by Vijaylakshmi
I am old enough to remember railway stations with thousands of people carrying their bedrolls and people with flasks rushing out to the ‘Drinking Water’ tap at every station. fiat was a migrant LTA generation (Leave Travel Allowance, for the uninitiated young) making their annual trip back home.
Before that came the Work ’n Worship generation, which traveled only on work or pilgrimage. And now? We have the Insta-gen, which travels only for itself and for Instagram.
The Insta-gen is very demanding, and their wants are very, very different. Fiis is forcing the hospitality industry to relook at its offerings. This makes the industry exciting and one to watch out for (and invest in, if you have spare cash under your cot).
The travel market in India is projected to reach USD 125 billion by 2027 and international tourists arriving are expected to reach 30.5 million by 2028. In 2023, even as the industry recovered from the impact of the pandemic, India added 14,000 hotel rooms. By 2027, India will add another 60,000+ hotel rooms to the currently available 183,000 rooms (branded alone, of course).
The question we ask here is, how are hoteliers looking at these new keys?
In addition to the standard hotel and resort rooms, hoteliers are now adding unique experiences. Because the Insta-gen travels not just for destinations, they want to make each journey special. While they are still a small segment of the tourist population, the industry understands this will be the trend going forward.
How can we make stays unusual and experiential? Today’s hotelier has a few new options lined up. And leading the way are flat-pack concepts, rooms that can be flown in and assembled. (If you thought of the standard pre-fab home/ room, let me assure you that what is available now is a lot more exciting than that.)
When it comes to flat-packs, yurts are the leading choice these days in Europe, the US, and now in India. Yurts first made an appearance as the best option for glamping. As glamping became popular, yurts spread across holiday destinations in Europe and the US. They offered the traveller the camping experience with all creature comforts and glamour.
Other flat-pack options include container rooms, geodesic-domes and of course, the traditional luxury tents. They can all be quickly assembled, interiors done and keys made available.
Yurts available in India are made of treated, construction-grade wood, stitched architectural fabric, flat-packed, and shipped to the destination. They can be erected in a couple of days at the site by trained installation teams. This means there is absolutely no disruption at the work site—the resort’s regular operations can continue smoothly as the yurts are installed.
Flat-pack rooms make the most sense for a hotelier wishing to add keys. Fiery can build this a lot faster than traditional construction. Fiery can come up anywhere—beach, mountain, or forest. There is zero disruption. And you could be selling their rooms in days.
For the hotelier, these also come with customisation advantages. Yurts for example, come in multiple sizes — you could have single room yurts, twin room yurts and yurt villas. They are also luxury, twin-level yurts for deeper pockets. While container rooms can be a little restrictive and claustrophobic regarding sizes, tents and yurts are a lot more accommodating and adaptable regarding space and layouts.
The popularity of these ideas can be seen in the fact that containers and yurts are now segments on AirBnB. Customers have had enough of hotel and resort rooms and want something unique. For them, it is not just the destination that matters (like it used to, for a previous generation). For the new traveller, the stay needs to be unique as well—the means matter as much as the waterfall at the end.
The advantage with yurts and luxury tents is that they can bravely go where traditional construction can’t. In eco-sensitive areas like coastal and wildlife zones, where construction is prohibited, ideas like the yurt make tremendous sense — they are temporary structures with all the creature comforts of the traditional room. You can be as close to the beach and the wildlife (preferably herbivorous) as possible and yet live in comfort. Not all flat-pack ideas are eco-friendly and sustainable but tents and yurts are. And hence, these become ideal for sensitive zones.
Starting in Gujarat and ending in West Bengal, India’s coastline extends 6100 km. Add Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar, and it goes up to 7517. There are many beaches, many Indians, and many visiting international tourists. What we need is a lot of eco-friendly rooms. And that is what the flat-packers promise.
The author, Lawrence Tony is co-founder — The Out Factory. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of hoteldealers.in.
