POWER & PANACHE

It was that time of the year when the Grand Jury met to score, assess and decide the winners for the Hotelier India Awards 2023 to be held in December.

- BINDU GOPAL RAO

Setting the stage for the GMR Aerocity Presents Hotelier India Awards 2023 Powered by Jaquar & Company Private Limited and Howell Protection Systems India Pvt Ltd, the Grand Jury Meet at JW Marriott Sahar Mumbai was all things hospitality.

SETTING THE STAGE

Delivering the welcome note, Bibhor Srivastava, Managing Director, ITP Media India, thanked the jury for being present and said that the team got over 1,700 nominations for the 14th edition of the award, which was a record number.

"The jury has always been very special and we have fabulous leaders here with us to help make the right choice. This time, we have 18 categories as we have removed a few categories based on feedback from the last year to make sure that we have a very crisp awards' show. For each category, we are looking at a top five list. Only for the GM of the year, the shortlisted GMs will be interviewed by the jury on the day of the awards, December 11, 2023, and the winner for this coveted category will be based on that," he explained.

GROUPING TEAMS

To screen the massive number of nominations, the Hotelier India team divided the jury into three groups. Group One to judge the 'Luxury to Upper Upscale hotels'; the jury for that included Anuraag Bhatnagar, Chief Operating Officer, The Leela Palaces Hotels and Resorts; Chef Sanjeev Kapoor; Ranju Alex, Area Vice President - South Asia Marriott International; Vijay Thacker, Director, Horwath India; Prabhat Verma, Executive Vice President - Operations, IHCL; and Rajneesh Malhotra, COO, Chalet Hotels.