The Hindu Business Line : St Laurn brand of hotels launched

Pune March 28 The St Laurn brand of hotels was launched here on Wednesday with a four-star business hotel in Pune. The group plans to set up a chain of 30 hotels across tier-II cities in India over the next six to eight years.

St Laurn Business, its maiden venture, is a 63-room, four-star business hotel on North Main Road. The plan is to launch a total of six properties in Pune, including the St Laurn Suites, a four-star hotel with 88 suites at Hinjewadi in August and the St Laurn Courtyard, a 110-room, slightly less premium brand offering at Mundhwa by 2008. Recently, land measuring 8,000 sq m was acquired to build a 150-room business hotel at Talegaon.

Mr Lakshman Kariyaa, Managing Director, St Laurn Ltd, said the company was looking at investing Rs 220 crore over the next 30 months, and that the top brand is the St Laurn Towers, a five-star offering. No site has been identified for this as yet, he said, but revealed that a new special purpose vehicle was being formed for setting up one four-star hotel each in Surat and Indore.

St Laurn Business, which has taken an investment of Rs 45 crore, has an ozonised swimming pool in addition to the usual facilities. With three categories of rooms from Rs 11,000-12,000 per night, the high-end rooms are fitted with LCD televisions and `see-through' bathrooms that enable television viewing while relaxing in the tub.

Among the St Laurn properties in the pipeline is a hotel at Bangalore, and business hotels in the Pimpri-Chinchwad belt and at Chakan near Pune to cater to the demand generated by the burgeoning auto industry that is setting up base here.