Pradeep SajjanFounder of Room On Call Published On: Wednesday, September 30, 2015 Views 3518

"Be visionary and choose your path to attain the same, Dont overwhelmed with achievements rather to move ahead with stability."

Pradeep is seasoned, highly experienced, effective and accountable in high profile executive roles since the early stage of his career. He has an extensive experience of more than 15 years in strategic planning, Product launches, competitive analysis, marketing, strategic alliances etc. with Multinational and Indian companies. Respected as a proponent of empowerment and accountability, he is known for his corporate strategies and development specialties. His transaction background in brand positioning, marketing and sales strategies, innovation, strategic alliances, competition analysis and start-up is immense.

Consistency in delivering mission-critical results is the forte of this serial entrepreneur gifted with the vision, determination, and skills needed for high-level revenue building strategies and tactics. His respect for human capital, interactive and motivational leadership spurs cross-functional teams, channel partners, associates and affiliates to willingly give their effort and loyalty. His latest venture Room On Call aims at revolutionizing the hospitality sector by offering quality at economical prices.

Please provide a brief overview of your product/ service.

ROOM ON CALL is platform to provide branded accommodation at affordable price which contributes a major part of Indian Hospitality sector. The idea is to get the properties under one banner wherein the investments have been made by the property owners, but they do not have brand to sell or lack standardization .We at ROOM ON CALL aims to put together those non-star category under one Brand, standardize the properties, get the actual pics clicked, provide required training to the staff vis-a- vis customers can get fair pricing and can book by comparing pricing, amenities and by seeing the actual room pictures they are gonna stay etc .IT IS LIGHT ASSET MODEL

What inspired you to build the above product/ service?

The idea came in early 2014 while travelling to Agra with a couple from overseas, it was found that the rooms sold to us was at very high price comparatively to Indians staying there, even food menu has different rates for Indian as well as foreign travellers. We have than found there is need of transparency and restructuring in the segment with standardization needs to be maintained .We took initiative and started the venture in 2015.

What’s the revenue and business model of Room on Call? How much percentage of revenue sharing has been decided between you and the individuals?

ROOM ON CALL is a platform to provide branded accommodation at affordable price which contributes a major part of Indian Hospitality sector. The idea is to get the properties under one banner wherein the investments have been made by the property owners, but they do not have brand to sell or lack standardization .We at ROOM ON CALL aims to put together those non-star category under one Brand, standardize the properties, get the actual pics clicked ,provide required training to the staff vis-a- vis customers can get fair pricing and can book by comparing pricing ,amenities and by seeing the actual room pictures they are gonna stay etc .IT IS LIGHT ASSET MODEL, Our margins vary from 25-35%.

What all facilities do you provide to the people? How they are benefited by using your platform?

Room on Call is basically a platform which caters to entire mobile population of the country and makes travelling of everyone quite comfortable irrespective of late night landing of flight, or delayed trains, or last minute reservations. The travellers can also book the nearest accommodation in real time without any barriers by just making a call on the company’s 24X 7 Helpline which is most convenient way to book in the absence of internet facility. The company offers personalized services to all of their guests booking rooms. Through its innovative services ROC Hotels also intends to help the travellers in getting rid of outdated process of room booking through noisy, unprofessional and largely unregulated channels. Travellers are getting benefitted because of fair and transparent pricing ,Personalized services (we have relationship manager who take cares of guest stay and available 24X7 to address any queries), Credit card swipe facility ,Search of their nearest rooms available at competitive pricing which leads them to come out of traditional way of booking rooms through travel agents, pay at hotel facility, paper less billing along with Google location etc

What is your life mantra?

Be visionary and choose your path to attain the same, Dont overwhelmed with achievements rather to move ahead with stability.

What was the most challenging part of your journey till now?

As industry is very big and demand is there, we have not faced any such challenges so far ,we have our strategy which is very well get implemented as reflected in our growth graph, despite there are some of the players who have been diluting and burning their pockets .

How did you overcome those challenges?

It is competitive market which is full of challenges, we have team which is maintaining balance and make plans to overcome problems /challenges like we raised funding and investor bet was purely on team.

Share some details about the investments that you have been able to fetch for the business till now.

We have raised fund from US based angel investor, who is senior executive working with Yahoo, America.

Are you planning to expand your reach in other big/metro cities? If yes, then which are the other cities

we are already in metros /big cities like Mumbai, Delhi /NCR, Kolkatta, Bangalore, Jaipur, Goa, Pune etc and we are adding Hyderabad, Chennai, Trichy, Kochi, Chandigarh, Bhuvneshwar, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Varanasi, Shimla, Jodhpur, Udaipur etc to our portfolio soon.

Are you planning to enter into Tier II & III cities and town also?

we are aimed to provide nearest possible accommodation to every traveler in any nook and corner of the country.

What are the differentiating features or USP of Room on Call?

“we are the national players and our media planning is at national level . India’s smart phone industry estimated at 21% of mobile population wherein 79% mobile users does not have smart phones or internet connectivity, which have been a miss with most of E-com players in india ,Wherein we are catering to every mobile user ,hence customer acquisition cost with room on call is very low in comparison to other players, secondly, we are offering same deals on phone and on web bookings or on call as well to maintain transparency in pricing .This differs us from other players in the market.”

How do you protect yourself from the problem of Brain Drain?

We have not faced this so far, definitely there are measures and HR policies which have been undertaken, moreover team is working like a family and our philosophy is to have people’s team.

According to you, what are the three qualities an individual must have to achieve success?

One has top set his or her Goals. Hardwork and self confidence

Which online tools/ services/ apps do you use the most and would like to recommend as well?

Google application i love the most .

Share any one habit which you think makes you more productive.

Presence of mind and my predefined calendar .

Share any one habit which you wish to change in yourself.

Aggressive approach

Answer in less than 50 words

One tip to success:

Confidence is companion to success path ( Rukna Mana hai )

One mistake you believe every individual must avoid:

Short term Greed and thinking.

One most important lesson that you have learnt till now:

If we have people you can do anything, if you have Money you can’t do anything .Always believing in people rather than money .

What are your plans for next 3 years?

Focus on technology and be a most trusted reliable brand in the segment .

If you get a chance to start your career again what would you do differently this time?

Innovation is what actually gets recognition so will try for the same.

What are your top three getaway destinations?

In india it is Kashmir, Ooty and Goa . if talk about overseas than Switzerland, Las Vegas and Gold coast in australia are the most preffered destinations .

Share a quote that inspires you the most.

“Focused, hard work is the real key to success. Keep your eyes on the goal, and just keep taking the next step towards completing it. If you aren’t sure which way to do something, do it both ways and see which works better”. John Carmack

Tags: Pradeep Sajjan Room On Call Interview