Category Archives: Hotels

Keys Hotels, a brand by Berggruen hotels funded by Berggruen Holdings, a New York-headquartered proprietary fund, has announced its foray into Manali with Keys Lite Apple Nest. This is Keys’ first hotel in Himachal Pradesh and remains noteworthy due to its enchanting and scenic location in the well-known hill station of Manali – a popular destination loved by both Indian and International visitors. The property is nestled amongst refreshing apple orchards. Aptly named Keys Lite Apple Nest, the hotel is situated on the national highway at the entrance of Manali town. Located at a distance of merely 50 kms from Kullu Manali Airport, this hotel is centrally located for most destinations en-route. Speaking about the newly launched hotel, Mr Anurag Mishra, Head-Marketing, Berggruen Hotels Pvt. Ltd. said, “The government has, in recent years launched its famed ‘Incredible India’ campaign to entice more visitors to India. We have always believed that India is indeed incredible and consistently endeavoured to showcase local culture and heritage through our properties nationwide. With the same unflinching spirit, our presence in Manali is an earnest attempt to showcase India to the world. We are confident that our esteemed guests will experience the culture through our special array of localised food and bespoke services.”

Lords Hotels & Resorts launched one of its most premium resorts in Kerala, recently. Located at Cheruthuruthy, the boutique Lords Resorts, Thrissur, was inaugurated by A.C. Moitheen, Minister for Co-operation and Tourism, making this luxury resort its 26th hotel in India and its first in Kerala. Spread over 20 acres of varied landscapes and located at a distance of 30 km from Thrissur town, the 57-room luxury resort is set on the banks of Bharathapuzha River. “Lords Resorts – Thrissur is in many ways an epitome of Kerala’s rich and varied landscape which within its premises houses a natural waterfall, a pond, butterfly farms and nature trails, all set against a backdrop of large expanse of rubber plantations. The lodgings are interspersed across the terrains and have been seamlessly merged with their environment. We are positive that a stay at our resort will make for one of the most memorable experiences for our guests,” says P.R. Bansal, Chairman & Managing Director, Lords Hotels & Resorts. The property formerly known as the Cheruthuruthy Eco Gardens owned by Pepco Group of Companies is now branded Lords Resorts – Thrissur and, will be managed and run by Lords Hotels & Resorts. The resort offers themed accommodations including tree-houses, honeymoon cottages by the pond, villas – single and duplex, and bungalows in addition to the royal and executive suites and rooms.

The resorts team from Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts, a chain of 14 distinct hotels and resorts in Sri Lanka, visited Ahmedabad recently to acquaint themselves with travel agents. The visiting team comprised of the Sector Head of the resort properties – Sunimal Senanayake, Senior Vice President Sales, Romesh Walpola, Marketing Communications Manager and Sales executive of the resort properties. Senanayake, Sector Head of Cinnamon’s resort properties in Sri Lanka & Maldives was pleased to meet with the travel agents and understand the perspective and interests of the traveller from Gujarat. He also shared the brand values and various offerings Cinnamon has with the agents. The Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts team will visit India to meet agents in many more Indian cities in the coming months.  

Sheraton Hyderabad Hotel, Gachibowli, recently unveiled 56 fully furnished apartments, adding to the hotel’s existing 216 rooms. Starting from Studio with variants of one bedroom and two bedroom options, they are perfectly suited to guests staying in Hyderabad for an extended duration of a week upwards. Located in the financial district of Gachibowli, the Sheraton Apartments are conveniently located just 20 minutes from the Hi-Tech City and close to 25 minutes from the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport. The Apartments have been specially designed to offer a ‘home away from home’ experience to guests in the city for extended periods, fitted with a well-equipped kitchenette, spacious living and dining rooms and an exclusive landscaped patio, guests can choose from a Studio, Deluxe, Superior and Executive Apartments. As an additional benefit, guests can order groceries from the Retail Menu, which will be delivered to them at the end of the day. While staying at the apartments, guests also have complete access to all the amenities available at Sheraton Hyderabad, that includes ‘Feast’, the all-day dining venue, ‘inAzia’, which serves unique and extravagant Pan-Asian specialties, ’Link@Sheraton’- the lobby lounge bar & patisserie and ‘Chime’, the high energy lounge and bar with an Asian décor. Commenting on the launch, Shibil Malik, General Manager, Sheraton Hyderabad Hotel said, “The addition of Sheraton Serviced Apartments to our portfolio reflects our commitment to making our guests stay effortless, by providing home like comforts with an array of convenient hotel services to choose from. The launch is perfectly timed coinciding with the growing demand for quality, branded accommodation, especially for extended stays in one of India’s favorite hub for investors.”

Homestays aggregator Stayzilla has revamped its mobile application to ensure that hosts and guests are connected 24/7 in locations with poor connectivity. The App has been designed to overcome data connectivity challenges in the farthest corners that often house the most beautiful homestays in the country. Most of these homestays are located in regions where there is no internet connectivity. When a guest books a stay in such remote areas, the booking often gets no response and is lost due to poor connectivity from the home owner or host’s end. Says Pankaj Gupta, Chief Product and Technology Officer, Stayzilla, “Stayzilla has hosts and homestays spanning the breadth and depth of India. This app release ensures that bookings can be realized end to end irrespective of the underlying data connectivity. We continue to work on exciting technical and product solutions to serve our mission of connecting travelers with hosts on Stayzilla.” Stayzilla’s offline feature will now connect the home owner with the guest by sending notifications on the app via SMS when the host is in data offline mode. The home owner simply needs to have a phone with cellular connectivity (even without 2G/ 3G) to receive the booking confirmation on his/ her mobile phone. Additionally, Stayzilla also ensures connectivity with the host through automated IVR, wherein he/ she is able to confirm bookings. The cognitive feature of the app predicts whether the host’s phone has internet connectivity or not and determines intuitively to reach out either via SMS or app notifications accordingly.

Come September 9, the iconic property from the Bird Group will change its branding, and will be called Roseate Hotel. The brand has been refreshed to create a new identity. The Bird Group also has another property D2 at the Aerocity, which has still not opened, and would come under the same brand. The Bird Group will officially announce the change of branding on September 9, without any interruption in services.

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has signed a global partnership with Alipay, China’s third-party online payment solutions company, making IHG the first global hotel company to give Chinese guests the ability to pay via Alipay through all of IHG’s online and mobile channels, as well as across its full estate of hotels globally. The global rollout of Alipay will begin in 2017. The new partnership, which has been agreed with Alipay’s parent company Ant Financial, will initially apply to IHG’s existing estate of more than 270 hotels in Greater China, as well as a number of hotels around the world that participate in IHG’s China Ready Programme, which offers a range of tailored services to Chinese travellers.

Bangalore-based brand of budget hotels, Treebo Hotels, is paying homage to the Indian National Olympic Squad participating at Rio 2016 by offering each athlete free annual vacations for lifetime at any of the 125 Treebo hotels across the country. Commenting on the offer, Rahul Chaudhary, co-founder, Treebo Hotels said, “Our athletes have been training hard for the Olympics for months now, and we felt a strong need to do something to reward their hard work. Each of them deserves a vacation, and we couldn’t think of a better way of expressing our support than offering them free stays at any of our properties across the country. We have written a letter to the Indian Olympic Association about this, and look forward to hosting our athletes”. As a part of the initiative, each of the 120 athletes is eligible for five-free room nights every year for their vacations for the next 30 years. Not only is Treebo giving free annual vacations to the Olympics team, they are also offering a flat 30% discount at any of their hotels to all athletes in the country, young or old, for any sports-related travel.

The  Lemon Tree Hotel Company announced the formal opening of two new properties in Vadodara and Dahej besides the refreshed upscale property in Ahmedabad, signalling the group’s focus on Gujarat, in their overall expansion plans across India. Speaking on the occasion of the multi-city launch, Rattan Keswani, Dy. Managing Director, The Lemon Tree Hotel Company and Chairman, Carnation Hotels said, “We are excited at our fast paced growth in Gujarat. Being one of the most progressive and investor friendly States in India, we were keen to spread our wings here. Besides our owned hotel in Ahmedabad, the addition of these three properties in Gujarat opens new domestic locations for our existing customers offering them the same refreshing experience and close to home comfort that Lemon Tree is known for.”

Hyatt is all set to have a total of 27 properties in India by the end of this year. Harleen Mehta, Vice President, Sales Operations, South Asia – Hyatt Hotels Corporation says, “Currently we have a portfolio of 24 hotels in India, representing five brands (Park Hyatt, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, Hyatt and Hyatt Place). A sixth brand (Andaz) will enter India in latter part of 2016 with the opening of the Andaz Delhi. By end of this financial year, we aim to have 27 properties in India. Apart from the aforementioned Andaz Delhi – the thirteenth Andaz hotel in the world.”