51. Keeping the ethics in finance through challenging times - Interview with Maneesh Singh

51. Keeping the ethics in finance through challenging times - Interview with Director of Finance at Mama Shelter

Hannah Munro: 0:48 

Starting a new CFO role doesn't have to be daunting. So, whether you are new to the role or just new to the company, our 90-day master plan will help you get off to the best possible start with a shared collection of research, advice and guidance inspired by the CFO 4.0 podcast. So, what are you waiting for? Download it now at www.itassolutions.co.uk. So, hello everybody and welcome to this episode of CFO 4.0. I'm very excited to talk today to Manish Singh, who is the Director of Finance for Mama Shelter, a vibrant and entrepreneurial hospitality brand. So, welcome, Manish. It's lovely to have you on the show. 

Maneesh Singh: 1:30 

Thank you, Hannah. Pleasure to be here. 

Hannah Munro: 1:34 

Wonderful. So, tell us a little bit about your journey. So, I think you've been in role for about two years, which is pretty much just before the pandemic. Why don't you just tell us a bit about your journey into this role and your background and where you came from? 

Maneesh Singh: 1:50 

Right. So, Mama Shelter London is the first hotel within Mama Shelter family, which we opened here in UK. And we opened in September 2019. I joined this company, Mama Shelter London, last year. in, I think, May 2019. So, I'm a part of pre-opening team. So, we started working on this. We started recruiting more people. We started putting all the policies. Because I joined as a director of finance, so, I started looking into what accounting procedures we are going to implement, all the cost control, you know, normal day-to-day financial jobs. We opened in 2019, September 2019. The first four months of September 2019 till December 2019, it was amazing. It was great. It was dream come true. Pleasure to be with my family, with Mama Shelter London. The staff, the employees were amazing. The revenue we were doing was great. Average room rate occupancy was lovely. And then we moved on to 2020. Well, January is always considered to be a dead month for the hospitality because it's after Christmas. So, we were not very hopeful. We were not very excited about in financial terms for January. We were looking forward for February and March. There were positions we were advertised. We were recruiting new people. We were expanding our team. And suddenly we hit with this pandemic in March. we have to shut down our operations. I think we closed our hotel on 21st of March 2020. And that's it basically. And then the challenging time starts. Well, as we were talking about it, finance, HR, these roles is always considered to be as a support services. And suddenly finance and HR comes together to come back onto the driving seat. We were looked up to, because it's all about the cost control. How are we going to, we are going to reduce our losses. And we were in the limelight. Probably every week we are having a meeting with the general managers, general manager with our investor, with our head office in Paris. And yes, it's completely changed now. So, instead of just reporting this, numbers and profitability about the hospital about the about performance about hotel it's moves into a more crucial critical phase where well how to survive the business so, it was quite challenging uh and yeah and it's still carrying on as if now we are still on not on exactly the same mode uh we are looking to recruit more people again uh we are expanding we are expanding so, revenue is getting better and better uh But it's still very much what you call a safe mode we are running our business in. 

Hannah Munro: 5:04 

Yeah, and I think that's an interesting piece because they do say that as soon as disaster hits, which I think we can all agree COVID was that, plus obviously the piece around Brexit, which was almost a convergence of disasters, as it were, to come in. So, looking back on it, what advice would you have given to yourself having survived, what is it, two years of COVID almost in your role? You know, what were the things that you wish you'd known at the beginning? 

Maneesh Singh: 5:39 

Well, the first most important thing when the COVID hit in 2019, 2020, the new regulations which comes in play, which is the most important thing, furlough. Okay, I heard about the furlough. I was familiar with this word because it's quite aggressively been used in USA. So, I knew what the furlough means. But I didn't know much about the practicality of furlough, how we are going to implement this, how it needs to be implemented, what calculations needs to be done, how we are going to claim the wages. There was not enough guidelines provided initially by the government through HMRC. So, that was a part of dilemma where myself and our HR manager at that time, Alyssa, We started working on this on the different spreadsheets, like a tremendous spreadsheet, putting all the employees' names there, how to calculate their salary, how to calculate how much claims we can put it through. So, this is something we learned that you should always be up and ready. Even though I was working as a director, I'm working as a director of finance. This was the one element which came into the play and thought, okay, so, I still have to learn some more tricks and tricks of the business, which was quite interesting. But again, it's a teamwork. That's why I said suddenly finance and HR were in the limelight, and we managed to get it done. So, it was a good experience. Then again, renegotiating all the contracts, asking for payment holidays to all the suppliers. Generally, we don't do these things. We renegotiate the contracts, but we never asked a few of the suppliers who were the small suppliers. They said, okay, we can't give you payment holidays because we have also got our fixed cost, which we need to cover. And being Mama Shelter, being ethical business, we thought, yeah, that That's fair enough. We have to share some cost. And that's why I said, okay, can we just delay some of the payments? Like mortgage holidays you received from the bank. So, that's another thing which we have learned, how to deal with a situation like this. It was quite stressful. It's still a bit stressful, but I'm enjoying more now because after carrying through all these two years of pandemic. Yes. So, these are things which I've learned and I'm like, I'm ready up for the new challenge. Whatever it comes, I'm very happy. I'm happy to take this and I'm confident we'll come out with the flying colours. That's important. 

Hannah Munro: 8:03 

Absolutely. And I guess that's the big thing, because obviously you manage a team of four as well. How did you manage, obviously, their expectations plus the expectations of the business? Were there any things around managing a team that you learned during the pandemic as well? 

Maneesh Singh: 8:24 

Right. Yes. So, we started with a team of four people. I was managing a team of four people due to this pandemic. And cost reduction. We kept people in our team on a follow-on until October. In October 2020, I have to make two more people redundant from my team because there was no business, there was no demand. And I'll have to, being a director of finance, I have to get onto more hands-on approach. So, instead of looking after someone else to do, like for example, very easy thing, cost controller. So, there was no cost controller in October. We made redundant cost-controller position in October 2020. There was no cost-controller. Still, we have to do the cost-control once the business is open. For example, a food cost, beverage cost, which is an integral part of F&B, of our hotel industry. So, I have taken on that role. So, prepared like food flash and a few other different reports, interacting more with the stock-take procedure for beverages. what's the GP we are managing, how to manage the correct GP. So, it's gone on to more like a hands-on approach rather than just monitoring and advising people how to do things and how to get the things done, which was quite challenging. Again, same goes for another two members of employees whom we kept on a payroll because thanks to FlexiFurlough, we have to distribute the jobs. Like some of the part of job of our income auditor was like, okay, management accountant is going to follow something. Some requests are there; something needs to be done urgently. Then she has to step in. Same goes for management accountant, Pauline Russell. If the income auditor is not there, something being asked and reports needs to be produced or looked into, then Pauline steps into the job of income auditor and vice versa. So, it's more become... integrated team, three of us working with each other. It gives an opportunity to income auditor and management accountant to learn each other job as well, which was, again, it's a blessing in disguise. Income auditor has never thought that she'll be doing the cost controlling job or probably management accounting job, but she had to learn it. And thankfully, as the team was good, I always considered myself as a good trainer. So, I'm pretty sure they'll vouch for me. 

Hannah Munro: 10:44 

Yeah, maybe we should get them on the podcast as well and ask that question. 

Maneesh Singh: 10:48 

That would be nice. I'm sure. I'm pretty confident. Yeah, so, again, and they were happy, and they were grateful. In general, Team Head Mama Shelter, whether it's a finance, whether it's an HR, whether it's an operational team, we are grateful. We are grateful to our owners. We are grateful to our investor, which is Crosstree, that they have shown a trust within the team that will be very careful when it comes to the expense, when it comes to the cost, and will deliver our best when the right time comes in. So, when the business starts opening up in July, August 2020, we started showing them a growth. Okay, the revenue was not there what was expected, but then again, in comparison to revenue, we were not losing that much of money. So, the cost control was an integral part, and we delivered the results. 

Hannah Munro: 11:40 

So, it sounds like part of your success was not only obviously support from your investors, and it sounds like they've handled the situation very well, but also the opportunity to bring your team together, which I guess offers new opportunities. Were they excited? Were they interested in picking up the new roles? Or was it more a fact that they knew they had to do it, and it was part of the shift that was happening? How have they found that shift into more crossover than specialization? 

Maneesh Singh: 12:10 

Well, exactly the same question I asked my colleagues, my team members. How you're finding it? Are you happy with the new role with cross-training, learning about different things or you're very content like no I just want to do my role what I've been recruited for and they were very open I don't know it's just because it's me who was their boss asking the question and they wanted to portray a nice image they said but no frankly speaking I think they were very honest as I said it's a very close knit team now we all work together and the response they gave me is like they're very happy they're extremely happy with this definitely it's very sad to see two of our colleagues to leave the team but I At the same time, that's opened a new opportunity for them that made them realize that, okay, one of my colleagues, Katrina, who works as income auditor, she even started pursuing a different accountancy course. She got enrolled herself. I started supporting her, explaining to her the things in practicality, how it all works. So, I think they've taken it very nicely, and they're a very good learner. doing extremely well right now. And again, it all comes through thanks to the support of our investor, CrossFit. They have shown their trust and belief in the team here at Mama Shelter. So, it was an interesting journey. It was challenging at times, definitely. Are we enjoying this moment? Yes, on a job basis, yes, we do. We are enjoying what we have been given under the particular circumstances. Are we going to perform better? Definitely, we will when the time comes. will come and once you see the business coming back, we got a strong team, very dedicated, very honest, very loyal team, hardworking team, and we'll deliver the best. 

Hannah Munro: 14:04 

And so, what are your plans for the team sort of moving forward? Are you planning on... continuing that sort of cross, that cross role piece, but adding more resource? Or are you considering perhaps going back to the specialized approach? Have you thought about that at all? 

Maneesh Singh: 14:21 

I think we are going to do more towards the cross-role approach, cross training, because I think that's the major challenge. That's what's going to come next. Because at the moment, if you are looking at, for example, if you look at, let's say, housekeeping roles, right? Now, because of the Brexit and because of the pandemic, we are definitely struggling with chambermates. Now, chambermates are the people who cleans their rooms, who make it ready for the next arrival. There is a massive shortages. So, there are times when we can go above 60, 70% occupancy, but we can't take any more guests because there are no staff to clean the rooms. So, you have to, we realize it. As an industry, we realized how important these roles are. So, we have even given them extra money. So, we have increased the hourly rate. We even asked the staff. So, for example, in F&B department, we got waiter, waitresses, runners, if they would like to clean the room to take off the job and we'll pay them extra. So, I think cross-training across the department is very, very crucial. It's very important. And that's what we are going for. So, a hostess in a restaurant, she's been cross-trained now to check in the guest at reception. Our receptionists have been told, have been cross-trained how to get the guest booking for the restaurant, for the lunch or dinner or Sunday brunch services. So, the cross-training is something what we are keener into it. And we are doing this. We are implementing this. People are working across the department now. 

Hannah Munro: 16:04 

That's a really interesting trend. And I don't think it's just a hospitality piece. I think that's a lot more about flexible resources. As we go through this whole COVID and hopefully come out the other side of it, maybe not intact, but a better version of ourselves, we would hope. But yeah, that's a really interesting trend. So, you did mention earlier, and I wanted to pick up on one piece around the fact that obviously mama shelter is very ethical. brand and it's something you sound very, very proud of. So, tell us a little bit about that side of things and how you approach that from a finance perspective. 

Maneesh Singh: 16:44 

Well, when we say very ethical, it means... We are the brand. We are a hotel. We are a company who always looks after our people, people who work for us. We respect them. We value their hard work, their dedication, their honesty, their loyalty. So, even in the tough time, like when the businesses were shut, there was no... no revenue stream. There were no revenue coming into our business. We still looked after them. So, for example, most of the employees, even before the redundancy hit in October 2020, we asked the people if we would like to get cross-trained, if we want to change the department. And unfortunately, yeah, we had to let quite a few people go. But lots of, like, for example, head waiters, they were promoted as a flow manager because they have been in a business almost one and a half to a year now. We have to show them that there is a career progression. It's not just all about paying their high salaries. high rate or extra wage amount, there has to be a career progression. There has to be learning and development going on at the same time. So, these are things which we embarked onto it. So, there were lots of other training, like there's something called flow training, where people get trained about their departments, about health and hygiene and safety, which is, again, it is a critical part in the pandemic. So, we started training guys on the different platform. We started promoting the people by their capabilities. So, that's why we say we are very ethical. Even for ethical in the monetary term, in the finance term, if you will say, government has introduced small business loans and different grants. So, for example, I claimed when there was a government grant in January, February this year, I think, where the small businesses were given around £30,000, £35,000 per found on the basis of their turnover, which I claimed. And then our investor said, no, we don't need it. We don't need this grant. We are pretty well off. We got money in our bank account. And ultimately, I had to refund that money. I just called the council and said, sorry, we don't need this grant. Please give it to someone else who will need it more. And we refunded that money. So, this shows that... It's just not about our team. Our investors are also very, very ethical. They want to run the ethical business. If there is no requirement for extra fund or extra cash, we don't need it. We won't ask for it. We'll survive. If we are surviving, we are good. We are happy. 

Hannah Munro: 19:28 

Yeah. And that's a really unique and rare thing to... I guess it's becoming more common, isn't it? The concept of ethics in business. I think there's a lot of talk about it, but what I love about that example is that's a unique situation that I think if some businesses were in, they may not make the same decision. So, I think that really does demonstrate your ethics. And you also mentioned, obviously, your suppliers and the ethics of supporting them as well. Because you started off by saying that ethically you work, you know, you work ethically with your team. And then you mentioned you work ethically, you know, within, you know, within the government piece, with your funders and with your investors. And then you also mentioned the fact that, you know, how you approach your supplier relationships as well. So, tell us a little bit about how you work. 

Maneesh Singh: 20:18 

there. Right. Most of our suppliers, so, for example, if you call it, if you take a food and beverage supplier, they are very much, they are the local suppliers. So, if we give an example, let's say one of a beer which we serve here to the customers is called Forest Road. And Forest Road Brewery is just 50 yards from where we are based in East London. So, again, we changed during the pandemic. So, the owner of Forest Road Brewery came to see us and said, okay, we are just your local business. Can you do something about us? And we said, yeah, why not? We have to support. It's all about local economy. When the staycation kicks in, it's just not kicks in from people from coming from York to London. It's all about the local economy, and we have to support the local businesses, small businesses. So, we're getting on board. Now we are serving a Forest Road beer, which is a lager. It's amazing. It's beautiful. At the same time, I'll say we are supporting this because it's not the cheapest in the market. So, we could have gone for the big brands who could have given us some massive discounts, and we could have seen a very good GP, Devray GP, coming in. comes into play. Instead of that, we have gone for a little bit more expensive, but it was the right thing to do. It's the right thing to do, is to support the local business. So, we still opted for them. Though we are again cutting down our profitability. Same goes for our printing supplier. Like The printing supplier is just like two doors away from us. We took him on board. All the printing requirements within the hotel, we'll call them, or we just go and see them, and we'll place an order and just get it delivered. Same goes for even, I'll give you a very good example, photocopier toners. Now for that, if you've got a massive, big contracts from different big companies, you call them, or they'll send you automatic donors or something. Our supplier is just probably 10 yards away. If we need something, we just call them, and the guy comes in himself. It's a one-man show. He works alone in his business. We just bring it to the reception and give it to a reception team. Okay, here you go. That's your donor. We pay them pretty much on time. Because that's another thing. Supporting a supplier by buying their product is one thing. You are helping them a lot. At the same time, making a payment on the time is important for them to sustain in the business. So, for example, if a beer company says, can you make a payment in 15 days’ time? Just take a credit for two weeks or something. We pay them in 15 days’ time. We have just taken two weeks of credit. We don't go for, normally we go for 30, 45 days credit. But if they want, want to give only two weeks credit? That's fine. There is another supplier who said that it will be great if you can pay it on a pro forma basis. So, it's like if you make an advance payment, then I know how much I have to produce and then we can deliver it to you and say, okay, that's fine. So, it's just not ethically about placing an order and not paying them on time, but it's about continuity. You place an order, you get the products, make sure you make a payment on time as well. Finance generally is not; finance people are not known for this. They always delay their payments. But one thing it's taught us in this environment, in this pandemic, that no, ethically, lots of people talk about it, how to implement it. Yes, I can, I'm pretty sure, I'm confident that yes, I'm doing it. I'm processing all these values in my day-to-day work. So, I'm glad about it. 

Hannah Munro: 24:08 

Yeah, and just out of interest, have you seen any benefits to the relationships that you have with suppliers with the way your team have responded to that ethical nature? Have you seen any sort of, you know, an intangible impact? 

Maneesh Singh: 24:25 

Oh, yes. Oh, yes. That's a very good question. So, the example which I gave, Forest Road, Buri, or for the photocopy supplier or the printing supplier, right? We are on such terms that even if our bar manager, for example, you forget to order on Friday afternoon, he suddenly realizes he hasn't got enough kegs sitting in the cellar. Believe me, and it happened. He called the supplier at around 5, 5.30 on Friday asking, will it be possible because weekend is looking quite busy and it's quite sunny and it's nice. We might need more kegs, extra kegs. Will it be possible for you to deliver us? Generally, most of the beverage, if you go for the branded big beverage companies, you've got a dedicated days. So, they only deliver on Thursday. They only deliver on Monday. But because Forest Road is just 50 yards away, the guy was happy and said, yes, why not? I can get it done. So, next thing, the first thing in the morning at 7 o'clock, he put his three kegs in his delivery van. And it was at our doorstep. No problem, no hassles. Everyone is happy about it. So, these are things. They've got their own little pub as well, a shop you can call it, where they can do testing and everything. And they keep asking us, why don't you guys come over? We'll give you a showdown, how to brew the beer, how to pull the nice 

Speaker 03: 25:49 

wine. And 

Maneesh Singh: 25:50 

I'll be honest, I wanted to go. I didn't have a chance to visit the place. But this is something. So, this is what you call a relationship. You build a relationship with your supplier. 

Hannah Munro: 26:01 

Yeah, and it's a two, it sounds like very much a two-way street. And I think that's something that people often forget when they're working with suppliers is that the best supplier relationships, I think, are a partnership rather, you know, and it has to work both ways. So, that's a really great perspective on that. And have you seen that behaviour reflected in how your team as well? Because obviously you're leading from the front and driving these conversations. How have your team reacted to that approach as well? 

Maneesh Singh: 26:31 

Actually, they love it. They literally love it. Because it's just not me or my general manager, Jamie Kerr, we are negotiating to the supplier. These are the local suppliers. If even if they're not supplying anything or they're not bringing any product to the hotel, sometimes they even pop in just for a drink, just for a meal or something. And then they introduce themselves. Okay, I supply you this beer or this food or this paper or something. And they talk to each other. They'll have a conversation about different things. And they build a nice relationship. So, next time, for example... let's say if they need a certain bread or something, they want it. Again, the bread suppliers are just nearby as well. It's a local supplier we've got. And I can look at the cost point of view, how much it's going to cost me this thing, and if we'll go for the higher, different supplier, what the cost implementations are. Once the suppliers build a relationship with a chef, it's very easy for a chef to explain what his expectations are. So, it's like a first-hand experience they are having with each other, what exactly the product they are looking for, what quality they are looking for. They can just directly interact with the supplier. Suppliers can understand it better rather than me explaining them. The two are talking together, and that's bringing a very– they build a nice relationship. So, I think that's the– Employee-wise, I think staff-wise, yes, they are pretty happy. And they feel valuable. Your staff, your employees feel valuable. They think that they have been given some authority, some responsibility, and they're adding some value to the business, which is important to make them feel precious, important. So, I think, yeah, they've taken it nicely and they're very pleased about it. 

Hannah Munro: 28:52 

Wonderful. And as they should be, I think it's a great concept. And I think it's really interesting in how you started the conversation about how you approach ethics. And as we've delved into more, that it's obviously a way of life for you and your team. And it's threaded throughout, you know, the way that you deal with, you know, all sorts of individuals within all stakeholders within the business, which is fabulous. It's really great. So, obviously looking forwards, you know, we’ve survived, I won't say we've thrived, but we've survived, you know, what is it, 18 months of pandemic. What's on your sort of watch list? What are you thinking about for the next sort of six to 12 months? 

Maneesh Singh: 29:38 

Next six to 12 months is all about, so, last 18 months, or let's say two years, it's all about how to control the cost. And I'll be honest with you, this is what, what, we had the HOD meeting, I think, last week. And part of my presentation was, this is what I told them. I said, last 18 months was all about control the cost, cost cutting, make sure we are not losing that much money, you know, and things which are not required. Right now, just hang on to it. If you don't need 400 glasses of champagne to order right now, don't order it. Just order 50 or 100, whatever is required, bare minimum. And what I explained last week, I said, you know what, let's prepare ourselves because we are pretty hopeful that business is going to return back to the normalcy. The normalcy will come back to us. And let’s start planning ahead. So, if you are missing, if you want some procreate cutleries, you want to order it, submit, give me the requisition. I'll look onto the course, and we can go ahead. Same goes for the team. If you think you are missing a team member, let us know. Let me know. Submit your request and we'll again If we need to recruit, we'll go ahead with the recruitment. So, even right now, there are quite a few positions where we are recruiting for. That includes even sales manager, CDP, sous chef. So, these are the positions which we are recruiting for. So, it shows that we are very much, instead of running the business in a safe mode, we want to go full steam ahead. 

Hannah Munro: 31:17 

Fabulous. And that is actually really interesting you say that is that that is what has been reflected in the latest CFO survey report from Deloitte is that that shifts, like you say, from cost control into how do we prepare ourselves for growth? And how do we sort of get the business into a place where it should have been in, you know, if the joys of COVID and everything else hadn't happened. So, and just be interested, we talked a lot about the impact of COVID. How much impact has Brexit had on your business in particular and some of the decisions you've made over the last sort of 18 months? 

Maneesh Singh: 31:58 

I think Brexit has definitely impacted quite badly in our hospitality sector. They started with, as I mentioned, about the chambermates in housekeeping department. So, to stay and work in the United Kingdom, you should have been present as on 30th of June to get registered for this entitlement to work here. Because of pandemic, lots of them, they have gone back to their country. They couldn't manage to return, or they didn't come back. And we can see that it's impacting badly. Even for that matter, I can give you a very good example. Delivery drivers. There was a day last week when we didn't receive our linen delivery on time because there were shortages of delivery drivers. Thankfully, we got two massive washing machine and dryer in our hotel where we cleaned almost 250 to 300 pillowcases. Got cleaned, dried up, pressed iron, ready to put in the room. So, Brexit has impacted a lot. It's a challenging time as far as recruitment is concerned, finding the right people for the right job. It is challenging, but again, there becomes the cross-training exercise. So, you train people across the board and work in a different department. So, yes, it's challenging. At the same time, it's an opportunity as well for your team, for your employees to learn different skills. 

Hannah Munro: 33:37 

Absolutely. And you've talked obviously a lot about your team and their development. What are your plans for your own personal development over the next 12 to 18 months? Are there any areas that you're going to personally be focusing on? 

Maneesh Singh: 33:50 

Yes, personally, I'm going to focus on taking a backseat again now. 18 months were quite challenging for me. Believe me, I am tired. I think quite a few other finance people; they must say the same thing. They are pretty tired now and would like sales, revenue, these people to come on and take a front seat, front row seat. got on a driving seat, start driving more revenue and we'll sit back a little bit and see how the business goes. We'll do the valuable input when and where required. Otherwise, we are happy to prepare all the reports for you and financial statements. Apart from that, I'll see. It's still what we are missing in Mama Shelter right now because we have been open for two years. But out of those two years, 18 months, probably we were closed because of the So, the way I see myself for next two years is to stabilize the ship, to stabilize Mama Shelter London first. The revenue, what we initially forecasted at the beginning, prior to pre-opening of Mama Shelter, achieved those numbers. again, support the team, try to get better of them. And that's what I... Yeah, so, I'm not saying that, yes, I want another job, another challenge at the moment. No, I'm pretty happy where I am. And for next 18 months to years, yes, I would like to see the revenue come back. We start making some profit because money is important. and try to recoup the losses that we have made in the last 18 months. Once we have done that, then I'll see what's available in the market. 

Hannah Munro: 35:41 

Absolutely. And I think that's it. And it sounds like, you know, you're getting excited about shifting back into that traditional FD role, Director of Finance role. And, you know, a few less spreadsheets by the sounds of things wouldn't be a bad thing. 

Maneesh Singh: 36:00 

Yeah, so, that's the whole concept. But let's see how it goes. Again, we are hearing the COVID cases are on the rise. We heard our Prime Minister yesterday, on the press briefing. But again, I really appreciate the Prime Minister has taken this courage to say Plan A is a Plan A. We are not going to concentrate on Plan B. And Plan A is to get maximum people vaccinated, keep the rates low. And it sounds very positive. Initially, yes, if you ask me what were your thoughts about last week, last week I was thinking we might go to go for another you know, fire, lockdown or something, they call it, in October. But after listening to the Prime Minister yesterday in a press conference, I thought, no, it's not going to happen. I have a trust, I have a confidence in our government, in our Prime Minister, and I think we'll be fine. We'll be good. 

Hannah Munro: 36:57 

Hey, and that's it. It's all just such a moving piece. And I think the only thing we can say is that things will change. And I think that's the one thing that is good about how they're trying to give visibility of the future without necessarily overcommitting. And I do not envy anybody sitting in Downing Street right now. That is probably the most unenviable job, if I'm being very honest. 

Maneesh Singh: 37:20 

I know, I know. It's a challenging time for everyone. 

Hannah Munro: 37:25 

It is. It is indeed. So, obviously, Mama Shelter. And for those of you that don't know, I'm going to do a little bit of a promo. So, having looked to the website, I'm very excited to come for a visit sometime in the near future and to have a sip of that fabulous lager on your rooftop terrace. But if our listeners would like to learn more about Mama Shelter, why don't you just give us a really quick summary about Mama Shelter as a business and why should people come and see you guys down in London? 

Maneesh Singh: 37:54 

Unfortunately, in London, we haven't got a rooftop terrace. It's quite advertised on our website. So, like Los Angeles, LA has got a rooftop terrace. All the Paris, I think most of them, they got a rooftop terrace. And suddenly we get all excited about rooftop terrace because of this pandemic. We started understanding the importance of open. 

Speaker 03: 38:13 

area. Absolutely. 

Maneesh Singh: 38:15 

We've been fortunate enough; we got a garden bar. So, like you can see behind, that's the garden bar area, where you can open the roof when it's sunny. Unfortunately, it's not today, where you can sit outside and you can enjoy the cocktail. So, if you talk about the Mama Shelter, so, we are in eight countries and 14 lively cities right now, from Los Angeles to London, Belgrade to Paris. And we are all about great cocktail menus, homemade food cooked with lots of love, live DJ, live music. Most important, I think, is smiling staff. And all ages are welcome, though we can call it it's very funky. It's for youngster and crowd and no, it's all ages are welcome. Believe it or not, me and my wife, we have been here quite a few times to enjoy the dinner. And my wife loves this place. It's just because it's different than any corporate hotel where you see everything on its place. Everything is shining and everything. No, here the staff will come if you ask them for a recommendation. You can have a quick conversation with them for two minutes or five minutes. They can recommend you the best food. Well, all the foods are good, but it's up to your taste. So, my wife, she's very much into, okay, I would love to have something a little bit spicy. And they'll be like, sure, why not? We'll ask the chef to add a little bit more flavour onto your food or something like this. And it's happy. Cocktails, she loves drinking cocktails, especially gin-based cocktails. She tried it. She said, it's nice. Love to have a little bit more alcohol onto this. And the bar manager came in and said, why not? You can have a little bit more alcohol. There's no harm in that. So, you know, it's not about that you can only have a 35 ml alcohol in this. Well, we follow the industry guidelines, government guidelines. But yes, we’ll look after you. It's your personal choice, personal preferences. There's no such thing called standard procedure. So, you have to follow, follow. If guest wants something, we'll go far beyond and try to please the guest. So, it's a good place. 

Hannah Munro: 40:37 

Absolutely. And what's the best way if people are listening, are looking for a lively, personalized, boutique-style hotel in London and around the world, where should they find out more about what you guys do? 

Maneesh Singh: 40:52 

They can go onto their website. It's called mamashelter.com slash London. And they can book their rooms directly. The rooms are, again, they're very, very nice, beautifully decorated rooms. And it's just a good vibe. Once you step into the Mama Shelter, you feel like, wow, what a place. That was my first impression. So, when we opened the hotel in September, I stepped inside the hotel. I thought, wow, this is the place I would love to stay. And that's the way. If you come on Friday and Saturday nights, there's a live DJ, there's live music. So, it's not that loud that you can't have a conversation. So, you would like to carry on with the conversation. Yes, there are corners where the music is not that loud. You can have a conversation. You can have a nice food. If you really want to dance, you know, there's no dance floor. So, no one is going to stop you if you want to dance just standing next to your table and want to dance. So, that's not... Everything you do traditionally, the way it's done in different hotels, in our corporate hotels, we are very boutique lifestyle brand. And yes, it's just about having a good time. 

Hannah Munro: 42:03 

Wonderful. Well, if that doesn't encourage our listeners to pop on and have a look, I don't know what will. So, thank you so, much, Manish. It's been an absolute pleasure speaking to you. And yes, I hope you have an exciting rest of 2021. And yeah, thank you so, much for coming on the show. 

Maneesh Singh: 42:22 

Thanks, Anna. It was lovely talking to you. It's a pleasure to be on the show. And I wish you luck. And yes, please do visit us. 

Hannah Munro: 42:31 

Yes, don't you worry. I'm going to add it to the list to be very fair. 

Maneesh Singh: 42:35 

Thank you. I'll speak to you soon.