Hospitality Industry

High stakes: OYO, FHRAI accuse each other of functional irregularities

Reports of the two butting heads date back to December 2018, when FHRAI accused OYO of large-scale breach of contracts, jeopardising consumer safety and violation of law

Fortune Park Hotels to add 15 new properties in next two-and-a-half yrs: MD

ITC group firm Fortune Park Hotels Ltd plans to add 15 new properties with 1,500 rooms in the next two-and-a-half years to its portfolio as part of its expansion across India, according to company Managing Director Samir MC. The hospitality firm, which currently has 42 properties with room inventory of around 3,200, is looking to cater to a strong domestic demand in smaller cities and also from pilgrimage tourism. "In a country like ours, we are very high on domestic travel, and that will just continue increasing at a higher rate than what the inbound would increase. So, definitely for a chain like ours, that's a key factor which defines our strategy of growth," Samir told PTI. Hence, he said, "We look at growing into various parts of the country, whether it's Tier one, Tier two, Tier three." Given the fact Fortune Park Hotels is a "hardcore Indian company", Samir said it understands the Indian consumers, their expectations and the behaviours very well, besides the cultural element

UK economy grows unexpectedly in Nov by 0.1% amid strong services

The UK economy grew unexpectedly in November as the tight job market increased demand for employment services and soccer's World Cup boosted hospitality. Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic activity, increased 0.1 per cent from the previous month, the Office for National Statistics said on Friday. That beat the expectations of economists, who had forecast a 0.2 per cent contraction. Despite the better-than-expected figures, the ONS says monthly GDP estimates should be treated with caution because they are more volatile than quarterly data. Economists are waiting for the release of fourth-quarter GDP data next month, which will show whether the British economy shrank from a second consecutive quarter in the three months through December. Two quarters of negative growth is one definition of a recession. November's expansion was driven by a 2 per cent growth in administrative and support activities, with employment services growing 2.1 per cent, the ONS said. ...

Have adequate funds to survive any Covid curbs: MakeMyTrip CEO Magow

In an interview with Business Standard, MakeMyTrip CEO Rajesh Magow talks about the steps the company took to emerge stronger from the Covid setback will help them withstand any uncertainty

Hospitality industry set for buoyant 2023, cashes India's G20 presidency

The domestic hospitality industry is looking to 'fly' in 2023 cashing in on India's G20 presidency, having received the 'oxygen' to run in 2022 after being crippled in the past two years by the pandemic. Domestic travel, especially the leisure segment, gave wind to the industry this year and is expected to continue into the next. Industry players believe that as international arrivals are also likely to pick up even further, the outlook for 2023 is buoyant. However, for travellers, room tariffs are likely to remain high going forward, with a demand-supply mismatch continuing in the hospitality sector. "I think it's really safe to say that we have overcome the real difficult period. I don't think any one of us can deny that it was really difficult, in all terms -- occupancies, daily average rates and revenue per available room (during the pandemic)," Hotel Association of India Vice President KB Kachru told PTI. "But, I'm really happy to state that post-COVID, we have really bounced

Hotels, resorts sold out on high demand for Christmas-New Year celebrations

The domestic hospitality industry is gearing up to make the most of full-fledged Christmas and New Year celebrations this time around after two years of washout by the pandemic, with rooms at many hotels and resorts already sold out. As people seek to make up for the winter holidays lost to COVID-19, destinations like Karjat, Lonavala, Vizag, Dharamshala, Udaipur, Manali and Gir are witnessing good demand, apart from traditional popular places like Goa, Kerala and Shimla. "The year-end festive season looks very positive and this year appears to be one of the best years so far for the hospitality sector," Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels Ltd Managing Director, Vijay Dewan told PTI in an e-mailed response. He further said, "All our hotels are gearing up for sold out spaces along with high occupancy in rooms. This year we have lined up some great events during Christmas and New Year's which the guests missed out during the last 2 years due to the pandemic." Mahindra Holidays & Resorts ..

Mahindra Holidays to invest Rs 1,500 crore on expansion in next 3 years

Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Ltd plans to invest up to Rs 1,500 crore in the next three years in expansion, including room additions and resort acquisitions, according to company MD and CEO Kavinder Singh. The company is also considering launching a new upscale brand for managing resorts, through which it would also look to further grow its Club Mahindra memberships. "We are on a growth path. We have added 1,000-odd rooms in just about two and a half years," Singh told PTI. At present, Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Ltd (MHRIL) has a total of about 4,700 rooms across 86 resorts -- 74 in India and 12 internationally, he added. When asked about future expansion, he said, "For us, we have to add resorts, that's the business we are in. We have a plan to easily add 1,200 to 1,500 rooms in about three years' time and that will happen at an estimated capital expenditure of about Rs 1,200 crore to Rs 1500 crore, which is sanctioned by the board". Among the major expansion ...

Surge in bookings, cost cutting fuel 8-fold surge in IPO-bound OYO's Ebitda

Spike in adjusted Ebitda primarily driven by a 23% QoQ rise in Gross Booking Value per hotel in Q2 to Rs 4,00,000; firm still ends with Rs 333 cr loss

FHRAI meets Nirmala Sitharaman, seeks infra tag for hospitality industry

Representatives from Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday and sought granting of infrastructure status to the hospitality industry in the forthcoming Budget. Currently, hotels built with an investment of Rs 200 crore or more have been accorded infrastructure status under the RBI infrastructure lending norm criteria. The association has requested that this threshold be brought down to Rs 10 crore to give a fillip to budget segment hotels. This will enable hotels to avail term loans at lower rates of interest and also benefit from longer repayment periods. It has also requested for hospitality to be classified as an industry that's applicable across the country and create a corpus which compensates states for any notional loss, the association argued. "FHRAI put forth to the minister specific requests with special emphasis on granting infrastructure status to the hospitality industry," a release stated. The ...

Hospitality sector's per-room revenue grew 89.6% YoY in Q3: JLL report

Room demand across business cities remained strong during the quarter, primarily driven by MICE and other business-related travel

Hotels roll out red carpet as big fat Indian weddings make a comeback

2.5 million marriages may get solemnised during the wedding season starting next week; tariff at hotels up by a record 25-30% over 2019-20 levels

Hotels may hike corporate rates by 15% from January amid surge in demand

Most hotels are already commanding 15-20 per cent higher rates compared to 2019 for the non-contracted rooms

Over 30% increase in last-minute bookings for the Diwali long weekend: Oyo

Top 5 cities in terms of bookings include Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Goa and Chennai, says the hospitality technology company

Gifts, dinner vouchers, pre-Diwali bashes by corporates light up hotel biz

Companies across the sectors, particularly the multinationals want to do more for employees to attract them to come to office

Penalties on OYO, MakeMyTrip, GoIbibo big win for hospitality sector: FHRAI

With the penalties of Rs 223.48 crores and Rs 168.88 crores on MMT-Go and OYO for anti-competitive conduct, the FHRAI described it as "one of the biggest wins for the hospitality industry"

New Covid strains, seasonal ailments may spike hospitalisation in winter

13 XBB variants detected in Maharashtra are all under home-isolation; the strain spreads rapidly and is said to be behind the recent spike in Singapore

US government to nearly double temporary visas for non-agricultural jobs

Twenty thousand of the H-2B visas will be granted to workers from the Central American countries of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala as well as Haiti

Hotels sold out as 'big fat Indian weddings' recover from Covid shock

Despite no 'auspicious' dates in October, hotels are expecting to be 'booked out' as Indians get ready to celebrate weddings on the pre-covid scale.

Marriott expects to have around 200 properties in India by 2025: Official

Global hospitality chain Marriott expects to have around 200 properties in India by 2025 tapping on the growth in smaller cities in the country, Marriott Hotels India - Area Vice-President South Asia, Ranju Alex said on Thursday. There is a huge amount of growth in Tier II and Tier III cities in India, which has not been seen earlier, she said while addressing at the Hoteliers' Conclave 2022. On being asked about the company's expansion plans in India, Alex said, "As of now, we are currently at 141 hotels -- 106 managed and 35 franchises. As we speak, we have 67 hotels which are in the pipeline in different stages of being built. We are easily looking at 200 hotels by 2025." She further said, "In actual reality terms, we open anywhere around 15 to 20 hotels every single year" but there was a surge in the signings of hotels during the pandemic and "that will manifest itself around the 2025-26 period". "We signed the maximum number of hotels during Covid. Somewhere in the owner ...

Shruti Shibulal's Tamara Leisure expects 3-fold growth this fiscal

Hospitality firm Tamara Leisure Experiences expects its business to grow three-fold in the current fiscal, compared to pre-pandemic levels, amid easing of travel restrictions, according to the company CEO Shruti Shibhulal. The company is looking at inorganic expansion through acquisitions across its affordable, mid-segment and leisure businesses across India as well as overseas through internal accruals, Shibulal told PTI. "Due to COVID there was instability... This year we are expecting to hit about three times the number that we hit in 2019-20. Take the cut-off as March," she said on the sidelines of Entrepreneur Annual Conclave. Tamara Leisure operates in three segments -- luxury resorts, business hotels and mid-segment. Daughter of Infosys co-founder and former CEO SD Shibulal said that the last couple of years were very unstable. The company's business hotels were running in losses but with the easing of travel restrictions, the revenue has boomed again. "... We are seeing a