Says Jaypee Hotels' vice-president (sales and marketing) Pradeep Kalra: ``The idea is to provide excellent customer care and better value for money.'' For this the company has entered into strategic alliances with ``those who are our natural allies'' said Kalra.

The company's exclusive tie-up with Indian Airlines provides passengers travelling on the Mumbai-Delhi-Mumbai shuttle service with discounted room rates as well as other facilities. Through its alliance with Essar, customers will be able to get special packages at the food and beverage (F&B) outlets at both its Delhi hotels-Vasant Continental andSiddharth.

With its tie-up with American Express, both its credit and charge card users will be able to participate in the rewards programme. And for Standard Chartered and SBI-GE card holders, there will be food promotion schemes.

In-house too, efforts have been launched to maintain this synergy. The company plans to maintain personalised and detailed guest history of all its customers through its new customised software. Also on the anvil is an upgradation of its Web site to make it more interactive, with the facility for instant direct bookings for any of the Jaypee hotels. The company which has recently tied-up with CRS company Amadeus, intends similar tie-ups with other leading CRS companies such as Galileo and Sabre. ``This will ensure access to our hotel properties for guests abroad,'' said Kalra.

Besides the two Delhi properties, the company has a hotel Japyee Palace in Agra and the Residency Manor in Mussorie. Plans are afoot to expand to other major cities in the next few years. Ostensibly,the need for providing value-added facilities has been necessitated by increasing competition, especially in the wake of falling occupancy levels over the past several months.