After tapping the growing IT industry, budget hotel majors like Ginger Hotels, Berggruen Hotels and others are now looking at tapping the growing demand for rooms in industrial hubs like Baddi, Pantnagar, Manesar, Chhattisgarh, etc.
The rationale is simple. Most of these towns are served by the unorganised sector and hence there is a great potential for these branded players to cash in on the latent demand for superior services and reasonable rates.
Ginger Hotels, promoted by Roots Corporation, a 100% subsidiary of Indian Hotels Company (IHCL), has already set its sight on industrial states like Gujarat and Orissa. Berggruen Hotels too is keeping a close eye on places like Manesar (Gurgaon), Rajerhath (Kolkata), OMR Road (Chennai), Coimbatore among others.
Prabhat Pani, CEO of Roots Corporation told FE, ?We are not only setting up hotels in major towns and cities where there is lot of commercial activities, but we are also moving to smaller industrial places like Baddi, Pantnagar, Paradip, Pondicherry, etc, where we foresee lot of action in the future, fuelled by the growing steel, pharmaceutical and automobile industry.?
The demand-supply gap of budget hotel rooms is currently more than 50,000 and some 30,000 rooms are expected to be added in this category within a couple years.
Manav Thadani, MD of HVS International-India, a global hospitality consulting firm, feels that budget hotels close to industrial hubs is perfectly fit for both the customers and the company. ?Land prices are affordable, so the cost of setting up a hotel is not too high and the customer gets quality accommodation at reasonable rates,? said Thadani.
Of the 38 properties coming up from the stables of Berggruen Hotels, 25 of them are going to be in Tier II and Tier III cities.
Sanjay Sethi, CEO, Berggruen Hotels, informed that the company has already acquired a property in Pimpri and is closely examining the areas of Pantanagar and Raigad.
