Category Archives: Hotels

Arif Patel, Regional Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Hyatt India, has said, “With over 24 executed deals for hotels, we plan to expand our brand footprint in India by eyeing more than 70 per cent growth, adding over 3,800 keys with more than 50 hotels in our portfolio in India by 2023.”

Spree Hospitality, boutique and mid-market hospitality operator, has added one more feather to its wings with the opening of Sparsh Hotel and Resort in Uttar Pradesh, in Bareilly. This 4-star property is just 7 km away from Airport and 8.5 Km from railway station. It is also in proximity to some popular tourist attractions and other places of interest in Bareilly. Some of the tourist attractions include Bareilly Sports Stadium, Jagannath Temple, Phoenix Mall and Fun City situated nearby to the property. The property rooms are comfortable and spacious with luxury amenities to make guest feel satisfied. When looking to satiate one’s cravings, the in-house restaurant in the property offering multi – cuisine food to satisfy the tastebuds. At Spree Hospitality the safety of the guest is the top priority and so Sparsh Hotel and Resort by Spree committed to deliver clean and safe environment through health and safety protocols. The property boasts of green lawn, massive outdoor pool and banquet hall.

Adding another hotel to its portfolio, Ananta Hotels & Resorts has launched 52-key Jagira Ananta Elite Gir Hotel in Gujarat. Gagan Katyal, says, “We have launched Ananta Gir, our latest resort outside Rajasthan. It will have four types of residential options and will be located right at the doorstep of this sole home to the Asiatic lions in Gir.”

Zahoor Qari, CEO, Airlinks Tour & Travels, Kashmir, has said that many hotels, owing to increase in tourist footfall in Kashmir, have hiked their rates extraordinarily, despite not offering services and value for that kind of money. Hence, this puts the tour operators and travel agents in question and jeopardizes their image in front of the clients.

The Hotel Association of India (HAI) has submitted a recommendation to the Director General of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Santosh Kumar Sarangi urging the Directorate to review the Export Promotion Capital Goods Scheme (EPCG) and provide relief to the struggling industry. The association has highlighted that, at the time of availing the duty benefits under the Scheme, no one could have envisaged the impact of Covid and the resulting dip in the foreign currency earnings.  In light of the changed economic and geo-political scenario, HAI has said that it is imperative to review the EPCG policy and provide relief for the industry to survive and be able to fulfil its obligations under the scheme. Hotels are facing huge challenges of liquidity, revenue losses, negligible foreign exchange earnings, high costs that are mostly fixed in nature and several other operational difficulties. Hotels require more time to fulfil obligations under the scheme. The industry body also requested the government to not issue notices to hotels, propose punitive action against them for non-fulfillment of obligations and not encash hotels’ bank guarantees. HAI pointed out that the hospitality sector is one of the most impacted industries due to the pandemic. Hotels were closed for almost 6-8 months during 2020-21 and re-opened in phased manner. The aftermath of the second and third wave has left a dent on the sector’s road to recovery. It added that the hospitality industry is expected to be back to pre-covid levels only by FY24-25.   RECOMMENDATIONS SUBMITTED BY HAI ·    5 Years Extensions: In addition to the currently available extensions as          per the EPCG guidelines, it is requested to provide additional 4 years extension for all …

In its ambitious plans for expansion in Asia-Pacific, Radisson Hotel Group plans to add 100 hotels to India by the end of 2025, according to CEO Federico Gonzalez. “In India, we should surpass 100 hotels this year. If I look at India, I don’t know why we should not have 200 hotels there by 2025. We are looking at India’s development and the speed of change in India. If India is growing at 7 per cent, that means more GDP than many European countries,” he said.  

Lily Hotels Pvt. Ltd. in association with LINKIN Reps. Pvt. Ltd., recently hosted an exclusive lunch for the travel trade partners in Chandigarh.  The resorts operated by Lily Hotels in the Maldives are the pioneering leading All-Inclusive Resort, located in central Maldives – Lily Beach Resort & Spa at Huvahendhoo, a large island hideaway resort located in northern Maldives with privacy at its core – Hideaway Beach Resort & Spa, and its collection of elevated and curated luxury beach villas with dedicated butler service as a ‘resort in a resort concept’ – The Signature Collection by Hideaway. The networking event was followed by the product presentation, by Ms. Komal Seth, Founder & Director, LINKIN Reps. Pvt. Ltd. The presentation highlighted the key features of luxurious properties. The response to the session was extremely encouraging, and it was heart-warming to witness the enthusiasm for Lily Hotels’ products among the Chandigarh trade partners. Highlighting the importance of north India’s travel market to Maldives, Mr. Desislav Gospodinov, Group Director of Sales & Marketing said, “I would like to thank all our travel trade partners in Chandigarh for their continuous support towards promoting the luxurious resorts under Lily Hotels. Chandigarh is one of our most important markets and we eagerly look forward to welcoming travellers from the region.  

Sharing some news from Ananta Hotels & Resorts, Gagan Katyal, its CGM (Sales & Marketing), says, “We have resorts pipeline in Gir, Goa and a couple in Rajasthan. Overall, we will have around 18 resorts in the next three years across the country. The demand from corporates is high right now and that is quite encouraging as they are looking at news destinations within India.”

The seventh edition of the M!CE Travel Show 2022 organised by DDP Exhibitions in Pune recently also saw a serious panel discussion on Sustainable Business Travel where panellists discussed the possibilities of reducing carbon emissions while travelling. Pratima Badhwar, Head of Commercial (India & South Asia), Accor, said, “Nowadays every hotel chain has its own sustainability goal. At Accor, our target is to have net carbon zero footprint by 2050. We launched a project in 2005 called ‘Planet 2021’ which is based on four main pillars: our guests, our owners and vendors, our associates and employees, and our community.”

According to preliminary data from STR, for three consecutive days in April –16-18 April, 2022, India’s hotel industry crossed pre-pandemic comparables in occupancy and average daily rate (ADR). It was the first time that both occupancy and ADR were above 2019 levels in India. When using a running 7-day average, occupancy and ADR have been above 90% of pre-pandemic comparables since late-March. On Monday, 18 April, India recorded its highest ADR index of the year at 106% of the 2019 comparable.