Untold - Dev - The Hotel Guru

The Anand story is one of tremendous success from modest origins. Dev and his brother Ranjit setup Expotel in the early 70s and by the time they sold it two decades on it had a turnover in excess of £100m. 

Expotel was the first hotel booking agency globally and with a slight degree of serendipity, its foundation coincided with London opening scores of hotels off the back of the Tourism Act transforming it from a sellers to buyers market almost overnight. In addition to favorable market conditions Expotel managed to dramatically increase their business marketly through buying one of the UK’s first telephone numbers when a US company IRL retreated from the UK market despite having conducted a year long campaign in the Evening Standard promoting the very number that Expotel purchased. 

Other pioneering business practices included the inception of the corporate rate, the London hotel wallchart, the foundation of the Hotel Booking Agency Association, commission on catering bookings and many more. 

Dev was also one of the first adopters and sellers of corporate hospitality and he tells the tale of how this started and its transition from sketchy cash in hand deals to the purchase of Keith Prowse, complete with Royal Warrant which still today remains a leader in global corporate hospitality from many groundbreaking innovations started by Dev. 

Dev reviews some of Impetus Marketing’s stand-out successes and concludes by talking about how business has been for the past decade as an active hotel broker through his company The Hotel Property Team. 

The episode contains Incredible insights and anecdotes which span five decades and with no sign of slowing down, debonair Dev continues to be at the heart of the industry – continuing to liaise with hotel buyers, sellers, agents and development professionals with his trademark humour and eye for a deal.