Tag Archives: HVS Anarock

Mandeep S Lamba, President (South Asia), HVS ANAROCK, during a webinar, has advised hotel owners in India to not sell right now. “This is not a great time to sell. But if your cash flows are not holding out and you have no other way of managing it, then there is no option but to sell. Other than that, I would advise everybody to hold on because valuations will be a little depressed if you sell now. So the best advice I can give hotel owners is that if you have the ability to manage your cash flows for the next 12 months, then just hold on,” he advises.

The occupancy in hotels in July across major Indian cities was 45.4% higher than in June (occupancy of 20.8%), according to H2O report released by HVS ANAROCK. However, the as compared to occupancy in 2019 July, it was a decline of 67.1%.

HVS ANAROCK’S report titled ‘India Hotels Outlook’ that studies the impact of COVID-19 on the Indian hotel sector estimates that assuming recovery from COVID-19 begins in H2 2020, occupancy would then recover only by year 2022, touching 66%, while rates would recover by year 2023.

An HVS ANAROCK report on the impact of COVID-19 on the Indian hotel sector pegs the total revenue loss for the sector in 2020 at Rs89,813 crore, with the maximum to be borne by the unorganised segment.

While RevPAR has been low throughout the country, Chennai and Mumbai have been the top performers ( with -83% and -83.3% RevPAR YoY) in May 2020, according to HVS ANAROCK monthly newsletter, H2O.

HVS ANAROCK’S latest monthly newsletter titled ‘Hotels & Hospitality Overview India’ reveals that the hotel occupancy rate in May 2020 witnessed a y-o-y drop of 76.7 per cent compared to the same period last year, making India rank fourth among five key Asian markets, followed by Thailand.

Mandeep Singh Lamba, President – South Asia, HVS ANAROCK, has said that the hospitality industry would see changes in terms of design and operations after the COVID-19 crisis is over. Speaking at the third TravTalk Digital Conclave, he said, “There are going to be some permanent changes that will happen in the industry, both in terms of operations of the hotels and in terms of design. We need to understand that this is perhaps not the last time we are seeing a disruption of this kind. It’s a reality which can hit us again, and hence we need to be far better prepared the next time. This crisis has stirred the industry into making some serious changes.”

In its latest General Manager’s Sentiment Survey, HVS ANAROCK has reported that over 60 per cent of the General Managers (GMs) are preparing to open their hotels as soon as the lockdown is lifted this month. The survey suggested that upscale business properties are expected to open sooner than others. The anonymous online survey captured responses of 160 GMs across branded hotels PAN India. 74 per cent of the responding GMs were from the business hotels while rest 26 per cent represent leisure hotels.

The recently-released HVS ANAROCK monthly newsletter titled ‘Hotels & Hospitality Overview’ reveals that among five key Asian markets – India, China, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore – India had the lowest y-o-y decline in hotel occupancy for March at 52.9 per cent, while China witnessed the highest at 65.4 per cent. Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore witnessed occupancy declines of 64.7 per cent, 62.6 per cent and 53.6 per cent, respectively, for the said period. The report suggests that occupancies across hotels in key Indian cities witnessed a sharp decline, as travel restrictions intensified and India went into lockdown towards the end of March 2020.

The branded segment is expected to witness a revenue loss of US$ 3.55 billion to US$ 4.1 billion in 2020 and the second quarter of the year will be the worst hit, says Mandeep S Lamba, President – South Asia, HVS ANAROCK. “The overall revenue of the Indian hotel sector, including both organised and unorganised segments, is set to decline by anywhere between US$ 8.85 billion to US$ 10 billion, reflecting an erosion of 39-45 per cent compared to the previous year. Hotels will be unable to drive rates and may even seek to attract business at deep discounts,” he adds. With new confirmed cases being reported daily, the penetration of the COVID-19 virus in India has caused mass hysteria, the reverberations of which are expected to continue well into the second quarter of the calendar year 2020.