Tag Archives: hotels

The state has issued a directive that allows all hotels and lodges to operate at 100 per cent capacity from September 2, 2020. Separate SOPs will be issued for necessary precautions to be taken while operating these establishments. Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, President, Hotel & Restaurant Association of Western India, says, “We are happy that the government has allowed 100 per cent capacity utilisation for hotels in the state. Meanwhile, since restaurants are not included in the current negative list, it is understood that restaurants are also allowed to re-open like those that have re-opened in the rest of the country. We have sought clarification on this from the government. Also, we had hoped that it would relax the limit of 50 people at social gatherings, especially for weddings. We had requested that this be based on the size of the venue.”

The Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) has made written representations to the Hon. Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman, the Hon. Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur and to the Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Shaktikanta Das, I.A.S. requesting for an extension of moratorium for additional three months. The hotel industry has made no progress in terms of bookings even after several states unlocked and where hotels resumed operations. The industry has registered average occupancy levels at 10 to 20 per cent. With rental and salary bills, statutory payments and other establishment costs, hotels are finding it unviable to carry on running businesses. FHRAI has informed the Ministry that an extension of moratorium at this time could help hotels restructure existing loans since the process of restructuring is time consuming. Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, Vice President of FHRAI and President of Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI), says, “For more than four months, hotels and restaurants have remained shut and have earned no revenue throughout the lockdown. There is no improvement in forward bookings and wherever hotels and restaurants have opened, the footfalls are negligible. In addition to the monthly outgoings and the statutory levies, we now have to spend more on employing hygiene and safety measures to follow the SOPs and guidelines issued by the Central and State governments. On account of all this, the debt restructuring plan announced by the RBI for the stressed MSMEs is not going to help the sector. Therefore we have urged that the moratorium be extended by a further three months.”

HVS ANAROCK’S latest monthly newsletter titled ‘Hotels & Hospitality Overview India’ reveals that Kochi was the top performing market in India in June with negative growth in RevPAR at 50.3 per cent, followed by New Delhi at 72.4 per cent. Bengaluru and Goa were the lowest performers for the month of June 2020. 

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has assured the Hotel & Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI) that the government is working on re-opening protocols. He said that they would re-open in a phased manner to avoid any backlash. Thackeray also informed that the government is working on certain concessions such as in excise fees to help revive the industry.

The Indian hotels sector has come to a standstill in the last one month, with most of the hotels partially or completely shut. HVS has revised previous estimates of the overall revenue loss that the industry will face in 2020. The overall revenue of the Indian hotels sector is expected to decline by approximately INR 90,000 cr in 2020, reflecting an erosion of 57% compared to last year. RevPARs in the organized segment are expected to decline by approximately 58%. Occupancy is expected to decline by 31.6 per cent. In the organised sector the loss is expected to be INR 40,309 cr; in the semi organised sector the loss is expected to be INR 8,379 cr and in the unorganised sector it is expected to be INR 41,126 cr. The source for the above data is HVS Research as on 17 April 2020. The industry has not witnessed such an unprecedented decline in RevPARs in the last 2 decades, since HVS has been recording this data. The unorganised segment, which is 10 times the size of the organized segment, is also anticipated to witness a similar quantum of decline. COVID-19 is a disruption that nobody anticipated, but it is now time to use the learnings from this disruption and plan for the new realities beyond COVD-19

Riding on the success of the maiden TravTalk Digital Conclave, the second edition of the e-event is set to commence today from 10am-1:30pm and will see industry stalwarts discussing the way forward for domestic and aviation industry till. There will be three sessions of one hour each. To attend, contact Jaspreet Kaur on 9650196532 and jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com. The eminent speakers from state tourism boards, Indian tour operators’ associations, airlines, hotels, as well as visa and technology service providers among others, who will deliberate on the next steps in domestic tourism and India as a global source market. The list of speakers include Ashwani Lohani (APTDC), PP Khanna (ADTOI), Kerrie Hannaford (Accor), Arjun Sharma (Select Group), Ankur Bhatia (Bird Group), Sanjay Kumar (IndiGo), Vinay Malhotra (VFS Global), Sandeep Dwivedi (ITQ) and KD Singh (TravelBullz).

After the resounding success of its maiden Digital Conclave in early April, TravTalk is all geared up to host the conclave’s second edition tomorrow, April 21, from 10 am to 1:30 pm. Divided into three one-hour sessions, the virtual summit will have eminent speakers from state tourism boards, Indian tour operators’ associations, airlines, hotels, as well as visa and technology service providers among others, who will deliberate on the next steps in domestic tourism and India as a global source market. For more details, you can contact Jaspreet Kaur on 9650196532 and jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com. Speakers will include Ashwani Lohani (APTDC), PP Khanna (ADTOI), Kerrie Hannaford (Accor), Arjun Sharma (Select Group), Ankur Bhatia (Bird Group), Sanjay Kumar (IndiGo), Vinay Malhotra (VFS Global), Sandeep Dwivedi (ITQ) and KD Singh (TravelBullz).

The Government of Odisha has approved eight more investment proposals worth Rs.1,649.49 crore in the 89th State Level Single Window Clearance Authority (SLSWCA) meeting, out of which two are hotel proposals. The projects were approved in food processing, chemicals, plastics, tourism, steel downstream and infrastructure and will create employment opportunities for 1,450 people. In the tourism sector, a project by M/s Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels Ltd. for expansion of its five-star hotel with an investment of Rs 150 crores, has been approved which will provide employment for 150 people and another proposal by M/s Kamat Hotels (India) Ltd. for expansion of its five-star hotel, with an investment of Rs. 52 crore has also been approved and it will provide an additional employment to around 160 people.

Twenty14 Holdings, hospitality investment arm of LuLu Group International, is developing two high-profile properties in Bengaluru at an investment of Rs 800 crore that will open in 2020 and 2021, respectively. Adeeb Ahamed, Managing Director, Twenty14 Holdings, says, “We currently have three projects in India, one of which is already operational – the first Tribute Collection by Marriott called Port Muziris in Kochi. The other two are brownfield projects under development in Bengaluru – one is near the airport and the other is in the Electronic City. One of them will be ready by 2020 and the other by Q1 2021.” The two Bengaluru properties are at a combined investment of up to Rs 800 crore, Ahamed reveals while the one in Kochi was at an investment of Rs 52 crore. “We are looking to expand in India and are in final stages of negotiations for other projects across India. We are looking at one resort property and one hill station property but we haven’t finalised yet. We are also looking at Dharamshala and Hyderabad as potential destinations,” he shares. Twenty14 Holdings was established in 2014 and aims to become a billion-dollar investment company by 2025. It is an asset-heavy hospitality investment arm of LuLu Group International and already has a few properties operating in different parts of the world. It is now planning to expand further in India and is looking for appropriate hospitality partners.

An HVS report titled ‘Hotels in India: Trends and Opportunities’ forecasts over 30,000 branded hotel rooms to be developed in the country over the next three years, taking the total anticipated branded supply to 1,49,276 rooms by 2021-22. The highest percentages of supply actively under development are in Chennai (94 per cent), followed by Hyderabad (89 per cent) and Bengaluru (72 per cent). The mid market segment continues to dominate the new supply pipeline accounting for 44.1 per cent of the proposed rooms.