In a few square kilometres of North Mumbai real estate that will see a battle break out over 2,000 new hotel rooms in another six months, one hotel has begun to consolidate its position as the leader in the market. ITC’s new hotel, financed entirely from internal accruals, has been a while in the making, but has added a flush of excitement to what had become the company’s almost stagnant business. But now, the lights rarely go off in the offices of the Grand Maratha Sheraton & Towers as executives burn the midnight oil. For vice president and general manager Hans E Koch, "It is an exciting experience."

It isn’t an experience Koch is unfamiliar with – he’s been part of the opening team of a large number of hotels in Asia – nor is it something new to ITC’s Welcomgroup which had set a rapid pace in developing new hotels in the seventies and early eighties. Somewhere, though, the pace had slackened, but the fever is clearly back, and the Grand Maratha, its newest offering in a long time, boasts all the things the company had once been identified with – technology, architecture, cuisine, service. Left unsaid, it’s also becoming clear that the Grand Maratha is all set to unseat New Delhi’s Maurya Sheraton as the company’s flagship property.

Located on an avenue where the Meridien and the Grand Hyatt are across the street, the Grand Maratha has no pretensions to contemporary architecture, having opted for the signature look of a sprawling edifice in the tradition of the grand hotels of the early 19^th century. In so doing, it has opted for a less flamboyant, more rooted sense of architecture and interior spaces. The 1.75 lakh square feet of stone it uses for its cladding and pillars are patterned on the 18^th and 19^th century Victorian buildings such as the General Post Office, Prince of Wales Museum, Victoria Terminus and Gateway of India. In so doing, it has picked features from the Fort area familiar to most Mumbaikars – the arched corrodors of the shopping districts and university buildings, the domed roof of VT, the arch duplicating the Gateway of India, and even a version of the popular Flora Fountain. An English garden has been laid along one side.

Ashwin Moodliar, who heads the hotel’s sales and marketing team, believes no other hotel in Mumbai can match up to the Grand Maratha. "No new hotel has this space," he indicates the individual floor lobbies and generous public spaces, "because they would rather add more rooms. And none of the older hotels can offer our cutting edge technology." He’s probably right : from temperature and ionization of the air that is sensor controlled to remove stale odours and bring in fresh air, to floor junctions in the banquetting areas that become assembly points for all conferencing aids, to in-room fax machines and interactive TVs that provide internet access, the hotel has provided facilities keeping the corporate traveller in mind.

Even room facilities begin from the group’s executive club level, and include its Sheraton Towers and now its ITC One – the only hotel outside of the Maurya to have this level of sophisticated facilities.

The rooms, all of them running around a central atrium that is built like a conservatory and houses its 24-hour Peshwa Pavilion restaurant, are large, the bathrooms larger. In a city where space is shrinking, it is this that may well become the hotel’s USP. The accoutrements are lavish – silk, brocade, art, wooden floors and screens – but the break from the pattern of the standard hotel bathroom is refreshing.

If the hotel’s generous stone facade is unfortunately lost to the guest from the moment he enters the hotel, its soothing white interiors are calming. Credit for that can be claimed by London-based designer Francesca Basu who, unfortunately, seems to have gone overboard with the use of Paithani silk saree borders. What works very well, though, is the entry from the impressive porte cochere to an intimately small lobby that opens out, in turn, to the conservatory-like Peshwa Pavilion. White wooden lattices and screens complete the entire inner space suspended under a glass roof. Strung along the verandahs on either side of the conservatory are the hotel’s other restaurants.

Two of these are ITC’s branded products – Dum Pukht, here with an extended menu, and Peshawari, which of course is the Bukhara with no change in its decor or menu. An unusual concept is Festivals, a restaurant that has a Mediterranean feel but no fixed menu. Every few months, the hotel flies in chefs from different parts of the world to literally, host international food festivals. At the time of this writer’s visit, the Thai menu was in the process of giving way to Lebanese fare. "It is," says executive chief Matthew Cropp, who has followed Koch from Shanghai, "a very expensive exercise since we have to fly in the chefs and ingredients from overseas every other month."

But it’s part of the hotel’s leadership programme. "We’ve toyed with a number of cuisine ideas," confirms food and beverage manager Zubin Songadwala. While the idea of a Parsi restaurant was dropped, a limited Parsi menu is offered at Dum Pukht. "We want to make our restaurants central to a Mumbaikar’s life," he says. Given that the new hotels in the vicinity have either smaller restaurants, or have chosen not to emphasise their food and beverage service, the Grand Maratha could be in a win-win situation. Its Bombay High – a friendly, spacious lounge more than just a bar – is flanked to one side by Catherine’s where the garden-like ambience is the hotel’s fine-dining,flambe restaurant. Here, Cropp is planning to serve high tea in the afternoon and oysters in the evening.

A few month’s later, on another side, Pan Asian will open. It will feature five interactive kitchens to serve Chinese, Thai, Mongolian, Korean and Malaysian cuisines. This is beside Upper Crust, the small but elegant dining room that is open only to those residing in Sheraton Towers or ITC One. Club guests have their own, separate lounge where beverages and snacks are served.

Manager Dipak Haksar is confident the Grand Maratha is positioned not against the new hotels in the vicinity but quite clearly the Taj and the Oberoi. It’s his argument that businesses are shifting rapidly to the closer Bandra-Kurla complex, that guests want to be closer to the airport, but even more that "they want to be in a hotel where they can feel at home". The Grand Maratha is a step in that direction. That the luxury is understated is quietly evident. The usual services – from in-room tea/coffee makers to butlers, a business centre and flexible banquetting areas, and a health club next to a charming pool – are all at hand.

One pointer that other hotels are beginning to feel the pinch of the Grand Maratha’s positioning and strategy is the use of rumours. One senior and prominent hotelier claims the Grand Maratha’s average room recoveries are a mere Rs.4,000, which Koch refutes (they’re Rs.6,400 at present according to him). With the dirty tricks department going into overdrive, it’s indicative of the encroachment the Grand Maratha has begun to make into Mumbai room sales. "Why else," Koch asks, "would we be getting ready to commission a second hotel in Mumbai’s Parel?" That’s one for the competition to answer.

Kishore Singh