Friday, November 18, 2005

Home Less in Bangalore

Couple of months back, I had set a target of doing 3 posts a week.  But as you can see, I am remiss on that big time.  I could give lot of excuses but that would be 'arguing for my limitations'.. So I won't.

Home Less in Bangalore
We all know that Bangalore is sizzling hot these days with so much IT activity.  But I wasn't ready for this.. I am now stuck in Bangalore with no place to stay.

Before I commenced my trip, my travel agent tried find a room for me in the hotels listed in our corporate directory and a few others but has came back empty.  She also looked for rooms at higher rate than the usual corporate rate and couldn’t find anything.  So, I gave up the idea of staying in Bangalore and decided to commute daily from Chennai for 3 days.  But guess what?  All flights to Bangalore are solidly booked as well.  I wonder where people are staying.

I am in Bangalore now with no place to stay tonight.  I am keeping my fingers crossed while my travel agent does some last minute search.  I am not panicking as I do have a fall back plan of going to one of friends / relatives’ place.  But I don't want to disturb them when I am on a business visit to their City.

I checked my corporate travel site and there is a warning in bold about this room shortage in Bangalore.  The site strongly urges the employees to plan well in advance and avoid last minute travel.  I only wish we could follow that suggestion and always make our plans couple of months in advance. (Hasn’t worked for me...)

While this situation might be good for the hotels, it is certainly not good for the city.  This will turn people away from Bangalore and they might take business elsewhere.

What do you think?

10 comments:

  1. Bangalore desperately needs companies to take their business elsewhere. It is choking and bursting at the seams. Anything done to alleviate the problems is a short-term fix. Alas, even that is not actually happening.

    It is high time that the biggies (Infosys, Wipro, IBM, Accenture) put their Bangalore expansion plans in permanent cold-storage and look elsewhere (Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune). According to people who know, that is already happening.

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  2. Ram, these hoteliers are minting money. Btw, i know companies like Wipro have their own guest houses (i remember, it is in Sharjapur) where they have more than 100 guest rooms with facilities including gym, tennis court and canteen....my bil used to stay when he visits b'lore.

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  3. Visu,
    Take it easy on the number of blogs per week target. Don't make it another job. Enjoy yourself while bringing out your thoughts and views.

    - Laks

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  4. Jagan

    Yes.. the big guys are looking at other options.. The recent spat between Narayanamurthy & Deve Gowda will only hasten the process.

    Sundaresan
    The Hotel Industry never had it so good in Bangalore. They are raking it up big time. When I visited Bangalore last time I was able at least able to find a room (@ USD 553 per night) but this time that wasn't an option. This only shows the hyper sensitivity of the market.

    However, there are some alternate accomadations that are coming up. My travel agent managed to find a room for me at a corporate room share place @ INR 1500 per day. It was bare bones accomodation, but was clean and served the purpose.

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  5. Laks

    Thanks for your comment..

    I do have stuff to post but not doing a good job juggling various roles I perform

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  6. Dear Traveller, Forget Bangalore! Chennai welcomes you with open arms :-)

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  7. Thennavan

    Yes.. Chennai is open and welcomes business if they come by themselves.

    If one were to believe 'Amma'.. Comapnies are 'queuing' up to do business out of Chennai.. (Read We are already good.. no marketing required..)

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  8. I have'nt seen Bangalore in the last few years, but according to what you say. The city (for that matter any city like Bangalore) might not have prepared for a rapid expansion.

    Just my personal opinion though.

    -narayanan

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  9. Narayanan

    Yes, Infrastructure is a BIG sour point in all cities in India. It is highlighted in Bangalore by the frantic IT activitiy.

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  10. Sathish

    I hope the situation improves..

    It's no fun to scurry around for a place to stay till the last minute..

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