Hospitality major keen on reaping rich rewards from mid-scale hotel segment

Bhalla tells us, “For IHG in India, the strategy is about accelerating growth. And the Holiday Inn brand will be the engine that powers that growth. In our pipeline, we have more than 80 per cent, i.e. 42 of the 49 hotels coming up under the Holiday Inn family. With respect to Holiday Inn Express, in 2017, we signed a deal with SAMHI, a pre-eminent hotel ownership group in the country for 14 Holiday Inn Express Hotels. As many as 10 of them are part of that pipeline, including properties in Sector 50, Gurugram Whitefield, Bengaluru and Thoraipakkam Chennai, which have already been launched. In 2019, an additional three hotels are to be launched followed by one property next year. We are looking at 2,000 rooms in the portfolio.”

With a property also slated to come up in Kolkata this year with another partner, the brand is certainly scaling up in a big way. He says, “These openings will place us among the largest mid-scale operators in the country. The current portfolio size is about 6,000 rooms and in the next 2-3 years, we would have 150 hotels in the pipeline. Including the 49 hotels mentioned before, the portfolio could touch about 7,800 additional rooms.”

Following the government’s economic reforms and continued focus on infrastructure and Make in India, domestic travel and consumption has accelerated. And this has given rise to a huge demand for the mid-scale segment hotel, which is relatively under-supplied in India. “We have category killer brands, which have a major recall value and that justifies our launches in the mid segment,” he adds.

Beyond that, IHG is also focussing on upscale, luxury and lifestyle hotels – it has 11 Crowne Plazas across India, which have been “received well, and have performed exceptionally in the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, And Exhibitions (MICE) space.” IHG had recently acquired Regent Hotels and Resorts. Between Regent and IHG, the group will introduce more luxury brands into India.