Category Archives: Hotels

Hong Kong’s largest hotel group, Harbour Plaza Hotels & Resorts recently concluded its roadshow in India.  During the roadshow, from April 8 -12, the sales representatives met with more than 200 customers from corporations, professional conference organisers and travel agencies in Mumbai and Delhi. The delegates were from- Harbour Grand Kowloon, Harbour Plaza Metropolis, Kowloon Harbour Front, Harbour Plaza 8 Degrees and Harbour Plaza Resort City. “India is a key market for our hotels in Hong Kong. We like to bring to our business partner the latest updates and development of our group which include the recently renovated Harbour Grand Kowloon lobby with the ‘Prisms of light’ – a chandelier of 150,000 pieces Swarovski crystals. In the third quarter of this year, a new tower extension of the hotel with 360 brand new guest rooms and suites, all with a panoramic view of either the city or the harbour, will be opened. This will bring the total room inventory to close to 1,000, becoming one of the biggest 5 star hotels in Hong Kong”, said Priyanka, Director of Nijhawan Group, GSA for Harbour Plaza Hotels & Resorts in India. “We’re opening this fall a brand new hotel, which will bring the group’s total room inventory in the city to more than 9300 rooms. Hotel Alexandra, with 840 guest rooms, is well located at the North Point harbour front. The hotel is designed exquisitely melding sophisticated French neoclassicism with contemporary elements, a combination of timeless affluent elegance and modern concepts delighting even the most discerning travelers. The lobby is adorned with rich red and gold colour, accented on numerous grand chandeliers with a judicious use of mirrors, flower engraved golden doors, …

Accor has recently announced the advent of its Raffles brand in the Indian market. Speaking more on the expansion, Jean-Michel Cassé, COO– India and South Asia, Accor, says, “Today we have 51 properties in India and one in Colombo, 52 in the region. In total, Accor has the presence of 9,500 rooms and we are present in 22 cities. What we have in the pipeline today is 25 per cent of our current inventory that will come in the next 3-5 years. Hopefully, we will also see new brands in this pipeline.”

The year 2019 is expected to outpace 2018 with a total of 105 new branded hotel openings with a total key count of 8,574 keys, according to a ‘India Hospitality Industry Review’ report by HVS ANAROCK. The effort to open new hotels, big or small, requires hotel operators to coordinate large amounts of pre-opening effort. So, while domestic operators opened 65 hotels of the total 134 openings in 2018, which represents nearly half of all the openings in terms of key counts, domestic operators represented only 32 per cent of the total 7,215 keys. Bengaluru witnessed the largest number of new openings by a large margin, in part due to the opening of the Sheraton Grand Bengaluru Whitefield Hotel & Convention Centre with 360 keys.

In a recent report by JLL, Rajasthan is the leading state in brand signings and Goa leads in hotel openings in Q4 2018. International hotel operators dominated signings over domestic operators with the ratio of 57:43. Importantly, 25% of new signings are conversions of old hotels.

Justa Hotels & Resorts is all set to open a new property in Greater Kailash, New Delhi. The hotel would be a design hotel with a new concept, reveals Rohit Katyal, National Sales Head, Justa Hotels & Resorts. “The new hotel will have 30 rooms and it will be a design hotel. It would be on the lines of our property in Chennai, but not similar. It will be a modern property with an international feel to it. We will be opening the property in winter 2019.” The brand already has a property in the same vicinity. Last year. Justa Hotels & Resorts opened two properties. First was Justa Sajjangarh Spa Resort, Udaipur with 63 Keys close to Biodiversity Park. The other was to sign up Justa Atrio Resort in Delhi in close vicinity to Gurgaon and Aerocity. It was the first hotel for the brand on management contract in Delhi.

According to a recent report by HVS ANAROCK, international operators are continuing to grow unabated, building larger format of hotels compared to majority of their domestic peers who continue to sign much smaller inventory hotels. In 2018, international hotel operators also signed more hotel keys than their domestic peers.

Radisson Hotel Group opened seven new hotels in India in 2018, and the group is on track to reach the landmark of opening its 100th hotel in India this year. New hotels set to open within the next 12 months include India’s first Radisson RED hotel, located in Mohali. The group is also planning to debut its Radisson Collection, which is in the luxury space above Radisson Blu. Zubin Saxena, Managing Director and Vice President Operations, South Asia, Radisson Hotel Group, says, “We are looking at launching Radisson Collection brand in the near future. We are actively in discussions for various sites in India for this. We would love to have the Radisson Collection brand as a palace in Rajasthan, or a high-end resort in Goa, or even a city hotel in Bengaluru with a large convention centre. The brand has a large appeal and we see it being successful in various formats across tier I markets, tier II markets as well as resort locations. Once we have the right location and partner for this, we will announce it,”

HVS ANAROCK recently released its industry review for 2018. According to the report,  the supply of rooms is anticipated to grow by 4.0% and demand by 7.0% in 2019. Over the last 2 years, hotel supply grew by 3.7% in 2017 and 3.5% in 2018, whilst demand grew by 7% and 6.8% in the respective years. While both the past years have paved the way for strong growth in demand for 2019 driven by strong economic growth in the country, some headwinds in 2019 are expected to dampen the performance turnout for the year. The first major reason is the country’s general election, during which the commercial market, the main stay for hotels in the country, puts on hold all decision making in anticipation of the election results that could potentially have a material impact on several policy initiatives of the government. Thankfully though, elections will be held in the summer months when demand in the country is comparatively low, limiting its negative impact on hotel performances.The second major reason is the impact of new hotel supply that is expected to commence operations in the current year. As per our estimates, 8,574 keys will enter the market in 2019, a nearly 19% rise over the last two years.

IHG started its journey with SAMHI with the signing of 14 hotels within their India hotel portfolio to renovate and rebrand Holiday Inn Express on par with the global brand standards in November 2017. To achieve this target, SAMHI recently has announced an investment of Rs 100 crore. Pascal Gauvin, Managing Director, IMEA, IHG shared, “Our partnership with SAMHI and launch of the new Holiday Inn Express portfolio has given us a solid foothold in the mid-scale hotel segment in India. With the recent openings, we now have 27 operating hotels under the Holiday Inn brand family in the country, and a robust pipeline of 33 hotels due to open in next 2-3 years. Through this venture, we have realised that in a market like India, it is imperative to forge partnerships with partners such as SAMHI. Together we will continue to contribute by building a robust hospitality market in the country.”

The Fern Hotels & Resorts has opened two hotels- The Fern Residency, Manali (Himachal Pradesh) and The Fern Sattva Resort, Polo Forest (Gujarat), thereby taking the tally to 58 hotels managed by the company. Commenting on the opening of both the hotels, the COO of the hotel, Suhail Kannampilly said, “The people visiting Manali and Polo Forest can now enjoy our eco friendly hospitality. Manali hotel is the second hotel which we are managing in HP. In Gujarat we are now at 15 locations”. The Fern Residency, Manali is a 37 room property situated in the picturesque hill state of Himachal Pradesh. Nestled far away from the hustle and bustle of the cityscape, the hotel is enveloped by a panoramic view of the magnificent Kullu Valley dotted with spectacular streams, apple orchards and rugged snow peaked mountains. The Fern Sattva Resort, Polo Forest (Gujarat) is a 30 room resort located in Abhapur Village, Taluka Vijaynagar of Gujarat and is two and half hours drive from Ahmedabad. Surrounded by the lush green forests at one side and the gentle flowing Harnav River on the other, the resort is a perfect place to unwind and chill. The hotel has three different room categories Winter Green Cottage, Fern Club Villa and Hazel Suite.