Ahvana Hotels & Resorts: an end-to-end management consultant for your hotel brand

If comfort and luxury are the two prerequisites of a successfully-run hotel establishment, Ahvana Hotels & Resorts will come up trumps in ensuring that your hotel exceeds your guests’ expectations and delivers them a travel experience of a lifetime.

Founded by Ananth R. Bhedke, a veteran in the industry, Ahvana Hotels & Resorts provides end-to-end hotel management consultancy to hotel chains, across India and abroad.

As a turnkey solution provider in resort and hotel project management, Ahvana Hotels & Resorts provides customised service to established and pre-open hotels; takes up projects in interior renovation; staff management; staff procurement and retention; whatever be the specific need of a hotel client, Ahvana Hotels & Resorts has a service to match that need. Additionally, the consultancy assists in identifying quick serving restaurant franchise business for interested investors, on the lookout of such business opportunities in India.

A division of the Gansiddha Hotels & Hospitality India, Ahvana Hotels & Resorts was started in 2010 in Nasik, Mumbai, India. Today, Ahvana has evolved into the fastest-growing management contract and franchise service in India and abroad.

Hospitality industry is disrupted by technology

‘Experience selling’ is a big buzzword in the industry where intensifying competition is compelling market players to lower costs to seek customer loyalty. Countering this trend, the big opportunity for start-ups lies is in personalizing travel experience for consumers, throughout their journey.

“The future of the hospitality industry lies in aggregating rich traveler experiences and building a strong digital legacy with the help of new technology platforms,” says Ananth. He strongly believes that a cost-efficient path to growth in this sector lies in enabling strategic collaboration between leading hospitality service providers, suppliers, and start-ups to build a whole new ecosystem for the entire industry. This he seeks to do through his venture, Ahvana Hotels & Resorts.

Initial Years of Struggle

Raised in a middle-class Maharashtrian family, Ananth believes the struggle is a part and parcel of every success story. “Even success,” according to him is not a destination but a journey towards greater excellence.”

He started his business as a bootstrap operation with a singular focus on providing full suite hotel management services to established, struggling and new players. The job was challenging, often involving 365 days of travel, and it adversely impacted his family life and health but led by his internal conviction, he ploughed on.  Eventually, it took him 24 years and a string of jobs in India and abroad, to fight the odds, and reach, where he finds himself today, as a business owner of Ahvana Hotels & Resorts.

Serving a Diverse Set of Clients 

Today, Ahvana Hotels & Resorts serves a host of hotel companies, stand-alone hotel owners, and proprietors who want to open hotels and restaurants. Ananth’s company helps them pre-open or take-up a lucrative project in the overseas market. His customer base today includes a network of 5,000 satisfied hotel owners and hospitality business partners.

His Personal Charisma

As a first-generation entrepreneur, Ananth feels the need to challenge himself constantly. He believes it’s necessary to keep honing one’s skillsets and never stop learning. When faced with a tough situation, he starts by drawing up a list of all possible, positive outcomes from that situation. For example, if he has to prepare a market report for a client on their current strategy, and the timeline is tough, he is likely to work a double shift to be able to present the report to the client, the very next day. Such challenges keep him charged up to face the next challenge. Present Opportunities in the Hospitality Industry

Ananth believes that the market is not yet saturated and there are tremendous opportunities in the hospitality business for the entry of new players. Towards this end, he assists aspiring new entrepreneurs to analyze the market size, identify promising opportunities, and complete due diligence and then take the plunge. In this role, Ananth sees himself as a mentor to the start-ups.

 The Road Ahead

Under Ananth’s stewardship, Ahvana Hotels & Resorts does brisk business with mid-segment hotels, villa and apartment owners, and at any given point of time, he is consulting more than 26 companies. He is soon to come up with his own Indio brand in QSR business, after having dabbled in this segment for the past nine years, consulting 170-odd small-and medium-scale QSR projects in India and abroad.

All set for expansion, Ananth also impatient about getting into large-format, luxury hotel business and is looking for interested investors.

During his free time, Ananth loves playing tennis, working out at the gym, or go swimming. He also travels to shrines and rivers, during family vacations