American hospitality major Starwood Hotels & Resorts has taken over the management of its French rival Pullman Hotel in Gurgaon which is managed by Accor and has converted it into a Le Meridien hotel. The 285-room hotel is owned by Gurgaon based developer Central Park and is only a few kilometres away from Starwood's 313-room The Westin Hotel. The event had Mr. Brian Povinelli, Global Brand Leader, Le Meridien and Westin Hotels & Resorts and Mr. Dilip Puri, MD, India and Regional VP South Asia, Starwood Hotels and Resorts.
The event commenced with a tour of the luxurious hotel with Mr. Tarun Juyal, Director of Sales, Le Maridien who showed us the various aspects that were kept in mind while renovating the hotel. Every lobby at every floor had a different fragrance which was quiet impressive and soothing. The few things that attracted us the most was the swimming pool and the area around it, the banquet halls with beautiful lightings and the cleanliness of every room, every activity area and also all the lobbies. With the end of this tour we had realized how much the people of Le Meridien are indulged into art with various drawings and statues all over and thus we had completely fallen in love with the place. Then, we had the press conference where Ms. Anjali Mehra, Associate Director, Starwood Hotels and Resorts took the mike to interact with us all. Mr. Brian, Mr. David and Mr. Dilip spoke simultaneously with the crowd talking about the upcoming events or the changes that took place in the hotel. They had launched a new drink called sparkling and was served to everyone and we all raised a toast for Le Meridien.
Mr. Brian mentioned that he wanted to re-invent a lot of things, like the lobby for the people to connect, the coffee-éclair combination and a fun atmosphere for the people staying or visiting the hotel. We were told that in 2015 they will be opening eleven new hotels all around the world which included four in India itself.
Nouvelle Vague is a French cover band led by musicians Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux. Their name means "new wave" in French. They were present there and also sang for us. They had also composed music for the elevators of the hotel which goes on 24*7. The band performance was mesmerizing and led to a lot of happy cheering claps by the people. They ended their performance by saying "shukriya" which showed how much they admired our Indian Culture. After the press conference we all had luscious lunch with cuisines from various places of the world.
After a lovely fun filled afternoon, the show did not just stop there. For us, it meant being a part of their gala evening amidst all that jazz. It was absolutely fabulous to meet all of the famous bloggers from the city and between sips of cocktails and champagne, we enjoyed a night full of contemporary music performances, alternative dance forms by The People Pile that were quite fun to look at and accept the awkwardness within us all.
It all ended with a sprawling dinner buffet with the most enticing variety of food from over the world. While I piled my plate with South Indian non vegetarian food (I can never get enough of them) and extremely delectable desserts others swore by their North Indian varieties and to die for Kathal ki Subzi and Biryani.
Needless to say, we are totally looking forward towards a new era of hospitality delivered by Le Meridien!
Rishika Kumar and Mohana Ganguly
