Hotel owner Sanjiv Ramdanee believes best marketing is being a man about town. “I want to tell the world’s cognoscenti about Mauritius, and bring them to Maradiva,” said the 65-villa resort’s hands-on owner and senior executive director.
Ramdanee does this by being out and about. For England’s Royal Ascot this June he had a made-to-measure morning suit from Royal Warrant holder Gieves & Hawkes to go with a vintage real-silk black top hat. He could thus hobnob with monarchs and celebrities from many lands in the Royal Enclosure, for which he has lifetime membership. Next February, the Maradiva owner-operator will be in Switzerland as a sponsor of St. Moritz’s annual polo on ice. “White turf is the latest must-do thing,” he pointed out.
Back on the idyllic Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, Ramdanee seems to have at least three occupations, all inter-connected. He is a family man, the son of entrepreneurial businessman Sir Kailash Ramdanee, and via his only sister’s husband he has family connections to the island’s long-serving Prime Minister Sir Anerood Jugnauth. Next, Ramdanee spends a lot of time liaising with the government about increasing airlift, and Wi-Fi connectivity, and to give grants for hotel renovation. He is also on a personal mission to entice Hollywood to shoot in Mauritius. And he is, of course, minutely involved in overseeing the Ramdanee family’s two adjacent beach-set hotels, Maradiva and its less-private sibling Sands.
“At Maradiva we are adding connecting family units and opening a laundry to increase quality,” Ramdanee said. “I want to take average rate from US$400 to over US$1,000, which means adding Hermès wallpapers and toiletries, which are particularly appreciated by Russians.”
Ramdanee is also courting exclusive-level Chinese, both honeymooners and business tycoons stopping off between China and Africa. The hotel’s boutique has switched from bazaar goods to such brands as Bucherer watches, for which Ramdanee has the Mauritius concession.
Sanjiv Ramdanee is a chip off the old block, an entrepreneur in his own right. An engineer with a serious addiction to watches, in 2008 he jumped at the idea of running what had opened five years previously as the Taj Exotica, which his family had built on their own land. “We needed a name and Maradiva, sea+diva, seemed perfect,” he said. “All the big brands have come courting but we will maintain independence and anyway, because I am out there, I know what top spenders really want.”