The artist must be left free to perform better, strongly believe Girish Krishnan, General Manager, Four Points by Sheraton Mahabalipuram

What does a typical day look like in your life as the Hotel Manager at Four Points by Sheraton Mahabalipuram?

Girish Krishnan: I start my day with a round of the property, followed by my morning meetings with all the department heads where I get to look at the day’s important arrivals and events. Apart from these, the ongoing tasks would be:
· To clear all emails and follow up on all important projects of the hotel
· To have a meeting with the sales and revenue team on how to drive the business and discuss the forecast
· To make sure I meet all our VIP arrivals
· To interact with all the associates of all departments in understanding their concerns better

Four Points Mahabs Express is a unique service offered by your hotel. How engaging is this service for your guests in giving them a local experience?

Girish Krishnan: Four Points Mahabs Express is one of the important services offered by Four Points by Sheraton Mahabalipuram Resort & Convention Center.
Mahabalipuram is a town rich in culture and we take the responsibility of making it easy for our guests to visit these places. They do not have to worry about finding the location of these monuments in town or take the pain of parking their vehicle outside. My concierge team hands over the monument brochure and the route map for easier understanding that allows our guests to spend time at the monuments, beaches and enjoy shopping as well.
The Mahabs Express chauffeur takes our guests to Mahabalipuram town and drives them through these monuments where he explains every aspect of the place. Our guests are dropped at the central location and we also drive them back to the resort.

Trumpet Point in your hotel, which provides the local experience to your guests. How well does it fit with the trend of going local these days?

Girish Krishnan: The name Trumpet Point in itself does not sound local but the name of this location is because of five-trumpet trees at this place.
Surrounded by lush greenery, the Trumpet Point recreates old village “Chowpal” where villagers meet every evening. The authentic traditional seating arrangement serves the perfect ambience taking you down the nostalgic lane with 70’s Tamil music playing in the background. The food served is local that includes murukku, chips, village inspired desserts, bhajjis, sundals, chai and filter coffee.
It is done keeping in mind the theme to make our guests go through a traditional affair so that they can enjoy and spend time with their families.
We can recreate the feel of “Chowpal” at Four Points by Sheraton Mahabalipuram.

Four Points by Sheraton Mahabalipuram offers grand weddings with large space. Tell us about the challenges faced by your team in managing such events and how do you overcome them?

Girish Krishnan: Our well-experienced team organizes wedding events that are truly grandeur in nature and this is because we have been successfully doing this for more than five years at the location.
Our experienced senior operation workforce makes the wedding execution very easy. But being far away from the city we face challenges in procuring the correct products and the non-availability of the qualified workforce that becomes a huge challenge at times, we then are left with no choice but to get the support from Chennai and at times this is very expensive for the business.

Sir, since you have handled the position of Executive Chef earlier. Please tell us what all innovations have you made in the restaurant and bar at Four Points by Sheraton Mahabalipuram?

Girish Krishnan: Having been an Executive Chef, I like to give that space to my executive chef and the culinary team to be creative. I am a strong believer that the artist must be left free to perform better. Now I only play the role of a coach, helping them with my experience, guiding them and giving feedback for improvement, participating in their brainstorming sessions and contributing with my thoughts.

What are some industry trends that have an impact on your role as a Hotel Manager?

Girish Krishnan: Every trend in the industry has made an impact on my work and some of them are maintaining the overall cleaning and sanitation standards, the declining rate of international and leisure travellers at the moment, the overall drop in MICE etc. But the key is how I incorporate it into my day-to-day work practice and improve the hotel’s performance by taking necessary decisions.

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