InterContinental Hotel Group planning to expand presence in India with new hotels

Global hospitality chain InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) is looking to have 150 hotels in the country, including 39 new properties in the pipeline in the next three years, a company official said. It currently has 39 hotels operational with 7,000 rooms and 39 in the pipeline which is expected to be operational in the next 12-24 months.

"In terms of our expansion plan, we have 39 hotels in the pipeline with around 6,200 rooms which should be operational in 12-24 months. Overall, in the next two to three years we should have 150 hotels," IHG regional vice president South West Asia Vivek Bhalla told PTI adding that the demand is massive and it's growing. The company, which has a Revpar of 10 per cent has four brands in the country Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express.

"Our primary focus will be on Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express because they are the brands that cater to these huge domestic travellers. We will continue to focus on other brands as well," he said. The Holiday Inn brands would be 33 out of the 39 that the company has in the pipeline.

In February 2019, IHG acquired Six Senses Hotels Resorts and Spas and Bhalla said there is a huge potential for the brand in India, apart from the global new brand Voco. In November 2017, IHG signed a 14 hotel agreement with hotel asset firm SAMHI for its India hotel portfolio to renovate and rebrand to Holiday Inn Express on par with the global brand standards.

Of these, 10 properties have been launched across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Nashik, Pune and Chennai, with the remaining four to be open by this year. IHG franchises, leases, manages or owns more than 5,600 hotels and approximately 837,000 guest rooms in more than 100 countries, with almost 1,900 hotels in its development pipeline.

(With inputs from agencies.)