"How can you give mini-bar, snacks, drinks and more away for free at Ovolo hotels and still make a profit?"

In this interview between Hotelintel.co founder WImintra and Girish, we learn how Ovolo has become what it has today, and how, despite the challenges presented to the travel industry by Covid, the Ovolo Hotel Group has some major openings in 2020 still slated to happen.

Ovolo hotels are getting rave reviews all over the world and have a particularly strong following in Australia.

Girish J (short for Jhunjhnuwala) is described as "Adventurous, confident, disruptive, creative. With a fast-paced attitude to business & life - Girish.J is the ceo to have on your radar as you’ll never know what’s in the pipeline and what he’ll come up with next."

Questions in the interview include:

  • When you do your branding exercises like empathy mapping etc., what's the Brand Avatar you decided on? Has that changed since the beginning? Has it evolved ?
  • Will we see a new type of hotel from the group that caters to older demographics? Perhaps more subtle or more sophisticated?
  • How do you think your social hour and all day snack offerings will change after this pandemic ?
  • You mentioned that you aren't worried about people copying you. Why is that? Is it hard to have to be creative all the time?
  • How will this whole Covid saga change the way your group does business since some of your hotels are leased? Has it changed the way you do business?
  • When everything in your hotel is free, how do you make money? - With the current escalating political situation in Hong Kong, how is your business being affected?
  • Where do you want to invest now?
  • And what might you look at investing in next?