The Hindu Business Line : Choice Hotels bullish on South

MID-market hotel chain Choice Hotels is not only bullish on the opportunities in south India, but also in the markets in neighbouring countries such as Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

"The South is an important area. We are looking at important development opportunities in Kerala, apart from hill stations such as Ooty and Kodaikanal as also in cities like Kochi and Coimbatore," the Chief Operating Officer, Choice Hotels India, Mr Sunil Mathur, told Business Line.

At the moment, Choice has 10 hotel properties in the South, including two each in Chennai and Visakhapatnam. Listing out the reasons for being bullish on south India, Mr Mathur said that among the various factors was the fact that the region had a lot of intra-regional travel.

"The intra-regional travel in the South is significant and this represents a huge opportunity. We are also examining the possibility of having regional marketing promotional schemes," the COO said. The group will look at expanding into new destinations, which were extension of cities where the chain has a presence at the moment. Officials said that typically, the chain would like to be in a city that is five-to-six hours driving distance from a metro city.

50 hotels by 2005: The chain, which has grown from 12 hotels across the country in 1999 to 30 hotels now, hopes to have at least 50 hotels by 2005.

The chain, which has four brands in its portfolio - Comfort Inn, Quality Inn, Sleep Inn and Clarion - would look at bringing all of them into the Indian market, Mr Mathur said. At the moment, Quality Inn and Comfort Inn are the most preferred and widely accepted in the South.

However, the group was also working on setting up the Sleep Inn brand, which would offer good quality bed and breakfast accommodation in the heart of the city in different parts of the country.

Officials said that typically, the average room rates at their hotels were between Rs 1,500 and Rs 4,000 per night.