenue contributed through GDS per available rooms in the hotel. Electronic refers to revenue from the GDS and Internet Channels (excluding the brand website) covered by Intelligence. It helps to differentiate this calculation from RevPAR for the entire property.

Electronic RevPAR for ITC Hotel from a particular GDS say Sabre for April 2011= Revenue for ITC Hotel from Sabre for April 2011/ (Total rooms of ITC Hotel [= 239]* Total Number of days in the period [=30]) which is same as Room Nights for ITC Hotel from Sabre for April 2011/ (Total rooms of ITC Hotel [= 239]* Total Number of days in the period [=30]) Electronic RevPAR for Competitive Set from all four GDS for YTD up to April 2011= Revenue for Competitive Set from all four GDS for YTD up to April 2011 / (Total rooms of Competitive Set [= 235+ 229+ 213+ 149]* Total Number of days in the period [=31+28+31+30])
Electronic RevPAR for Competitive Set Total, for all other GDS and for different months and YTD can be calculated in a similar manner. RevPAR Growth: It indicates the increase or decrease in RevPAR versus the same period of the previous year. Red Numbers within brackets indicate decrease in RevPAR compared to the same month/YTD of the previous year.

68

RevPAR Growth for Subscriber Hotel for Amadeus for April 2011 = [(RevPAR for Subscriber Hotel for Amadeus for April 2011- RevPAR for Subscriber Hotel for Amadeus for April 2010)/ RevPAR for Subscriber Hotel for Amadeus for April 2010] * 100.
RevPAR Growth for Competitive Set Total, for all other GDS and for different months and YTD is calculated in a similar manner. Contribution to Room Nights: It represents the total room nights contributed through the Intelligence Sources as a percentage of total room nights for the period.

If Average Room Rate 0, Then Contribution to Room Nights for Subscriber Hotel for all GDS taken together for April 2011= Electronic RevPAR for Subscriber Hotel for all GDS taken together for April 2011 / ARR for Subscriber Hotel for all GDS taken together for April 2011
Contribution to Room Nights for Competitive Set Total, for each GDS separately and for different months and YTD is calculated in a similar manner. Contribution Growth: It indicates the increase or decrease in Contribution versus the same period of the previous year. Red Numbers within brackets indicate decrease in Contribution compared to the same month/YTD of the previous year.

Contribution Growth for Subscriber Hotel for Amadeus for April 2011 = [(Contribution for Subscriber Hotel for Amadeus for April 2011- Contribution for Subscriber Hotel for Amadeus for April 2010)/ Contribution for Subscriber Hotel for Amadeus for April 2010] * 100.
Contribution Growth for Competitive Set Total, for all other GDS separately and taken together and for different months and YTD is calculated in a similar manner. Rank: Ranking is a relative performance measure of how subscriber hotel is placed vis-a-v the Competitive Set w.r.t. Length of Stay, ARR, Electronic RevPAR and Contribution to Room Nights. Rank is provided for each GDS separately, for all GDS combined together and for each month and YTD.

69 PERFORMANCE SUMMARY 3 (PS 3) Brief Description This sheet shows trend statistics of Subscriber and Competitive Set Average for ARR, Market Penetration, Electronic RevPAR, Contribution to Room Nights and Revenue Opportunity aggregated for the past thirteen month trend and YTD figures and displayed in both numeric and graph formats. All previous month figures have been generated from the earlier reports. The current month and YTD figures of Subscriber and Competitive Set Average for ARR, Electronic RevPAR and Contribution to Room Nights have been taken from PS2 sheet of the current month report. (Calculations have been shown in PS2). Market Penetration Figures have been taken from PS1 sheet of the current month report. Meaning and Calculation of Each Term Revenue Opportunity in USD: This concept helps to identify and quantify revenue opportunities. All sources given in the report are categorized as those that are bringing the Subscriber Hotel more or less than its fair share. A positive revenue figure indicates the increment that a source provided above the Subscriber Hotels fair share (Market Lead). A negative revenue figure indicates that a source provided below the Subscriber Hotels fair share (Opportunity).

Revenue Opportunity= Subscribers Revenue (Subscribers Revenue+ Competitive Set Revenue) * Subscribers Fair Share)
Market Penetration figures less than 100% and Negative Revenue Opportunity Figures are highlighted in red. Steps should be taken to correct these. Market Penetration Trend Graph: It displays the relationship between Market Penetration in Room Nights and Revenue of the Subscriber Hotel for the 13 month period. It helps to determine whether the Subscriber Hotel is trading room night volume for revenue or vice- versa. As the gap between the two lines widens, the Subscriber Hotel may be either selling at a premium (revenue above room nights) or trading revenue for volume (room nights above revenue). GDS Pricing is optimal when this gap is close to zero. Average Room Rate Trend Graph: It displays Subscriber and Competitive Set ARR. As the gap between the two widens, it indicates that Subscriber and Competitive Set Pricing are not in parity with each other. This requires adjustment of pricing strategies to achieve desired Market Penetration goals.

70 STRATEGY

Contribution to room nights and ARR taken together help in forecasting future demand. Keeping in mind high demands during Winter Months, Low Demand during summers and Revenue Opportunity being less than fair share during April 09, 10, most of the promotion schemes should be launched 15 days in advance of the lean season i.e. approximately mid March.

Grand central is positioned appropriately versus the competition

w.r.t room rates since the ARR for Cumulative Periods are in parity with each other.

To increase market penetration during peak seasons, all discounted

rate categories and non guaranteed bookings (if any) should be closed. Higher Category Rooms should be displayed on the GDS and all third party websites. These should be sold on RACK rates as far as possible. Travel Agent Commission should be reduced. All promotional schemes should be withdrawn. Practicing one or more of these steps will reduce cost and increase revenue. It is possible that room nights might not increase more than proportionately.

71 RATE RANGES Brief Description Rate Range Control Panel helps the Subscriber Hotel to specify its preferred rate range breakdown for displaying data in low, medium and high ADR views. Adjustments can be made in the two white cells to isolate agencies on the DS Agencies Page. Meaning and Calculation of Each Term Low Rate Travel Agencies: are those which charge a low ARR for the same room type. The Rate Range for this category of Travel Agencies varies from Zero to the rate specified in the first white cell of the Rate Range Control Panel. Medium Rate Travel Agencies: are those which charge a medium ARR for the same room type. The Rate Range for this category of Travel Agencies varies from the rate specified in the first white cell of the Rate Range Control Panel to the rate specified in the second white cell of the Rate Range Control Panel. High Rate Travel Agencies: are those which charge a high ARR for the same room type. The Rate Range for this category of Travel Agencies varies from the rate specified in the second white cell of the Rate Range Control Panel without any upper limit. ANALYSIS Reasons for the difference in rates for the same room category of the Subscriber Hotel 1) Different Travel Agencies are powered by different GDS i.e. they use different GDS to make hotel bookings. The Room Rates may vary across GDS. 2) Some agencies which make bookings for corporate clients charge corporate rates which are lower than the ARR of the Subscriber Hotel. Agencies making bookings for Free Individual Travelers generally charge a higher rate for the same room category. 3) GDS Rates are not visible to customers so a travel agency might charge a higher rate (= Sell Rate available on the GDS + Markup) STRATEGY

Depending on the Grand Total ARR for all agencies taken together for ITC Hotel and Competitive Set Total, Grand central should change the white cells in the rate range control panel every month to classify low rate, medium rate and high rate agencies based on Average Room Rate charged to customers and isolate certain agencies

72 which do not fall into any range category. The idea is to develop promotional schemes and provide commission based on the rate category which has been mentioned at length in the DS Agencies Section.

73 DISTRIBUTION SUMMARY AGENCIES (DS Agencies) Brief Description This sheet shows the list of top agencies providing business to Subscriber Hotel and Competitive Set Hotels. Subscription can be customized to include minimum 30 agencies and maximum 150 agencies. Data is displayed for room nights, revenue, ARR, room night variance, market penetration in room nights, variance in market penetration, revenue opportunity for each agency for the Subscriber Hotel and the corresponding figures for room nights, revenue, ARR, room night variance for Competitive Set total. The agency information is based on the PCC number. Each unique PCC displays the booking activity for that travel agency location. Meaning and Calculation of Each Term Sort by Subscriber: Helps to sort data for Subscriber Hotel or Competitive Set. Sort by Stays: Helps to sort data for all days of the week, weekends or weekdays. Weekends are defined as arrivals on Thursday, Friday and Saturday with subsequent departures on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Sort by Reporting Period: Helps to filter data by current month or YTD Sort by Rate: Helps to sort data for agencies in high, medium, low ADR tiers. Agencies have been listed in decreasing order of room nights. The second column indicates the GDS by which the agency is powered. Room Nights, Revenue in USD : These data have been externally generated by BIC and hence there is no way to calculate them. Top agencies subtotal room nights and revenue has been calculated by adding them. Average Room Rate in USD: ARR for each agency = Revenue in USD for that agency/ Room Nights for that agency. Agencies subtotal for ARR= Agencies Subtotal Revenue/ Agencies Subtotal Room Nights. Room Night Variance: Room Night Variance for a particular agency for April 2011= Room Nights for that Agency for April 2011- Room Nights for that Agency for April 2010. Room Night Variance Subtotal is calculated in similar way.

74

Market Penetration in Room Nights: for a particular agency for say YTD up to April 2011= [Subscribers Room Nights for that agency for YTD up to April 2011 / ( Subscribers Fair Share* (Subscribers Room Nights for that agency for YTD up to April 2011 + Competitive Set Room Nights for that agency for YTD up to April 2011))] *100. Market Penetration in Room Nights Subtotal is calculated in similar way.
Revenue Opportunity: for a particular agency for say April 2011 = Subscribers Revenue (Subscribers Revenue+ Competitive Set Revenue) * Subscribers Fair Share) for that agency for April 2011. Subtotal is calculated in similar way. Competitive Set figures are calculated using the same formulas. Grand Totals for Revenue, Room Nights, Market Penetration etc. = Top Agencies Subtotal for these data+ Other Agencies total for these data which do not feature in the report. Variance figures which are negative, Revenue Opportunity below fair share and Market Penetration less than 100% are highlighted in red. These figures require attention. Travel Agency Address Information: The first column is numbered which helps in matching data with booking statistics. IATA Number and Pseudo City Code have been mentioned to identify agency location. Complete Address information includes Street, City, State, Postal Code, Country and City Code for each agency. In certain cases, same agency name may appear multiple times. This is because they work with several partners who operate with different IATA numbers and different Pseudo City Codes which should be used to differentiate between these partners. IATA Number: IATA stands for International Air Transport Association. All Booking Agencies are assigned an 8 digit numerical code that uniquely identifies the travel agencies. PCC: Pseudo City Code is the CRS code used to identify a specific agency location.

75

STRATEGY

Company XXXX (Bangalore), Company YYYY and ZZZZ ltd (Poona) have been the top performers for both ITC Hotel and Competitive Set. To divert room nights booked by these agencies from Competitive Set to Grand central it makes sense to provide progressive commission based on room nights to these agencies and Travel Agency Discounts i.e. discounted rates for the employees of this agency for their stay at Grand central. It is not necessary to invest heavily in the promotion as far as other top performers of Grand central are concerned. Occasional discount packages during off-seasons would serve the purpose of maintaining the Market Share above Fair Share and Market Penetration above 100%. Different Commission rates could prevail for travel agencies based on the ARR (i.e whether the agency is low, medium or high rate travel agency). Instead of the Commission Rate being fixed at 10% for all agencies, 10% could be the rate for Low Rate Agencies, 12% for Medium and 14% for high rate agencies to maximize revenue for the hotel.

Currently R Ltd rates at Grand central are $175 for Executive Club and Executive Club Non-Smoking which is way below the general Corporate Rate. This is due to the high volume of room nights R Ltd provides to the ITC Hotel. But according to Intelligence Report for Globe R Ltd (G) the inhouse travel agency for R Ltd located in Mumbai has provided 4 room nights for ITC Hotel as against 42 room nights for Competitors during the period Jan10 to Mar10. One reason for this could be that bookings for R Ltd Corporate Clients at ITC Hotel are made through traditional methods of reservation i.e. by phone, fax, email or hotels own website. To maximize revenue through the GDS channels and capture the room nights which go to competitor hotels, Grand central should approach Globe R LTD with promotional offers like higher commission say 15% if they provide predetermined number of room nights, emergency booking like ITC Hotel keeping rooms for last minute sale to R LTD Clients even during peak seasons. Since the agency is Mumbai based, weekend packages which would include one night free stay at the Hotel with complementary dinner could be extended to the agency if they provide predetermined number of room nights or more. It is very important for Grand central to feature on travelnow.com which is a Sabre powered website. Competitive Rates on lines similar to the Carson Wagonlit Travel rates (i.e. Room rate + commission level =Hiked up rate shown on the GDS screen) should be made available to Hogg Robinson BTI(G) and CWT Novartis since it is a high rate travel agency for the competitors.

76

77 DISTRIBUTION SUMMARY CC(DS CC) BRIEF DESCRIPTION Source City is defined by the city code associated with the location of the travel agency. This sheet displays top 15 Source Cities and top 10 Source Countries. The Source City is defined by the city code associated with the location of travel agency. Incase a city has multiple city codes; booking activity for those codes is combined and marked with asterisk. The two drop down boxes help to sort data by Subscribers Top Sources/ Competitive Set Top Sources and by Current Month and YTD respectively. Calculations for Room Nights, Revenue, ARR, Room Night Variance, Market Penetration in Room Nights and Variance, Revenue Opportunity for Subscriber and Competitive Set have been shown earlier. Variance figures which are negative, Revenue Opportunity below fair share and Market Penetration less than 100% are highlighted in red. These figures require attention. SUGGESTED STRATEGIES

Free Individual Travelers generally book airline tickets, hotel , car

rental through travel agencies located in the Source City rather than Destination City (Calcutta in this case). Corporate Travelers generally book through their in house travel agencies. It is important for ITC Grand central to launch point of sale advertising campaigns for its largest opportunities- Phoenix and Sydney. This can be done by mailing Grand central brochures related to hotel features, ongoing promotion like Welcom Break, special holiday packages etc.to top travel agencies located in these cities such as American Express (Phoenix), CWT Nortel Networks (Phoenix), Sydney Express Travel (Sydney) .These brochures could be displayed in the agencies which would influence the customers visiting these agencies for bookings.

Agencies in London provide maximum room nights to both ITC Hotel

and Competitive Set. To capture the market share of the Competitive Set, it is necessary to have a tie up with British Airways. In-flight Promotions can be done by including advertisements of Grand central hotel features, ongoing promotion like Welcom Break, special holiday packages etc. in the British Airways travel magazines. In return, ITC Hotel should have special discounted rates for clients traveling by British Airways apart from the Airline Frequent Flier Programme Participation which is already present.

ITC Hotel should have tie-ups with major airline operating between

Calcutta Phoenix, Calcutta-Sydney (Thai Airways International Ltd), Calcutta-London (British Airways) and come up with special packages

78 for these sectors which should include these Airlines and Grand central.

79 REVENUE MANAGEMENT SUMMARY - TOTAL MARKET DEMAND IN TERMS OF ARRIVAL Brief Description This sheet depicts the arrivals for all seven days of the week separately for the current month at many rate ranges starting from 0-70 and going up to 230+. The arrivals column has been further subdivided into My Arrivals and Market Arrivals for each GDS separately and for all sources together. If My Arrivals is highlighted in red, then Subscriber Hotel received less than its fair share within the respective rate range and arrival day of the week. Meaning and Calculation of each term Rate Range: These are pre-set fields which can be defined to meet the needs of the Subscriber Hotel. My Arrivals: This column includes Subscriber Hotels arrival on each day of the week separately for various rate ranges. Market Arrivals: This column includes Subscriber Hotel and Competitive Set Total arrivals on each day of the week separately for various rate ranges. Arrival Distribution: This row shows percentage of arrivals by day of week.

Arrival Distribution for My Arrival (Subscriber) for a particular day of the week say Sunday= (My Arrival for Sunday from all sources/ My Arrival from Sunday to Saturday from all sources) * 100 Arrival Distribution for Market Arrivals (Subscriber + Competitive Set) for a particular day of the week say Sunday= (Market Arrivals for Sunday from all sources/ Market Arrivals from Sunday to Saturday from all sources) * 100
Arrival Distribution for My Arrival for a particular day of the week is highlighted in red when My Arrival is less than Market Arrival for that day. Arrival Distribution according to GDS: My Arrivals and Market Arrivals for each GDS separately are provided in these rows. My Arrival Column for a particular GDS say Amadeus is highlighted in red when My Arrival for that GDS / Market Arrival for that GDS < Fair Share of Subscriber All Sources: This row represents sum total of Arrivals from all four GDS taken together. My Arrivals for All Sources is highlighted in red when My Arrivals from All Sources / Market Arrivals from All Sources < Fair Share of Subscriber.

80

STRATEGY Special Weekend Packages exclusively for Corporate Clients to make them combine business with leisure in true sense. It could be vary from complimentary Spa facilities at health clubs or complementary lunch/dinner if the client extends his stay to weekends or limited free access to internet Grand central should include 100-110 range in its rate plan as Summer Rate Break or World of Savings rate etc only available during the lean seasons. Considering the current Best Available Rate which starts from 124$ per night, it could be increased to 130$ considering large number of arrivals in this category for competitors. Though the current weekend rates at Grand central start from as low as 90$, competitors might be having a lower rate or offering additional facilities. This could be resolved by launching family packages involving complimentary Spa facilities at health clubs, special excursions in Chauffeur Driven or Self driven luxury cars, complementary lunch/dinner, play areas for kids.

81 REVENUE MANAGEMENT SUMMARY - LEAD TIME STATISTICS Brief Description This sheet explains detailed booking statistics about Room Nights, ARR, Average Length of Stay, Market Penetration (Room Nights) for Subscriber and Competitive Set by specific lead time period for each GDS separately and all GDS combined. Lead Time Parameters can be customized to meet the needs of Subscriber Hotel. Meaning and Calculation of Each Term Lead Time Statistics based on room nights: It means the number of days in advance in which room nights are booked. It has been subdivided into 03days, 4-7days, 8-14days, 15-30days and 31+ days. For example, 4-7days would mean that room nights for Subscriber/ Competitive Set Hotel are booked 4-7 days in advance. Room Nights: Room Nights for various lead time statistics have been generated from the external data sources ( i.e. GDS Powered Sites and Travel Agents taken together) for which calculations cannot be shown in the Intelligence Report. Room Nights for all GDS combined together is the sum total of room nights from Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre and Worldspan. Average Room Rate in USD: It is the ratio of revenue to rooms sold.

If Room Nights (based on lead time statistics) of Subscriber Hotel 0, Average Room Rate of Subscriber Hotel for a certain lead time duration say 8-14 days for a particular GDS say Amadeus for April 2011= Revenue of Subscriber Hotel for 8-14 days for Amadeus for April 2011 / Room Nights of Subscriber Hotel for 8-14 days for Amadeus for April 2011 If Room Nights (based on lead time statistics) of Subscriber Hotel = 0, then Average Room Rate of Subscriber Hotel= 0.
Average Room Rate for different lead time durations, Competitive Set Total, for all other GDS separately and all four taken together and for different months can be calculated in a similar manner. Average Length of Stay: It shows the average number of nights booked for each room reservation.

82

If total number of rooms of Subscriber Hotel 0, then Average Length of Stay of Subscriber Hotel for a certain lead time duration say 31+ days for a particular GDS say Worldspan for April 2011= Room Nights of Subscriber Hotel for 31+ days for WorldSpan for April 2011 / Bookings of Subscriber Hotel for 31+ days for WorldSpan for April 2011 If total number of rooms of Subscriber Hotel= 0, then Length of Stay for Subscriber Hotel =0.
Average Length of Stay for Competitive Set Total, for different lead time durations, for all other GDS separately and all four taken together and for different months is calculated in a similar manner. Note: Bookings of the Subscriber Hotel and Competitive Set Total for different lead time durations are not shown in the report. They have been generated externally. Since actual bookings for different lead time durations are not known, Average Length of the Stay cannot be calculated using the above formula. It may be assumed that Average Length of Stay for various lead time durations has been calculated externally by BIC. Market Penetration (Room Nights): Market Penetration in room nights is the ratio of market share in room nights to fair share .Market Penetration less than 100% indicates that the Subscriber is receiving less than its fair share of room nights. These numbers are highlighted in red. This requires attention.

Market Penetration in Room Nights of Subscriber for certain lead time duration say 1530 days for all four GDS taken together for April 2011= [Subscribers Room Nights for 15-30 days for all four GDS for April 2011 / (Subscribers Fair Share* (Subscribers Room Nights for 15-30 days for all four GDS for April 2011 + Competitive Set Room Nights for 15-30 days for all four GDS for April 2011))] *100.
Market Penetration (Room Nights) for different lead time durations, for each GDS separately and for different months is calculated in a similar manner. Total (Column): The last column of this sheet shows the summation of all the lead time durations for each GDS separately and all of them combined. Room Nights Total: It represents summation of room nights over all lead time durations for each GDS separately and all four combined.

Total Room Nights for Subscriber for Amadeus for April 2011 = Room Nights for Subscriber for Amadeus for 0-3 days + 4-7 days + 8-14 days + 15-30 days + 31+ days for April 2011.
Room Nights Total for Competitive Set for each GDS separately and all four combined can be calculated in similar way.

83 Average Room Rate in USD Total: This statistic has been already calculated for Subscriber and Competitive Set for each GDS separately and all four combined in PS2 Sheet- Average Room Rate Column. Average Length of Stay: This statistic has been already calculated for Subscriber and Competitive Set for each GDS separately and all four combined in PS2 Sheet- Length of Stay Column. Market Penetration (Room Nights): This statistic has been already calculated for Subscriber for each GDS separately and all four combined in PS1 Sheet- Market Penetration Room Nights Column. Market Penetration below 100% is highlighted in red.

STRATEGY Best time to launch promotions catering to corporate clients is 14-15 in advance of the lean season month in order to maximize room nights. Promotions related to special family packages, weekend discounts, summer rate break targeting leisure groups should be launched one month in advance of the lean season period to maximize revenue. To increase the Market Penetration for lead time statistics of 4 days and above, discounts on room rates should be offered for bookings made 15 days and above in advance provided no last minute cancellations are made. GDS specific strategies have been discussed in Performance Summary Section.

84 REVENUE MANAGEMENT SUMMARY - LENGTH OF STAY STATISTICS Brief Description This sheet depicts detailed booking statistics based on length of stay break points which can be customized to meet the needs of the Subscriber Hotel. Statistics is shown for each GDS individually and all GDS combined for Subscriber and Competitive Set. Meaning and Calculation of Each Term Rooms Booked and Room Revenue in USD: Rooms booked and Room Revenue for various length of stay statistics have been generated from the external data sources (i.e.GDS Powered Sites and Travel Agents taken together) for which calculations cannot be shown in the Intelligence Report. Rooms booked for all GDS combined together is the sum total of room nights from Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre and Worldspan. Average Room Rate in USD: It is the ratio of revenue to (rooms booked * number of nights)

If Room Nights (based on length of stay statistics) of Subscriber Hotel 0, Average Room Rate of Subscriber Hotel for a certain length of stay statistics break point say 3 nights for a particular GDS say Amadeus for April 2011= Room Revenue of Subscriber Hotel for 3 nights for Amadeus for April 2011 / (Rooms booked for Subscriber Hotel for 8-14 days for Amadeus for April 2011* Number of nights) If Room Nights (based on length of stay statistics) of Subscriber Hotel = 0, then Average Room Rate of Subscriber Hotel= 0.
Average Room Rate for different lead time durations, Competitive Set Total, for all other GDS separately and all four taken together and for different months can be calculated in a similar manner. Note: Average Room Rate for 4-7 nights and 8+ nights cannot be calculated manually because exact number of nights is not known from the report. Hence it can be assumed that data for these have been calculated externally by BIC taking into consideration exact number of room nights for these ranges. Market Penetration (Rooms Booked): Market Penetration in terms of rooms booked is the ratio of market share in rooms booked to fair share. Market Penetration less than 100% indicates that the Subscriber is receiving less than its fair share of rooms booked. These numbers are highlighted in red. This requires attention.

85

Market Penetration in Rooms booked of Subscriber for particular length of stay say 3 nights for all four GDS taken together for April 2011= [Subscribers Rooms booked for 3 nights for all four GDS for April 2011 / (Subscribers Fair Share* (Subscribers Rooms booked for 3 nights for all four GDS for April 2011 + Competitive Set Rooms booked for 3 nights for all four GDS for April 2011))] *100.
Market Penetration (Rooms booked) for different length of stay duration, for total duration, for each GDS separately and for different months is calculated in a similar manner. Total (Column): The last column of this sheet shows the summation of all the length of stay durations for each GDS separately and all of them combined. Rooms booked Total: It represents summation of rooms booked over all length of stay statistics for each GDS separately and all four combined.

Total Rooms booked for Subscriber for Amadeus for April 2011 = Rooms booked for Subscriber for Amadeus for 1 night+ 2 nights + 3 nights + 4-7 nights + 8+ nights for April 2011.
Rooms booked Total for Competitive Set for each GDS separately and all four combined can be calculated in similar way. Room Revenue in USD Total: It represents summation of room revenue over all length of stay statistics for each GDS separately and all four combined.

Total Room Revenue for Subscriber for Amadeus for April 2011 = Room Revenue for Subscriber for Amadeus for 1 night+ 2 nights + 3 nights + 4-7 nights + 8+ nights for April 2011.
Room Revenue Total for Competitive Set for each GDS separately and all four combined can be calculated in similar way. Average Room Rate in USD Total: This statistic has been already calculated for Subscriber and Competitive Set for each GDS separately and all four combined in PS2 Sheet- Average Room Rate Column. Market Penetration (Rooms Booked) Total: The calculation for this statistic has already been shown earlier.

STRATEGY Special Rate plan should be designed to attract longer length of stay customers. This could involve pricing variations based on length of stay. Discounted Rates for stays beyond 4 nights should be included in

86 the rate plan. ADR should progressively decrease for stays beyond 4 nights. REVENUE MANAGEMENT SUMMARY - DAY OF ARRIVAL STATISTICS Brief Description This sheet provides detailed booking statistics based on day of arrival for each month. Arrivals, ARR and Average Length of Stay are shown for Subscriber and Competitive Set for each GDS separately and all four combined. In addition, Market Penetration (Arrivals) is shown for Subscriber. Market Penetration (Arrivals) below 100% is highlighted in red. Meaning and Calculation of Each Term Arrivals: Day of Arrival statistics for each day of the week separately have been generated from the external data sources (i.e.GDS Powered Sites and Travel Agents taken together) for which calculations cannot be shown in the Intelligence Report. Average Room Rate in USD: It is the ratio of revenue to room nights.

If Room Nights (based on day of arrival statistics) of Subscriber Hotel 0, Average Room Rate of Subscriber Hotel for a particular day of arrival say Sunday for a particular GDS say Amadeus for April 2011= Room Revenue of Subscriber Hotel for Sundays for Amadeus for April 2011 / (Room Nights for Subscriber Hotel for Sundays for Amadeus for April 2011) If Room Nights (based on day of arrival statistics) of Subscriber Hotel = 0, then Average Room Rate of Subscriber Hotel= 0.
Average Room Rate for different day of arrivals, Competitive Set Total, for all other GDS separately and all four taken together and for different months can be calculated in a similar manner. Note: Room Nights of the Subscriber Hotel and Competitive Set Total for different days of arrival are not shown in the report. They have been generated externally. Since actual room nights for different days of arrival are not known, Average Room Rate cannot be calculated using the above formula. It may be assumed that Average Room Rate for various days of arrival has been calculated externally by BIC. Average Length of Stay: It shows the average number of nights booked for each room reservation based on day of arrival.

87

If total number of rooms of Subscriber Hotel 0, then Average Length of Stay of Subscriber Hotel for a particular day of arrival say Monday for a particular GDS say Worldspan for April 2011= Room Nights of Subscriber Hotel for Monday for WorldSpan for April 2011 / Arrivals of Subscriber Hotel for Monday for WorldSpan for April 2011 If total number of rooms of Subscriber Hotel= 0, then Average Length of Stay for Subscriber Hotel =0.
Average Length of Stay for Competitive Set Total, for different days of arrival, for all other GDS separately and all four taken together and for different months is calculated in a similar manner. Note: Room Nights of the Subscriber Hotel and Competitive Set Total for different days of arrival are not shown in the report. They have been generated externally. Since actual room nights for different days of arrival are not known, Average Length of the Stay cannot be calculated using the above formula. It may be assumed that Average Length of Stay for various days of arrival has been calculated externally by BIC. Market Penetration (Arrivals): Market Penetration in terms of arrivals is the ratio of market share in arrivals to fair share. Market Penetration less than 100% indicates that the Subscriber is receiving less than its fair share of arrivals. These numbers are highlighted in red seeking attention.

Market Penetration (Arrivals) of Subscriber for particular day of arrival say Friday for all four GDS taken together for April 2011= [Subscribers Arrivals for Fridays for all four GDS for April 2011 / (Subscribers Fair Share* (Subscribers Arrivals for Fridays for all four GDS for April 2011 + Competitive Set Arrivals for Fridays for all four GDS for April 2011))] *100.
Market Penetration (Arrivals) for different days of arrival, for each GDS separately and for different months is calculated in a similar manner. STRATEGY Since maximum arrivals for Grand central happen on Sundays, more than desired number of staff should be present on Sundays at the Concierge and Front Office to take care of the guests. Saturday being the day of minimum arrivals and Market Penetration being less than 100% for Weekend Arrivals, weekend strategies need to be revived to attract more customers. This has been discussed in detail in the Market Demand Section. GDS related strategies have been discussed in the Performance Summary Section.

88

KEY PARAMETERS Brief Description This sheet gives the details of Subscriber Hotel and Competitive Set in terms of street address, vendor codes, the GDS on which the hotels feature, total rooms and fair share for the hotels. Y in the date exists column indicates that the hotel received atleast one booking from the respective GDS during the month. This data is shown for the 13 month period till the current month. Meaning and Calculation of Each Term Vendor Codes: It displays each hotels chain code within each GDS at the current point of time. If multiple brand codes exist, they will be displayed in the vendor code column. Total rooms: Number of rooms in inventory for the Subscriber Hotel and Competitive Set as listed in BIC database. Fair Share: It is the percentage of market that each hotel represents. Calculation has been shown earlier. STRATEGY

As discussed above and in the PS1 section of the report, Worldspan is

used very less by Travel Agencies incase of both ITC Hotel and Competitive Set so there is no point in advertising on Worldspan or offering better commission to travel agencies using Worldspan.

NOTE: Data related to Rooms booked, ARR, Revenue, Length of Stay, Ranking etc. has been provided for the Competitive Set Total and not each Competitor Hotel separately for confidential purpose.

89 INTERNET INTELLIGENCE REPORT

19.1 INTRODUCTION Internet intelligence report contains booking performance, market penetration and distribution within the Internet channel for a hotel and its competitive set. Data for this report originates from all major GDS (Galileo, Sabre, Worldspan and Amadeus) and GDS Powered Websites (Travelocity.com, travelnow.com etc.) A business intelligence company aggregates, processes and analyzes the information and presents it to us in a clear, concise format. This report is available on a monthly basis with historical views of the previous month, year-to-date and multi-month trending. This report only includes those Internet sites which use Pegasus or one of the Global Distribution Systems (GDS) as their booking engine. Some other sites use proprietary booking engines to record booking transactions, and these are not currently shown in the report. Sites that are included in the Internet Intelligence report Internet sites are categorized as either Retail sites or Merchant sites in the Internet Intelligence report. Included as major Retail Internet Sites are Orbitz (retail portion), Travelocity (retail GDS portion), Expedia (retail GDS portion), TravelHero, Lodging, USA Hotel Guide, etc. Included as major Merchant Internet Sites are Priceline, TravelWeb, and Orbitz (through Pegasus). Sites that are NOT yet included in the Internet Intelligence report Brand site data is not included in the Internet intelligence. Also, data is not available for Expedia (merchant program), Travelocity (merchant program), Hotels.com, Hotwire (merchant program), and Lodging (merchant portion). EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW Brief Description The Executive Overview gives a quick summary of the Subscriber Hotels Performance using key Performance Measures for both current month and year to date. The parameters are displayed in terms of bar chart, pie chart and numerical format for easy understanding. Meaning and Calculation of each term Overall Market Penetration (Room Nights and Revenue) Bar Charts: The two Market Penetration graphs give a quick view of market penetration on both Room Night and Revenue basis. This shows how the trend in number of rooms being sold is related to the trend in revenue. Changes from month to month are shown for the past three months, along with

90 diamonds to show a comparison to the previous years measure. Cumulative Year-to-Date measures are shown on the right side of each graph. Average Room Rate BarGraphs and Pie Charts: The average room rate graph displays the room rates for Subscriber hotel and its competitive set. Both the Retail rates and two types of Merchant rates are shown for the current month. Retail rates correspond to the average rates that the consumer sees displayed on an Internet site. Merchant rates have two subcategories: 1) consumer priced rates and 2) net rates - the average negotiated net rate that the hotel offers to the merchant program. Merchant activity will be shown with the net rates when that data is available from BICs partners. Otherwise Merchant activity will be shown based on the consumer prices. A pie chart of the Room Nights mixture is also shown for the current month. Comparisons to the previous years Average Room Rate and Retail/Merchant mix are shown for both the subscriber and the competitive set.

Strategy Strategies related to Grand central have been discussed in detail in each section of the report separately TOP PRODUCERS BY SITE Brief Description The pie-chart shows top five internet sites providing booking to Subscriber Hotel by room night and revenue and corresponding figures for Competitive Set. Pie Chart represents total booking activity (100%) and internet site wise booking activity is shown as a percentage of that. Absolute figures for Room Nights, Revenue, Average Lead Time and Average Length of Stay for each internet site are provided in the table. The two drop down boxes helps to filter data by room nights/revenue and current period/YTD. Meaning and Calculation of each term Internet Site: The top ten internet sites providing booking to Subscriber Hotel have been arranged in decreasing order of room nights. Booking Engine: It represents reservation system used by internet websites to book reservations for their customers. All internet websites are powered by one or more GDS namely Amadeus, Galileo, Pegasus, Sabre and Worldspan. Hotel/Site Model: It represents the relationship and type of rate offered by the hotel to the distributor or site, usually Retail or Merchant

91

Retail Program (or the Hotel determined rate): hotel determines the rate and usually absorbs any additional costs involved to distribute (commissions, transaction fees, etc.). The Sell Rate that the consumer sees is equal to the Retail Rate determined by the hotel. Merchant Program (or the negotiated net rate): hotel negotiates a net rate with the merchant, and there are usually no other costs to the hotel to distribute. The Sell Rate that the consumer sees is made up of Net Rate + Merchant Mark-up.

Distribution Model: It represents the business model used by the site or distributor in terms of the rate offered to a consumer. It is mainly of three types: Consumer Priced: Buyer sees predetermined rate which includes retail/merchant rate + distribution costs/markup Auction: It represents consumer bid in which buyer offers a rate that is then accepted (or not) by the site/distributor Packages: One price is fixed for a package that includes hotel, air, car, and/or tour components. Hotel Visibility: It represents the view of how the hotel is shown to consumers during the booking process. It is mainly of two types: Transparent: Hotel name is shown directly to the buyer. Opaque: hotel name not shown but usually indicated by a star rating. Room Nights: Room Nights indicate the number of nights booked in the hotel for each room reservation by the Internet Sites. This data originates from the BIC Partners. Revenue: This indicates the total revenue generated in USD from all ten GDS powered Internet Sites depending on the number of bookings made. Average Lead Time: It means the number of days in advance in which room nights are booked. It may be subdivided into various day ranges. For example, 4-7days would mean that room nights for Subscriber/ Competitive Set Hotel are booked 4-7 days in advance. Average Length of Stay: It shows the average number of nights booked for each room reservation.

If total number of rooms of Subscriber Hotel 0, then Length of Stay for Subscriber Hotel for a particular Internet Site say Travelocity.com for April 2011= Room Nights for Subscriber Hotel for Travelocity.com for April 2011 / Bookings for Subscriber Hotel for Travelocity.com for April 2011

92

If total number of rooms of Subscriber Hotel= 0, then Length of Stay for Subscriber Hotel =0.
Length of Stay for Competitive Set Total, for all other Internet Sites and for different months and YTD is calculated in a similar manner. NOTE: Room Nights, Revenue in USD, Average Lead Time and Average Length of Stay have been generated from the external data sources (i.e. GDS Powered Sites) for which calculations cannot be shown in the Internet Intelligence Report.

Going by the graphical and tabular representation, the top three internet sites in decreasing order of room nights and revenue for Grand central have been Expedia.com, Travelocity.com. and Worldchoicetravel.com .In fact these were the only three sites generating room nights and revenue for Grand central. Top internet sites for Competitive Set are Travelocity.com, Orbitz.com, Worldchoicetravel.com and Travelnow.com.

Average Length of Stay for Competitive Set varies between 2 to 4.5 days which is much higher than that of Grand central .It varies between 1-1.5 days. On an average, bookings in Worldchoicetravel.com were made 51 days in advance. This suggests that maximum bookings occurred for mainly Leisure Travelers who book well in advance unlike Corporates. Average Lead time for Competitive Set is approximately 15 days or more. Keeping in mind the Average Lead Time and Average Length of Stay, it is very clear that maximum internet booking are made by Leisure Travelers who stay in the hotels for shorter durations. Corporate Clients generally get their bookings done directly by contacting the hotel or indirectly through travel agencies using GDS to avail of the Corporate Rates using their corporate id.

The pie chart shows that Expedia.com and Worldchoicetravel.com are the only two sites where Competitive Set is lagging behind Grand central. Competition is outpacing Grand central in Travelocity.com (since ITC does not feature in a proper manner) and other sites (where ITC Hotel does not feature at all). RETAIL DETAILS AND COMPARISON Brief Description

93 This sheet provides a detailed view of room night and revenue production as well as a site-by-site comparison of performance on Retail Internet sites versus a Competitive Set. The drop down box helps to filter data by current month and YTD. Another drop down box at the bottom of the sheet to show or hide the sites without the current month booking activity as the noise from last years Internet site activity is not particularly important when measuring Subscriber Hotels current performance and adjusting inventory and pricing levels. On the other hand, this information is very useful to spot trends in this Internet space. The list of top 25 Retail Internet sites, based on Subscriber hotels booking activity, will help you to identify those sites that generally support your hotel. Several sites may have both Retail and Merchant booking activity in this case, only that portion of activity that is attributed with Retail programs is shown on this page. Additionally, for each Internet Site, the booking engine is listed for easy reference (A= Amadeus, G = Galileo/Apollo, P= Pegasus, S = Sabre, W = Worldspan). Meaning and Calculation of each term Room Nights: Room Nights indicate the number of nights booked in the hotel for each room reservation by the Internet Sites. This data originates from the BIC Partners. Top Internet Sites subtotal room nights have been calculated by adding them. Room Nights Variance: Variance in Room Nights represents change in room nights versus the same period during the previous year. Red Numbers within Brackets indicate decrease in room nights compared to same period of the previous year. This requires immediate attention. A through analysis of this decrease in room nights should be conducted.

Variance in Room Nights of Subscriber (ITC Hotel) for a particular Internet Site say Orbitz.com for a particular month say April 2011= Room Nights of Subscriber (ITC Hotel) for Orbitz.com in April 2011 minus Room Nights of Subscriber (ITC Hotel) for Orbitz.com in April 2010.
Variance for Competitive Set Total, different months, Year to Date and all Internet Sites taken together (subtotal) is calculated in a similar manner. Market Penetration (Room Nights): Market Penetration in room nights is the ratio of market share in room nights to fair share .Market Penetration less than 100% indicates that the Subscriber is receiving less than its fair share of room nights. These numbers are highlighted in red. This requires attention.

Market Penetration in Room Nights of Subscriber for a particular Internet Site say Expedia.com for April 2011= [Subscribers Room Nights for Expedia.com for April 2011 / (Subscribers Fair Share* (Subscribers Room Nights for Expedia.com for April 2011 + Competitive Set Room Nights for Expedia.com for April 2011))] *100.

94

Market Penetration (Room Nights) for different Internet Sites and all Internet Sites taken together (subtotal) for different months and YTD is calculated in a similar manner. Average Room Rate in USD: ARR for each Internet Site = Revenue in USD for that site/ Room Nights for that site. Internet Site subtotal for ARR= Internet Site Subtotal Revenue/ Internet Site Subtotal Room Nights. Revenue: This indicates the total revenue generated in USD from major GDS powered Internet Sites depending on the number of bookings made. . Top Internet Sites subtotal revenue has been calculated by adding them. Variance in Revenue in USD: It represents change in Revenue in USD versus the same period during the previous year. Red Numbers within Brackets indicate decrease in revenue compared to same period of the previous year. A through analysis of this decrease in revenue should be conducted to find out reasons for fall.

Variance in Revenue in USD of Competitive Set Total (Trident, Park Hotel, Taj Mahal, Oberoi ) for a particular internet site say Cheaptickets.com for YTD up to April 2011= Revenue in USD of Competitive Set Total for Cheaptickets.com for YTD up to April 2011 minus Revenue in USD of Competitive Set Total for Cheaptickets.com for YTD up to April 2010.
Room Night Variance for Subscriber Hotel, for different months, YTD, Internet Sites Subtotal is calculated in similar way. Market Penetration Revenue: Market Penetration Revenue less than 100% indicates that the Subscriber is receiving less than its fair share of revenue. These numbers are highlighted in red. This requires attention.

Market Penetration Revenue of Subscriber for a particular Internet Site say Expedia.com for April 2011= [Subscribers Revenue for Expedia.com for April 2011 / (Subscribers Fair Share* (Subscribers Revenue for Expedia.com for April 2011 + Competitive Set Revenue for Expedia.com for April 2011))] *100.
Market Penetration (Revenue) for different Internet Sites and all Internet Sites taken together (subtotal) for different months and YTD is calculated in a similar manner. Average Room Rate Comparison: a percentage that represents the amount that the subscribers ARR is above or below the competitive sets ARR. A label of Parity means that the subscriber ARR and competitive set ARR are within 10% of each other. Discount means that the subscribers

95 ARR is more than 10% lower than the competitive sets ARR.Premium means that the subscribers ARR is more than 10% higher.

ARR Comparison for a particular site say Travelocity.com for say April 2011= (Subscribers ARR for Travelocity.com for April 2011- Competitive Set ARR for Travelocity.com for April 2011) divide by the Competitive Set ARR for Travelocity.com for April 2011) * 100
Grand Totals for Revenue, Room Nights, Market Penetration etc. = Top Internet Sites Subtotal for these data+ Other Sites total for these data which do not feature in the report. Final ARR Comparison is also displayed at the end. Strategy (Based on Data Analysis of Top Producers by Site and Retail Details)

Based on the conclusion that bookings on Internet Sites are mostly made by Leisure Travellers, it is necessary to feature in travelnow.com, hotels.com and Orbitz.com which are among the top performers for Competitive Set. Orbitz is the fastest growing online travel site with over 23 million registered users who visit frequently for destination-specific promotions, web-only fares and other electronic specials. These websites are the high-level opportunities for Grand central within the electronic travel marketplace. Hence it is necessary for ITC Grand central to appear most attractive and have a strong presence on the front end. Going by the average lead time and average length of stay, timing of promotions should ideally be 15 days in advance of the lean season. Observations on how ITC Grand central features on Third Party Websites vis-a-v other Five Star Deluxe Hotels in Mumbai have been shown in the table below. From the table below it is clear that ITC Grand central is not among the top three by any of the default ratings

Internet Websites and corresponding GDS used as booking engine

Amadeus.net (A)

Does ITC Grand central feature in these websites ? Yes

Hotel which Type of features as Default No.1 by Sorting Default Sorting

Parameters leading to this default sorting

The Leela Kempinski

Price

Rate Parity

Some Observations related to Grand central and Competitive Hotels presence on these websites. ITC Grand Central is has very detailed description of the product and the rates which are

How to make Grand central feature among the top three? Rate Parity is the most important factor which would help feature the

96

Orbitz.com(P)

Yes

Travelocity.com

NO

Hotels.com and yes Travelnow.com powered by Hotels.com(S)

offered. Its competition also has the same amount of information on their link. ITC Grand Best Best Value & Grand Central Central Values Star Rating doesnt feature any promotional schemes on the display page where as all the TAJ properties do. The Orchid Traveloc Listing of Grand central Mumbai ity Picks preferred does not feature hotel partner on Travelocity. who offer best price, service and value to customers in that order. Travelocity picks up hotels depending upon the lowest rate quoted by them at the time of selection process, amenities and the location Grand Sarovar Best Lowest Weekend premiere Values Average Rate promotions are and 5 Star featured in Taj Rating links.

hotel at the top of the page.

ITC Grand central should be featured on Travelocity as it is one of the major travel website of the world/.

Expedia.com(W)

Yes

Taj Palace

Mahal Expedia picks

Rate Parity

Rate Parity is the most important factor which would help feature the hotel at the top of the page. No promotional Internet offers for Grand Intelligence

97

Central

Travelhero.com( W)

Yes

Intercontinental the Lalit

None

Rate Parity

Makemytrip.com (Indias online travel company) emerging as the foremost travel website in the US to India market

No

Grand Sarovar Recom Premiere mended

Lowest Average Rate

Report suggests expedia provides maximum business to Grand central.Hence visual representation is very important on this site.Rate Range should become wider. Rate Parity is the most important factor which would help feature the hotel at the top of the page. Grand Central should be Featured in makemytrip as it provides a search base for Domestic travelers.

IMPROVEMENTS RELATED TO GRAND CENTRALS PRESENCE ON THIRD PARTY WEBSITES Loyalty Programmes (Welcomlink, Sheraton Plus, and WelcomAward) in brief should be included in third party websites. This strategy deals with proper visual representation of Grand central .A moving slide show enhanced by voice-over and music is recommended. Photographs of Grand central should appear in sequence with information about each of them. Take our property tour link can be created in Grand centrals largest opportunities- orbitz.com, travelnow.com and hotels.com. Virtual

98 Tours will convey exactly what Grand central offers, both inside and out, and powerfully differentiates it by showcasing distinct features and amenities.

Full Motion Premium Video Tours where Grand central is filmed inside and out, dramatically bringing its distinct features and amenities to life can be included in welcomgroup website and selective third party websites. Grand central may advertise on USAtoday.com and other popular websites like Travelocity.com ,Orbitz.com (generating high revenue for Competitors) on cost-per-click basis whereby Grand central will pay only when a potential customer actually clicks on its ad and visits website

MERCHANT DETAILS Brief Description Merchant Details are divided into two sub-categories: 1) net rates - the average negotiated net rate that the hotel offers to the merchant program, or 2) consumer priced rates. Merchant Internet activity will be shown with the net rates when that data is available from BICs partners. Otherwise Merchant Internet activity will be shown based on the consumer prices. Merchant Details page is very similar to the Retail Details page. It provides performance metrics on Room Nights, Revenue,Average Room Rates, Market Penetration etc. The drop down box in the upper right hand corner indicates the reporting period which can be filtered according to Current Month and YTD. Red numbers in parenthesis represent negative numbers. Red bold numbers in the market penetration column represent sources providing your hotel less than its fair share. The top Merchant sites (for both categories of Net Rates and Consumer Priced) are displayed along with details which compare Room Nights and Revenue to the competitive set and to last year. Meaning and Calculation of each term Description and Calculation of all the terms such as Room Nights, Revenue, Variance, Market Penetration, ARR and its comparison have been elaborately dealt with in the Retail Details Section of the report. Data Analysis and Strategy No room nights have been booked through the merchant portion of internet sites for both Subscriber and Competitive Set This implies that Grand central and its competitors are not a part of Merchant Program of the internet sites. Hence Data Analysis cannot be done and Strategy formulation is also not possible

99

PERFORMANCE TRENDS Brief Description This sheet shows trend statistics of Subscriber and Competitive Set Average for ARR and Market Penetration for both Retail (Consumer price), Merchant (Consumer Price) and Merchant (Net Rate) channels aggregated for the past thirteen month trend and YTD figures and displayed in both numeric and graph formats hence giving a broad view of performance across time. All previous month figures have been generated from the earlier reports. The current month and YTD figures of Subscriber and Competitive Set Average for ARR and Market Penetration have been taken from Retail Details and Merchant Details section- Grand Total Column of the current month Internet Intelligence Report. Meaning and Calculation of Each Term Ratio of Room Nights: It represents ratio of room nights received from retail channels to merchant channels in percentage form. Subscribers Average Room Rate Graph: It depicts the Subscribers Average Room Rates for the Retail and Merchant channels. As the gap between the three widens, it indicates that Retail and Merchant Channels Pricing are not in parity with each other. This requires adjustment of pricing strategies based on seasonality. Market Penetration Trend Graph: It displays the relationship between Market Penetration in Room Nights and Revenue of the Subscriber Hotel for the 13 month period. It helps to determine whether the Subscriber Hotel is trading room night volume for revenue or vice- versa. As the gap between the two lines widens, the Subscriber Hotel may be either selling at a premium (revenue above room nights) or trading revenue for volume (room nights above revenue).Subscriber Hotels Internet Pricing is optimal when this gap is close to zero. Market Penetration for the Retail and Merchant channels are influenced by each other thus decisions in either segment may impact the outcomes in other segments. Strategy

Going by the ARR of Grand central and Competitive Set, demand level within the Internet channels is high during the period November to March. This is the time for more room categories with higher rates to feature on the Websites.

100

Grand central is selling rooms at very high premium on the internet channels. The rate range is optimum for the high season time and as compared to the competitive set it is very appropriate.

KEY PARAMETERS Brief Description This sheet gives the details of Subscriber Hotel and Competitive Set in terms of street address, the booking engine in terms of the GDS, total rooms and fair share for the hotels. Meaning and Calculation of Each Term Booking Engine: It covers 5 different GDS namely: A=Amadeus, G=Galileo/Apollo, P=Pegasus, S=Sabre/Abacus/Axess/Infini, W=Worldspan Total rooms: Total Rooms were originally extracted from the room counts within the GDS and are now maintained by BIC. This number is used as the basis for Fair Share. Fair Share: Fair Share represents the percentage of inventory share for the subscriber hotel based on total available rooms inventory as loaded in the Global Distribution System. All Comparisons are made using fair share as the base.

Fair Share of Subscriber= Subscriber Hotel Available Rooms / (Subscriber Hotel Available Rooms + Competitive Set Total Available Rooms) E.g. Fair Share of ITC Hotel= 239/ (239+ (235+ 229+ 213+ 149)) = 22.4% Fair Share of Trident= 235/ (239+ (235+ 229+ 213+ 149)) = 22.1%
NOTE: Data related to Rooms booked, ARR, Revenue, Length of Stay, etc. has been provided for the Competitive Set Total and not each Competitor Hotel separately for confidential purpose.

101

CONCLUSION With the growing popularity of Global Distribution System and Online Travel Agencies on the Internet Distribution System, there is an ongoing battle between the hotels and their competitors to maximize their presence on the electronic shelf space. The Electronic Shelf Space which was traditionally found only either the travel agent's desktop or at the reservation center of hotels, has grown exponentially with the evolution of Internet. According to the latest figures ITC Grand central is amongst the top performers on GDS. However, its performance on the Internet Distribution System still has got a lot of potential. Hence choosing appropriate strategy in isolation or combination of other strategies covered in the earlier section of the report would help Grand central capture more than its fair share on the electronic shelf space and maximize revenues through the Electronic Distribution Channels.

102 21.0 BIBLIOGRAPHY Websites referred to www.starwoodhotels.com www.itcwelcomgroup.in www.tajhotels.com www.tridenthotels.com www.oberihotels.com www.amadeus.net www.galileo.com www.sabre.com www.worldspan.com www.travelocity.com www.expedia.com www.orbitz.com www.priceline.com and many more third party travel websites http://www.hotel-online.com/ www.Travelclick.net Books and User Guides referred to E-marketing Excellence by PR Smith and Dave Chaffey Intelligence User Guide Internet Intelligence User Guide Revenue management by Robert Cross For the purpose of this project visits were made to : Various Travel agent offices