Carlson Rezidor On Expansion Mode In India
Carlson Rezidor Group, which at present runs as many as 89 hotels across India, will now open one hotel every six weeks in India.
In a big expansion plan, Carlson Rezidor Group, which at present runs as many as 89 hotels across India, will now open one hotel every six weeks in India and in the process , will operate 100 hotel properties under various brands owned by the hotel chain, by the end of 2018. In terms of number of rooms, the leading international hotel chain headquartered out of Minneapolis, will add 1500 rooms to its existing portfolio of 10,000 rooms in India. Carlson Rezidor has brands like Radisson Blu, Radisson Red, Radisson, Park Plaza, Country Inns and Suites and Park Inn.
Raj Rana, CEO of Carlson Rezidor Group, said, “India is arguably the fastest growing market for Carlson group and it is the second largest international brand in the country. We at present operate 89 properties across various brands in the country. We have drawn up plans to add 11 more by the end of the current year.” He added that India certainly is a growing market and there are plenty of opportunities for international brands to step up their presence in the country.
Quite interestingly, leading international hotel chains like Marriott, Starwood, Carlson Rezidor, InterContinental Hotel— are on an expansion mode in India. All of them are scaling up their operations, possibly at a faster rate the national hotel chains, and increasing the number of properties in the country. And that’s not without a reason. The demand for hotel rooms is expected to increase between 12 per cent and 15 per cent at least over the next few years, while supply will expand at a slower pace. The hotel occupancy rate across the country, on an average had crossed 60 per cent by the end of 2015 - for the first time in five years - on the back of improved market sentiment.
If things move the way, it has been envisaged, these global hotel chains, who at present own almost half the branded rooms offered in the country, seem well set to surge ahead of their Indian rivals by 2020. According to a recent study by the leading global hotel consultancy firm HVS South Asia, India, at present, has 125,000 branded hotel rooms, which will expand to 155,000 by 2020 and currently almost 50 per cent of the rooms are under international brands, whose share will also increase.
Rana of Carlson Rezidor, on his parts, said besides these 100 properties, another 41 are in the pipeline in India, which are already in construction stage. He also pointed out that if one looks at the current scenario, the demand for rooms clearly outweighs supply. And mind you that the room rates are expected to go up which in turn would result in good return on investments made by the property developers.
