Indian Hotels is accelerating its growth monmentum, having signed 35 new hotels during the first half of its current financial year.
As of October 2024, the group said that, during the period it had also opened 12 hotels, growing its portfolio to 345 properties. With those latest signings added, the Indian Hotels pipeline now stands at 115 hotels, all due to open within the next few years.
The new signings are from across the mix of brands within the Indian Hotels stable. Almost three quarters of them are in fast growing regions outside the country’s top ten cities, destinations including Hosur, Lonavala, Kanpur, Mangalore, Mysore, Srinagar and Varanasi.
From Bhutan to Bahrain
Outside of India, the group is also pursuing international expansion. New signings included hotels in Bhutan and Bahrain, for example.
“Our hotel openings in the first half have kept pace with our guidance of two hotels a month,” said Deepika Rao, executive vice president for hotel openings & new businesses. “We forayed into new markets with a Taj in Patna, SeleQtions at Mahabaleshwar and Ginger at Nagpur. We strengthened our presence in Srinagar, Gangtok, Udaipur, Jamshedpur, Coimbatore and Delhi.”
Indian Hotels counts six distinct brands within its hotel portfolio. It leads with Taj, ranked the world’s strongest hotel brand in 2024 by consultancy Brand Finance. Second in number is the group’s lean luxury brand, Ginger, with 70 hotels open. In between, it has its collection brand, SeleQtions; the upscale Vivanta brand; and the full-service Gateway brand, which has recently seen a re-imagination.
Part of the reason for the acceleration in pipeline signings is a change in corporate strategy. Current chief executive Puneet Chhatwal has opted to grow the business in an asset light way, signing more management contracts and taking existing hotels to convert to the Indian Hotels brands, both of which help to speed up new openings.
In August 2024, the company launched its refreshed Gateway brand with a hotel opening in Bekal, Kerala. The hotel has 151 rooms with accommodation in a mix of guest rooms, cottages, villas and suites, while there are several banqueting options to choose from, including a sundial amphitheatre.
The relaunched Gateway brand
“The reimagined Gateway introduces a full-service hotel offering in the upscale segment, an ideal fit to capture growth opportunities in micro markets of metros and Tier II and Tier III cities,” said Chhatwal, speaking at the launch. “Gateway will cater to the increasing domestic demand for quality accommodations with large banqueting facilities in emerging cities.”
The group’s Taj brand is expanding not just in India, but internationally. It has a 230 room hotel under construction in Gulshan, Bangladesh; and has signed the 150 room Taj Diriyah Gate in Saudi Arabia. Also coming is the Taj Resort Paro in Bhutan, while the brand continues its expansion in Europe with plans to launch the refurbished and rebranded Grandhotel Hessischer Hof in Frankfurt, in 2025.
Appeared first on: tophotel.news