Inside Marriott’s 500th hotel in Pune, India

by Grant Martin on

Deep in negotiation with a rickshaw driver one sunny Friday morning in Pune, India, my train of thought is suddenly interrupted by a seismic unsettling. Halfway down the street, rounding the corner and coming straight at us careens a cart pulled by a pair of two-ton oxen with long, red, vicious horns jutting from their noble heads. I take a moment to absorb my surroundings: on the other side of the thoroughfare, a bright and shiny new building towers out of the lush, west Indian landscape, surrounded by tall, grey stone walls, twenty some floors of steel, glass and wood. To my left, a faithful rickshaw driver who just drove me through the winding streets of Pune, patiently waiting in his black and yellow steed for me to produce the right number of rupees to make his trip worthwhile. Coming from the right and closing are the same massive bovines that broke my concentration earlier–though now, a little closer.

This is India, a constant stream of distraction and activities swirling around every person, the steady drumbeat of prosperity marching right alongside the poverty and cultural overload. I’ve come here to Pune, just a few hours’ drive outside of Mumbai, to witness the opening and inauguration of Marriott’s 500th hotel and convention center.

It’s a symbolic opening for both the hotel brand and the country at large, as both look to expand western brands inside of the rapidly growing Indian economy. But mechanically, this hotel is exactly as a Marriott should be: clean, well-appointed rooms, comprehensive food and entertainment offerings and razor sharp, attentive staff. And right behind these openings, another dozen Marriott properties are slated to begin operation in the Indian subcontinent in the next year.

%Gallery-109388%The grand opening celebrations were grandiose and lavish, with local and foreign media privy to the finest of pool deck parties, live entertainment and fireworks to top off the affair. With the festivities behind them, however, the Pune Marriot now has its work cut out for it: there are very high western standards to hold, hundreds of rooms and dozens of conferences to book and, most importantly, the trust and business of an entire culture to earn.

It’s the sort of situation encountered every day in India, navigating through passenger, bicycle and rickshaw traffic in a rented Mercedes, crowding the only Mexican restaurant in town with 300 other patrons, sitting inside of a Hindu temple while the security guard pecks away at his smart phone. Like the scene in front of me on the streets of Pune, India is all about thriving in the midst of chaos, and once the dust settles from this opening, the real test will begin.

Quickly I dig my SLR camera out of my bag and snap a shot of the hotel with the ox and cart passing by. Somewhere inside there’s a press conference waiting for me, a few quotes to collect, a few words still unwritten. For leisure I hope to one day return.

Fast Facts
Marriott Pune Hotel and Convention Center: SenapatiBapat Road • Pune, 411053 India
• Rooms: 416 with 44 suites
• Meeting rooms: 12 with 19,000 sq feet of space
• Marriott Rewards Category: 3
• Specialty restaurants; Indian, Asian and Italian
• Room rate at time of publication: $143/night

Editor’s note: Marriot invited Gadling to this event and provided some transportation and lodging. We were free to roam and write at will.

Celebrating Marriott’s 500th hotel opening

by Grant Martin on

A major milestone was passed in the Marriott empire last month with the opening of their 500th flagship hotel and an adjoining convention center. The location: three hours outside of Mumbai through the Sahyadri mountain range and into Pune, an education and information technology epicenter in western India.

As a growing city of 3.5M people, Pune is quickly becoming a destination for both business and leisure travelers. Akin to a miniature Mumbai, it has many of the same characteristics: crowded, noisy streets, a slew of Hindu temples and sites, rich culture and most importantly an exploding business community. It was natural for Marriott to develop here.

The opening of this 500th hotel is also symbolic of the evolving economic and travel landscape in India. As this once third-world country catapults into the future, quality of life standards and are on the rise and international brands are more in demand. Realizing this, Marriot is growing aggressively here; after this opening, nearly a dozen more properites will begin operation around the country in rapid succession. So the gala at this 500th hotel opening was more than a party — it was the breaking of a dam, with thousands of worker’s lives, traveler’s journies and an entire portion of the Indian economy flowing brazenly in pursuit.

As members of the international media, Gadling had the opportunity to join with a group of a dozen bloggers, producers, journalists and editors from around the planet to witness the opening festivities. The night of the opening ceremony, things got kicked off with a press conference announcing the hotel and convention center with Marriott executives Arne Sorenson and Simon Cooper alongside a peppering of regional dignitaries.

Festivities then moved over to the outdoor patio and the pool terrace and bar, where guests were treated to live entertainment, drinks and a grand fireworks show to top off the event.

%Gallery-108723%

It’s awkward in a way — as members of the media at a grand hotel opening, every corner of the hotel has been prepared to perfection. Guards stand at every floor paying sharp attention to each passer by and waving hello and farewell. It’s difficult to get into any elevator or visit one of the myriad, beautiful restaurants without finding a worker polishing a fixture or wishing you good day.

But beneath the layer of 409 and the starched linen shirts, after the fireworks have faded and the hotel enters normal operation, it’s easy to see how successful this hotel and convention center will soon be. It’s in a great part of the city just off of the main highway. The rooms are gorgeous and the showers are palatial. People genuinely seem to like their jobs here. And best of all, it’s a sweet slice of familiarity in this white-knuckle, rickshaw-riding, pollution-spewing, antique-market-hopping, sari-swirling, gorgeous, boundless country known as India. Like the exploding national economy, the growing education system and every single IT professional stacked into the Pune infrastructure, so too will this Marriott prosper.

Editor’s note: Marriot invited Gadling to this event and provided some transportation and lodging. We were free to roam and write at will.

Photo of the Day (11.30.10)

by Stephen Greenwood on

India is the seventh largest country by geographical area and with a population of 1.18 billion people, it’s the second most populous nation in the world. With such an immense concentration of people, unique languages, and religious practice, India has a well known reputation for being a little chaotic at times.

I love this photo for the symbolic dichotomy of chaos; masses of people on the streets and a frightening tangle of wire strung up in between crowded buildings. It’s almost as if the wires are delicately holding the buildings together as the crowd bustles, unaware. The photo was captured by Flickr user Trent Strohm in the crowded lanes of Old Delhi.

Have you gotten lost among the crowd in a foreign place? Send us your pictures! Submit to our Flickr group and it may be selected as our next Photo of the Day.

Photo of the Day (11.27.10)

by Stephen Greenwood on


I doubt too many people can claim that they’ve stared down the barrel of a tank out of sheer curiousity. Luckily for Flickr user Bernard SD, this tank in Hyderabad, India was out of commission when he snapped the shot.

I think there are a few things that make this photo a great shot, but the most striking is the detail of the rifling at the tip of the barrel. The contrast of the carefully shaped metal and the way the threads taper off into black nothingness is visually stunning. By using this as the point of focus and blurring out the rest of the tank, it takes a somewhat familiar object and shows it from a new perspective. It’s a beautiful photograph, which is unnerving when you consider what the object’s purpose actually is.

Have you taken photos in the face of danger? Share them with the world! Submit to our Flickr Pool and it could be our next Photo of the Day.

Great Himalayan Trail on schedule to open in 2011

by Kraig Becker on

Way back in February of this year we told you about the Great Himalayan Trail, an epic hike more than 2800 miles in length that will eventually wind its way through the mountainous regions of Pakistan, India, Nepal, Tibet, and Bhutan. The trek, which is expected to take roughly 150 days to hike end-to-end, is scheduled to officially open in early 2011, although there are still some challenges to over come before the boots of adventurous travelers begin to walk the route.

2011 is being called Nepal’s Tourism Year, and the country is gearing up to promote itself as the top adventure travel destination on the planet. The GHT will play a role in that celebration, as roughly 1200 miles of the trail passes through the country, and while it is expected to officially open in January or February of next year, some are already questioning if that will happen as planned. Ang Tshering Sherpa, a former president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, says that the trail has mostly been promoted and built by private sector dollars thus far, and he is calling on the Nepali government to inject some much needed funds to help launch the trail in early 2011.Without those funds, he feels that the GHT won’t get the recognition that it deserves to draw trekkers to the route.

Meanwhile, the Nepal Tourism Board named American Sean Burch as one of its Goodwill Ambassadors this past week. The 40-year old Burch recently completed an endurance run across Nepal, from the border of India to Tibet, that followed 1250 miles of the GHT, in just 49 days. He will now help to promote the epic new trail abroad, while also encouraging economic development in the villages through which the trail passes.

That economic development will be important for the future of the GHT. On other trekking routes in the region hikers find teahouse lodges and simple restaurants every few hours along the route, but there are large sections of the GHT where those amenities are not yet present. But the trail will provide opportunities for enterprising individuals to build these places, which should help the economies of each of the countries that the GHT passes through.

Trekkers interested in hiking some or all of the trail, should check out GreatHimalayanTrail.com for more information on the available routes and what to expect when it officially opens next year. Start planning your trek now and be sure to let your boss know you’re going to need 150 days off to make the hike.