Latest Property News on 'Hotel Industry in India'

Hampshire Hotels to Develop 2 New Projects in Kochi

Hampshire Hotels and Resorts (HHR), owned by the NRI Sant Singh Chatwal, is developing two properties in Kochi, one of which is in a privately owned island in the heart of the city. Sources told FE that the island property would be developed jointly with its owners, a Kochi based architect firm, which had forayed unsuccessfully into real estate business way back in 90s.

Spread over 50 acres, the island also has the distinction of having necessary infrastructure connecting it to the mainland. Sources further said that the island hotel could be in the seven star super luxury categories. HHR sources from Bangalore refused to comment on the development but confirmed that they are looking for more than one property in the city. Read More »

Hospitality Industry Charts New Path to Generate Revenues

The recent dip in hotel occupancies has led hotels to check out of the plain-vanilla room concept. The hospitality industry is now gearing up for alternate hospitality formats such as residential hotels, destination resorts, condo hotels, vacation ownership and private residents club.

Sample this: Four Seasons is developing a destination resort in Puthenkayal, Kerala, which will have 75 villas and also 20 branded, luxury private residences. Similarly, The Leela Group’s property in Gurgaon too will have 90 apartments called ‘The Residence’ aimed at the long stay guests. At the same time, India’s largest real estate player DLF is building India’s first residential hotel in Goa with the Hilton Group. DLF plans to invest $2 billion to have six hotels on similar format in the next five years. Read More »

Hotel Leela to Build Luxury Hotel in Agra

Taj Mahal is one of the most popular of the Seven Wonders of the World and the management of Hotel Leela Venture Ltd now wants to build its own wonder to capitalize on this.

Leela has already bought land just 1 km away from the Taj Mahal and will be building a high-end luxury hotel. It will be only the second hotel after Oberoi’s Amar Villas to be at such close proximity to Shah Jahan’s labour of love. Leela has secured almost 7 acres close to the Taj Mahal and will be building a hotel with 100-150 rooms. Read More »

Hospitality Sector sees Addition of Rooms Bringing Tariffs Down

What goes up can’t keep going up is the prediction of experts on India’s hotel tariffs, which have been growing at an average of 25-30% annually for the past several years. Thanks to an emerging supply of new hotel rooms, rates are expected to start correcting over the next two to three years. “Over the next few years, most of these cities (Mumbai and Delhi) will have sufficient supply coming into the market across most of the categories and this is likely to lead to a correction,” says Akshay Kulkarni, director, South Asia, Cushman and Wakefield Hospitality, an international property consultancy firm.

Room rates in Mumbai and Delhi rose nearly 40% in 2007, a much higher jump than the global average growth in room rates at 15%. Over the last four years, room rates in India have been growing at an average of 30% in smaller cities such as Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. Over a 10-year period, rates have moved up at about 9% in these cities, according to Kulkarni. Read More »

Millennium to Enter India With Hotels in Chennai, Bangalore

Millennium & Copthorne Hotels Plc, the U.K.-based operator of about 110 properties in 18 countries, plans to open hotels in Chennai and Bangalore, marking its first entry in India.

Millennium & Copthorne will form a partnership with Rakindo Developers Pte, a venture set up by the government of United Arab Emirates sheikhdom Ras-Al-Khaimah, and Chennai-based Trimex Group. Millennium & Copthorne will inject $100 million into the venture, the company told reporters today in Singapore. Read More »

Bangkok has more Hotel Rooms than Delhi, Mumbai put Together

Bangkok has more hotel rooms than both New Delhi and Mumbai put together, a critical shortage that has made tourist accommodation expensive and is driving away international conferences to South East Asian destinations.

While Thailand’s capital Bangkok, a major tourist destination, has 60,000 hotel rooms, the hotel rooms in New Delhi and Mumbai are 20,000 and 25,000 respectively, pointed out a recent report on the services sector prepared by the Planning Commission. The shortage of hotel rooms has pushed the tariffs to “to unprecedented levels”, thus making it unaffordable for the upper middle class travelers, the report said. Read More »

Emaar MGF to Develop 4 Hotels for Marriott

Hospitality major Marriott International Inc has entered into a tie-up with Emaar MGF, a real estate developer to design, construct and equip luxury-branded JW Marriott hotels in New Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and a ‘Courtyard by Marriott’ hotel in Amritsar. An investment of over $400 million will be made by Emaar MGF in these four properties, which will have a total inventory of 912 rooms. Currently, Marriott has tie-ups with real estate players like Raheja and Unitech, among others.

“This is just the beginning. We are exploring to develop more properties at the same places and others with Marriott,” said Shravan Gupta, executive vice chairman and managing director, Emaar MGF Land Limited. Read More »

Rahejas to enter hospitality sector with Indian Hotels

Delhi-based Raheja Developers will foray into hospitality sector with the Indian Hotels Company. The realty player will develop six hotels in four years.

“While four of these will be business hotels in Four-Five-Star category, two will be budget hotels,” Navin Raheja, MD, Raheja Developers.

Rahejas will develop only one stand-alone hotel in Gurgaon while others will be part of their shopping complexes. The investment in the 300-room stand-alone business hotel will be to the tune of Rs 150 crore (excluding land price) with an additional cost of Rs 50 lakh for furnishing. Read More »

Hotel Booms “Checks in” Chandigarh

World’s major hotel chains are moving in to tap the hospitality boom in Chandigarh. While Carlson Hotels Worldwide Asia Pacific announced its plan to set up a hotel at Zirakpur, it is an indication as to how the city has caught the fancy of the hospitality sector that is willing to expand itself in and around Chandigarh.

According to hotel industry analyst, the total investment being made in the hotel projects by the companies could be anywhere around Rs 1000 crore. Including foreign direct investments, developers like Uppal’s project of developing a five-star hotel in Sector 35 in association with JW Marriott involves an estimated cost of around Rs 250 crore. Read More »

Oberoi Constructions plan a massive Rs. 4,000 cr. IPO

Mumbai-based property developer Oberoi Constructions, led by billionaire Vikas Oberoi, is planning a Rs 4,000 crore ($1 billion) initial public offer by year end.

Oberoi Constructions has hired investment banking major Morgan Stanley to value the company. The real estate developer plans to issue fresh shares under the IPO, however, the exact dilution of the stake is not known. The company plans to use the IPO proceeds for land acquisition and fund upcoming projects including the Oberoi Garden City and four and five-star hotels across the country.

“We have executed many major projects in Mumbai and have a good land parcel in the heart of the city. We will not go for pre-IPO placement of shares,'’ said Vikki Oberoi, managing director of Oberoi Constructions. Read More »