According to Puneet Dhawan, senior vice president of operations for India and South Asia at Accor, the French hospitality giant plans to develop 30 new hotels in India over the span of the next three to five years to capitalize on the enormous potential in this market.
In order to cater to various consumer categories, the hotel chain, which currently has nine brands in India out of a total of 40 in its global portfolio, will also think about launching more brands here.
“Right now, we have about 30 signed contracts in our pipeline…When questioned about the company’s expansion goals in India, Dhawan told PTI that these are expected (to be operational) in the following three to five years.
The development of these hotels will be carried out by regional partners, and Accor will manage them under the nine brands it currently operates in India, including Fairmont, Novotel, Mercure, and Pullman. The partners will make the investments in these new properties.
The new properties will be built in a number of locations, including New Delhi, Chandigarh, Mohali, Bhubaneswar, and Amritsar.
According to Dhawan, the hotel chain is also trying to capitalize on the potential in tier II and III cities, where there has been an increase in demand and room rate rise since the Covid pandemic.
“I think the pandemic kind of opened these tier two, tier three market because the rates that they were able to demand are actually higher than the cities like Delhi and Mumbai and that has encouraged developers or investors to develop in these local markets,” he stated.
When asked if Accor would think about introducing more international brands into India, Dhawan responded, “There are currently nine brands present in India out of the 40+ (global) brands, but given the scale and diversity of India and the expanding middle class or increasing purchasing power in India, we believe there is a market for many more of Accor brands that could be introduced into India.”
He stated that these might come from a lifestyle brand or one of the other companies, like Swissôtel or Mövenpick.
“We definitely think (with) the right partner in the right location, we will be able to bring some of the other brands into India as well,” Dhawan stated.
He added that depending on the circumstances, Accor might introduce some other brands even early.
A couple of our brands are conversion-related. For instance, the Handwritten (Collection) brand that we have may be presented in India, the individual said.
The conversion brands are focused on bringing under the Accor umbrella existing hotels that “need to be brought up to international standards and requires the international distribution” and offering benefits of features like the loyalty program that it has.
In response to a question on the potential of the Indian hospitality business, Dhawan stated that “India now has roughly 1,60,000 branded hotel rooms, (while) Dubai has 165,000 rooms and is expanding. This shows how untouched the Indian hospitality market is and how great the opportunities are for all the brands.
Accor now operates 61 hotels in India under its nine brands, totaling roughly 11,500 rooms.
