Comments
With the lean season setting in, hotels have tweaked their packages to tackle the slide in occupancy rates. According to market estimates, hotel packages are priced 20 to 30 per cent lower than peak season rates. “This season the packages are priced lower than the peak season rates, but we are expecting a healthy occupancy rate,” said Mr Ajoy Misra, Senior Vice-President, Sales and Marketing, Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palace.
According to Crisil Research, occupancy is expected to scale back to pre-crisis level and touch 65 per cent by 2014. A steady rise in domestic tourist spend has also brought cheer to the industry, which shows 13.7 per cent Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) from 2010 to 2012, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.
Hotels are hoping to cash in on the trend through value-added packages and special offers during the lean season. Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces offers monsoon packages alongside other value-added deals to lure off-season traveller. Its ‘Stay a Bit Longer' package gives travellers a complimentary night at any Taj hotel or 50 per cent off the best available rate at select hotels on bookings for one, two or three nights. For high-end travellers, the hotel's ‘Suite Surprises' offers one night's stay at half the price on bookings for one or more nights for their regal suites.
The Leela reported two to three per cent higher occupancy than last year at its leisure hotels, according to a hotel spokesperson. Its special packages for leisure and business travellers this season include the ‘Last Minute Offer', ‘Sojourn in India', ‘Royal Club Spring' ‘Stay more save more', ‘Long Stay Offer', ‘Weekend Package' and ‘Early Bird Offer'.
Its Goa property is gearing up for the upcoming peak season with extensive renovation work, whichwill be completed this October; The Leela Palace in Chennai will commence operations by the yearend.
While the group's revenue growth and profitability were adversely impacted during FY10 due to global economic recession and terrorist attacks in Mumbai, there was a reversal in FY11 with a 15.7 per cent year-on-year growth in revenue and 18.9 per cent increase in EBITDA.
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.