Helping Celebrate Life | Nitesh Pandey, COO – APAC of The Lux Collective

Nitesh Pandey, Chief Operating Officer – APAC of The Lux Collective, is overseeing the Operations and Development of the group’s portfolio across Asia Pacific. A truly global hotelier, Nitesh has worked across the UAE, Oman, the United States, India, Vietnam, China, the Maldives, and Mauritius, contributing to leading luxury hotels and resorts in each market. With a strong foundation in Food & Beverage, Nitesh has also authored a culinary cookbook and earned several prestigious awards across global platforms.

Varun Sharma: I've known you for over two decades, and your professional journey has been incredible. So give us a little flavor of this journey of yours.

Nitesh Pandey: I did my hotel management in India from 1998 to 2001 and then joined the Oberoi group in Jaipur. I was there for almost a year, and before that, I also did my training with the Taj Mahal Mumbai. Then, I went to Dubai, and I was in the opening team, starting my career at the very entry level of the hospitality industry. Then I went to Oman in the Ched Muskat, and from there I was sent to do the opening of the Satai Miami, and really learned a lot over there. I had a chance to start a concept called Grandma's Kitchen, for which we won an award in Paris as one of the world's most innovative F&B concepts, and I also wrote a cookbook on that. All these things came on the local media, and Paul Jones, the CEO of the newly formed LUX* brand, invited me to be on board, where I have stayed for over 15 years.

VS: What decision most shaped the leader that you are today?

NP: I think I always listened to my gut feeling and did what I felt was right. Hospitality is all about giving surprises to your guests and anticipating their needs. To know how you can make them feel good, how you can do something special for them, and help them celebrate life. And there were many times when we had to take bold decisions: whether to do these things on budget, without budget, and we went for it. One thing that I've always given importance to in my career is innovation; that's how I've run my operations in my hotels. Innovations, gut feeling of bold decisions, and taking good care of your team.

VS: So what would you say separates a good hotel operator from a truly great one in today's environment that seems to change every day?

NP: When a guest comes to LUX* or to any of The Lux Collective brands, we really focus on the guest journey. Every single step of the guest journey, how we can touch them, how we can enhance them, how we can make sure that each movement becomes special, so that from the time of arrival to the time of departure, the guest feels a little better. Of course, we can't transform them. If they want to get transformed, you have to go to the Himalayas and live in a cave, right? We can't do that. But from the time of arrival to the time of departure, if you can make them feel better, if you can help them with meaningful experiences, if you can help them take a destination, a little bit of destination back at their heart, that's what we have helped them celebrate life, or that's what we have helped them do something better.

Many hotels are like schools now, where you have to be in a class from this time to this time. Likewise, in many hotels, you will see that breakfast ends at this time or the check-in time is this. And if you want to check in early, you have to pay extra for that. But if the room is available and the guest is staying with you for eight nights, why are you charging that? The guest is paying $1,000 a night, and you're charging that $100 or $200 for that early check-in. So in my mind, luxury hospitality has shifted from, in fact, all hospitality has shifted from product-led to experience. I'm old enough to remember when they say check-in is 11:00 a.m., if you come at 10:00 or 9:00, they mean you must sit in the lobby for 2 hours. Whereas, at least now, they look at the inventory and check for options.

VS: What is a must, and what is not so much needed anymore in hospitality?

NP: I think the first one will be that everything the guest touches, feels, and sees is very important, because that's what leads the guest journey. Luxury is not complicated; people like to go for something simple, pay money, and get it to enjoy life. At the same time, I would also focus on equal benefits for the team members. If your team is not happy, you can never make your guests happy. Meeting investors across the world spend a lot of money on front of the house, but back of the house is really bad, and there are no facilities for the team members, or they are very, very basic. Now, how can you expect a team member who is really not happy in the back of the house and then suddenly cross that door and bring a smile on the face? That's not possible. So there has to be a balance, where the back of the house is good enough to make the team members really feel proud of what they are serving and the place they're representing.

VS: In your mind, where does technology elevate the guest journey, and where must human hospitality remain deeply human?

NP: Okay, AI is important. We are not denying that. But AI cannot replace people. We are not against technology, but we wish to use technology in the areas where it can enhance your workload of repetitive jobs. When it comes to the guest experience, they need to see human in front, as hospitality is all about humanity.

So yes, we bring AI in, but we bring it to ask how to do better marketing or how to bring more visibility to our portfolio. Being so small, we cannot really compete with the big brands with millions of loyalty program holders. But then, with the help of AI, we can have an even playing field.

To watch the full podcast episode, visit the link.