Choice plans budget hotels in India
IN A bid to ramp up its presence in India, US-based hospitality chain Choice International is set to introduce its budget brand, Sleep Inn, to the country at Tirupati, Hyderabad and Vizag by 2008. Plans are to roll out 20 such Sleep Inn hotels over the next five years, Vilas Pawar, CEO, Choice Hotels India, told ET. “We are looking at large-format roll out of the Sleep Inn brand in the country,” he said. Among others, talks are currently on for alliances with fuel marketing companies and retail outlets for locations along major highways. “Sleep Inn is a highway product that can be located at the outskirts of the city and where mixed land use is allowed,” he added. Hotel room rates in the Sleep Inn brand are likely to start from Rs 1,800-2,000 level, depending on the city. The other budget brands in Choice’s portfolio include Comfort and Quality, with room rates ranging between Rs 2,000 and Rs 4,000. By 2008, the group plans to have Comfort hotels at Delhi, Rajkot, Haldwani and Amritsar, while the Quality brand would have presence in Jaipur, Ludhiana, Chennai, Pune and Hyderabad. Choice Hotels India is part of Choice Hotels International, one of the largest franchisers of budget and mid-market brands, with over 5,000 hotels across the world.
Courtesy: EconomicTimes
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The global economic meltdown has taken its toll on almost all the industries across the globe. Developing countries like India badly suffered in the wake of inflation and recession. Business, that was coming in from the developed countries particularly in the field of IT dropped down drastically triggering off a series of reactions in related industries. Along with business travelers, the number of leisure tourists also dwindled partly because of the sagging economy and partly because of the horrifying attacks of 26/11 in Mumbai. Places of cultural and historical importance like Vishakhapatnam that tourists used to frequent, saw a crucial drop in the number of leisure travelers recently and the occupancy rate of the hotels also went down. Even the start up hotels in Vishakhapatnam, in spite of lowering their rates are witnessing a low occupancy rate. The occupancy rate of the budget hotels in Vishakhapatnam as with the rest of the country has seen as high as a 30% fall in the occupancy rates. Known as the “Jewel of the East Coast” Vishakhapatnam is a very important industrial hub apart from being a tourist destination. In addition, it is very well connected to the capital of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad which is one of fastest growing IT hubs of the country. It is only natural therefore that there are quite a many top class business hotels in Vishakhapatnam. However, the current economic condition has changed the complete scenario and has affected the hospitality industry also
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