Category Archives: Hotels

Vidhi Godiawala, STR’s Business Development Manager for South and Central Asia, says, “Until March of this year, India and China were trading places for the highest intention to travel. While current travel sentiment remains clouded, recovery from the first wave gives us reason to believe there is light at the end of the tunnel for hotels in the country.”

Lords Hotels and Resorts, a  leading mid-segment hotel chain with over  42 hotels across India and Nepal is looking further to expand its presence across India and beyond.  The hospitality industry is facing an immense challenge due to this ongoing pandemic. Lords Hotels and Resorts with its extensive portfolio of brands like Plaza, Resorts, Inn, Eco Inn is seeking partnership with standalone hotel owners to enter into a management agreement. Pushpendra Bansal, COO of the group stated “ This is a right time for standalone hotels to partner with us as we offer a pan India sales network, dedicated revenue and market intelligence team, deepest pool of talent, extensive pre-opening support. Rigorous checks and balances during operations to enable owners maximize their revenues.” “In the coming months, Lords Hotel will be opening their second property both at  Rajkot and also in Jammu, followed by new hotels at Belgaum, Lucknow, Karjat, Shikrapur and three hotels in Gangtok. We are poised to reach more than 60 Hotels by 2022,” stated Bansal along with further expanding internationally. “Our new safety and Hygiene guidelines, along with vaccinated staff ensures a safe environment for all our guests. Individual hotels aligning with Lords Hotels can also benefit from our enhanced SOP and safety Protocol. A partnership with Lords Group is best suited for Individual hotels in these uncertain times to grow their Corporate, Mice and Leisure business,” he further said.  

Sanjay Wadhawan, a hotelier with 42 years of experience in the tourism and hospitality space, has begun a new innings with his team – Sehar Shamim and US Jamwal – by launching a fully serviced, luxury homestay brand ‘Earthaa Escapes’. The company’s flagship property, Aranya, at Mashobra, has seen great response within a couple of months of its launch and is running at 100% occupancy. Earthaa Escapes is poised to launch its next two properties in the Delhi-NCR region by mid-July, and is in final negotiations with 15 homeowners for signing them on to its platform. Earthaa will also shortly launch a riverside villa in Goa, and already has few other villas under discussion. The first phase of expansion will target states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Goa. Earthaa Escapes is also all set to launch its own booking engine and website soon.

Far East Village Hotel Yokohama officially opens its doors today. The hotel is managed by Far East Hospitality (Headquarters: Singapore, Chief Executive Officer: Arthur Kiong), one of the leading operators of hotels and serviced residences in Singapore. This is Far East Hospitality’s second property in Japan. Far East Village Hotel Yokohama encourages its guests to “Live Like a Local” Each Village Hotel provides guests with a Village Passport which details unique experiences that guests can enjoy within the vicinity of the hotel. This includes information on nearby restaurants, cafés, and attractions that locals often visit. Commenting on the reason for expansion into Yokohama, Arthur Kiong, Chief Executive Officer of Far East Hospitality Management said, “At Far East Hospitality, we are constantly looking at ways to expand our footprint in the region. As intra-Asia travel is likely to increase in the future, a country such as Japan will be even more in demand. We are excited that we have the opportunity to open our second hotel in Japan within a year and we now have a presence in 2 of the most popular cities in Japan. Both of our hotels are synergistic in that they cater to domestic travellers looking to experience a flavour of Singapore even when travelling for a functional reason between Tokyo and Yokohama. This hospitality concept is relevant especially through this season where international travel is still largely on hold. Hence, domestic tourism will be the main staple for some time to come and FEH wants to be in the markets such as Japan where the domestic tourism growth is robust.” A marriage of Singaporean and Japanese cultures Singapore and Yokohama are port towns. Hence, the hotel …

To showcase the seriousness of the situation, the team at FHRAI visited New Delhi yesterday to meet Tourism Minister Prahlad Patel and Tourism Secretary Arvind Singh in person. Pradeep Shetty, Sr. Vice President, HRAWI, said, “We need urgent intervention and the MoT to back us. We have also been directly co-ordinating with the Finance Ministry and we have a meeting lined up with the MSME Ministry as well. We expect another 10-15% of hotels will not be able to open up after the second lockdown.”  

Sunjae Sharma, Vice President & Country Head – India, Hyatt, confirms, “As a result of no funds forthcoming from Asian Hotels (West) Ltd, the owner of Hyatt Regency Mumbai, to sustain the operations of the hotel, a decision has been taken to temporarily suspend all operations for Hyatt Regency Mumbai. The hotel will remain closed until further notice. Future reservations through Hyatt booking channels will remain temporarily unavailable. We are working closely with the hotel’s owner to resolve this situation.”

In a recent Tweet, Madhya Pradesh Tourism (MPT) Hotels & Resorts has stated that it is now ready to welcome guests back to its properties, wholly committed to providing them with completely sanitised rooms, and a safe & hygienic environment. MPT offers a wide variety of accommodation choices to suit every taste and budget.

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts has signed Ramada Encore by Wyndham in Indore. Nikhil Sharma, Regional Director Eurasia, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts EMEA said: “This upcoming opening adds to our existing portfolio of Wyndham-branded hotels in Madhya Pradesh and reaffirms our commitment to continued growth in this important market. We look forward to our partnership and to adding an internationally-recognised hotel brand to the city of Indore.” The new property, scheduled to open in 2022, will have a modern design and will feature 100 contemporary rooms, a lobby lounge, an all-day dining restaurant and bar, meetings and event spaces, a business centre, refreshing wellness areas and an outdoor rooftop swimming pool. Once operational, Ramada Encore by Wyndham Indore will provide more than 100 jobs to the Indore city.

Goa recorded highest RevPAR in absolute terms, despite the single digit decline of RevPAR by 1.1% in Q1 2021 as compared to Q1 2020, revealed JLL’s Hotel Momentum India (HMI) Q1 2021. The report highlighted that Bengaluru saw the sharpest decline of 60.6% in RevPAR compared to the same period of the previous year. High demand from domestic leisure travelers make Goa the fastest recovering market in absolute RevPAR terms

Mark Willis, CEO – Middle East and Africa, Accor, has said that in line with their expansion plans, with regard to openings in India, the group has over 25 hotels in the pipeline to open over the next 36 months. “Apart from the Raffles in Jaipur, other key openings for the year include a second ibis in Mumbai which will open late in the year,” he adds.