A sneak-peek into the hospitality during the IPL

The IPL is one of the biggest tournaments going around in the world. The standard of cricket has only risen over the last 10 seasons with players coming up with something new and innovative every year. In the iconic 10th edition of the tournament which concluded last Sunday, Mumbai Indians won their third title when they beat RPS in the finals in Hyderabad.

While the cricket is terrific to watch for the spectators, the players tend to exhaust themselves during the course of the competition due to the tight schedules and continuum travel. In the midst of all this, a comfortable stay in a hotel with great services is of utmost importance. Mumbai Indians have chosen the Trident Hotel at Nariman Point in Mumbai as their den for their set of 8 home games for the past 9 years. The visiting teams tend to use the services of the same hotel for their brilliant service.

“During the IPL, the only message that is sent down to my team is to expect a lot of room-service requests,” says Joy Bhattacharya, executive chef at the Trident, the hotel in Nariman Point, Mumbai, in a conversation with Espn. “Especially since players are hounded in restaurants by guests, not only in-house but non-resident guests also, they prefer to have their meals mostly in their rooms.”

Players these days carry a lot of bats with them. The overseas cricketers bring their own set of pieces of equipment and with a lot of spare ones too due to the long nature of the tournament. They, on occasions, send their luggage before their arrival which needs to be handled professionally by the hotel as a team usually travels with close to 25 members including the support staff.

“They come in with a lot of luggage, or they may send it in advance,” says Devendra Bharma, executive vice-president, Oberoi Hotels & Resorts, Mumbai. “You have to move luggage in a particular manner because bags are tagged. They have to go to the right places, they have to go in time, because in the IPL it’s pretty much back to back for them, so it’s quite stressed.

“Just like we offer personalised service to every guest in the hotel, we do the same thing with them [the teams]. Except that, yes, there are more specific requirements in their cases.”

A team gets a floor to themselves

Cricketers are known to be very superstitious and sometimes want to return to the same room every time they go to their home city. The hotel staff has to be on their toes to coordinate everything in advance because the margin of error in very little. The players expect, and, also deserve a smooth and flawless stay at the hotel. Hotels have to allot floors to one team to enable smooth functioning of the team meetings and the likes.

“Dedicating floors is usually the norm because the players stay together, they have their team meetings,” says Bharma.

The gym has been an integral part of the modern day cricket. Players tend to use the gym facility at the hotel during their off days but due to the different schedules of the two teams, it is not too much of a hassle to coordinate the allocation of use of the facility.

Laundary a big challenge

Reducing the turn around time of the laundry services is another challenge for the hotels. Players tend to throw in their numerous game kits alongside training kits and casual clothes together which put a lot of pressure on the laundry services.

“The laundry is under a lot of pressure during the time the teams are here because each player will have x number of attires, multiplied by 40, 50 or 70 people,” Bharma explains. “The volumes are very big. We may need to run [laundry services] two or three hours more. A regular guest in the hotel will have maybe two or three garments to give for pressing or laundering, but a player will have many sets of their uniforms or playing attire to wash because of the way they are used.”

Due to the vast competition in the hospitality industry, the hotel staffs have to deliver top quality services for a long period of time to ensure the team comes back to stay with them in future.

“Why they will go to another hotel is usually because of lack of service, what was committed and was not delivered. If the team feels special, they’ll always come back to you” concluded Bharma.