On the occasion of Labour Day, micro-hospitality brand SaffronStays launched its first ever Training Centre in Panvel. The Mumbai-based start-up founded by Deven and Tejas Parulekar exclusively manages the branding, reservations, hospitality operations and guest relations of leisure homes as vacation rentals across India. The centre was launched to facilitate 360° training locals that can be employed as cooks and caretakers in Vacation Homes across the country. The brand is looking to teach, train and empower 1500 individuals in skills ranging from hygiene to health-care, and cooking to concierge. 

Locally sourced individuals looking for well-placed jobs with lesser educational requirements constitute for more than 70% of rural India. By upgrading their knowledge about hygiene methods and hospitality regulations, they can be introduced into the micro-hospitality sector - one that is still to evolve in the Indian market. By providing skilled and semi-skilled employees to the micro-hospitality industry, a large gap between supply and demand shall be bridged. 

Says Rhushikesh Pathare, Hospitality Operations Manager, SaffronStays, “As a brand SaffronStays’ continued efforts in always offering handcrafted hospitality via housekeeping, F&B and concierge have given wind to the Training Centre. We aim to take hospitality in a vacation home to an unparalleled level. We want to raise the bar for not just ourselves, but for every individual that deserves to be employed in this industry, but lacks the means to undergo training.” 

Adds Tejas Parulekar, Founder, SaffronStays, “We are an inclusive brand. Our caretakers are our ‘Moment of Truth’ since they are first recall points of brand experience, and hence training them was a priority. The Training Center in Panvel is our first giant step towards skills development, and would over time, become a part of our CSR activity. We would eventually look at top hospitality brands to collaborate and co-create the modules to train the staff”.

The first successful test run including caretakers from SaffronStays 9 Palms, Alibaug, SaffronStays Sanskriti, Kashi, and award-winning SaffronStays Little Paradise, Murud. The caretakers were imparted in-depth knowledge of local dishes that covered over 25 recipes for breakfast, lunch, high tea and dinner. Various types of service-enhancing modules were taught during the 3-day session. This included styling and setting up of community tables, table decoration and flower arrangement using locally grown flaura. The aim is to cater to the larger goal of running 500 homes and providing a parallel support of skilled caretakers.