Lords Hotels aimsTo become 40-property chain by FY '20
Lords Hotels aimsTo become 40-property chain by FY '20

With the hospitality industry showing signs of recovery from the decade long slump, Lords Hotels and Resorts, India’s fastest-growing chain in the premium mid-market hotel segment, has decided to switch its expansion drive into top gear to become a 40-property chain by the end of financial year (FY) 2020.

With the demand for hotel rooms outpacing supply, the hotel chain is not only aiming at increasing its footprints at a faster rate, but is also looking to venture into new geographies and focus on niche segments.

With 26 operational hotels and four more scheduled to commence operations later this year, Lords Hotels and Resorts has been growing at an average of three hotels per year since its inception in 2007. It will now also target becoming the fastest-growing pilgrimage hotel chain in the country.

“Our hotels across the country have registered room occupancies in the range of 70–75 per cent in the last financial year. While there was only a marginal rise in ARR, the RevPAR grew by almost 8-12 per cent. This is an indication of demand outpacing supply and the need for increasing room inventories,” said P R Bansal, chief operating officer, Lords Hotels and Resorts.

In the current financial year, the hospitality chain has plans to establish hotel properties in Kolkata and Bhubaneswar in the east, and in Hyderabad and Chennai in the south.

“After a sluggish growth for close to a decade, the outlook appears positive for the industry and we plan to make the most of it while we can. Despite an unfavourable market scenario, Lords Hotels and Resorts continued making strides to become India’s fastest-growing hotel chain,” Bansal said.

“We have identified potential projects in the East, where Lords Hotels and Resorts has not made a mark yet, and also in the South, where we see tremendous growth in the coming years,” he added.

Lords Hotels & Resorts is a home-grown, mid-market player with a focus on serving the burgeoning Indian traveller. With a spread of four sub-brands, viz Lords Plaza, Lords Inn, Lords Eco Inn and Lords Resorts, the parent brand covers the entire spectrum of tourist segments.

“While many hotels brands, including international players, are realising the potential in the mid-market segment and making a foray into it today, we began our journey over a decade ago,” said Rishi Puri, vice-president, Lords Hotels and Resorts.

“We not only foresaw the prospective market, but we also were deeply passionate about serving guests with the global hospitality standards. Our ideology of True Value stems from here,” he added.

“We’ve successfully managed to offer our guests the best of services and amenities bundled together at economical tariffs,” Puri said.

“We even broadened our portfolio of hotels to better accommodate the needs of the leisure tourist, the business traveller, the bag-packer and the pilgrimage tourist,” he added.

“In fact, our next big focus is to serve the pilgrimage tourist, for whom today the stay options fall largely in the unorganised domain,” stated Puri.

There are close to 200 iconic, sacred places of worship in the country and these sites receive footfalls in excess of 1.5 million tourists annually.

While many of the top pilgrimage destinations today have branded hotels, a majority of the sites are served by stand-alone hotels, which leave tourists with no option but to manage with what is available.

“We are very keen on developing a focused offering to the pilgrimage tourist segment. Out of the 26 properties that we currently operate, seven are in the heart of such pilgrimage destinations, and we are aiming at maintaining at least 30 per cent of our portfolio for pilgrimage tourists,” Puri said.

“With the government’s impetus on Incredible India campaign, the designated tourism circuits will include a host of pilgrimage sites, and we have identified Katra, Mathura, Vrindavan and a few others for our upcoming projects dedicated to pilgrimage tourists,” he added.

 
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