Unitech Ltd. Chairman Ramesh Chandra said his Indian real-estate company plans to invest $720 million in four years building 28 hotels with partners including Marriott International Inc., the worlds biggest hotelier.
Four hotels are being built and another 10 will be under construction by the end of the year, Chandra said today in an interview in Gurgaon, near New Delhi. Four of these hotels will be operated by Bethesda, Maryland-based Marriott, he said.
Per capita annual income in India has risen 86 percent since 2000, spurring Marriott, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. and InterContinental Hotels Group Plc to build properties. India may be one of the top five destinations for business travelers in a decade from 18th now, according to the London-based World Travel & Tourism Council.
More : bloomberg.com
Trident Hilton To Go Five-Star
Trident Hilton hotels, that were not classified by Department of Tourism but positioned as first class international brand in India, have recently applied for classification of these hotels. While few of the properties have already received accreditation, the rest are awaiting government’s reply.
Commenting on the new developments, Kapil Chopra, general manager, Trident Hilton Gurgaon, “The quality and service of Trident hotels were always of five-star standards. Due to taxation problems, we had not applied for hotel classification at that time and had taken a positioning platform of being a first class international hotel. We are now further enhancing all our hotels to be completely in line with five star standards. With increase in leisure travellers from all over the world, we are now ready to deliver international hospitality standards at all our Trident Hilton properties.”
EIH Limited had entered into an alliance with Hilton in April 2004 and since then all the hotels have been rebranded as ‘Trident Hilton’ and Oberoi Towers as ‘Hilton Towers’. Trident Hilton Gurgaon is currently averaging summer occupancy of 89 per cent. While a new restaurant and bar has been opened at Trident Hilton, Bhubaneswar. On the other hand, Trident Hilton, Cochin launched `Vrinda Suites’ which are luxury suites for our guests who are planning to take a cruise in the backwaters of Kerala on board ‘Vrinda’ - the luxury motor vessel. Moreover, Hilton Towers, Mumbai is also coming up with an extensive plan that includes Hilton relaxation rooms and also Executive floors with a lounge, which will further enhance its product offering to the guests. Lastly, Trident Hilton Mumbai, a 450-room business hotel at Bandra-Kurla is scheduled to open in late 2007.
New Entrants From Real Estate Fuel Hotel Construction Boom
Traditional hospitality giants and real estate majors such as Taj, Oberoi, ITC, Leela, Rahejas, Lokhandwalas, Lok Group, Hiranandani, Unitech Holdings, Unicorn Holdings etc will now have to make way for the new entrants from the realty sector who are fast making their mark in the Indian hotel sector.
Fueling the on-going hotel construction boom in the country are real estate companies like Delhi-based DLF Group, Uppals, Ansal Properties and Odeon Builders with projects in New Delhi, Mumbai, Gurgaon and Jaipur. The Mumbai-based Oberoi Constructions, Nirmal Lifestyles, Kanakia’s, Runwal Constructions and Magus Estates are also eyeing hotels in the commercial capital as well as Goa, Bangalore and Chennai.
Also in the run are the Bangalore-based realtors Puruvankara Group, Embassy Group, Adarsh Group, Prestige Group, RNS Group, and Sigma Group with projects in Bangalore and Chennai. With a hotel project already in the pipeline in Hyderabad, the Dubai based Emaar Properties has plans to develop more hotel projects in Mumbai and Bangalore.
While the trend ‘realtors to hoteliers’ is certainly not nascent, in the past year the Indian hospitality industry has seen a significant rise in real estate companies towing the hotel rope. This business diversification on part of the realtors, industry analysts ascribe, is on account of the booming tourism and hospitality industry in India and a natural extension to their current profile. According to Vikas Oberoi, managing director, Oberoi Constructions, “The prime element of a hotel is the asset - land and hotel project, these elements to real estate companies are easy to procure and develop due to their huge financial corpus. And all a real estate company needs to do is tie-up with a hotel management company.”
ITC upgrades hotel brand
Fortune Park Hotels Ltd, the wholly-owned subsidiary of ITC Hotels Ltd, is ready to open its 15th hotel, in Gurgaon, on December 31.
Leveraging its brand presence across 13 destinations in the country, Fortune Park has upgraded its new 83-room, mid-market property which will be known as Fortune Select Global hotel. The room rates at the hotel will vary between Rs 4,950 and Rs 5,450, roughly 25 per cent more than the average rates at other Fortune hotels.
Mandeep S Lamba, president, Fortune Park, says: “It’s a logical extension of our brand and all our properties in the metros and mini metros will be rebranded as Fortune Select hotels.”
The Gurgaon hotel, designed by Total Integrated Design of Singapore, is located in the Global Park business complex.
More: business-standard.com
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