Our Story
“The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of
circumstances.”
- Aristotle-
Every succeeded venture has a story behind it, and we too have a nice story. The
journey of an entrepreneur who transformed an accidental opening in life into
opportunities for positive change and growth. That is "Our Story at Paradise
Holidays!”
Though I wanted to become an entrepreneur, I never had a plan to step into tourism
industry. In 2009, when I was working with Ramaiah College, Bangalore as a
Lecturer, my friend Mr. N.L.N Murthy told me that one of his friends wanted to go
for honeymoon in Kerala. Even though I am a Keralite, I literally had no idea about
any of the tourist places in my home state, though have heard of it. I told him that I
have a taxi car at home and shall provide it to his friend on rent. The driver will take
them for sightseeing and I shall help them to book hotels. They have to pay me only
for the vehicle!
Next day his friend came to meet me and asked me to give him a tour package. He
has already done some research about Kerala and had quotations from some other
tour operators. I tried to convince him to get a trip for my taxi car, but failed. Rather,
he made me committed to give a quotation for a Kerala Tour Package next day! Then
I started working on that. (I always claim that God asked me to do this. Otherwise my
entrepreneurship would have ended up with just a trip for my car!)
I googled, researched, got quote from hotels in Munnar, Thekkady, Houseboat and
finally prepared a package which met his expectations. It was a 5 days package which
we still use as 5MTH, wherein the guest stays for 2 nights at Munnar, 1 night at
Thekkady and one night in a Houseboat. While preparing the Itinerary, I tried to do it
in a professional way. I sent this package to all in my friends list in mail box also.
Some of them forwarded it to their friends, some deleted! And, I named the
company “Paradise Holidays”, as suggested by my friend Mr. Fasil.
Before I could finalize the deal with Murthy’s friend, I got an email from one Mr.
Srihari Belur which was forwarded by my friend Mr. Ajith K.P. I called him, met him,
explained about the package, and convinced him. Thus, I got my first advance of
Rs.2000/- over a cup of tea at a restaurant in Bangalore. Later Murthy’s friend also
booked the same package, and I started receiving enquiries one by one. My father
Mr. M. A. Raveendranathan had taken care of the guests when they were in Kerala,
and his contribution was decisive to build up the brand. He used to meet every
guest, explained every details and put them in a comfort zone, which is our success
mantra even now. From the very beginning, we tried to follow ethics and
professionalism in what we do.
Meanwhile, I got a job in TATA Technologies, Pune and was deputed to TATA Motors
for projects. Moving from teaching to IT profession provided me a lot of free time. (I
have been hearing that IT jobs take your entire time and you do not get time even to
spend with family. But the work culture was so good at TATA and always ask us to
leave office on time. Teaching requires a lot of homework, if you want to teach
properly). I felt uncomfortable in Pune with out any friends, unlike Bangalore which
was like my hometown. I slowly started to concentrate more on business, leveraging
maximum time after my job, to bring this up.
I started working from home and my home became our first office at Pune. As my
father was taking care of everything in Kerala, I was able to concentrate only on
business development. For both of us this was a new area and had to learn
everything our own. Slowly we started to grow!
I wanted to quit my job and to become a full-time entrepreneur. Naturally, my family
was totally against it. “I know that you are doing well in business, and you will carry
through it, but don’t quit the job until I tell you”. This was my fathers words. In
Kerala, getting a marriage proposal from a well-off family for a bride with excellent
qualifications is almost impossible if you are a businessman, irrespective of how do
you perform. At the same time it was very easy for a TATA staff!
I got engaged with Sreedevi in 2010 and our marriage was fixed for 2011 mid (a big
gap of 1.5 years!), as we wanted to finish her MTech before marriage. During the
pre-marital period, I tried to make her interested in business. But, she was reluctant
and wanted to go only for teaching profession. Our company was doing good at
business, and all of a sudden I lost my father on 7 th Feb 2011. I was in Kerala that
time for a short holiday. I had two choices; either continue the job at TATA or come
back to Kerala to look after our business. If I continue in the job at Pune, I had to
wind this up because, without a strong backup in Kerala, I cant do anything sitting in
a different city. If I quit the business, it will be an injustice to all our staff and drivers
who were working for us sincerely. To get rid of the dilemma, I approached my
would-be Father-in-Law for his advice, and he advised me to come back to Kerala
and continue the business. I felt that the day came, and my father asked me to come
back. I never went back to Pune for the job!
Lots of responsibilities, everything is in a budding stage, striving for survival ..…… I
felt blind in total uncertainty. My mother stood with me filling strength and
confidence in me with her hard-work and prayers. At the time of our marriage,
Sreedevi was working as an Asst. Professor with an engineering college. A few
months later she decided to quit her dream job to join hands with me in business. It
was a relief for me as she was a quick learner and was well adapted to take
responsibilities one by one. We started to dream together about our business and
our life as well. For us, Paradise Holidays is the first baby; and used to have even our
chit-chats all around Paradise itself. She started meeting every guest on arrival and
to handle our operations team, which helped me to concentrate on business
development. By 2013, she and her team moved to an independent own office – we
called it CRC (Customer Relationship Centre)- which was a new concept in tourism,
where we receive every guest on arrival, meet them, explain entire itinerary and
sharing a lot of hands on tips.
Now, we have our corporate office in own building of 4500 sq. feet and other four
offices, one each at Cochin, Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad, with a staff strength of
50 numbers. Around 120 vehicles in various categories ply around the state for our
guests.
Meanwhile, we have started a home-stay with 6 A/C rooms to provide authentic
experience to our guests. Our travel desk takes care of vehicle booking with a fleet
containing more than 120 own and hired vehicles. Our Learning center caters to staff
training on life skills where we are providing training to hospitals and corporate.
During the course of our growth, we wanted to keep the local community also with
us, and are always fond of extending our helping hands to the needy. To make our
CSR activities organized, in the year 2015, we formed a trust Raveendra Foundation.
Every staff member of Paradise Holidays is a member of this trust with an elected
Governing Body to control the activities. Currently we are contributing enormously
for the education of poor children, distribution of school kits, school bags, umbrella
etc. to the deserving students in Govt. Schools, and assistance for medical
treatment. Very recently we have donated a smart class to a Govt. school and
donated an ambulance to the village where our corporate office is located.
98% of our employees are women and most of them are from the local community.
We proved our social commitment by being a facilitator of women empowerment
and by procuring commodities for our home-stay only from the local vendors,
thereby supporting the community we live in.
In the midst of all these struggles, I earned an MBA from the prestigious IIMK (Indian
Institute of Management Kozhikkode) which added flavour to the journey, and do
consultancy for many corporate bodies.
Currently I am the Chairman of Raveendra Hospitality Private Limited, Patron of
Raveendra Foundation and Managing Director of Paradise Holidays & Paradise
Homestay.
I bow myself towards the memories of my beloved father Late Mr. M. A.
Raveendranathan, without whom I could not have built this brand. I should fondly
thank Dr. S. R. Shankapal, Ex. Vice Chancellor at M. S. Ramaiah University of Applied
Sciences Bangalore, who has been my mentor, inspiration and a lot beyond words
can express, my uncle Mr.S. S. Pillai, in whom I used to see an ideal businessman
from my childhood, and my brother-in-law Dr. Sudeesh Kumar, who supported me
during my difficult times and encouraged me to come back from Pune!
And, the story continues, serving a lot of happy guests !!
I fondly remember, and extend my sincere gratitude to all our well wishers who
supported, encouraged and guided over these years.
Ratheesh R. Nath
Director, Paradise Holidays Cochin!
director@paradise-kerala.com!
+91 9947876214