InterContinental group eyeing 150 hotels across India over next 3 yrs

Global hospitality chain InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) is looking to have 150 hotels in the country, including 39 new properties over the next three years, a company official said. The group currently has 39 operational hotels with 7,000 rooms and 39 in the pipeline which are 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's revenue per available room (Revpar) grew at 9.8 RPT 9.8 percent in FY18 and operates 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 of the proposed 39 that the company has planning to open. In February, IHG has acquired Six Senses Hotels Resorts & Spas, and Bhalla said there is a huge potential for the brand here, apart from the global new brand Voco.

In November 2017, IHG had signed a 14-hotel agreement with the hotel assets 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 opened this year. IHG franchises, leases, manages or owns more than 5,600 hotels offering 8,37,000 rooms in over 100 countries, and has 1,900 hotels under development..