But shop-owners at the Trident, Oberoi and Taj Mahal Palace, the hotels at the heart of the hostage situation during the attacks, have a different story to tell.
Merchants operating boutiques at these five-star hotels complain of non-existent shoppers and falling revenues. A fashion boutique owner at the Trident lamented: “From 200 footfalls a day it is now virtually none.” They attribute the steep fall in shoppers to the drop in guests at the attacked hotels. Security concerns and massive renovations at the Oberoi and the Taj have also led to a decline in the total number of guests staying at the hotels, they say.
Business has come down 50-60 per cent, according to a fashion boutique employee at the Trident. “Our customers are a mix of hotel residents and outsiders. While hotel occupancy has come down post the attacks, outsiders are deterred by the tight security,” she added.
Hotel Trident and Oberoi have around 200 shops between them. While Trident has 30 shops on the ground floor which are linked to the main lobby, there are 15 shops in the mezzanine area and around 80 shops on the second floor of the hotel.
Besides these, Hotel Oberoi, which has a separate main entrance and is connected to the Trident through a passageway, has around 80 shops. Though all the Trident rooms were opened soon after the attacks, hotel rooms in the Oberoi wing are yet to be opened as renovation is going on. This has also reduced clientele.
“Most of our customers were the airline staff living in the hotel. After the incident, many shifted to the Renaissance in Powai. This has impacted our business severely”, said a shop owner at the Trident selling precious gems, gold and silver jewellery, paintings and pashmina.
Last year, a few of the airline crew were at the hotel when the gunmen had attacked. Post-26/11, employees of several airlines have shifted out of the hotel, the shop-keeper said. “The airline crew loved shopping in the hotel shops as well as in the by lanes of Colaba”, the owner reminisces.
It is a similar story at the Taj as well. With the renovation work going on in the Heritage wing, the hotel occupancy is less. As a result, business has come down 30-40 per cent, the manager of a designer store said. “Most of our clients are business delegates and post the attack, their number has fallen”, he added.
After the event, the Trident and the Taj stepped-up security significantly. With X-ray scanners, barricades and a pat-down search for every guest entering the hotel, shop-keepers feel that window shoppers and occasional buyers no longer feel like dropping by their shops to check ‘what is new.’
The hotels are responsible for the security of shops in their premises and only require that the owners be responsible for the background check of the employees they hire. “We carry out detailed background checks of our employees and then apply for IDs (identity cards) from the hotel,” a shop-owner said.
The only silver lining for a few boutiques at these hotels is the loyalty of some customers who continue to place orders on the phone. “They call us and place their order. We then go and deliver it to them,” said a jewellery shop-owner.
No comments:
Post a Comment