Hotel LeelaVentures Ltd, one of India?s leading luxury hotels, is planning to set up 100 luxury villas around its hotels in Kovalam and Goa in the next few years to tap the growing affluent class of customers.
Rajiv Kaul, senior vice-president, Hotel LeelaVentures, told FE, ?We are planning to come out with 70 top-end luxury villas in Kovalam and around 30 in Goa over the next few years, reaching out to a totally different clientele. The idea is to come out with a differentiated product as it makes no sense in moving in with the same products available in the market. There is enough land available in these two regions, and these villas would be luxury residential under a condominium model.? LeelaVentures plans to sell the villas, spread over 3,000 sq ft, to the rich and may look at maintaining it for them for a certain fee on an annual basis. Kaul said that the company is in process of fine-tuning the model for this project and would come out with a clear picture soon.
CP Krishnan Nair, chairman, Leela, said, ?There are Indian customers who are willing to pay extra for the luxurious services offered to them. We want to have a pan India presence in the luxury category. We are doing very well and nothing would stop us from investing more.?
The company had recently more than doubled its capex programme from Rs 1,200 crore to Rs 2,500 crore to fund its expansion plans that are currently spread across six properties. As of now, the company has four 5-star hotels and is adding six properties in Gurgaon, Udaipur, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune and Delhi. Hotels in Gurgaon, Udaipur and Chennai will be up and running next year and the ones in Hyderabad and Pune will be launched in 2009. The one in Delhi will be up by 2010. The company currently has an inventory of 1,200 rooms and through the upcoming properties, it would be adding another 1,500 rooms.
Catering to the luxurious customer through its current properties, Leela offers top-end deluxe services in the club category. Close to 20% of its inventory comes from this category, generating 25-30% of its revenue. The price of the room is 30-40% more than the regular room rate. The company is confident of garnering more than 75% occupancy across all its four hotels for the upcoming peak season. Backed by its premium category the company is looking at a top line growth of 35-40% and bottom-line growth of 40-45% in the coming year.