“As hoteliers, in order to ensure the success of the wedding and experience of a lifetime we offer alternative solutions to the best of our capacity without hindering guest experience.” said Mr. Nasheet Mushtaque, Director of Celebrations, Hyatt Regency Dehradun
Q. The Indian wedding season is around the corner. Booking for venues and other preparations have begun. What trends do you see in terms of-
(a) Traditional Weddings vs Theme Weddings
Over the year, Weddings have seen a major change in the overall spiel how a wedding is executed. Pandemic has brought about a mindset change wherein guests were dropping the idea of larger than life weddings and opting for more intimate experiential weddings. Couples have tried to do things in a more non-traditional way; intimate celebration to unique destinations; everything is much more personalized to the couple. Regardless of the size of the wedding or the grandeur the couples and families focus more on the theme and the story they want to tell their guests when they come for the wedding. Every facet of the wedding from the invite to the décor to the culinary experience tells a story which is very personal to the couple.
(b) Increasing number of Guests for the wedding
Although COVID did bring about a trend of micro weddings, however with return to normalcy the magnitude of Indian weddings is going back to the pre COVID era. The pent-up emotions of the affluent families to plan a grand wedding is finally seeing the light of the day after a couple of years. Everyone wants to compensate on the time lost and wants to make their weddings extravagant and invite as many people as possible to give a memorable experience to their friends and families. Hotels are following COVID appropriate measures to ensure safety and wellbeing despite the increment in guests’ number and ensuring great time without adversely affecting any guest experience
(c) Booking of venue and rooms vs booking of venue or rooms only
This is a very hotel or destination specific decision that a hotel takes. Many factors influence this strategy like, overall inventory of rooms and multiple event spaces, location of the hotel and the segment that it caters to. The uncertainty post COVID has also reduced the Booking Window to a bare minimum wherein even a destination wedding can come up in a 60 day to even a mere 30-day window. Being a newly launched destination hotel, we opt a strategy of taking up bookings with rooms and venues together to provide a completely exclusive and energizing experience to our guests
Q. Do you have an in-house team of wedding planners or do you empanel well-known wedding planners? Do you actively promote this service?
We do have an internal team of efficient seasoned colleagues who we call Celebration Managers. When you enter Hyatt Regency Dehradun you enter a Celebration Hotel wherein you can celebrate your first born, graduation, retirement to a grand wedding and every other celebration that there is. By our Celebration Team, we help the guests to make informed choices while planning their events and connect with the guests on a deeper level of CARE and EMPATHY.
Being a new hotel, we do not have a panel of external Wedding Planners on board. The idea is to provide flexibility to our guests. Wedding Planners/ Décor etc. is a very personal choice and we like to provide that opportunity to our guests to bring in anyone who they relate and are comfortable with. As a hotel too, we love to be associated with new wedding planners and gain mutual experiences, forge connections, and work as a team to provide a memorable experience to our guests.
Q. What are the typical problems you face in making arrangements and ensuring that the wedding is a success?
I would not really call them as problems as every guest wants their wedding to be grander by every means. These are usually some requests guests make from open flames of candles/pyrotechnic all around in closed venues, fireworks, loud music in outdoor venues late night etc. Any requests, which possesses a potential hazard in guest safety or does not adhere to law of the land is politely explained to our guests. As hoteliers, in order to ensure the success of the wedding and experience of a lifetime we offer alternative solutions to the best of our capacity without hindering guest experience.
Q. What are the Covid-19-related restrictions on the venue? Do you have additional precautionary measures?
As a Hyatt, we take multiple COVID appropriate measures adherence to Local guidelines and believe in #SafetyFirstWellBeingAlways
Guided by our Purpose of Care and experience delivering world-class hospitality, Hyatt's Global Care & Cleanliness Commitment builds on our existing rigorous safety and cleanliness protocols and includes:
· GBAC STARTM cleanliness and training accreditation process through the Global Biorisk Advisory Council (GBAC)
· Trained Hygiene & Wellbeing Leader responsible for their hotel adhering to enhanced operational protocols and training
We have brought flexibility and peace of mind to guest’s stay via the World of Hyatt app that can help put you in control of how you connect with us.
· Digital check-in and checkout
· Digital key
· In-room Chromecast
· Curated meditations from Headspace
Q. Are weddings an important business segment and how do you promote this segment?
With the pent-up demand and ever-growing Wedding segment it is one of the three most important pillar of Hyatt Regency Dehradun with MICE and Leisure Transient being the other two. The hotel has been designed in such a way that it caters to all these segments.
The hotel offers 263 rooms across 7 floors, 4 distinctive food & beverage venues each with alfresco seating option, Regency Club, Rooftop Pool, Spa &Salon , Stay Fit Studio and Camp Hyatt. The event spaces of the hotel are spread across 3115 sqm (33500 sq ft), incorporating the magnificent Regency Ballroom & lawns, Vista Lawns, 3 spacious Studios, Pinnacle Lounge and one boardroom. Multiple options of indoor and outdoor venue set amidst picturesque Malsi forest and Mussoorie foothills makes it an ideal destination for exchanging your vows.
Apart from the organic traction we receive for enquiries, we believe our relations with our Event Partners/wedding Planners and the flexibility that we provide are our strongest promoters. We try to understand the pulse and anticipate their needs and provide seamless memorable experience. Within 3 months of hotel opening, we have done multiple large destination weddings, great reviews and word of mouth has helped the hotel in growing in this segment.
Being the largest hotel in Uttarakhand, we provide the facilities to guests who look for a large-scale Hill/Mountain wedding.