Ankit Ajmera
Advertising

The makeshift hotel at Mahim Causeway

To replicate the exact feel of this new category of hotels, a complete two storied structure, with beds, wardrobes, iron stand, a staircase, cyber café tables, LCD panels has been placed at Mahim causeway

For those in Mumbai, if you happen to pass by the Mahim Causeway, you will notice a makeshift structure of a two storied hotel room and a man sitting inside it. This was done to promote the soon to be launched self service hotels by Roots Corporation, wholly owned subsidiary of Indian Hotels of Tata group. These new budget self service hotels, with room tariffs ranging from Rs 999 to Rs 1,199, will be called Ginger Hotels. This unique initiative was conceptualised by Lowe and Aaren Initiative.

The concept of self service hotels is also new in the country and it was important for consumers to get a real feel of it. These hotels will offer facilities such as a self service restaurant, meeting room, basic gymnasium facilities, a cyber café, 24-hour reception, digital safe-deposit boxes, 100 per cent power back-up as well as wi-fi connectivity in the public areas and individual rooms.

The makeshift hotel at Mahim Causeway
Ginger - Outdoor Advertising - Mahim Causeway
“These kind of services available for a such a low tariff could have been unbelievable for many. This is why there was a need to demonstrate the same in a real way. In fact, press ads or even a picture wouldn’t have made an impact such as this”, says Tarun Singh Chauhan, executive vice-president, Lowe.

This is why the exact feel of the hotel was replicated in the makeshift structure with beds, wardrobes, iron stand, a staircase, cyber café tables and LCD panels inside. A live man inside this structure also made the experience more real.

These hotels are targeted at small businessmen and at middle and junior-level executives, who have to travel often between cities for official assignments. “These customers generally while travelling on work stay in company guest houses, service apartments or three-star hotels. The idea is to compete with these alternatives,” says Prabhat Pani, chief executive officer, Roots Corporation.

This replica of the hotel room will placed at Mahim causeway for the next seven days. The next destination will be Pune, after which it will be taken to other smaller cities such as Haridwar, Bhubaneswar, Mysore and Thiruvananthapuram.

This has been done and the materials in the structure have been so used that the entire set can be transported and re-assembled in other cities. Almost 75-80 per cent of the material can be used to set up this replica model in the next destination, which has turned out to be cost effective.

© 2006 agencyfaqs!

Have news to share? Write to us atnewsteam@afaqs.com