Ashish Verma is a veteran of the luxury segment, with stints at Oberoi, Hyatt and Millennium, as well as The Lowell Hotel in New York. As senior vice president of Dream Hotel Group’s luxury division, he manages The Chatwal brand, of which there are five properties, including three in development – two in Mexico and one in New York state.
He is based at The Chatwal New York, where he ordinarily manages more than 200 staffers. But the hotel closed to guests in mid-March and no opening date has been set yet, so he and his skeleton staff of 20 are maintaining the 76-room Manhattan boutique.
Managing a team through a pandemic might be his biggest challenge so far, but it’s not his first: The India-born Verma led the Windsor Court Hotel in New Orleans through Hurricane Katrina and its devastating aftermath in 2005. HOTELS spoke with him recently to find out how he’s managing his employees, guest relations and day-to-day operations.
HOTELS: How is your team doing?
Ashish Verma: We have a very large base of loyal guests who are in constant touch with us, in terms of checking on the wellbeing of our team … since the closure made them have to take some time off between vacations and leaves of absence. But the company has been very supportive. Most of our focus is to support the team, who obviously in these times need care, the communication and support.
H: Is your earlier crisis experience useful now?
AV: I was in New York during 9/11. I was here through the blackout in 2003. And then I was in New Orleans for three years through Katrina… The real situation is very varied. But what’s constant is leadership. There is an assurance for the team. There is an assurance for the guests if there is a sound-minded, a rational but strong – but the most important thing – a calm leader… If the team believes that the leader has a vision and believes that we’re going to bounce back and we’re going to be strong – that’s what we did at Windsor Court. We were actually a better hotel post-Katrina, in our rankings, in our revenues, in our level of quality. I do believe that we need to be prudent, we need to be patient, and we need to have prayers that this pandemic will be defeated, and things will return to a healthy normal. A new normal, I think. I don’t think we’ll revert to the old normal.
H: What does this new normal look like?
AV: It would bring, apart from more focus on helping others, making choices as a race, as a human race, to look after our planet more, to look after others more, and to be a little bit more selfless. And I hope that with the green initiatives and the environment initiative, the sustainable movement will gain a new ground. Because I think people are going to be more local, more active and hold their governments and their administrations more accountable. Their decisions impact lives, as we know.
H: How are you taking care of yourself?
AV: I keep the routine as much as I can … of my yoga and my meditation, and maintaining my rhythm of the day. Keeping communicating with my family and my friends. And on the work bit, maintaining that healthy balance. I play the guitar, and I write more. I like poetry, so I write a little bit more now.
H: What are you reading right now?
AV: I just finished an autobiography of Andre Agassi. I love tennis and I played tennis at my university. And I just picked up a book by the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu (“The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World”), a conversation between the two of them.
H: Your background includes community improvement initiatives. Do you see opportunities now?
AV: There’s more than ever, ever, ever, in our history, a need to give. A need to recognize. If there’s anything one has learned through this crisis, through this phase, it’s to think beyond yourself… People need help. And luxury, which can so easily be snooty, snobbish, pretentious, in a different world, is the least of it, I believe. Because we are the most privileged to serve.