Category Archives: Hotels

The highest occupancy for Financial Year 2018-19 (FY 2018-19) for Indian hotels was in February 2019, with an average occupancy of 81% in 5-star hotels and 77% in 5-star deluxe hotels, according to a report by CARE Ratings. November 2018 saw the second highest occupancy with 80% average occupancy for 5-star hotels and 72% for five-star deluxe hotels. In December 2018, 79% average occupancy was recorded for 5-star hotels, while 69% was recorded for 5-star deluxe hotels.

WelcomHeritage (WH) has opened its latest property—WH Inderpura Resort, which is situated on Delhi road State highway 37B at Udaipurwati of Jhunjhunu District in Rajasthan. With an inventory of 21 rooms, the property is situated on 1.75 acre land at the foothill of Aravalli range. Sanjeev K Nayar, GM, WelcomHeritage shared shared, “The addition of this property is part of our strategy to expand and open more properties in the current financial year. Rajasthan has such abundance of cultural properties and we are extremely lucky to find few of such gems and add in our existing portfolio. Udaipurvati is a beautiful location with a vivid historical importance. The picturesque location of the property and the cultural heritage of the city promise to give a perfect holiday experience. Moreover this property has close proximity to Delhi/NCR, we expect to see the business flow from this part of the country on a higher pace, especially in weekends.”

Global Distribution System technology provider, AxisRooms has won the World Travel Awards 2019 for ‘Asia’s Leading Hotel Booking Solutions Provider’.The company was awarded with this top prize for the recognition of top-rating in the booking segment. AxisRooms’ provides products for the hospitality industry in one suite from Channel Manager, Booking Engine, Central Reservation System, Rate Shopper, Revenue Management System, Vacation Rental. In 1993, World Travel Awards was established to acknowledge, reward and celebrate excellence across all sectors of the tourism industry. Today, the WTA brand is recognized globally as the ultimate hallmark of quality, with winners setting the benchmark to which all others’ aspire. Each year, it covers the globe with a series of regional gala ceremonies staged to recognize and celebrate individual and collective success within each key geographical region. WTA gala ceremonies are widely regarded as the best networking opportunities in the travel industry, attended by government and industry leaders, luminaries and international print and broadcast media. Anil Kumar Prasanna, CEO, AxisRooms said, “We are the only Indian Hotel technology company which has been continuously working with a commitment to increase bandwidth & provide hotel booking solutions in Asia. World Travel Awards has helped us in increasing the visibility of our internal feedback processes which has made it easier for hoteliers to learn about our services. We are able to ensure seamless communication between our hotel partners and their guests.” AxisRooms being the only Indian Hotel Technology Solution Provider Company has also been awarded the best in this category for four consecutive years, i.e., 2016, 2017, 2018 & 2019.

Goldstone has opened a new property in Vadodara, called  Vadpadraka Goldstone Comfort, Vadodara. Located only 20 minute-drive away from the Vadodara Airport and near prominent universities, Vadpadraka Goldstone Comfort offers state of art rooms. They also have a board room for corporate meetings, huge banquet facilities, Lush green lawns, food and beverage and other recreational facilities like swimming pool, spa and gaming zone. The property is the perfect destination for wedding, where hotel boasts for its open lush green lawns and modern banquet hall.

The Fern Hotels & Resorts has opened doors to The Fern Residency Bhopal, which is the first Fern Hotel in Madhya Pradesh and is a 58-room hotel offering contemporary accommodations. The company also manages a hotel under the Beacon brand in the state capital. With this property, the number of hotels managed by the company reaches 68 across the country as well as in Nepal and Seychelles. Suhail Kannampilly, the CEO of the company said,” The Fern brand is expanding in the country at a brisk pace.  With the opening of The Fern Residency Bhopal, we are now present in 55 cities across the country.” The Fern Residency, Bhopal offers three different categories of room viz. Winter Green, Winter Green Premium and Hazel Suite. Some of the amenities in the rooms include packaged water, eco-friendly light arrangement and bathroom conveniences, tea maker, satellite TV connections and Bedside Bluetooth connection.

G Kamala Vardhana Rao, IAS, Kerala Cadre has joined as the Chairman and Managing Director (C&MD) of India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC). Before assuming the office at ITDC, Rao was serving as the Principal Secretary, Government of Kerala. He was also the Secretary of Kerala Tourism from 2014-15. In his career spanning almost three decades, Rao has served multiple positions including Chairman of Indian Tobacco Board, Director of Fisheries Department, Director, Department of Tourism & Culture, Government of Andhra Pradesh, Managing Director of SC /ST Corporation in Andhra Pradesh, the Revenue Secretary of Kerala and the District Collector, Kollam, Kerala.

In a recent report released by JLL India, Hotel Momentum India (HMI) Q3 2019, 22 branded hotels have opened in the country with 1474 rooms. However, during the same period, 36 hotels have been signed which will 2867 rooms. Domestic hotel operators dominated the hotel signings over international operators with the ratio of 67:33.

12% demand of e-procurement in India comes from hospitality sector, according to a recent survey report in the e-procurement space in India by C1 India, The report revealed that 40% of demand for e-procurement comes from government organisations while 10% comes from manufacturing industries, 4% from IT and software companies, 3% from e-commerce companies, 20% from banking entities, 3% from FMCG players, 3% from the telecom industry, 4% from the healthcare sector, and 1% from other industries. Released in line with digital India, the report sights some interesting findings on the changing trends and talks about the growth & development in the procurement industry in India.

Subhash Goyal, Hony. Secretary, FAITH, has revealed that they will have an urgent meeting with the hoteliers and stakeholders of the industry on promoting India as an attractive destination internationally, for which they will launch a common logo that can be used by everyone in the industry (tour operators and hoteliers) on their websites. He also revealed that Chander Mansharamani, Vice- Chairman, ICPB, will be the Chairman of India Tourism Mart 2020. He said that the idea is to double the number of tourists in the next few years and that the benefit of reduction in GST is passed on to the final customer so that the Indian package becomes cheaper than what it is currently.

Realty developers Prestige Group and DB Realty have entered into a JV to develop a hospitality-led project spread over a 7.7 acre land parcel in Delhi’s Aerocity. The property is said to have 932 rooms and 6.50 lakh sqft of office space apart from a 2 lakh sqft convention centre. The project is expected to be completed by 2022. The transaction advisor of this deal is JLL India, shares an official source of JLL. DB Group acquired the development rights of the land from DIAL in 2009.