Jimmy Mistry Walks Us Through His Globally Launched Hotel Rating System In India And More

From interiors and architecture, hospitality and adventure park to Della Towers and Flagship Gallery, visionary Jimmy Mistry is the dynamic force behind converging a host of Michelin-starred chefs and highly successful individuals from the hospitality industry. In an interaction with The Free Press Journal, Mistry speaks on the recently launched Della Summit and DLC guide — a hotel rating system which promises to take on Michelin Guide globally, among other things.

Excerpts from the interview:

What inspired you to organise the Leaders Club Global Hospitality Summit? What were your goals for the event?

This was a planned activity that Della Leaders Club(DLC) had to do to organise global summits. These summits have been announced almost more than a year in advance on our DLC website. The inspiration was to get India on a global map. Indian hospitality has always been at the forefront throughout history. Atithi Devo Bhava is what we believe in. Now it is time to put together technology and management. Nobody could have believed

30 years back that Indians would be at the forefront of technology or at the forefront of the management of the top 50 corporations in the world. Now it's time for hospitality to be put on a global map. Not just chefs, but food service, food engineering too.

How do you envision the DLC Guide impacting the global hospitality industry?

DLC Guide shall impact overall hospitality because globally there is a Michelin Guide and besides the Michelin Guide, DLC has all the raw ingredients inside it or globally across seven countries for it to be launched as a proper global platform. DLC Guide is live in New York. Apart from New York it is in London, Dubai, Mumbai and Delhi. We are launching it soon in Bangalore and other cities as well.  The methodology which DLC Guide is going to be, is rated by ghost auditors who consist of top corporate honchos across organisations within a city. The ratings of the honchos can be seen by each other, they shall be assigned for a period of one year and next year their names will be made public as to who these honchos were, thereby making sure that they get justice for the work that they have done during the course of the year. None of the ghost auditors are professionals, they are all entrepreneurs, super successful in their rights, leading their large organisations and being members of DLC in that chapter city.

What were some of the highlights from the summit, particularly the participation of 18 Michelin-starred chefs from around the world?

The highlight of the evening was the Garden in the Sky, where all the Michelin-starred chefs and the Indian chefs and the honchos of the world of hospitality, from Chef Sanjeev Kapoor to Rohit Kattar, whoever was up in Garden in the Sky in those moments, was outstanding, with Sanjeev Kapoor and me standing and serving drinks to people, and I think it was a celebratory moment.

Can you share any insights received from those who attended the Della summit?

The insight from esteemed guests was a jaw-dropping moment, especially for those who had not been to Della Resorts and never expected it to be of this magnitude and scale. They had always heard of Jimmy Mistry and DLC and Della Hospitality, but never imagined it to be so huge, and never imagined it to be pioneers in experiential hospitality. They witnessed it, experienced it.

How does the Della Leaders Club address challenges related to reputation management and ensure transparency and accountability in its operations?

The best reputation management can be done by hospitality organisations by being true to oneself. Listening to the customers’ voice and responding to them with humbleness and honesty is what the world is seeking. No amount of reputation management being done in a fake manner or masked manner is going to yield results.

Connecting to the consumers, accepting when it's your fault, trying to at all points in time, take criticism in a positive manner and improving the products and services will stand true with the test of time.

What are your visions for the Della Leaders Club and how do you plan to continue making a positive impact on the hospitality industry and beyond?

Post Summit our focus is definitely going to be on the implementation of the DLC Guide across Mumbai, Delhi, London and New York, and Dubai creation of a tech platform selection of the entrepreneurs to be ghost auditing these premises and setting up the infrastructure getting in touch with restaurants and hotels that are selected by these people for DLC Guide. It’s a tall order once these 4 cities are commissioned completely and the ghost auditors are empowered to take independent decision which exercise shall continue to the rest of the chapters to different countries and cities across the world.

Please share your diversity in business and USP.

Della traditionally has a background of design for almost three decades. From there we evolved into manufacturing, then hospitality, real estate, adventure completism training and now Della is a theme-based hospitality real estate developer coming up with more townships in Nashik and Alibaug, like Della Lonavala. The USP is innovation in concept, technology and ideology.

Each township is going to be theme based - global wine township or global fashion, art and architecture township.

Your interiors and architectural concept reflect Zoroastrian symbols and style. Please tell us about that.

For me spirituality is an important factor starting from my own personal life to my organisation. I evaluate human based on their spiritual question. Della Tower is a dedication to community to the current and future generations to show them Persian art and architecture in pristine glory thereby conserving and preserving the religion and also a statement in design to the city of Mumbai that symbolic architectural masterpieces can be created even in current days and time.