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Football for footfall

Most Delhi hotels brought soccer to their tables. But did it translate into good business? Yes, finds SANGEETA BAROOAH PISHAROTY

THE BIG SCREEN BECKONS Enthused spectators watching the final at a restaurant PHOTO: SAMPATH KUMAR G.P.

The shower of announcements happened a little before June 9. Almost every five-star hotel and stand-alone restaurant across Delhi thought up `something special' for the FIFA World Cup. Considering India was a non-playing country in the sporting event, such `promotional' campaigns were plainly a direct spill-over of a televised tempo built up across the Western world. Obviously, the restaurants wanted to design the event to their advantage by drawing in as many diners as possible. Innovative menu cards, cheap meal deals with unlimited alcohol, food festivals of the host country, free gifts, air tickets, discounts to credit card holders, and many such ideas did the rounds of restaurants over the last month.

And now that the entire exercise is over, with this past Sunday's final, most of them are preening at the windfall it brought them. Though the earnings during the series were not constant, the last two days made up for all the effort. Boisterous fans might have been biting their nails in suspense on Sunday night, but the hotel managements were too busy raking in the moolah.

Says a smiling Nazir Khan, Food and Beverage Manager, Radisson MBD, "We started getting a good flow of people when the knockout series started, but the last two days of the World Cup had surely brought in good business."

When Germany played Portugal for the third position last Saturday night, he says, there were about 200 people watching the match on the two huge screens hung up at the hotel's cafeteria, S.A.T. That it was a Saturday night added to their gain. And on the day of the final, the hotel received about 300 people. But did footfalls turn into money? "Yes," says Khan. "We made 30 per cent more profit than usual, particularly on Sunday night," he says. On a usual day, S.A.T. makes about a lakh and a half but on Sunday, it touched Rs.1.8 lakhs.

The situation repeated itself at many other hotels across Delhi. Recounts Sanjay Wadhwa, Assistant Food and Beverage Manager, Taj Palace, "We had a meeting at 11 p.m. on Sunday night on how to handle the crowd." With a German food festival designed to go with the World Cup matches at its coffee shop, and many freebies and discounts on food and beer, he says the final got the hotel 40 per cent more footfall and 20 per cent more profit than usual "though it was not meant to be a profit-making venture". Wadhwa agrees that most food promotions at five-star hotels are not usually profit making and during a different time, German food would not have found many takers in the city otherwise but thanks to the game, "it got a good response."

During the series, the late crowd entry at the Coffee Shop has seen a 20 per cent increase, he adds.

Deepak Hakshar, General Manager, Maurya Sheraton, too has the same tale. "Our pub Dublin was a full house, particularly on Sunday night. Though entry is by invitation, all our members decided to turn up that night," he relates happily.

Rakesh Kumar, Executive Chef, Crowne Plaza, says, "At the hotel's big screen area, on a normal day, we get about 30 to 35 people but on Sunday night, we had over 200 people." Footfalls surely brought business, he says but stays away from quoting figures.

At The Metropolitan Nikko's bar, Tuskers, says the bar manager, Ajay Sharma, "The last two days were good." Without quoting any specific profit margin, he says, "We made double the profit."

The decorations and cut-outs and a special buffet menu rolled out by its German Chef at Djinns at Hyatt Regency, says its Marketing Communications head, has attracted a good crowd. "It was packed," she relates. Meanwhile, Le Meridien's new pub, Eau, saw a sizeable crowd last Saturday night. The scenes at Oberoi and The Imperial were a tad staid though.

Even many standalone restaurants in the city opened their doors to soccer freaks till early morning for the final. Says Tarun Saldanha, General Manager, Superstars, "We took special permission to open our premises after 11.30 p.m. and also got excise permission to serve liquor. The crowd that walked in to watch the final was beyond our expectation." The two-storeyed restaurant at Noida's upmarket Sector 18 has a seating capacity of 100 diners and had to bring in additional chairs to accommodate the crowd.

Bar Manager Mohit at Olive Bar & Kitchen too talks of selling "a lot of booze" during the soccer matches. "We had a special menu and beverage promotion for the World Cup, and it did well for us," he says. A good crowd was seen thronging many other popular joints like Rodeo in Connaught Place.

Power cuts

Beer being the popular beverage of the youngsters swarming the restaurants, most joints had clubbed meal packages with unlimited beer. Points out Chef Kumar, "Most packages had beer on promotion because a match would go on for more than an hour. And if you serve hard liquor to an already excited crowd, you know you are asking for trouble." Chef Kumar dished out a lot of snacks to go with the beer on Sunday night.

The city's power cuts too might have helped swell the crowds. "No one wanted to take a chance, particularly when there was an important match, and hotels were the ultimate beneficiaries of power cuts that way," says Chef Kumar.

Biggest casualty

But perhaps the biggest casualty of the soccer fever was the Wimbledon men's final that coincided with the World Cup final. "All attention was on soccer that night, and the Wimbledon final just got buried under it," says Haksar.

But on some other day, it could very well have been a tool of attraction for the hotels and restaurants.

Be it cricket, golf, tennis, football or motor racing, sports have increasingly become an important tool for the hotel industry to keep customers hooked. In keeping with this trend, almost all have now put up permanent plasma television screens.

"But the World Cup matches were different. Though an important tennis or a cricket match would be screened for the customers at a restaurant, it would hardly be used so aggressively as a means to make business," points out Saldanha. But with the World Cup-derived profits fresh in the memory, an enthusiastic Nazir Khan muses, "Let's see, we have Formula One coming up next."

Shoot-outs!

Some eye-catchers that restaurants came up with: