Category Archives: Hotels

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.

Trulyy India Hotels & Resorts based in Ahmedabad has opened its twelfth hotel – a 50-key hotel in Bhimtal, Uttarakhand – and is in talks to open a few more in Goa and Diu. With a focus firmly on the mid-market segment in India as well as the growing inbound traffic, Trulyy India Hotels & Resorts is looking to expand its portfolio and offer tourists a wider variety of hotels to choose from. It currently has 11 hotels spread across Gujarat and Rajasthan, and its twelfth hotel is coming up in Bhimtal, Uttarakhand. Sharing more detail, Naresh Arora, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Trulyy India Hotels & Resorts, says, “This new hotel will be operations by October 1, 2019 and will have 50 rooms. It will be a complete resort with a beautiful location and world-class facilities for MICE.” Arora is also adding rooms to their existing hotels. With huge demand from inbound and domestic, their Rajasthan hotels are seeing huge footfalls. “So we are adding 50 more rooms in Jaisalmer, which currently has 57 rooms and it will be ready by October end. We are a hotel chain predominantly having hotels in Rajasthan with nine properties there. We are now looking to open a wellness resort in Rishikesh and are in discussions,” he says.

Indiatourism Kolkata, Regional Office (East), MOT, Govt of India, presents Career East-2019, a 4-day hospitality career festival to be held in Kolkata in association with the Institute of Hotel Management, Kolkata. All educational institutes located in the states/UT of West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand and Andaman & Nicobar islands, which run a regular Hotel Management degree/diploma course of 3 years of longer duration are eligible to participate. The event will be held at IHM Kolkata.

According to a recent report by JLL, the largest number of hotel room openings in the country in the first half of 2019 were in the state of West Bengal, which welcomed 926 rooms. These keys were part of the four new hotels that opened in the state, of which ITC Royal Bengal alone opened 490 rooms. The report also suggests that Gujarat had the maximum number of hotel signings, with 18 hotels and 1593 rooms, during the same period. Giving a detailed overview of the market, Jaideep Dang, Managing Director, Hotels & Hospitality Business, JLL, said, “Occupancy wise, a market that remained a bit challenged in the last first half of the year was Ahmedabad. Goa saw a dip, but that’s not a sustainable challenge. The main reasons for this were the grounding of Jet Airways and a prolonged election season because of which a lot of travel either got deferred or cancelled. Also, there was more outbound travel than travelling within India.”

MAYFAIR Hotels and Resorts has opened its 11th Resort- MAYFAIR Lake Resort in Raipur. The Group now runs 11 properties across 9 destinations- Bhubaneswar, Darjeeling, Gangtok, Goa, Gopalpur-on-Sea, Puri, Rourkela, Kalimpong & Raipur. The resort is a 124-room property offering Executive Rooms, Deluxe Suites and a Presidential Suite. MAYFAIR Group widely acknowledged and admired for its architectural concept of low rise properties that highlights plush greenery, was founded by Dilip Ray in 1982, with its first property at Rourkela.  Over these years, the Group has earned a unique niche for itself in the Hospitality industry for its personalised services, luxurious accommodation, designer properties and eco-friendly environment that welcomes guests to a truly unforgettable experience. The property is designed to cater to the requirements of the growing MICE Segment and will be a key player in the development of a new Central Indian Travel Circuit. It has a number of indoor and open air venues with capacities of hosting 15 to 2000 guests. The hall with elegant decors and exotic wedding venues, that exude regal charm, makes it an ultimate address for Destination-wedding and MICE events, promising a flawless picture-perfect event experience. Conveniently located the property is just a 15 minutes’ drive   from Swami Vivekananda airport and is well connected by Road and Railways also.  

Lords Hotels and Resorts has opened SK Lords Eco Inn on Ahmedabad marking its 23rd property in Gujarat. The 30-key hotel offers a multi-cuisine restaurant and pillar-less banquet hall of 5000 sqft. It is located near Navrangpura, the commercial district of the city. Pushpendra Bansal, Managing Director, Lords Hotels and Resorts, says, “Gujarat is India’s most exciting destination and an ideal stage for our continued expansion. We are expecting SK Lords Eco Inn to capture significant part of business tourist visiting Gujarat.”

In a recent interview, Jean-Michel Cassé, Chief Operating Officer (COO) – India & South Asia, Accor, says, “We saw tremendous growth in Q1 as compared to the second quarter and this can be attributed to multiple factors. Overall India witnessed strong demand in Jan-Feb which worked in our favour. Most cities recorded double digit growth with high MICE demand, weddings and corporate movement. Most of our hotels in constraint markets witnessed strong rate increases as well during this period.  Beginning of the year we also launched two properties Mercure Goa Devaaya Retreat and ibis Kolkata Rajarhat, which helped us increase our visibility across states.”

J K Mohanty, CMD – Swosti Group, has revealed that they are coming up with two beach resort projects in Odisha, one at Gopalpur on Sea and another at Puri.  He says, “We already have land at Puri and acquired a patch of land at Gopalpur on Sea. Very soon, Swosti Group will put up world-class luxury beach resorts at these places. Besides, beach resorts in Puri and Gopalpur, Swosti Group is also working on two leisure destination resorts at Satapada and Bhitarkanika, the place called the Mini Amazon of India. Swosti Group is also planning to expand its hospitality business in Daringbadi (which is known as Kashmir of Odisha) and at Belghar (Phulbani area).”

For Accor, H1 performance was higher than last year by 13 percent in line to budget in terms of room revenue but slightly below budget for Food and , Beverage because of the MICE segment, said Jean-Michel Cassé, Chief Operating Officer (COO) – India & South Asia, Accor. Bangalore hotels recorded maximum occupancy growth with almost 20 percent rate growth. Goa had a soft Q1 with under 5 percent RevPAR growth. Hotels in Mumbai recorded around 80 percent occupancy with almost 12-15 percent rate increase. Delhi NCR hotels were at around 75 percent with double digit ADR growths.