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Faces in the Crowd

The Shekars

Kamala Vasudevan

Vasantha Kalbagal

Veena Shekar

Tripura Kashyap

Lalitha Ubhayaker

Dr. Sudha Gopinath

Lakshman Sriram

Prem Koshy

R G Rao

Chandrashekar

Dr. Kumaresh

Alex & Chandrashekar

Dr. Ramdas

Vasanthi Hariprakash

Niranjan Babu Bangalore

Venu Rao

Shobha Raghavendra






 
 

We, at DiscoverBangalore believe that it is the enormous contribution of the Citizens of Bangalore, that has made Bangalore proud among Kannadigas and Indians. It is the unstinted efforts of Bangaloreans in their own field of expertise that Bangalore is today one of the sought after destinations for visitors, Businessmen and the first choice for people who wish to make India their home.

We are proud to present in these columns, the achievements of people of Bangalore, whose contributions are worth highlighting for the World. There are enumerous Bright Faces in the Crowd who we feel should be recognized for their contribution to Bangalore, Karnataka and Kannada. We also encourage our visitors to identify those individuals whose contribution to Bangalore, you think should be highlighted and we will be pleased to do so.




 


  

 


Venu Rao
A hotelier par excellence

Githa U Badikillaya

Traversing a long journey, he feels he has a long way to go. His is a life as an aperitif, very unobtrusive, just letting his work speak, adding more rainbow hued feathers in an already brimming cap. Be it the recently completed Times Square at Hyderabad, Guhantara, Park field Resotel, Vaishnavi Residency (Vindu restaurant) - Bangalore, featured in the restaurant reviews section of this site, each of these hotels, have been very uniquely conceptualiesd and executed. The impeccably dressed, charming Venu Rao of Aabana Hospitality brings in his years of experience to his projects.

Hailing from AP, Venu’s father was in the Air Force. So frequent transfers were inevitable, that prepared Venu to learn Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Sanskrit and Kannada. This background helped in his placing a premium on “time” as the hotel industry is all about deadlines.

Brilliant in academics, he chose the hotel management course (Madras) much to the parents’ consternation, at a time when it was the “in” thing to opt for either the engineering or the medical courses. He was selected by the Taj group as a trainee and posted to Bangalore. The initial two years were his wellspring for an exposure in all aspects of hotel management handling with élan national and international conferences and banquetings. His assignments at Delhi and Goa gave him a well rounded experience. With so much of comprehensive training, clear thinking and passion for his work it was just a matter of time for carving a niche in the industry. At Taj Coromandel, Chennai and later at the Welcome group’s Central Park (150 room hotel) he was given a free hand, that saw his creativity exploding with introduction of theme parties, (that was catching up- in the 90’s), and theme concepts(Orange county) that became very popular, redefining Customer Services with the experimenting going on for four years.

As I shake hands with his discipline it’s not difficult to see how a focused approach took him to greener pastures getting him a plum assignment to work at Mauritius and then as GM (Indian operations) at RMS International (UK based). India calling and he joined the Viceroy at Hyderabad that catapulted to fame on a political incident and got world attention when BBC covered the event. With 20 banquet halls, 3 Bars and 4 Restaurants and 125 people reporting to him it recorded whopping profits.

“At RMS International which is in the business of managing resorts and hotels in UK, we were able to do lots of tie-ups and opened a 150 rooms hotel in Dubai and two beautiful resorts in Mombassa and Malindi. I joined RMS as GM and went to take charge as director India, middle east and east africa. The experience here honed my skills. Setting up a hotel from scratch and looking to the nitty gritty is very demanding and the launch or the opening thereby is challenging. There were some hilarious unforgettable moments in my 6 years of GM, a slip between the cup and the lip that stood me in great stead when I branched on my own where marketing too is equally important. I introduced a new concept in Guhantara and the strategy gave good exposure to the resort”, says affable Venu in his soft voice.

In Dubai, managing a 150 room hotel (10 floors) on a beach was the icing in his career. He developed a 90 acre property in Doon for 2 years, juxtaposing row houses concept with a resort. He recalls the interesting encounters with Jumbos (as sugar cane was grown on part of the land that attracted the elephants) and King Cobras. He worked at another hotel in Manali, the owners, an Irish family credited with bringing apples to Kullu that was opened after 5 months, which involved chasing the rats away.

Coming back to Bangalore, he was involved in launching Keerthana International in electronic city and Basanth Residency; where the restaurant Amrutha serves Bijapuri food dished out by N.Karnataka cooks who are house wives, as they alone can impart home flavor serving authentic, earthy N.K.cuisine.

In 2006, branching on his own- Aabana Hospitality (AH), he developed the first project- Vyshnavi Residency, Bangalore. In a tie up with Cherian Paul, a big name in the industry, the Park field Resotel, Hoskote was a huge success with 85% occupancy at any time. The Guhantara project was unique (review made) that emphasized on a cave style dwelling.

Recently he launched the Budding hotelier of India, a news letter where the focus is on the people working in the industry and the hotel entrepreneurs. Through this he hopes to highlight the success stories of these youngsters. Where does he find time is my surprised query to which he smilingly tells over lunch that one has to be organized, thoroughly planning schedules weeks in advance. He contributes articles to many hotel journals and magazines. Meticulous as he is he dovetails his networking to keep himself abreast with new trends, meeting new people and getting involved with new properties. “This is quite exciting, earlier my interest was in setting up restaurants but now setting up varieties of properties and the satisfaction when the project is doing well are my letters of guarantee from the satisfied promoters.”

As for his hobbies – “Right now I’m reading Conrad’s ‘Guerilla Marketing’. It sets me thinking- whether a pet is to be provided to the guest to keep him occupied for the length of his stay in a theme resort.” On the Committee of SKAL International which is a world wide forum for hoteliers, Airlines and the travel industry and a member of the tourism committee his views are sought and highly respected.

His favourite past time is gardening as he loves flowers that shows in the aesthetic designing of the properties. Being an athlete in his college days he enjoys swimming and jogging. Reading, networking, creative thinking, take up the little free time available. He has come a long way since his grand father’s comment that he is destined to wash and wipe plates and become a server, as the concept of Hotel Management has morphed down the line. Today the hotel industry is a Sunrise industry.

Chatting with him was a pleasure as he gives me insights to the Hospitality industry. Says he “ Bangalore is set to boom with factors such as a conducive climate, 50% of expats in India working here, a high IT concentration, a middle class that is willing to eat out, international hotels making their foray to Bangalore like Marriot, Shangri-La, Hiltons, and with theme resorts, the Hospitality scenario is very exciting and promising here. Our service standards are excellent, in fact better than services abroad, with an English speaking majority, good quality food, and willingness to experiment being the other factors that make the Indian hotel industry charged. India is the flavor of the moment, and the advantage is ours.” Yes sir and that’s the last word from this short man with a tall vision.

Contact: 09886022236

aabanahospitality@gmail.com

Please E-mail your comments/feedback about the above write-up.

 

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