Category Archives: Hotels

By the end of this year, Best Western will open its hotels in New Delhi, Nawanshahr, Goa, Vizag and Gurugram. In a recent interview, Atul Jain, COO, Best Western Hotels & Resorts, India, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka says, “Following the signing of 20 new hotels in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the group regional pipeline now features 36 hotels containing over 3,000 rooms.”

Shares of hotel companies zoomed up to 20 per cent on Monday after the GST Council reduced tax rate for hotel room tariffs. Post market hours on Friday, the GST Council reduced tax rate on hotel room tariffs, a move aimed at giving a boost to the hospitality sector. Indian Hotels Company shares grew by 8.20 per cent, ITC rose 6.95 per cent and Hotel Leela Venture advanced 3.59 per cent. The scrip of Taj GVK Hotels & Resorts jumped 19.98 per cent and Royal Orchid Hotels advanced 16.30 per cent on the BSE. (Source: PTI)

In a bid to encourage tourists and promote tourist destinations, Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) has upgraded 23 of its resorts in Maharashtra. The Corporation has also successfully completed take-over of 98 per cent of the restaurants linked with all the resorts across the state that were previously owned by private players. Abhimanyu Kale – Managing Director, MTDC commented, “Tourism industry in Maharashtra has tremendous potential given the rich historical and cultural heritage of the state. Having said that, we have observed that there is a surge in demand from a lot of local travelers, travelers from outside Maharashtra from other states and even foreign tourists who are keen to visit the various destinations across the region. And to compliment the same, we have undertaken and successfully completed the project of revamping 23 resorts across the state which took around six months and was done in a budget of around INR 1 crore.”      The state of Maharashtra has some unexplored and attractive tourist destinations which consist of beaches, forts, hill stations, heritage and sanctuaries. And MTDC has its resorts located across Pune, Amravati, Aurangabad, Nagpur, Nashik, Ratnagiri and even Mumbai. MTDC puts a lot of impetus to manage and improve the infrastructure to meet global standards and hence they have taken the initiative to upgrade their properties.

Lords Hotels and Resorts continues its mission in bringing smiles by entering in to a strategic tie up with Save The Children India – a most trusted NGO that has changed the lives of more than 1 CRORE Indian Children since 2008.   Lords Group has placed donation boxes in front office at all its hotels. The amount collected every month is donated by respective hotels to the NGO. The NGO helps children with the donation money and provides them access to quality education, food and shelter. Commenting on the occasion Pushpendra Bansal, COO – Lords Hotels and Resorts said “At Lords we aim to create enduring value in the lives of children coming from marginalized communities. This tie up will surely help them leverage future opportunities.” Rakesh Mathur, Director and Advisor, Lords Hotels and Resorts further added “We aim to enrich lives of underprivileged children for a better future through this endeavor”.

The GST Council has lowered tax rate on hotel tariffs to make India a more viable tourist destination. The GST on hotel room tariff between Rs 2500 to Rs 7500 has been reduced from 18% to 12% and GST on hotel room tariff above Rs 7500 has been reduced from 28% to 18%. This is a good news for inbound MICE, where India has been losing out to neighbouring countries. This move is expected to give boost to the tourism industry of the country. With this, the hotel industry has been removed from the 28 per cent tax slab, the highest under the GST regime.

In a recent interview, Rishi Puri, Senior Vice President – Operations & Development, Lords Hotels & Resorts, says, “We are looking at ‘MICE-W’ segment for our expansion. Lords will be opening properties in Goa, Morbi, Kurnool, Rajkot and Bharuch in the same category. All these properties are expected to open by end of this year.” Lords Hotels and Resorts will be aggressively looking at ‘MICE-W’ Hotels and has chosen a few locations in the country that it would like to tap as the segment is bound to do well and the great Indian Wedding continues to be a major source of revenue for Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.

Discussing about their rapid pace in the Indian market, Suhail Kannampilly, CEO, The Fern Hotels & Resorts, says, “We have set up a target of opening 100 properties by the year 2020. We are already on our way to achieve this. In the current year, we will open 25 properties. We have already opened 10 and by the end of this year, we will surely achieve this milestone.”

Jean-Michel Cassé, Chief Operating Officer (COO) – India & South Asia, Accor says, “Looking forward, the market is optimistic about H2, with no new supply coming in major markets like Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. These markets will continue to benefit from constraint demand, especially in months of November and December which will have a high demand of weddings and MICE, apart from corporate transient movement. Overall India growth should continue to see a positive growth over LY, with robust growth in the last two months of the year.”

After opening a new property in Jaisalmer — Kalyan Bhawan, WelcomHeritage is all set to open four new properties by end of 2019, reveals Sanjeev K Nayar, MIH, General Manager, WelcomHeritage. He says, “Presently, we have 34 operational properties and four new ones in the pipeline. We are also looking forward to tap the wedding segment. Tadoba Vanyavillas Resort & Spa, in the forest reserve of Tadoba near Nagpur will open in September. Inderpura Resort in Udaipurwati, the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan, and , Mount Valley, has been planned as a resort in Ranthambore in the foothills of the Aravalli range will hopefully be launched by October. The fourth property—Badi Kothi will be a heritage property in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, which will be open by end of this year.”

The award-winning JA Beach Hotel at JA The Resort, Jebel Ali Beach, Dubai, has completed its 2019 makeover and has reopened for business from September 1, 2019. The resort has completed a renovation of the entire building façade and the interiors giving their rooms a fresh new feel with glass balconies that overlook the beach. It is an all-inclusive resort where guests can book a variety of all-inclusive package meal plans. JA The Resort is also preparing to open its third hotel – JA Lake View hotel – which is in the same premises as JA The Resort. It will feature a signature Indian restaurant by Celebrity Chef Vikas Khanna of Michelin star acclaim. This property will be operational from September 22, 2019 and will have 348 rooms. Situated on a one million square metre plot of landscaped gardens, JA The Resort features a huge 800-metre private beach, a 104-berth private marina and a 9-hole, and par 35 championship standard golf course, horse-riding, swimming, etc.