DAVID Ogilvy, the legendary adman, said that "the pursuit of excellence is less profitable than the pursuit of bigness, but it can be infinitely more satisfying". Surely, there comes a time when costs and prices are not things to think about anymore: "all that matters is value- the ultimate value of what one delivers." And, that’s exactly what has been done, claim ITC insiders, commenting on the newest addition to the ITC Welcomgroup family of hotels in Kolkata.

The completion of ITC’s five-star super deluxe hotel in the city, ITC Sonar Bangla, heralds the much- awaited completion of the ITC Sheraton chain of high quality hotels in the top metro cities of India, which the company had committed itself to achieve some years ago. ITC Sonar Bangla (ITC SB) follows in the distinguished line of the flagship ITC Hotel Maurya Sheraton & Towers (New Delhi), ITC Hotel Grand Maratha (Mumbai), Chola Sheraton (Chennai), WelcomHotel Mughal Sheraton (Agra), Grand Kakatiya Sheraton & Towers (Hyderabad), ITC Hotel Windsor Sheraton & Towers (Bangalore) and Rajputana Palace Sheraton (Jaipur).

The great advantage of a chain in the hospitality business is that once a particular hotel catches the fancy of the discerning customer in a metro city, he always looks for the blood brothers and cousins in different cities and towns.

Constructed on 16.5 acres of land (which includes a nearly 13-acre mini golf course and boasts extensive landscaping) on the first leg approach of the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass, opposite the Science City, ITC SB is being billed as the first such "Biz Resort", within the confines of a business city. It is also being referred to as a kind of "Boutique Hotel", owing to some of the new features that have been built in.

The exclusive features of a resort hotel, with full compliance towards international environmental standards, have been added to a super deluxe five-star outfit, which will offer three categories of rooms- Executive Club, Sheraton Towers and the high end ITC One. The designing by Kerry Hill is done in such a manner that the 240-room hotel, which has cost Rs 240 crore, can easily be scaled up to 1,000 rooms, sources said.

According to ITC insiders associated with the project from day one, such deluxe hotels generally portray a strong urban bias, but ITC SB on the evening of December 31, after which the hotel will go through test marketing and a kind of soft opening. The rates are expected to be frozen only in the early part of 2003-04. Construction of the hotel began in January 2000, and has been completed as per schedule.

Hosting the choicest of Welcomgroup chain of speciality restaurants, ITC SB has the 24-hour 120-seater multi-cuisine Eden Pavillion restaurant, which also offers authentic Lebanese food, the renowned Dum Pukht which has four types of cuisine, the West View Bar and Grill (described as the restaurant within a kitchen where the customer’s choice is cooked in wines and liqueurs and sauces of international class), the Peshawari, famous for its robust North West Frontier cuisine, the Irish Pub and discotheque labelled Dublin, a unique Pan Asian cuisine block, with choices of Mongolian, Korean, Chinese or Japanese food and the Health Spa, spaciously located behind the hotel.

The Spa Café offers breakfast, lunch and dinner, and will also have a demonstration kitchen for health food fanatics. And as for the lounges, there will be the Bay of Bengal and the Darjeeling Lounge with spacious boardrooms attached, besides exclusive tea lounges for residents who value privacy.

As for banqueting, a 7,000 sq. ft. banquet hall with a 20-foot high ceiling is said to be the main one, with an additional 7,000 sq. ft. outside the hall, specially designed to cater to segmented requirements of corporates and others.