Nikita Ramchandani

GM - JW Marriott Mumbai Juhu

Multi-Property VP - Marriott International, Mumbai Market

Interviewed by Lyle michael

A Multi-Faceted Woman

Nikita Ramchandani is a formidable woman, establishing herself firmly in a ‘man’s world’, having worked in the industry for 22-odd years, and mastering the sense of responsibility to work and family equally

She commands the room she enters. There’s a quiet yet steely air about Nikita Ramchandani, the GM of JW Marriott Mumbai Juhu. She was born and brought up in Bombay, a Bandra girl, and has come full circle to be back home, not just heading the huge, stately property that is Marriott Juhu but overseeing the operations of all the properties under Marriott International in the Bombay and New Bombay region.

Sitting down to a coffee with her, poring over her years in the industry, right from her hotel management days in Les Roches, Switzerland to celebrating her 21st birthday in the US while working at Hyatt Regency, Orlando, to growing up as a hospitality professional at Four Seasons; fast forward to today and much else in between… Nikita can talk, and it’s easy to just listen to her and take it all in with enough space to have a free-flowing conversation and order a second cup of coffee. We weren’t amiss to the fact that she knows the wait staff by their first names, a testament to the hands-on, deep-rooted and accessible general manager that defines Nikita. That, coupled with her high competence levels, acumen that has been honed under the best of the best across four hotel properties, international experience, and an innate ability to multi-task and balance work and family life adequately well. But was it an easy road to where she’s at?

“At the age of 26, I just woke up and said I don’t want to do this. I quit. I was lacking balance. I was burning out,” Nikita shares, “Then in 2006, I joined Four Seasons as Revenue Director – which became home for her over the many years she spent with the group – worked at Doha, Bali before returning to Bombay to take up the Sales Manager position just three months before the 2008 Lehmann Brothers crash took place, followed by the Bombay blasts shortly after. I got married the same year, had my daughter in 2016, moved to Baltimore to work as Hotel Manager at Four Seasons before my dad’s health started failing and I decided to quit my job and return home. It was the hardest decision I ever had to make as I thought I would retire with Four Seasons. I cried. The level of expectation and accountability in this organisation was beyond anything I had encountered.”

This right here is Nikita’s career in a para, barely comprising her body of work – she’s worked in reservations, sales and marketing, operations, even the EPABX board, sorting the organisation’s directory to the tee – and her anecdotes over the years, but to sum it up, it hasn’t been an easy road albeit a rewarding one most certainly. That burnout period at 26 was after five years as Front Office Manager at ITC Maratha, starting off as a front desk executive at the very opening of the hotel in Bombay. She went on to be the first woman to be hired by Armando Kraenzlin, Regional VP & GM of Four Seasons Hotels (an UpperCrust cover boy), one woman in a 10-member team, and she flourished. For this was her dream chain and it emerged as family, a group of individuals who took such good care of her and helped her grow into the professional she is today.

Nikita recalls, “When I was still in the US, Marriott had bought over Starwood and this was a huge development in the industry the world over. The head of HR at Marriott called me and offered me a position here in Bombay. In March 2017, I joined the group as Area Director & Manager, South Asia and went on to Senior Area Director Operations. We were operating 15 hotels a year!” The sheer volume, going from a one-brand to a multi-brand hotel group, was enormous and likely to throw off even the hardest of them all, but not Nikita. While she felt the pressure, the adrenaline of a new challenge pumped her up to give it her all and reach where she is today, overseeing all the properties in Bombay and New Bombay region (except St. Regis which falls in a different vertical) – with a Moxy soon to open in Andheri and a Marriott in New Bombay as well.

She’s got her hands full but stays the course, with the ample support of her mum and mum-in-law, the strength from her husband Sachin Ramchandani, the love of her 11-year-old daughter, Anika, and the very capable team at Marriott. “Marriott is very special to me. The owners of the JW property are very progressive and that makes work a lot easier. And the President of Marriott International, Asia Pacific, Raj Menon, stays in this very hotel.” It’s a different thing that Nikita is the first GM to not stay in the hotel as Bandra is close enough and that work-life balance we mentioned earlier is better maintained this way.

Nikita concludes, “After I lost my dad, three years post returning from the US, I wanted to be closer to mum. I want to be here, and this is where I am, and it’s great. I am able to attend all my daughter’s school activities and we can go on trips whenever possible. Would you believe, the first vacation we were able to go on as a family was in 2019, to Japan!” Nikita attributes a lot of it to her equal partner, Sachin, who is also the cook at home. “Me? Nah, I can’t cook. I love food and my daughter does, too. But dishes, that I do really well! Like I said, Sachin and I are equal partners!”