All those who have loved hockey at some point in your lives, must have visited Shivaji Stadium, which fell on bad days as a result of the expansion of the Metro and never recovered from it, despite the makeover it got during the Commonwealth Games. Across the road from the stadium was The Connaught, a not-so-celebrated hotel whose USP was that all its rooms were stadium-facing. Its fortune tanked with that of the stadium.
Not anymore. The Connaught has had a magical rebirth—a heart-warming success story that the Covid-paralysed hospitality sector has good reasons to celebrate—even since it was taken over by IHCL, the Tata company better known as the Taj Group. The takeover (and makeover by the Swedish designer, Christian Lundwall) was the brainchild of the IHCL CEO, Puneet Chhatwal, a global hotelier with deep Delhi roots, whose corporate vision is to see each big city as a collection of micro-markets and reach out to all of them. The Connaught is an expression of this vision—IHCL now has eight Taj addresses and an equal number of Ginger hotels in Delhi-NCR, each targeting a particular swath of the market. The 104-room hotel, which has seen a vibrantly colourful turnaround, is a walk away from the main attractions in and around Connaught Place, yet it is seems far removed from the crowds and the hustle.
“It is a boutique hotel with an urban sanctuary feel to it,” says Sonali Chauhan, The Connaught’s General Manager, adding that it is popular already because of its ‘pawcation’ packages designed for guests who wish to bring their pets along. It has also been able to attract the ‘staycation’ crowd not only in Delhi, but also from Rajasthan and Uttarakhand. With a classily resurrected bar (The Hub), a 2,000-sq-ft terrace and an al fresco poolside dining space, The Connaught has a comfort menu and a comfortable warmth about it. For me, it’s both a new hotel and an urban renewal project.